San Gimignano

Saturday Morning I crawled out from under my toasty, puffy comforter and streaked through the cold apartment to turn on the hot water heater for a shower. I’ve noticed that the large, arched windows of my living room have no coverings and face the cathedral across the street. Parts of the cathedral are undergoing repair and there is a large crane and scaffolding across the narrow street directly in front of the windows. There are also workmen. I must remember that as I travel from bed to bath in the future… The toilet and a sink are in the bath upstairs, and the shower is in a utility room off the kitchen. The shower has lovely gray tumbled marble tile and makes me wish for a similarly luxurious bathtub in which to take a candlelit bath.

The drive through the countryside to San Gimignano is breathtaking. Lovely old villages, hilltop villas, walled cities, and beautiful rolling green hills dotted with silvery-gray olive trees. The town itself is high on a hill; a walled fortress city dominated 14 towers build by wealthy families during the middle ages. There were originally 72 towers, built for both protection and as a symbol of the owner’s wealth.

Once inside the city I stopped at a small art gallery featuring glass, silk clothing and purses, and some lovely Tuscan multi-media paintings. Then I found the real treasure, a lovely woman named Rita who, having lost her husband to cancer 3 years ago, dreams of visiting the Unites States. Rita is studying English from a 4 inch thick Italian-English dictionary, much as I study Italian. She seemed very excited to meet me and told me how she loved John Wayne and would like to visit Cong, Ireland where he filmed “The Quiet Man” with Maureen O’Hara. She was a bit put out that her husband had once gone salmon fishing to Ireland with 4 friends and left her at home! We chatted for quite some time in mixed Italian and English and she shared her email address with me. I bought as small blue glass pendant as a memory of Rita, and when I stopped by to say “Arrivederci” upon leaving town she gave me three kisses on the cheek for “luck”.

Just before my departure for Italy my wonderful co-workers treated me to lunch at an Asian restaurant. In my fortune cookie was a fortune, “You will have many opportunities for happy encounters”. First I meet a handsome stranger on the plane, and now Bella Rita. How lucky I am!