Running is the Cure!

But it's torture, you'll say.  I'd rather do  _______ (something personally horrendous that's still better than running), you'll say.  Yeah.  It is torture.  But it's one of the best kinds of torture.  I won't presume to know definitively what the best is, though several come to mind.  Anyway, today I ran up to San Luca--okay fine, I didn't run all the way up, I made it about halfway and then limped/panted the rest of the way--and then down the back roads which wind around and up and down Bologna's hills.  I had the whole countryside to myself, not a car or person in sight, just the snowy orchards and the steep hillsides and the panoramas and the dark pine trees and the occasional ancient building.  Every once in a while, San Luca popped into view and then disappeared.  The whole loop was about 7 miles, and it made me giddy, and I didn't need anybody else around for it to be a good experience. 

Tonight Vale put me on the phone with her friend (while my mouth was full of prosciutto), who first asked me if she should speak Italian or English, and then proceeded to tell me in Italian about herself and what she does and to ask if she could come over tomorrow morning and take me with her.

At least I think that's what happened.  Honestly, I have only a vague sense of her name and an even vaguer sense of what she does and where I might be going (hospice visits, is my current theory).  All I know for certain is that she is coming tomorrow at 11.  "Say yes," is my recently adopted philosophy, and it sure does make things happen...

Roberto Benigni (Italy's cheerful version of Woody Allen--if you don't know him correct this immediately by watching La Vita e' Bella and Down by Law) was on TV last night doing another episode of his "Tutto Dante" series, in which he does impeccable dramatic readings of La Divina Commedia and offers simultaneous translation and commentary.  To my chagrin, he speaks at approx. one million mph, so I understood little.  But it was fun just to listen to him speak, because he speaks Italian the way it's meant to be spoken--every vowel round, every consonant sharp, every r rolled out like dough.

Blog orders of business: 1. I changed the format.  Gold stars for noticing, hope it's alright with y'all. 2. Someday I WILL post photos.  I will.


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