Not home yet!

Well in the last post I was still hovering over la douce France …. and finally I’m in Italy. What a wonderfully varied patchwork that is!  It’s like the  contour models  we had at school showing mountains and deep cleft valleys, green and white. I love to see the snowy caps or the steep-sided mountains and the plunge down into the valleys with the villages nestling in them,but of course maybe “nestling” is a misnomer because they do get flooding and rock slides down there but from up here it looks serene .Leaving the more mountainous area we can see the inverted y-shape of lake Como.  Further on we come to the fields round Bergamo, nice, green but not hedged or tree-lined so to my eye not quite as lovely.

Driving home is always nice after the holiday; you’re back under your own steam with your own things and along the motorway this absolutely mind-bogglingly perfect picture, a soft pinky- orange nectarine sky, background to Leonardesque hills bluer and bluer as they recede into the distance, not mountains but soft, rounded hills,  ancient and motherly .In front the light has been leached out of the darkening green  trees…glorious. Unfortunately before I can find a suitable place to stop and take a photo, the perfect colouring of the moment has passed. Carpe diem.

So here I am, “home” again and thinking how priviledged I am to be able to participate in these two immensely rich cultures not as a tourist or day -tripper but as someone who belongs and although sometimes this rootlessness causes me an ache in my soul mostly I’m just very grateful for the gift.