The Journal of his Delights

We’re safely back in the states, and I would’ve mentioned it earlier except that I seemed to have brought an extra friend along with me, one that I met on the plane from Rome to Paris — the influenza virus. I’ve been out of commission for the past week with all my resources going to catching up on the work I left behind. Don’t fret however — our dear Mary has kindly graced us with a guest post describing the last two days in Italy. Enjoy!

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Mary writes:

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig. Yes, we are home again, although our bag seems to want another stint somewhere else. We were unable to locate it when we arrived. But, our last few days were memorable ones. We began to relax in Florence and could say, “Let’s go back to…” or “I want to eat at… again.” It was a nice feeling, ours for a few days.

We took a side trip to Siena, a town about an hour away by bus. It is a classic Tuscan town but we spent the day just exploring the small streets. The interesting thing for me was that 17 areas of the city are identified with an allegorical animal. We saw signs of the unicorn, elephant, ram, and dragon on signs, fountains, churches, and tapestry hanging outside. Each animal has a patron saint, a church where the saint is worshiped, and a festival.

The sunshine was welcomed as we sat in Piazza del Campo, the large shell-shaped area. It was 50 degrees as people were sitting here and there, faces to the sky. We discovered Pan Forte, a softly-baked concoction of chocolate, nuts, cognac, and dried fruit. It was better than any fruitcake on Earth and would last 7 months. How convenient!

The last day in Florence and the next to last day in Italy, was spent shopping. We went back to the Central Market. Samer managed a small wheel of pecorino and a disturbingly-large salami back in our carry on. The inspector in France asked about the wheel and when she found out it was cheese, she had a look of, “hmm, not bad, I would like to try it.” We found a wonderful little shop, Il Torchio, that makes its own Florentine, marbleized paper into journals. The bookmaker was friendly and spoke near-perfect English. We found a family-run restaurant, Trattoria Gabriello, for dinner and had tiramisu for the first time in Italy. It was a feel good place that brought families there. Perfect for our last night.

We said, “Goodbye,” to Florence and went on to Rome. It was a quick walk to our hotel and waited to meet Samer’s friend CC. We went back to Piazza Navona, the area where we first stayed. We wanted to eat again in that small alley cafe, Navona Notte, seen in the first photo of ours. The food and friendship were wonderful and we enjoyed our last moments in this ancient town. We saw the Trevi fountain at night and had a long lingering walk back. The most romantic, scenic, and gastronomic trip of my life had come to an end.

The bag arrived last night, three days later. It won’t tell me where it’s been. Hmmm.

Seriously, folks — it’s been three days of walking, walking, walking, interspersed by looking at art, eating delicious food, and then more walking.

Here are some tidbits found along the way:

• Lampredotto is the upper part of a cow’s stomach, and it’s super-delicious. There’s a cart in the Oltrarno neighborhood that does it mighty fine. They also make a mean hamburger.
• We went looking for Galileo’s house in Arctri but couldn’t find it. We took comfort, though, in knowing that we walked the same paths and streets that he did. What we did find is the Nicaraguan consulate. Not that we were looking for it, but we just sort of ran across it in the middle of nowhere in the hills surrounding Florence.
• Michelangelo’s David has huge hands. Really. The museum was also exhibiting photography by Robert Mapplethorpe, which was strangely appropriate company for the David — something about the shape and lines of the human form I think.
• Florence is packed with tourists, especially around the central area. The same is true of Rome, but because that city is larger, it somehow seems to dilute the effect. In Florence, because they’re all concentrated around the Duomo, the city’s main attraction, the effect is amplified.

We continue to have a good time, and have taken to strolling around the city in the evenings once the press of tourists has died down. We’ve posted another slide show of our wanderings — it includes all of our photographs from Florence, Arcetri, and Siena to date. To view it, please click here.

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P.S. That first picture of the Duomo is the view from our window.

Instead of writing this post on the train from Rome to Florence, Mary and I spent the entire time chatting with the couple sitting next to us, a couple of New Yorkers visiting family in Italy. The time flew by as the verdant countryside passed by the window. They showed us pictures of their travels. I showed them pictures of nuns. And somehow the conversation turned towards Top Gear and the hosts of the show larking about.

It was pouring down rain when we arrived in Florence, and the streets were mad with tourists running around with their umbrellas. It felt like an adventure just getting to the hotel, but our room quickly turned into a little haven and then we were out on the street again, ready to wander the city. We had lunch in a cute little place, what felt like the Italian equivalent of a diner. Mary had tortellini and I had a pork chop. A little more wandering, back to the hotel to rest, then more wandering, and then we topped off the day with the most glorious meal yet. No pictures, I’m sorry to say, but the food was just fantastic.

We started with a pecorino cheese with honey and thyme, which just about sent me to heaven. Mary followed with Ribollita, a Tuscan peasant soup — very earthy and quite delicious. I followed the antipasti with a risotto of black cabbage and sausage. It was surprisingly delicate. Then the secondi arrived, wild boar with a red wine sauce (almost a gravy) and roasted potatoes. The boar was very light, and the sauce balanced it, gave it some heft.

I felt sorry for the American woman next to me who was reluctant to try the food on its own terms. She had to control the entire meal. The salad this way, the vegetables that way, and all of it without any oil. You’re in Italy for god’s sake — how can you eat without olive oil permeating everything. *sigh*

Fortunately, the company at my table was flawless. And Mary and I left happy and quite full.

A slide show of our wanderings in Rome, Day 2 is now available, and you can find it by clicking here.

P.S. If you’re ever in Florence, try the Ristorante la Maremma.

Yes, that’s right — I’m writing this post from Italy, where I’m on holiday with my sweetie Mary.

If there’s ever been a sign that the Journal has been in need of an update, this is it. All I can say is that I’ve been preoccupied with a personal project that’s take an year to complete, not to mention a romance with the greatest girl ever. It’s been an interesting year, and I can definitely say things are on a upswing. And lucky boy that I am, I’m spending ten days in Italy, split between Rome and Florence.

Mary and I have spent the last couple of days in Rome, walking our feet off. We hit the Vatican, Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, and Spanish Steps all on the first day. The second day (today), we visited a humongous flea market in Trastavere and then wandered around the city, up around the area around Bourghese Villa. Along the way, we enjoyed some amazing food. Pasta, pastries, gelato, steak — yum! My feet hurt, but my heart and stomach are happy.

There’s been a lot to see and experience, and I’ll try and do it proper justice, writing a longer post on the train to Florence tomorrow. In the meantime, I can point you to a slide show of photographs, which you can find by clicking here.

Before I sign off though, I also want to point out my favorite photograph of the trip so far:

It occurred to me today that I’ve been in the Bay Area approximately six months now. How so much time has slipped past, I don’t know. It feels like it’s been a couple of weeks at most, maybe a month or two.

It also feels like, even though I’m not traveling, the journey is still continuing. An inner journey though, with landscape and characters just as varied, and requiring just as much energy towards confronting the unknown and the awkward.

I told a friend the other day that travel is “is a looking for opportunities that will stretch the conception of the world and ourselves, so that we can become bigger and accommodate more of life.”

Just because I’ve been staying put for the past six months (short as it feels), it doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped traveling.

Over the weekend, I watched Citizen Dog (Mah nakorn), a Thai film that came out in 2004. A cross between Amelie and I’m a Cyborg But That’s Okay, it’s a bright, charming love story that pokes fun at the illusion and disillusionment prevalent in Bangkok.

The story centers around a country boy named Pod who moves to the big city and falls in love with Jin, an obsessive-compusive maid. He follows a winding road in his pursuit, meeting along the way—among others—his grandmother reincarnated as a gecko, an undead motorcycle taxi driver, and a chain-smoking, homeless teddy bear.

Yes, it’s that kind of film. Plus the opening song is catchy. Check it out.

This is a test of PhotoXhibit for Wordpress. If this works, you’ll have a pleasant flashback of my visit to Dazaifu.

Update: It works! If you click on the images, you get a cool lightbox feature. Even better, you can move from image to image from within the lightbox. Just move your mouse to the upper right or left till the Next/Prev buttons show.

Point Montara Light Station is approximately 25 miles south of San Francisco, and the hostel there has been my base for the past week. There’s nothing quite like waking up in the morning, grabbing something warm to eat/drink, and heading out to watch the ocean roar against the rocks for a time.

I hope to be here for a couple more days as I continue the home-hunt. Speaking of which, there’s one place in particular that I think would suit well; a 1-bedroom apartment on a lovely street and within walking distance of downtown Redwood City. I submitted an application today, but there’s some competition and it’s not certain I’ll get it. *fingers crossed*

It’s been a long day, and I don’t have much else to add. Here are some pictures from the hostel though. Enjoy…

P.S. The lighthouse is still in duty, and you can see it lit up at night.

A couple of quiet days have passed. Portland in the wintertime is very good for that. The rain and clouds urge you to stay indoors, keep warm, and laze about all day. It doesn’t help that I’m feeling in-between, a null point after one tide goes out and just before the next comes in. Something’s cooking, friends. Some good news on the horizon, but it’s not ready to break yet. Don’t want to jinx it.

What I’ve discovered though is that I’m not very good at sitting down to write when I’m not settled. I don’t have to be somewhere very long to settle in – witness Fukuoka – but I do need some sense of “this is where I am now.” And right now, I’m not really anywhere. So I’m using the time to rest, to plan, to gather myself up. I have a To Do list that’s a page long, but not the urgency to rush the items to completion.

Things are just as they are, and that’s… well… okay.

The sun was out in Eugene this morning, and it was fair skies all the way to Portland. An uneventful drive except for Trooper Decker, who was only doing his job as he handed me a speeding ticket (83 mph in a 65 zone). $242… ouch.

But I’m in Portland in a cafe drinking the biggest mug of hot chocolate I could find, and I just sent my resume off for what might well be a very interesting endeavor indeed.

In other news, I just re-read First Mindy, and I’m not all that happy with how it turned out. It may be that the honeymoon is over between me and the story; that enough time’s past for me to see it more clearly. That said, I think the Jacob story is still good. It needs work, but it fundamentally has more potential. We’ll see, I suppose. Oh, and I think I have a proper title for Jacob, but as it involves some structural re-writing, I’ll wait till that task’s done.

The title came to me while driving through the snow, so the road trip, as frustrating as it’s been, is at least bearing this fruit. And I now know what black ice and divine intervention combined feel like.