This trip will be different in a number of ways. This is the first time I’ve ever “traveled alone” in Italy. Every other time, even on skis in 1982 (see About Me), I have been with fellow travelers. I’m not sure how that will change the feel of things. I guess that will be part of the “discovery” aspect of this particular trip.
I do like being with others when I travel. I like the “shared experience” of it all. It’s the same reason I never go to movies by myself, or even to restaurants. Just having people to share the experience enhances it in certain ways. They say that when you watch even a riotously funny movie by yourself you won’t actually laugh. I think that's interesting. Apparently spontaneous laughter happens only in groups of two or more. I wonder why.
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Anyway I depart “da solo” this time. I expect that, in certain ways, it will be great to travel this way. It reminds me of those great lines by Richard Harris on his “Slides” album of many years ago. He said: “I find that travelling alone is somehow more realistic than with others. You find yourself in a new place all alone and you deal with it as oppose to when you're with others who are familiar to you and in a sense shelter you from situations you would otherwise meet head on. You know what I mean? Besides, if your loved ones are with you, you have no one to go home to.”So, we’ll see how it goes. I have to admit, however, that I probably won’t have all that much time to myself while I’m there. After a one-day stopover in Porto Santo Stefano (to see the site of the mysterious death, on July 18, 1610, of my favorite Italian painter, Caravaggio), I will be driving into the mountains of southern Tuscany, to the little mountain town of Arcidosso. There I am enrolled in a one-week class of Tuscan cooking taught by the noted Italian chef, now retired, Carlo Innocenti. (http://www.tuscanway.com/tuscany/cooking_courses/cheese-connoseur-wine-week.php)
Carlo (right) takes about 8 students at a time, each of whom lives, for that week, in his large stone house next to the town castle. In the mornings we will meet up with Carlo and his wife for a light breakfast in the downstairs kitchen and then stroll down the hill to the town’s market where we will participate with Carlo in selecting and purchasing the foods that will be that evening’s cooking class and (with any luck) dinner. When the morning shopping is done, Carlo’s son Romeo will pick us up in the family van and take us to various destinations in range of Arcidosso – “day trips” to broaden our understanding of Tuscan cuisine. Cheese towns, wine towns, olive oil towns, photographic towns (my favorites), etc. After a week in Arcidosso, I will drive north to Lucca for a short stay, then on to Portovenere, Vernazza, and finally Lake Varese near the northern border. In that “phase two” of the trip, I hope to visit the Zanetti’s and the Piccini’s, two families I love to spend time with in Italy (long story).
So, that’s the plan. Now back to checking things off the pre-trip list.
