Sunday, June 27,
1982
At 10:00 I locked
up and went to the hospital to drop off my room key, then waited for Jan &
Kirby. They arrived at 10:20, on foot! Their car had died, so they had called a
taxi which got Jan and me to the train station in time for the 10:34 train to
Bern, arriving at 11:00. Jan went to the restroom and when the train to Milano
came in, people rushed for seats. I picked up all our things and boarded to
find a compartment. I had to knock on the window to let Jan know where I was!
We shared the compartment with three American girls. Jan and I were going to
attend the Milani-Comparetti Seminar in Florence, Italy.
We left Bern at
11:21. It was still cloudy, but after crossing into the Brig valley, it was
nice and sunny. Italian customs came through when we were going through the
Simplon Tunnel. The scenery was beautiful in Italy, and soon we were traveling
along the lower end of Lago Maggiore. There were occasional islands and Isola
Bella had a castle with terraced gardens. Across the lake I spotted a castle I
had visited in 1979. As we crossed the lower tip of the lake, we had a picture
postcard view of the lake with the Alps in the background and big puffy white
clouds in the sky.
Arrived in Milano
at 16:00 and went to board the train to Florence. It was already full, and we
walked the full length of the 15-car train looking for seats. Whole families
had already settled in the compartments, and there seemed to be too many
people. Turned out half of them left just before the train left! We found a
fold-down seat in the vestibule, and Jan claimed that while I went to look for
empty seats, even in First Class. Nothing. I sat with Jan and leaned against
the door, when someone opened it, I recovered before falling out. During the
trip the conductress used this door several times. The train left 10 minutes
late at 17:05 and we had two male companions in the vestibule, a short dark man
with Bell’s Palsy and a younger guy with curly hair. Of course we were
subjected to close questioning, like, they got so close we were nose to nose.
Jan was writing a letter to her parents and they marveled at how she could
write while riding on a train, and at how long she could keep writing. They
thought she was writing to her “ragazzo/guy.” In response to their questions,
Jan volunteered my name as “Giuliana,” and when we were slow to answer about
Jan’s name, they asked “Francesca?” So we agreed to that name. They asked about
marital status and jobs, and what we do after work, “fare amore/make love?” I
said, “Basta/That’s enough,” to end the conversation and they tried to apologize.
They then changed their professions from a truck driver and a bus driver to the
military and police so we “wouldn’t worry.” They kept poking and tapping us
because we weren’t responding to our new names. Jan wanted me to tell them off,
but I hadn’t learned that kind of vocabulary in Italian! Every time we were
joined by a new passenger, the curly-haired guy would tell them about us. Plus
they all smoked and we were next to the restroom. Not a very pleasant trip.
We actually
arrived in Firenze/Florence 10
minutes early at 21:00. We were each carrying a back pack, purse and a plastic
bag, and had a handle of my duffel bag as we walked to the hotel. We headed
toward the Duomo/Cathedral, then took
a right towards the Ponte Vecchio/Old
Bridge and turned left before the bridge to Piazza Mentana to the Hotel
Balestri. It had a nice lobby with plush chairs, a TV room in one corner and a
restaurant in the other. We checked and were given Room #32 for 40,500 ITL/$30/night.
The room had three beds, a desk, a wardrobe and a sink. We had a key to our own
shower and toilet next to the elevator. We opened the windows in the stuffy
room and went out again.
We walked to
Ponte Vecchio and stopped at Gailli Gelateria for the 1000 ITL/70 cent
average-size ice cream with three scoops. I had chocolate, hazelnut and coffee.
We wandered across the bridge where all the stalls were now closed up with
fancy wood shutters. The usual murky waters of the Arno River looked pleasant
reflecting the city lights. Returned back over the bridge and went to Piazza
della Signoria. Tried peeking over the shoulders of a crowd as they watched a
mime. Found a Calamai shop with
stationery, party goods, and Snoopy items. On the way back to the hotel, Jan
pointed out a plaque 10’ up on a wall noting the flood level of 4 November
1966. At the hotel desk, the clerk told Jan someone had called for her, “had
called twice for McClellan, not Bragg, ha, ha get the joke?, but he’ll call
back.” We were confused as to whether someone had called or not! And how would the clerk know Civil War generals? We got to the room at 23:00 and a few minutes later
Kirby called.
Monday, June 28,
1982
It was difficult
sleeping since it was hot, and there were mosquitoes and traffic noise. If you closed
the shutters to block the noise, it got too stuffy.
This morning we
went to Piazza della Signoria to buy postcards, then window shopped at the
Calamai store we found the night before. We stood in a long line at the post
office to get stamps, where Jan was overcharged 1000 ITL. By the time she added
up all her stamps, the postal clerk had forgotten how much he charged. Several
philatelists were licking their giant stamps to put on special envelopes, and
tourists were licking their stamps for postcards.
We found another
Calamai branch with even more Snoopy items, plus toys and kitchen gadgets. it
had a basement level, that smelled like it had been flooded, that was filled with
kitchen items. We headed towards Piazza San Marco and passed yet another
Calamai store! At Piazza San Marco we had just missed the 11:24 #7 bus. Bought
four bus tickets for 300 ITL/20 cents each and boarded the next bus that left
at 11:32. We were supposed to punch the tickets in a machine that we could not
get to through the standing-room only crowd. We had to hold on as the bus
careened its way through the city and then up a hill. After two sharp curves we
saw a sign for Via di Camerati and for a hospital, so we rang the bell. Got off
with another lady. We thought we were on the Via di Camerati and continued up hill, but the
house numbers were too high. I asked the lady if she knew the “Anna Torrigiani
Centro di Educazione Motoria at Via di Camerati 8.” She pointed to the hospital
and said she knew nothing.
So we headed
downhill to where we saw the sign, and found a side street marked with that
name. We crossed the main street and headed down the side street, but the
numbers were too high. We re-crossed the main street (very dangerous on a
hairpin curve!) and found the street where the sign was. Followed the narrow
lane between high pink walls and tall trees. There appeared to be villas of the
wealthy behind these walls. Came to a row of nice houses and found the Centro
building to go to the door marked ‘8.’ But that was the entrance to the Red Cross.
A sign directed us around to the driveway at #10. Entered, followed a sign to
the receptionist, and once a lady standing at the desk noticed us, she asked if
we were here for the course. Of course! She was Dr. E Anna Gidoni, one of the
major members of the Milani-Comparetti team, and she explained there had been a
change of plans, and instead of having lunch at the Centro, we were going into
the city! So we had arrived in time at 12:00, only to turn around and go back
down that hill, this time in a taxi. We were accompanied by one of the physical
therapists, Jean D who is from the U.S. Another therapist is Judy
G who is from England. We arrived at Piazza Mercato Centrale and
were dropped off at Trattoria ZaZa, a very colorful local spot. We sat at one
of two reserved tables and admired the rows and rows of dusty empty Chianti
bottles. We were joined by two very tan ladies who were from Holland and then a
busload of therapists who were on a tour of Italy of which the
Mialni-Comparetti Seminar was a part, organized by Eileen Richter’s company.
They were accompanied by Dr. Adriano Milani-Comparetti himself. He is the
developer of the Milani-Comparetti Motor Development Screening Test,
which pediatric therapists have been using for years.
Bottles of water and carafes of wine were set out on the
tables and we were given a choice of a first course. I had the minestrone di verdure, a soup thick with
vegetables, Second course, a breaded chicken breast and a salad where I
re-discovered the prevalent taste of olive oil. Dr. Gidoni was a lively story
teller. After lunch we were led as a group the couple blocks to Piazza
dell’Annunziata to the Ospedale degli
Innocenti/hospital of the Innocents, the first foundling home in Florence
and the oldest in Europe, known to me for the tondi/roundels by Andrea della Robbia depicting a swaddled infant.
We entered the biblioteca/library
after finding someone to unlock the door, and passed through a series of rooms
filled with book, audio-visual equipment, and bathtubs! Arrived at a room of
desks and chairs with pen and paper, and we were ready to begin the seminar. At
a break, some of us went out to the Bar dell’Annunziata and I had a limone/lemon ice cream and got a can of
Sprite. Back in the seminar, I put the can of Sprite on the desk and it slid
into my lap. It splashed on my leg, but I didn’t realize it got the seat wet as
well, so even while my pant leg dried, my bottom was still wet! When we headed
back to the hotel at 18:30, Jan assured me my pants looked fine. Actually they
didn’t but at least I wasn’t self-conscious walking in the streets! We stopped
at the Calamai store for Jan to get Kirby a T-shirt. Back at the hotel I
changed and washed the pants. We went to a wine bar in Palazzo Antinori (on Via
Tornabuoni) that was quietly elegant with a vaulted ceiling, balcony, and a row
of wine bottles behind the bar. There was a relief picture of an old wine
wagon. Jan had cream of asparagus soup and I had gnocchi; excellent with a
slight greenish tinge from spinach and no tomato sauce! We shared a small bottle of acqua minerale senza gas/mineral water
without gas. Afterwards Jan had a liquored Macedonia/fruit cup, and I had an
espresso that was not made by machine. Jan discovered it was 22:00 when she was
to call Kirby, so we hurried back to the hotel, stopping to buy a large bottle
of water. While Jan called Kirby, I had a conversation with the joker desk
clerk and a guest who had a son with a handicap.
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