Reading · Experience, Savor, Share, Repeat

Uhm, Rylla, why did you subject yourself to walking in the heat with two backpacks1 plus your purse and a food bag? When was it that this seemed like a good idea?

This is how I felt when arriving at my destination on that first day of travel. Around 4:30pm I wandered into a tired train station and town. Well it seemed tired to me as a tired traveler wandering in the heat. I had arrived in Moncalieri, a town near Turin.

These steps imply it’s a pretty small train station. And the town? Where have I landed???

The way to my apartment was uninspiring. It was the that walking in the incredible heat, doing my best to stay in the shade, I began to question my sanity.

By the time I arrived to my apartment I was completely dripping wet. Like sweating everywhere. The apartment looked fine, somewhat nondescript, but belied what was to come. My host, a woman with short cropped gray hair and warm eyes welcomed me. She spoke almost no English and my Italian was gone for the afternoon. Must have sweated it out.2 I smiled and wondered how many flights of steps I would have to climb to get into my overnight home.

Just one flight, whew. As she explained the keys, we walked into a mini villa. No kidding. I was reminded of the villa that my niece and nephew rented in Lucca for her birthday that we got to stay in a couple of years before. That was a grand place with many rooms, terraces and a beautiful garden. This was the mini version of that, and surprisingly, it worked. And was so reasonably priced. Yay.

Marble floors, blessed air-conditioning, period furnishings, a chandelier. Large spacious rooms, high ceilings, wait, where was I? Maybe this hadn’t been such a bad idea after all. My host had especially cooled the bedroom for me so after we parted ways I immediately shed my clothing and lay in the coolness for while. Still hot, I finally got myself up and into the shower, which saved me.

Feeling cooler, I relaxed for a bit and considered what to do for food. So tired…maybe I could order pizza to be delivered. I had asked my host about restaurants and she recommended a place very close by. I could order in…but, knowing that getting out would be good for me, I pushed myself out the door into the still oppressive, (read high humidity) heat.

As I walked toward the restaurant which was supposed to be about a seven minute walk, I looked over and saw some interesting buildings that appeared to be up a hill, but were behind a big gated parking area. Hmm, I wonder what’s up there? Oh well, not going to find out tonight. Too tired. Get food, get sleep, travel again tomorrow.

What’s up there? Oh well, I’ll never know.

On to the first restaurant. Not open. Okay, not surprising, given that it was a Monday. Internet had said it was open but, oh well. Find others. Ah, here’s one, great. Walk to that one, again not open. Okayyyy, are any restaurants open?

Well, to keep exploring it turned out I was going to get into the area I had seen before after all. Walking around the bend, I realized it was the old town and wasn’t all behind gates. As I walked up the hill I began to see charming streets winding this way and that.

The shops had closed for the evening but offered great windows to peek into. As I made it to the top of the hill I found the center of town with government buildings, a church and restaurants, most of which seemed to be closed. I had been by seven restaurants already, none open.

Finally I asked at a bar and was directed to one kind of hidden on the square. When I arrived, it seemed closed as no one was sitting at the outside tables, but turned out the inside was slightly downstairs and cooler maybe than sitting outside. Maybe. I went in and sat down, and continued to sweat and thought about how this is my mindfulness practice…learning to eat and sweat profusely at the same time.

Does that sound miserable? It really wasn’t. I knew that if I stopped moving and stopped resisting the heat my body would cool down at least a bit. Which it did. A tiny little bit. I can be okay with this too.

I didn’t want much food in the heat, so ordered zucchini flowers stuffed with mozzarella. That with a glass of wine and I was content. Content to eat, happy to have discovered the heart of town.