The slide show gives a glimpse of my first wander before returning to my current home to take a nap. Very grateful.
Easy flights and speedy train from Rome to Florence. I arrived at Santa Maria Novella train station at 12:22, called Lorenzo, the wonderful man from whom I rent the apartment, and met him a my new place across the Arno (Oltrarno) near the Ponte Vecchio. Twenty minutes later, wifi was going strong, and I was walking the streets and enjoying pizza at Piazza Signoria. The slide show gives a glimpse of my first wander before returning to my current home to take a nap. Very grateful.
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I’m off to Florence tomorrow. I fly to Rome, via Frankfort and will immediately take a train to Florence. I know the city so well, that as I sit here making my final travel plans, I can hear, see, touch, taste and smell it all. I’m planning to work on three related articles: Seven Days Writing in Florence; Seven Days Praying in Florence; and Seven Days Living in Florence. Of course I’ll need the fourteen days to experience it all. I’ll be posting drafts as I go along. I posted this under Cottage Companions, Comfort Food. But here it is now while tomatoes are begging to be picked from the vines. My two friends, Marilyn and Ruth, gifted me the tomatoes. Very grateful! Fresh tomato sauces. Easy. Saute chopped onion and garlic in olive oil. Skin and seed fresh tomatoes. Add fresh basil and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer 45 minutes. Puree in food processor. Simmer 15 minutes. I added ‘meatballs made by her’. I will be walking the streets of Florence is less than a week. A dream that comes through for me. My apartment is on Oltrarno (the other side of the Arno River). This other side houses the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens, Santo Spirito, and Piazzale Michelanglo. Most of the stones of Florence are back on that other side. If you been to Florence, you’ll understand what I’m talking about; if not, it really doesn’t matter. The Ponte Vecchio, arguably the most famous bridge in the world, spans the two sides of the Arno. My apartment is close by. I must speak up about this immigration/refugee issue. Clearly it is a problem. But for whom? Not just for the countries ‘receiving’ people, but for the people themselves who are fleeing horrific situations that I can not begin to imagine. I have no experience living in fear of suicide bombers, starvation, or drug dealers. One of the building blocks of Judaism, Christianity and Islam ismigration. God told Abram to leave his country, and so began the wanderings of the Israelites. Ishmael, son of Abram and his slave Hagar, fled with his mother to the area of Mecca, and became a prophet of Islam. Jacob’s twelve children migrated to Egypt of avoid famine. The story of Ruth, the Moabite, is full of migration and intercultural relationships. Ruth marries Boaz, and gives birth to Obed, father of Jesse, and grandfather of David. On a personal level, my American ancestors were immigrants from Scotland, England and Germany; when I married I migrated from Connecticut to Colorado to my present home in Massachusetts. I know times are tough now, but if we don’t have a policy of welcoming the stranger, our hearts will begin to close and we will lose our freedom. Open heart, open borders. |
Contact me: bobbifisher.mac@mac.com
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