Yes, the weather never improved and only got worse after my post Friday evening. I woke up Saturday morning at 6 am for my much anticipated "gita" with my sommelier class. As I got out of bed with trepidation all rational thought was telling me to stay put. It was still raining as hard as it was when I went to sleep and the horrendous weather didn't let up over night. I knew that if it was raining here in Liguria, it was certainly snowing in the hills of Piemonte. The internal battle ensued, should I go on my "gita" with my class, or, should I stay in my nice warm bed? I went against all rational reasoning and got out of bed anyway and set off to meet the class at the bus. I thought someone must have phoned the cantina to check on the weather/road conditions in Piemonte, right? Off I went in the pouring rain, joined up with Joanne and the others, all we could talk about was, are we going or not? When the bus was late, Joanne and I thought, great, the trip is postponed, back to bed! When the bus showed up and we all were led on, silly me trusted that the bus driver knew what he was doing, he drove for a living. If the roads were impassable, he would never think to take us on a hazardous journey. Boy, was I ever wrong. I could spend all night telling you about the trip from hell, but Joanne did such a great job herself, go on over to her blog and read all about it. The link is in the sidebar. Joanne also took great photos. Her camera is much better than mine....Hint Hint Samta....And no that is not a typo.
After our 5 hour journey, which incidentally should have taken 2 hours, in a bus through the worst road and weather conditions Italy has to offer, the sun did clear when we arrived at hilltop citta' of La Morra. Grazie' Dio!! We finally made it to Barola country. We had our tour of the cantina, the lesson for the day and finally ate lunch. Only complaint, other than the trip there, was the single toilet the vineyard had to offer us. Can you imagine the line up at the door? Picture, 5 hours on a bus with 30 + people, half being women. I was so pleased with my self that I ran off that bus and was first in line! Anyway....
The wine was fantastic, the hospitality overwhelming, and the food lovely. At the end of the day, I was glad I decided to get out of bed and take the risk to go to taste wine with my class. As usual, like many things in Italy, something starts off chaotic with the feeling something bad is about to happen, but at the end, all goes wonderfully, as if the chaos was the intended plan with not any rhyme or reason to why it all works out in the end. It just happens, and when things fall into place, you feel silly for worrying at all. I have learned to just roll with it and have some faith in people. In life you need patience and most of all tolerance, especially if you are not Italian and live in Italy. Because out of the chaos in life you sometimes find something good with a few surprises along the way.
What was the unintended surpise of being stuck on a bus for 7+ hours with people I saw 2x a week, but hardly knew? I got to know them better, and they weren't so bad at all. Overall they were a very nice and interesting group. Even the 25 year guys who sat in the back of the bus, who talked constantly during our classes and drove me crazy, weren't so bad. On the ride back to Chiavari, they passed around a bottle of grappa and shared it with anyone who wanted a taste. The boys also serenaded us and made what could have been a boring journey a very entertaining one.
Best of all, I spent the day doing something I wanted to do for a change and shared the experience with my friend Joanne. After all, if she hadn't asked me to take the course with her I wouldn't have learned all I have or been there yesterday for all the fun!! Thank you Joanne!
Maybe the title of this post should be "from worse to better" Nah! The good never lasts. Today I woke up alone, Sam and the girls are still in Germany, and went to upload my fotos from my "gita" from hell yesterday and to blog, what do you know? No network connection!!! I have been off line all day!!!! Horrors!!! Bad to worse - to better - then to bad.....
Sums up my life in Italy, a roller coaster ride, full of ups and downs, but always an exciting ride....
Here is the link for more photos
and for the vineyard if you would like to take a look.
Buona Sera!
Krista
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment