Chapter 9: Phew

The Austrian snow queens were the best part of the train ride. After a while they sort of melted into milder hills, and then at some point you could just tell you were in Italy. Something about the way they planted their orchards, or the way they tiled the roofs. And the way they spoke Italian instead of German.

The sun sank lower and glowed redder and fuzzier through the haze, the sights grew less and less interesting and more and more foggy, I waved to Romeo and Juliet as we passed through Verona, I recited some Reduced Shakespeare Company, and then the sun called it a night and that’s what the day turned into.

We finally arrived in Arezzo, where we would be picked up. Some little girl tried to ask me what my turban was all about, but as it was my first experience with Italian it didn’t go over so well and she finally gave up on me.

We had a nice long winding drive back from Arezzo through absolutely beautiful countryside. Of course it was pitch dark but that’s not the point. We drove through the little towns that huddle together in the valley below Passano, and then we drove up the long dirt road towards Passano itself.

Passano means “place of safe passage.” The house we were staying in is Passano, a place of safe passage built around the 5^th century where passing pilgrims could find refuge as they went on their journey. Kind of like us.

Both Vanya’s and my faces broke into excited smiles as we pulled up the driveway and stopped in front of the house. Move over snow queens, this place was awesome. All out of yellow stone, various crumbling, ivy-tangled ruins standing about like friends, flowerpots in iron holders hanging beneath each window, a front door with a keyhole just made for listening to whispered secrets, and, best of all, a watchtower. I don’t know about you, but you put me in a room in a watchtower and you’ll never hear the end of it. It was freaking awesome. Not only that but we had a little tiny arched balcony in our room where you could stand and lean on a lovely iron railing and look out over the entire vast expanse of pitch black with some little lights in the valley down below.

That night we went to sleep content with anticipation and a long satisfying day, letting our thoughts drift us into REM mode. Mine mostly consisted of: Oh my god I’m sleeping in a watchtower. I can’t wait to tell Saibi.