Va Bene

As I type, Gibson and I are sitting on the veranda of our hotel, Villa Argentina. The view, as the hotelier said in an email to us before we got here, “From there is something to see.” That is such an understatement of the century. The view is mind-blowing. Here’s a picture:



When Jon and I arrived last night we had been traveling for about 36 hours. We met an old man in the street walking his dog and we asked, “Dove Bar Centrale?” I pronounced it like ‘sent-ralay.’ This is where we are to meet Gibson and Ellen and we need to get there – we’re about 40 minutes late due to the Italian Train system not being what it used to be. He asked me, “What is Bar Centrale?” “A bar – restaurant?” “OH! Bar CHEntrale!” He says and bemused. He explained in the simplest words how we could find it.

We came upon Gibson and Ellen – sitting in Bar Centrale watching football and drinking a fantastic bottle of vino bianco…Local grapes, chilled cold and refreshing…

We watched some of the world cup football game where someone was playing someone else to the equal delights and horror of people around us.

We caught up with each other’s travel stories and ate some nice pasta. Gelato on a hot summer evening is just about as good as it gets.

The walk to the hotel was up up up up about 30 thousand stairs (trenta mille for those playing along). But when we got here, we are ready to forgive this little town for all its maddening stairs and thank it for the view.