Day 28 - Apecchio

OK so i am going to owe a lot of favors for this trip, and the karma meter i have been talking about is now so far in the red that i understand a small committee has been formed some place to try and find the most efficient way that my debt can be repayed and the just order of the universe restored.

Apecchio is a lovely small town about 20 minutes drive West of Urbania on the border of Marche and Toscana,.. the fact that it is pretty wont come as a great shock to anyone... the fact that it was the first time i had managed to lay my eyes on the rolling green hills of tuscany certainly did come as a shock to me ... but im not going to attempt to describe tuscan nhills on the fly in an internet cafe... uhuh... not falling for that one.... go read a book do a net search and come back in a few minutes.

On this day I along with 2 other classmates were fortunate enough to accompany 2 of our teachers to a retaurant tucked away in said tuscan(esque) hills, this was an old house on a dirt track off a drt track off a sidestreet, of course there were no students, in fact we were the only people there, in fact there was never any doubt that we were going to be the only people there.

But as I said surroundings arent important, you know those movies where some guy is sitting down at a table eating and drinking all this excellent food that is really simple but you couldn't possibly contemplate preparing or procuring on your own and the women at the table are beautiful with long dark curly hair, the kind of hair that looks like its on its way to some kind of exhibition or is protected by a national trust somewhere, postcard hair, travelogue hair, and she smiles and is fascinated by the fact that you live in this country called Australia because it is so far away and how amazing and exotic it sounds... so you pause and look around, rolling hills, great food, beautiful people and think to yourself... you would rather be trying to find a free carpark spot in chadstone????

Monia, who has been my teacher for the 4 week course and the vivacious Manu dragged fellow classmate and all american rockstar type Mehdy and my housemate and all american top bloke Ben away from quiet Urbania and off to Apecchio for an afternoon of wine, women and song... sure it was all nice and above board, the owner let us loose on his cd collection so a bit of dancing to some really daggy songs including a selection of WHAM classics, he even joined in and spun the girls around a little. The food,.. OK glad to spend some time there... antipasto simple bruscete tomato, cheese, spinach, prosciuto, flat bread with a very salty soft cheese filling,... i didnt dare ask if the cheese was greek. Pasta the varieties always have bizarre names here its not just spaghetti or tagliatelle ... but as i dont recall the technical descriptions subclass and species i will translate it into lygon street lingo we all understand... tortellini woth a very light gorgonzola and funghi sauce, a spaghetti with a basic tomato and basil sauce,.. nothing basic about the taste and some kind of ravioli, spinach and pumpkin with a meat filling pine nuts and more baby basil. Wines, more local red, tasted like a chianti, was absolutely fabulous,.. i know i poo pood chianti back home,.. shoot me if i do so again.. and we rounded it all off with lashings of cherry wine, which is just a knockout... several helpings of a limoncello cream liquour and even yes some more grappa.

But back to action, so there i was in the proverbial tuscan villa spinning my beautiful teacher monia around to the dulcid tones of ''last christmas'' and its not even july!!! sacrilige!!!! i occasionally tear my eyes off her and sneak a glance through a window,.. not a grand window with a terrace just your standard window as you would find in any suburban house back home so abundant is the beauty around here that there is absolutely no reason to make a song and dance about the view.

Again that recuring theme of beauty so heavy so thick that you feel it drag against your throat as you try and absotb it, my mind was constantly on remember this moment mode, and ive got a backlog of memories i am still trying to process. Here is just a sample of them

- sitting in the right hand side of a car driven by somebody you would normally be ogling on a magazine cover
- singing along to italian rock songs and mistranslating phrases to her delight
- translating english songs on the fly and impressing her with your ability to see things
- an old mill in a field of poppies
- streetsigns written in a font so small you have to stop get out of the car and walk up to them to read them
- a dog guarding the casa we were to lunch at bigger than some ponies i have seen and a bark that would make a baritone blush
- walking through the family living room in order to get to the restaurant complete with nonno asleep in the arm chair
- learning how to swear in italian like a local
- testing it out on the owner of the place who corrects your grammar and pours you another wine
- staring at her for so long you think the muscles surrounding your eye will forget how to move
- actually liking wham songs

yes, the beautiful, the perverse the timeless the dog, oh my god the dog.