it's been a while

This is the first time I've logged on for a good while. Over a month. I'm not sure why but it seems to me that it's because the story was becoming repetitive ... or monotonous. What I wanted to do when I started this was to explain how I went from being a boy born in Buckinghamshire to being an 'Italian' to discovering who I really am.

The story got lost somewhere along the way; or I lost track of the story. I'm not sure which. Since the 'story' (I use the term loosely) in the last post, my wife and I have been to Venice, Verona, Peschiera del Garda, Longarone, Pisa, Lucca, Siena and Pistoia.

I have enjoyed all of them although I have to say that I find the denizens of la Toscana rather strange. I have spent the last ten years wandering around Italy with a red-haired, Irish wife so that - whether I look Italian or not - I am clearly identifiable as a tourist. When we sit down to eat or drink, I open my mouth and I speak Italian with a southern accent and, although there are mistakes in there they are not very frequent. That visual contradiction has the effect that wherever we go, Italians talk to me ... except in Tuscany (Toscana sounds so much better - or is it Etruria?).

In Veneto people talked to me. In Friuli-Venezia-Giulia people talk to me. In Campania people talk to me. Nella Toscana they say nothing. Perfunctory. Brusque. Taciturn. Not Italian? There is a theory that the Toscani consider themselves to be something better than Italian.

In Italy people are loyal first to their 'region' and then to their country - especially where food is concerned. However, the Toscani elevate this to another level.

I wouldn't say that I've 'done' Toscana. I've been to a few places there. What I don't understand is the English love affair with the place.

Have you ever taken the train from Venezia Santa Lucia to Longarone? Have you ever driven across the mountains from the Autostrada del Sole to Vietri sul Mare and along the coast road on the south coast of the Sorrento Peninsula (la Costiera Divina)? Have you ever taken the bus from Caserta into the Apennines to tiny villages like Alife? Have you ever driven up into the Dolomiti? Have you ever been to Lake Garda on an October's day when there isn't a tourist within 100 miles of the place? Have you walked along the banks of the Adige in Verona or the Arno in Pisa? Have you left the Piazza San Marco and the Canale Grande behind in Venice and allowed yourself to get lost in the backstreets? Have you sat in a bar and sipped on a glass of wine or a cup of coffee to the mellow sounds of Pino Daniele? Have you sat down to a meal with a group of Italians and watched them argue with the chef about how he should cook the meal you've just ordered?

Before you tar Italy with Tuscany's brush, do all of those things. Tell me then where you'd rather be.

I've done all these things and thoroughly enjoyed the sublimity of them ... and there's still so much more to do. So much more! It is entirely possible that 'the promise' has become and obsession but ...