I’m back home. Strange how this has become that place - home. Wherever you lay your hat, that’s home is truer than you think. My hat is literally hanging on a hook as I walk in the door. The girls are there, I feel so strange walking into a Covid hotspot. Do I wear a mask, do I stay away. We gather in the kitchen to decide but what’s the point. What will be, will be. My adopted daughter has arrived with the girls and so far she is covid free. We have hope that we both will escape it.
When I got off the bus and was waiting for the taxi I had organised to take me the last half hour to Auronzo, I noticed the vaccination tent was finally active. I thought I might check re another vaccine as Covid BA….is on the rise again. I asked if they spoke English and the nurse did. He asked my age, state of health, where I came from, how long I’d be here and then asked for my ID. He looked, he typed and I said, is it possible to come back for an appointment and he said, we can do it now. I was shocked but found out later they had just lowered the age to mine so I was in. I had to think it was meant to be. I was nervous but relieved as we were going to Greece in a couple of weeks for a month as I was renting out our apartment to pay the bills here and Greece, being a party place had Covid numbers rising quickly. From being against vaccinations, here I am embracing yet another one.
For some strange reason, I never thought we’d get it, it had been 3 years and we had been in Europe during the first brutal wave but the girls had woken with sore throats and coughs and decided to test and I got a photo of the positive test. We were all in shock. I was coming back from Venice early as the heat and the crowds were getting to me but I decided to stay until the girls had got through the worst of it, especially when they had someone to look after them. And so I arrived vaccinated, knowing that wouldn’t save me that quickly but would help in the long term.
For the first couple of days they were still positive so the adopted one and I shopped and had coffee by the lake and we had aperitivo and good meals at home but then we ventured out to the outdoor tables at the lake for a much needed Negroni. A measure of freedom accorded as after 7 days in Italy, if vaccinated, you’re allowed out and about.
The girls walked up into the hills away from the madding crowds and gathered tiny wild raspberries and formed relationship with the mountain cows, horned and with bells around their necks. Whilst the adopted one and I shopped and walked back through the wild flower meadows. When we were at the lake the day before, the girls saw a couple of people dive into the now filled lake. We’ve never seen anyone swim here before as it’s freezing cold waters are fed from the melting snows high up. Then we decided to try it ourselves and so we waited till the hottest part of the day and made our way to where it wasn’t so deep so that we could slowly immerse ourselves. It was so cold that my back and thighs felt pain but the girls went fully in and so I had to do the same. I managed 30 seconds, counting quickly and emerged suddenly warmed. It was like a baptism of ice and we felt strangely energised and alert. Of course, we said we’d never do it again but the next day, we returned.
And then the girls left. They were headed to Venice for a day and then off to Utrecht. The house was mine alone. I wanted to do paintings for the empty walls where I had taken down all the strange paintings. So everyday I would walk to the lake for my coffee or an affogato and trying out my Italian with a lovely waitress who had no English. And then buy my food daily (so much less waste if you have the time like I had, and even working Italians buy daily but then shops are always close by) and paint the afternoons away. There is a beautiful oil painting of the village from the 40's that I love in one of the apartments, I decide to copy it in watercolour, the result of which is the painting at the top of the post.
Towards the end I started to clean the apartment for the tenants who come for August. I can’t believe how many people are here now, the streets crowded, people spilling out of cafes, music at night in the main squares. It is transformed from a quiet country town to full on crowds, walking by the lake and spending money in the tourist shops. On Sunday I went down to the lake in the afternoon for a Hugo spritz which is prosecco and elderflower syrup and there was a band! I spend time framing my paintings in weird old frames that I found here and hanging them. I am well pleased with the transformation of our apartment.
The next day I meet up with some of my late husband's cousins up in the mountains where his grandfather had built a cow shed where he would take the cows during the spring. It has now been converted into a lovely home. We lunch on prosciutto, gnocchi and sage butter and for dessert we eat the wonderfully sweet flat peaches.
By Thursday when I left, the apartment was spic and span, as I know Italians are cleaning maniacs. I eat out the last night so I don’t mess up the kitchen. A last pizza overlooking the lake. I wonder as I leave the next morning, what it’ll be like when I arrive back. This place changes so much from week to week. I’ll miss the storms that echo through the valley, the rainbows and lightning and fast and furious rain and then the sun appearing again.
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