A month ago or so I stopped noticing I was living in Italy. Things have
become routine here: the exceptionally-sweet breakfasts, the morning
Vespa noise as I walk the kids to school, the need to buzz around town
half the morning for errands, the weekend travels to new places. No more
do I wake up and feel like shouting, "I am living in Italy! I can't believe it!"
While my [lack of] language skill prevents me from feeling fully
integrated into Italian life, I feel as though I have a good handle on
[Northern] Italian culture and norms. I understand Italy not as a lover
-- not new and fresh and perfect everywhere -- but as a real love. That
is, I appreciate the wonderful while being realistic about the
not-so.
The new phase of Italian love brought a thick fog of home sickness.
Where I did not miss home too much before, I suddenly was ready to go
back. Now. When a kind woman whose kids go our girls' school
asked if we were going to leave in June and then come back in September
to Mantova, I said a little too forcefully, "Oh No. Noooooooooo. No.
Yeah, no. We are just going home. Yeah. NO. [Long pause, slight smile.] It
has been great, though...."
That night I went home and counted the days until June 15.
The rest of the month has been this way, me trying to live in the moment
here while still feeling the pull of back home. As my eldest daughter
said, "I think I am ready to miss Italy."
Then, today, out of the blue, a gem. A little town found just 30 minutes
from here. With a huge fortress as you enter the town and an imposing
and beautiful castle in the distance, bright poppies in bloom in the
fields around the main square, and a clean river cutting through town,
we six were lost again in the beauty of Italy as we explored. Then, we
found a lunch placed filled with boisterous, happy, toasting [and
cheering] Italians, and ordered [and of course ate] our pheasant with
pasta, roasted rabbit, Russian salad and more. After lunch, as we walked
thought the old streets and ogled at the marvelous villas, I was hit
again by how much I love this country, and felt glad that we still have
some days left.
But not too many.
