This really has been a heck of a trip so far…By Wednesday I figured Joel would be over his jet lag NOT! So best to let him sleep late because we have a 2:30 appointment with my friend, Raffaele to take us on a tour of the medieval village. Sleep deprived and a little grumpy, it’s been hard to get him eating on an Italian time schedule.
We are blessed to have Raffaele as a tour guide because he actually lived in the medieval village. His was the world of these myriad stone paths and steep stone steps to where?
Enjoying the view!
We spent a couple hours traipsing through the labyrinth of narrow streets, spotting the churches, small plazas, steep stairs going where(?), the new doorways and the abandoned
I Wonder Who Lived There?
All throughout this formerly abandoned town (village) you can see the reclamation and restoration work of the 100+ expats who have bought homes here. The following photo was taken on The Artist’s Way, a street called that because many of the houses are owned by artists, one being Clare Galloway, a Scottish painter who was the first foreigner who moved into Guardia.
Along the Artist’s Way
Clare was featured in three episodes of House Hunters International, probably the main impetus for infusion of Americans and Canadians in Guardia.
In the midst of one of my descents down some stone stairs, my phone rang and it is Peter. He was at the airport and his flight had been cancelled! Was this airline crap ever going to end? He had been hanging around for hours with about 22 other angry passengers, getting mixed messages from TAP. He thought they might get on an AIR Italia flight ( didn’t happen). I would call him back when I left the village.
After the tour, we went to the Bar for a drink and joined a festive group of expat friends, Mike, Cindy, Steve, and Dawn. It was lovely sitting out on the terrace sipping wine and nibbling on snacks ( except for the noisy diesel tractors coming home from the fields). I called Peter and he didn’t pick up – maybe he is on a flight. So I contacted our house sitter who was going to leave tomorrow and asked him to contact Edith, our NYC cat sitter and ask her to feed the cats because only God and TAP know when Peter will get home!
Drinks turned into dinner at a new restaurant in town, Il Platano, the place is lovely, pizza is good, it’s really hard to get bad food here, lol 😂. It was late, we had climbed up and down a lot so going home and to bed sounded like a great idea because we had to get up early the next day for a trip to Caserta. I tried Peter one more time with no luck.
My phone rang at 1:30am! Guess who? My husband was excited to tell me that finally TAP flew them to Lisbon, put them up in a fancy hotel 50 minutes outside the airport and will fly the tomorrow to JFK. I said, it’s 1:30am here, I’m in bed, have to get up early, glad you are at least in Lisbon, nice you are in fancy hotel, I took care of Seth who should call Edith, make sure you pay when you get home, pay the electric bill too, I love you, good night, talk to you….
To Be Continued…
Bill Ding and his band of clowns are the security patrol for this blog site. He is a favorite toy from the 50*s. By the way sometimes a blog is just an ego-maniacal stream of conscience.
Pbenjay's Blog 
Luigi And The Lights
Posted in From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, Travel-Where in the World are Peterlori?, tagged cherries, fig tree, Heineken, Luigi, Orso’s, Orso’s Garden, Pasquale, Perroni on May 28, 2018| 3 Comments »
One late morning, Joel and I were sitting outside at Orso’s enjoying the sunshine, some coffee and wi fi. It was a beautiful day, the cherries had turned from green to red in the past few days, the roses were in full bloom; shades of pink and red. The fig tree was laden with burgeoning little green globes which unfortunately would not ripen till the end of summer.
Pasquale came out and asked Joel if he would go with his father, Luigi, to pick up a heavy box. Since I was working on my iPad and he was getting a little bored, he jumped at the chance of a change of scenery. Luigi came out and gave me the two finger sign indicating they’d be back in two minutes.
It was more like 30 minutes, before they returned in the truck and started to unload what looked like a few large coiled wreathes. At least that’s what it looked from across the street.
Soon it was apparent what was happening;
Up A Tree
Hidden From View
Taking Direction
Luigi had enlisted Joel to help him string lights in the trees in Orso’s Garden. That’s the official name of this small oasis across the street from the B&B. I’ve spent hours there sitting in that glorious Southern Italy sunshine, drawing zentangles, talking to Peter, looking at the panorama and trying most of all to be present.
That day watching Joel and Luigi up in the trees stringing the lights was so heartwarming. Joel had told me that Luigi reminded him of his own great-grandfather, Luciano, a few days before. Luigi only speaks Italian and dialect for sure, Joel knows grazie. So how the directions were being given and followed must have been a lot of gestures and pointing!
The afternoon was getting warmer, so I ordered a Perroni, hey that’s what you do in Italy and especially in Guardia. Are you ready for this? A bottle of beer costs 1€! Now if you want Heineken then it’s 1.50€. Oh what a great place!
The guys had to take a break, Joel had a rash on his arms but was not going to complain because Luigi had cut his hand in a few places with the knife and shrugged it off when Joel pointed out the bleeding. God, that reminded me of my own father! By the way, I didn’t take his picture but should have, because Luigi was also up in the trees securing lights, he is very spry.
A Well Deserved Break
Here are a few garden photos;
All in all this was a very pleasant day. We went home and it wasn’t until a day or two later we found out the lights were turned on in the garden that night and everyone was eating chicken!
Rate this:
Read Full Post »