After a week in Casi di Sotto, Carrara's showcase home in Chianti, it's time to get to work. Summer vacation is over for this entrepreneur.
To begin with, I decide that a little exercise is in order. I decide to tackle "The Hill", a repetitive, grueling uphill circuit around the vineyards, imposed on me via email by my trainer at home.
Upon returning, sweaty and silently cursing all trainers in the known universe, I encounter Massimilliano, our caretaker, gardener, guardian and all around savior, sitting in his truck in the rain, arguing vehemently with Telecom, who once again stood him up in connecting the Internet at the house. I would not want to be on the other end of that phone call.
Needless to say, that meant a trip to the Internet cafe in nearby Radda…which was, of course, closed on Mondays. So, in town and hungry, I pop into another bar for a cappuccino and a custard-filled "cornetto" (hence the morning walk…). I am beginning to be recognized about town, and sit down in the midst of tourists and locales, exchanging pleasantries that I barely understand, but it feels good.
After the tourists leave, the proprietor tells a joke about all of the Americans wandering around town saying "Sa dove un INTERNET CAFÉ?" (Do you know where there is an INTERNET CAFE?). The joke is good-natured, and he mimics their panicked faces. I'm in the same boat, but it's hilarious to me and I laugh along with them. I tell them not to worry and that Americans can live without the Internet for a day or two. But not without phone or email! They slap their thighs, and roar. Who ever heard of anything so ridiculous?
I find myself smiling because the "sea-change" has begun. I'm turning Italian again.
Ciao from Gaiole-in-Chianti.
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