Things I love about Italy

Beautiful Saluzzo

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

I didn’t tell you about our trip to Saluzzo last Saturday. We drove up through the back streets instead of taking the autostrada, partially to avoid the toll, partially because the countryside is so beautiful. This is the route our bus to Church (link) in Cuneo used to take when we lived in Saluzzo, so we’re also sentimentally attached. We even took a little turn through Lagnasco. The trees all around are loaded with red and green apples.

Saturday in Saluzzo is market day, so we bought some cheese from our favorite vendor and were invited again to visit their farm up the Varaita Valley, near Melle, Tony’s ancestral home.… Read more

Mountains Beyond Mountains

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Today I did my periodic shuffle through the lone sock bag. The verdict: ten matches and 26 singles. It is possible that our family may have too many different types of socks. We’ve gotten nearly all of them as gifts, though, so I can’t complain. But my children (and occasionally myself) are sometimes known to run about wearing mismatched socks.

Being so peripatetic has its poignancies. There’s something to miss about everywhere we’ve lived. The thing I miss about Florence is the constant unspoken but keenly felt internal nudge to dress yourself up so you can walk out on the streets and do your part to make the city a little more beautiful.… Read more

Back in Italy

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

We’ve made it home to Italy. That’s really how it feels. I couldn’t believe how beautiful everything was as we saw familiar landscapes unfolding themselves outside. The journey, unfortunately, was fairly miserable, although we only had one actual meltdown, in the train station at Nice. Axa and Raj had a large meltdown, and Tony and I had a smaller, more socially acceptable one. And then we all had some fabulous French pastries and felt better.

The reason the trip was so bad (at least from my point of view) was that I’d been sick in bed for a week previous to it.… Read more

There and Back Again

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

In Ireland, “mixed spices” is a fascinating blend of garam masala and pumpkin pie spice. It made delightful cinnamon rolls the other day. But we will not be remaining long-term in Ireland. Tony has accepted a position at a company in Italy, in the same area of Piedmont where we lived before. So in a sense, we feel a little like we’re going home. Of course, we felt like that the first time we moved there, never having set foot in Italy before. Life can be deliciously unpredictable.… Read more

Romantic Interlude

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Just around the corner from the Palazzo Uffici in Florence, on the road by the Arno that leads to the old bridge (Ponte Vecchio, the one with the houses built all across the bridge), is a railing with a dozen or more small brass locks fastened on it. They are fastened in a disorderly clump, the first few around the railing, and then when there is no more space on the railing, around each other. At first glance, it is incomprehensible what purpose they might serve.

To me, at least. But not to Tony. I’m afraid that I am not the only incurable romantic in this relationship.… Read more

Spazio Verde

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

I’ve been sick and busy (mostly sick) and between one thing and another, haven’t made it out to the park for a week. Yesterday I walked down there with the Bobbles and found the previously bare trees in full, glorious, tender leaf. I don’t know why I was surprised. It is time for spring, after all. Perhaps I just wondered if spring would come this year.

Spring in the City of Flowers. And here we are at the end of Winter, wondering what to do. We were lucky, maybe, to pass the winter in San Diego, where one almost doesn’t notice it.… Read more

Scoppio del carro

Scoppio del carro

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Over one thousand years ago, the first crusade culminated in the capture of Jerusalem by an army of Europeans. A young Florentine, Pazzino di Ranieri de’ Pazzi, was the first to scale the city walls and raise the Crusader banner there. As a reward, he was given three flakes of stone from the Holy Sepulcher.

He carried the stones back to Florence in 1101, where every year at Easter time they were used to light the “new fire,” a tradition with roots in Pagan spring rituals and also symbolizing the resurrection of Christ. The fire was transported throughout the city in a cart, and given to each family to light their own hearth fires.… Read more

Spring Fashions in Florence

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

As we walk through the streets of Florence, we play the “is that a tourist or an Italian” game. Of course there are plenty of blatantly obvious tourists. But some of them try pretty hard. These are the subtle signs that give them away:

Sheer hose (or none at all). Florentines are wearing opaque tights, leggings, or pants.

Scarves outside coats, blowing in the wind. Florentines wear them inside, tied in a loose but exacting manner.

Brightly colored clothing. Florentines wear black or dark brown. Colors are for accessories.

And my favorite: Ugg boots. Nearly every Florentine is wearing smart leather boots, usually almost knee-high.… Read more

Finally in Florence

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

So where was I? Oh, yes, sitting on the suitcases. Turns out, Tony’s car reservation was actually NOT a real reservation, and when we tried to run our debit card to rent the car, it was declined of course, since we’d withdrawn all the money from our American account so we could have cash in Italy. You can’t rent a car with any amount of cash, apparently, at least not any amount we were prepared to offer.

So after a few hours of tense deliberation, we rode the bus into Torino, spent the night there, worked out the car problem, and were driving down the autostrada just 24 hours later than we had planned.… Read more

Plane Tickets

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Happily, happily, after several more calls to AirOne Airlines, we are now in possession of four beautiful confirmation numbers (one for each of us) on return tickets to Italy. March 26 is our lucky day!

Everyone here tells us how lucky we are to live in Italy, and I heartily concur. We’ve just been away way too long.

Tony and I started reading our first literature in Italian today. Cuore, by Edmondo De Amicis. Wish us luck! We only got through a couple of paragraphs, and we didn’t understand everything. But it made us miss Italy.… Read more