on my way home, i stopped off at home

I am here in Castiglion Fiorentino for a very brief while, so glad to be home. (How many homes can one person have??) I arrived this morning - the Tirabassi family dropped me and my bags and guitar off at Porta Fiorentina and I began the ascent into town. Along the way I passed 3 or 4 people I hadn't seen on my previous trips to town, and I had to explain myself...it was a good test of my Italian to explain that I am living in Badia Petroia, as an aupair, but that I left there to go to Radicondoli for 11 days to be an aupair for another family, and that family had just dropped me off here, where I will stay the night with Amanda, which is why I have such a big bag for just one evening. It is difficult enough to explain in English, yes? But is so nice to come to a place where people greet you on the street with joy and surprise, when they ask how long you are staying, when they ask where your better half is, when they ask when you are going to give up the fight and come back to live forever. My response is always, I am staying for the summer, my better half is in Texas, I am going to come back to live forever when you crazy Italians make the paperwork a little less formidable. Or something like that.

Today I went to the alimentari twice (the small little grocery in town), helped Amanda make lunch (fresh mozzarella with tomatoes and basil, homemade olive oil, panzanella (bread salad), prosciutto and melone, pecorino, and fresh tagliatelle pasta with sugo), and we went for a walk around town. Such a simple day. I ask you, why does this make me so happy I could burst? If any one of you were here, I am sure my cup would have flowed over.

In other exciting news, I have an Italian band! So to speak. I practiced last night with Gumo (a nickname), Manuel, and Juri...and they rock. They were all acquaintances that I knew from previous trips to Castiglion, but not guys I knew well. Adriano, Amanda's husband who owns the Velvet Underground, just opened a second bar, called the Garden Underground. It is a really cool outdoor bar, just on the edge of the historic part of town, with a killer view. Anyhow, he asked me to play a show with a band (as a venue, it is not really conducive to a solo act) and these guys are the "house" band at the Velvet. So we had a practice last night, and they rock. It was so much fun. I was worried about playing with other folks, given the language barrier, until I found out that they all speak English very well...and so many words are the same in music terminology. I was trying to explain something about a variation in tempo, and I asked, "do you know the word tempo?" Duh. That's, uh, the Italian word for time or timing. I am an idiot. Metronome...metronomico. You get the point. Anyhow, we will have a few more practices and then play in mid-July. We are going to try to record the show and see if we can maybe get some good live videos.

I hope you are all well and happy where you are. Thank you thank you thank you for all your lovely emails and posts. Pictures coming soon.
vanessa