Favourite moments

As we finish eating dinner every night, we go around the table. All twelve of us, or sometimes fourteen, or eighteen. We say what our favourite moment of the day was. Those of us wanting to challenge ourselves will try in Italian as well as English. Chandra translates for others, so the Italian speakers and English speakers alike can listen to the community’s sharing. All of the moments are small. The delicious dinner we just had. Dancing and singing in the kitchen while preparing a meal. When Sena smiled at me. When the arch form came out, and the arch stood, and no one was around so I waved over Andrea and in Italian, from what I could decipher, he made mention of Rome, and fantastic, and ‘Brava’. Then he hugged me.

A moment watching the sun set as I put the last course on the chimney, the sky changing from red to deep blue over the mountain range and the sea beyond. Watching the couple from Argentina, Ailen and Rodrigo, cook hunks of beef over a campfire. Playing guitar with Marc and singing again, after a few years of silence. Cycling the hour and a half ride down the mountain and across the rolling hills into a seaside town. Eating gelato. A cold swim in the salty waves, sun on my face. Listening to the doves with a cat on my lap. An evening run around the village, running stair repeats on a set of stone stairs likely thousands of years old.

Small moments. Important moments. I will write more about Italy in time, but for now what I can say, is that my time in Tuscany has affirmed and reminded me of the beauty that a simple life can hold. Sometimes enough, is enough.

Here are some details - small ones - that have captured my attention.