I know that I promised photos and this is partly why I haven't been writing lately. The other reason is that everyone in Italy is on vacation during August and Giovanni even got one week off (even though he started his job only three weeks ago)! I am using one of the original digital cameras which means only 10 minutes of battery and a difficult downloading process so photos will appear asap. It is strange and liberating to see so many shops closed with a handwritten sign: chiuso per ferie (closed for vacation). Definitely not an American concept - we would only risk losing business for mandatory holidays like Christmas and Labor day. Giovanni's parents have three weeks off for vacation and are spending it in their house in the mountains. It is relaxing having our own space and cooking simpler meals.
I felt really satisfied with the vacation that we had. Everything happened in a delightfully unexpected way. Giovanni scheduled a paragliding flight for me on Monday so we drove up to the Mountains where he used to fly and ate lunch at a delicious restaurant along the way. I ate gnocci with wild boar and fresh porchini (wild mountain mushrooms), Giovanni ate a delicious second plate with rabbit and polenta and Matteo ate pasta and french fries (the best way to keep him occupied so we can enjoy a good meal). We drank a house cabarnet, followed by coffee and grappa. At the top of the mountain is a Refugio which is a basic hotel and restaurant. This Refugio is run by a young couple with three year old girl, Liu. They have a sandbox, a nursery full of toys, and even chickens, and donkeys. Matteo was thrilled to have other playmates and many new toys. I felt really nervous before my flight. It didn't help to see Felice (my copilot) having a drink with his buddies before our flight. I was also excited. I had dreamt many times about flying and this felt like the perfect moment to experience a different way of relating to the elements, to life in general. So by the time I had my harness on, I felt ready to let go. I was positioned in front and connected to Felice's harness and he instructed my in his broken english to just run when he commanded me. So, one two three, he pulled, I took two slow heavy steps forward and then began running as hard as I could feeling the weight of the paraglyde pull up just as I ran off the edge of the mountain and my legs were still running in mid air when Felice patted my shoulder, "you can relax now." I looked down and saw the specks of red tiled roofs below us, a huge silver lake in the distance, and the curve of piney mountains everywhere. I felt a sense of peace, a calm, a softness and I just kept reminding different parts of my body to relax. I felt the wind currents interacting with the paraglyde and Felice's skilled movements with the strings. He directed us over to the other side of the mountain where we could hopefully catch some thermal currents from the sun heated earth and gain height. We shot up slowly and I felt the thrill of working so naturally with wind and heat. Giovanni radioed us because I had the car key in my pocket and he needed it to pick us up at the landing spot in the valley. We flew over the refuge and I threw it down to Giovanni. Felice was definitely a pro. I could tell he had flown so many times by the way his "yahoo" sounded flat and unexcited. He would say "yahoo" in this really blah way every time he would do something exciting. I wondered if he still felt any thrill flying. This was how he made a living. He let me grab hold of the strings and practice turning, breaking, speeding up. It seemed so simple. I am sure it is completely different when you hit a cloud. When he announced that we would head down, I felt so disappointed. I found it so relaxing that I did not want to return to the heaviness of the earth. My fear returned when we got close to the land, I saw roofs and treetops and imagined my legs breaking. But actually, when we were almost on the ground, I straightened my body and began running again until my legs touched the ground and we came to a nice smooth stop. That was it, so peaceful and simple. I asked him after we landed if he often dreamed of flying. "Never" he said, "I always dream of falling." I found that fascinating.
We ended up spending the night at the Refugio because Felice offered to inspect Giovanni's paraglide and support him if he flew the next day. It was a wonderful evening. They prepared a candlelit dinner for all the guests in the nursery since most of us had children. We all ate together in one table. Matteo loved playing with the other children and when all the kids were in bed, we joined everyone downstairs for grappa and beer and talking late into the night. I especially enjoyed meeting a veteran paraglider who is in the Italian military. He spoke pretty good english having recently dated an american woman from Miami with very large breasts which she referred to as "the girls". He spent time in Afghanistan recently and shared some of his experiences. He also spoke about how certain he was that 911 was an inside job and that many people in Europe suspect this. It was interesting to me to have this military person who was serving in Afghanistan during the Bin Laden search and yet was critical of Bush and the entire 911 tradegy. He says that his military position lately involves sitting in an office waiting for the new computer system that he has been hired to set up. He has been waiting two years doing mostly nothing. He is bored and feels guilty that the Italian people are paying him to watch tv or try and find things to do.
Giovanni flew the next day successfully. I was more nervous during his flight than mine because he was alone and hadn't flown in over five years. When he landed, Mauro teased me, "he's alive!" While hanging out, I met an Italian woman from Italy who lived in California for six month and loves the Golden Girls. She spoke of how she appreciates the relationship between men and woman in America more and also likes the opportunities that are available if you have skills (whereas in Italy it depends more on connections). She does a type of Movement and positioning therapy and is opening a studio in Treviso (about 30 minutes from where we live). She is interested in possibly collaborating in the future. All of these little chance encounters are encouraging. We also met an older American woman who spends her summers in Tuscany making olive oil and invited us to stay at her house anytime. She wanted to show me her yoga swing which after hanging upside down, I held Matteo and suddenly it fell about three and half feet dumping me on the hard cement. I am still waiting to see if my backside heals well. Luckily Matteo, was held securely in my lap. The woman felt terrible. Not her fault. Perhaps this will get me to schedule some kind of bodywork for myself. We left happy, fulfilled and surprised at how little the lodging and food cost us. They were definitely generous with all the food they offered us. We spent a day relaxing at home and then drove with Giovanni's brother, Alberto, to some other Mountains to go rock climbing. Alberto has gotten really into climbing the past three years and I am so excited because this has always been a dream of mine to climb regularly. Alberto would go every weekend if he could. We brought Matteo and his cousin Davide and one of us watched the babies while the other ones climbed. This was my first time climbing in actual mountains and the vistas were beautiful! We headed the next day to Giovanni's house in the mountains where his parents are vacationing. We spent three relaxing days mostly in the forests hiking and hunting for mushrooms and raspberries. We discovered that Matteo can hike for hours and loves to walk on his own. I almost convinced Giovanni to try and hike with Matteo and I to the top of the Mountain. Maybe next time.
I felt really satisfied with the vacation that we had. Everything happened in a delightfully unexpected way. Giovanni scheduled a paragliding flight for me on Monday so we drove up to the Mountains where he used to fly and ate lunch at a delicious restaurant along the way. I ate gnocci with wild boar and fresh porchini (wild mountain mushrooms), Giovanni ate a delicious second plate with rabbit and polenta and Matteo ate pasta and french fries (the best way to keep him occupied so we can enjoy a good meal). We drank a house cabarnet, followed by coffee and grappa. At the top of the mountain is a Refugio which is a basic hotel and restaurant. This Refugio is run by a young couple with three year old girl, Liu. They have a sandbox, a nursery full of toys, and even chickens, and donkeys. Matteo was thrilled to have other playmates and many new toys. I felt really nervous before my flight. It didn't help to see Felice (my copilot) having a drink with his buddies before our flight. I was also excited. I had dreamt many times about flying and this felt like the perfect moment to experience a different way of relating to the elements, to life in general. So by the time I had my harness on, I felt ready to let go. I was positioned in front and connected to Felice's harness and he instructed my in his broken english to just run when he commanded me. So, one two three, he pulled, I took two slow heavy steps forward and then began running as hard as I could feeling the weight of the paraglyde pull up just as I ran off the edge of the mountain and my legs were still running in mid air when Felice patted my shoulder, "you can relax now." I looked down and saw the specks of red tiled roofs below us, a huge silver lake in the distance, and the curve of piney mountains everywhere. I felt a sense of peace, a calm, a softness and I just kept reminding different parts of my body to relax. I felt the wind currents interacting with the paraglyde and Felice's skilled movements with the strings. He directed us over to the other side of the mountain where we could hopefully catch some thermal currents from the sun heated earth and gain height. We shot up slowly and I felt the thrill of working so naturally with wind and heat. Giovanni radioed us because I had the car key in my pocket and he needed it to pick us up at the landing spot in the valley. We flew over the refuge and I threw it down to Giovanni. Felice was definitely a pro. I could tell he had flown so many times by the way his "yahoo" sounded flat and unexcited. He would say "yahoo" in this really blah way every time he would do something exciting. I wondered if he still felt any thrill flying. This was how he made a living. He let me grab hold of the strings and practice turning, breaking, speeding up. It seemed so simple. I am sure it is completely different when you hit a cloud. When he announced that we would head down, I felt so disappointed. I found it so relaxing that I did not want to return to the heaviness of the earth. My fear returned when we got close to the land, I saw roofs and treetops and imagined my legs breaking. But actually, when we were almost on the ground, I straightened my body and began running again until my legs touched the ground and we came to a nice smooth stop. That was it, so peaceful and simple. I asked him after we landed if he often dreamed of flying. "Never" he said, "I always dream of falling." I found that fascinating.
We ended up spending the night at the Refugio because Felice offered to inspect Giovanni's paraglide and support him if he flew the next day. It was a wonderful evening. They prepared a candlelit dinner for all the guests in the nursery since most of us had children. We all ate together in one table. Matteo loved playing with the other children and when all the kids were in bed, we joined everyone downstairs for grappa and beer and talking late into the night. I especially enjoyed meeting a veteran paraglider who is in the Italian military. He spoke pretty good english having recently dated an american woman from Miami with very large breasts which she referred to as "the girls". He spent time in Afghanistan recently and shared some of his experiences. He also spoke about how certain he was that 911 was an inside job and that many people in Europe suspect this. It was interesting to me to have this military person who was serving in Afghanistan during the Bin Laden search and yet was critical of Bush and the entire 911 tradegy. He says that his military position lately involves sitting in an office waiting for the new computer system that he has been hired to set up. He has been waiting two years doing mostly nothing. He is bored and feels guilty that the Italian people are paying him to watch tv or try and find things to do.
Giovanni flew the next day successfully. I was more nervous during his flight than mine because he was alone and hadn't flown in over five years. When he landed, Mauro teased me, "he's alive!" While hanging out, I met an Italian woman from Italy who lived in California for six month and loves the Golden Girls. She spoke of how she appreciates the relationship between men and woman in America more and also likes the opportunities that are available if you have skills (whereas in Italy it depends more on connections). She does a type of Movement and positioning therapy and is opening a studio in Treviso (about 30 minutes from where we live). She is interested in possibly collaborating in the future. All of these little chance encounters are encouraging. We also met an older American woman who spends her summers in Tuscany making olive oil and invited us to stay at her house anytime. She wanted to show me her yoga swing which after hanging upside down, I held Matteo and suddenly it fell about three and half feet dumping me on the hard cement. I am still waiting to see if my backside heals well. Luckily Matteo, was held securely in my lap. The woman felt terrible. Not her fault. Perhaps this will get me to schedule some kind of bodywork for myself. We left happy, fulfilled and surprised at how little the lodging and food cost us. They were definitely generous with all the food they offered us. We spent a day relaxing at home and then drove with Giovanni's brother, Alberto, to some other Mountains to go rock climbing. Alberto has gotten really into climbing the past three years and I am so excited because this has always been a dream of mine to climb regularly. Alberto would go every weekend if he could. We brought Matteo and his cousin Davide and one of us watched the babies while the other ones climbed. This was my first time climbing in actual mountains and the vistas were beautiful! We headed the next day to Giovanni's house in the mountains where his parents are vacationing. We spent three relaxing days mostly in the forests hiking and hunting for mushrooms and raspberries. We discovered that Matteo can hike for hours and loves to walk on his own. I almost convinced Giovanni to try and hike with Matteo and I to the top of the Mountain. Maybe next time.
