Lights (High and Otherwise) of a Long Trip, 2

June 30

I have a bit more sympathy for the protagonists of Ian McEwen’s Black Dogs now that I have confronted my own black dog in the hills of Tuscany. But he was small and more startled of me, in my wonderful outfit (sorry, DBT) of khaki shorts and “medical legwear” (every time I put them on, though, my legs do feel better) than I was of him. I love doing nothing; it is what I am best at. Yesterday I traveled in the van, first to Pisa and then to Lucca, a walled town since who knows when that has never been bombed, almost certainly because it was never strategically necessary to do so. Pisa – it’s a towar; it’s leaning and apparently has been since its first construction in – if I remember – the 13th century. If the Times had been around then there would have been some investigative journalism into the letting of the contracts for its construction. Some early day Tony Soprano may have been involved. There is also a cathedral, a museum or two, and a couple of other buildings on the location. Lucca was much more entertaining. We got a map to keep us oriented in the narrow and switchbacking streets. Bicycles are kings in those streets for they are too crowded to allow cars to drive with any speed and the extent of the walls, the area enclosed by them, is greater than can be easily navigated on foot. The walk, in fact, kind of exhausted me. I constantly overlook how weak I am and how tired I get. We had a decent lunch in a little restaurant on the square near where Puccini was born in 1858. One building has a plaque announcing it as his birthplace, but if there is a museum, as also announced, it must have been closed. The ride back to the villa could scarcely have taken an hour, but it seemed like forever. Still, I enjoyed the day and, as I feel about most of Italy so far, I would happily go back to Lucca. This morning after the gang left, I went for a walk and found myself channeling TML-era G.F. – and perhaps still G. F. – thinking of wildflower photos and framing them in my mind.

July 1

Right leg appears to have gone down!

July 4

Down a little, I think, but not a lot and certainly not as much as I thought a couple days ago. Aboard The Splendour of the Seas and going south in the Adriatic, heading to Corfu after a first stop today at Split. The tour there was bad so I split – in a manner of speaking – and walked back to the ship. We are now two weeks away from New York and with just over a week to go. It was chaotic once we got to Venice, trying to follow directions on how to get to the ship, but get here we did. So far I like Holland American better than Royal Caribbean. HA was a little more subtle about trying to put some distance between you and your money. The Adriatic is as flat as a tabletop so far. Not a Trace of seasickness. I’m feeling like maybe I don’t need to see new places anymore. The familiar feels good. Despite being in an impaired condition, I can’t stop trying to be a problem-solver. There was a pretty funny moment when our train pulled into Venice yesterday only about five minutes late – after a trip that certainly included speeds well over 100 mph – and our group wrestled all the luggage out of the car and got past the people who wanted to transport our bags, but not us, to the ship for 5 Euro a bag. They were probably legit, but I was in the decisive “no” group, so we took our luggage and wheeled it out to the front of the station, along the Grand Canal, where the group en masse stood in the 90 degree sunshine and tried to figure out what to do next. It wasn’t graceful, but at least I got them in the shade.