Category: Travel Comments

Paestum – Just Go There!

by midgeguerrera, posted in Stops Along the Journey - Sites Off the Tourist Track, Travel Comments

Somedays start off being just another day in Southern Italy and then – BOOM – you discover that a scant hour and half from Pontelandolfo there is an archeological site that is so spectacular it warrants visiting multiple times. Parco Archeologico di Paestum and Velia is located in the province of Salerno. Tickets to enter this massive park are only €12 each. In the winter you can explore the dramatic site for only €6 – which is what it also costs to park for one day. There are reduced rates for families too. If I lived a bit closer I’d buy a season pass for €20 and, just to imagine the stories of those that lived there, go often.

To put the site in perspective, I must use a quote I found in the book, “Guide to the Archaeological Site Paestum From Building Site to Temple.”

It is as if a god had built his house here
with huge blocks of stone.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Towards the end of the 7th century BC a group of Greeks (colonists from Sybaris) hopped on a ship, guided of course by the god Poseidon, and decided that the fertile valley of Sele was an incredible place to settle. Settle they did. Guess what they called the new city? During the VII century, Poseidonia was amazing. Majestic temples to ones favorite gods and goddesses were built. Remarkably, they still stand! No one paved this over and put up a parking lot. The temple of Neptune is allegedly one of the best-preserved Greek temples from the 5th-4th century BC. (Am I the only one who gets confused by the BC years running backwards?). There are a good number of incredibly well preserved divine, everyday, and community dwellings at Paestum.

Ladies, imagine, there was a huge bath house and pool for women only. Rumor had it, swimming there increased fertility. I wondered if women started the rumor so they could escape for a day of poolside lounging.

No, I did not stand in the center of the amphitheater and recite lines from Medea. But I did walk around it and marveled once more at the construction of these fabulous structures without the use of modern building equipment.

Besides the acres and acres of “ruins” that don’t look like they are ready to tumble down anytime soon, there is a museum that contains the artifacts found on the site. We spent the day wandering through the forum, temples, and other structures and forgot about visiting the museum. Great excuse to go back.

It is an easy drive from Naples or one can take the train. I think that would be fun to try. There is a stop near the archeological site.

Poseidonia, was conquered by the Lucanians who changed the name to Paiston. Bang, the Romans took control in BC 273 and changed the name to Paestum. The place is magical – no matter what it it is called. Think about adding Paestum to your Italian adventures.

Looking for a summer read? If you already read “Cars, Castles, Cows and Chaos” think about reading one of my plays! Visit my website and see the list. Thanks.

Midge Guerrera

Tenuta Vannulo and a Perfect Day!

by midgeguerrera, posted in Stops Along the Journey - Sites Off the Tourist Track, Travel Comments

My weather app tells me it is still raining in Pontelandolfo, but here in Paestum, Cilento the sun is shining and we are cozily ensconced in glamorous lounge chairs facing a luscious garden and silent pool. (More about this place in a separate blog.) A perfect afternoon after the perfect morning. We set off from Pontelandolfo at 8:00 AM with our friends Mariann and Jeff. (Well getting up at 6:00 AM to be packed and out the door by 8:00 AM was not toooo perfect.). Our goal was to drive down hill to the Province of Salerno and visit a magical organic farm, Tenuta Vannulo.

Buffalo milk cappuccino was a great start to our day.

When I think of organic farms yielding great produce, I immediately think of my favorite family farmers Andrea and Tony at New Jersey’s Martenette Farm. I need them to come and check out this place. Tenuta Vannulo is a different type of farm – a much bigger operation. This farm, raising hundreds of water buffalo and lots of produce, is something to behold. For over three generations, beginning in the early 1900s, It has been in the Palmieri family. Even though it is a huge operation, the family is still involved. We spotted the 70 something Senore Palmieri out in the kitchen garden with a hoe. I would encourage all members of Organic Farming Associations who want to experience something that creates yummy products and attracts bus loads of locals and tourists alike to head to Southern Italy.

Tenuta Vannulo is not only an incredibly efficient modern working buffalo farm but also operates a number of buffalo driven shops and a restaurant. Of course there is a caseificio. Locals stop in for the freshest of cheeses – mozzarella, bocconcini, aversana, treccia, scamorza, burro and more – all made with the milk of bufalo indiano. No industrial production here! Everything is hand made with a limited production. The farm’s goal is to make enough to sell just to their local market.

If you are a kid getting off one of the ten buses filled with school groups that we saw, you began whining for the Yogurteria e Cioccolateria the moment you stepped off the bus. Actually, the whines were delightful, in multiple part harmonies and all the kids were sporting the same color cap. I figure it is easier for teachers to track their class if they sport the same color. Yup, these kids didn’t care about the mozzarella they wanted buffalo gelato! The gelato is just the beginning. One can get un caffè, cappuccino, fresh baked products, amazing puddings, candies – I can’t go on. My strictly enforced diet made me miss tasting but not drooling. (Don’t tell my diet buddies but I did have a cappucino made with buffalo milk. I wish I could buy this milk! So creamy, yet light – it has more fat than cow milk.)

The farm has more to look at than fields of produce, water buffalos, and wonderful outdoor spaces, they make and sell designer purses! The designer bags and goods, made on the premises by leather workers are fabulous. I controlled my self and went home without one but I may go back. Imagine saying – “oh this old thing – it’s made of buffalo hide from a wee artigianal shop near Salerno.” 🤣😂

Me thinks I talk too much. My effusive voice driven by what a cool place this is. I will stop typing. Video tells it best –

Now that you’ve seen the majestic creatures, let me tell you what our great guide, Rosaria, told us about the water buffalos. (Midge I thought you were done talking?) Back to the buffalo – they are smart! Three hundred of the milk producers reside in the ginormous stable – unfettered! They only ever take homeopathic medicines. They wake up in the morning to classical music. Buffalos like ritual – they have habits. Once they have chosen their bed – yes a foam mattress – they sleep in the same spot daily. If a buffalo feels the need to be milked, she strolls over to the self milking machine. Each buffalo has a micro chip so the farmers know who has been milked and how much they produced – it averages nine liters a day. Feeling hot a sticky? Mosey over to the shower for a cool down spray. Need a back rub? Head over to the car wash style rubdown machine. Space dirty? The cleaning crew comes by multiple times a day. Mariann laughingly said, ” in my next life I wouldn’t mind coming back as one of these girls.”

This is a cool place to visit. It is a wee bit off the tourist path and even with ten buses of kids I, with no patiences, didn’t feel stamped upon or smacked with a backpack. Hmm, I didn’t see any backpacks – thank the goddesses. The tours are organized so that we didn’t seem to overlap with another one. Each group was relatively small. The place is huge, so it is even possible to find a quiet place to sit and stare. The restaurant is worth the trip and the prices are not tourist outrageous. There were a lot of locals just there for lunch. Midge stop talking, just go back again! Enjoy!

Ci vediamo a presto!

Midge

Teachers and Community Theater folks – are you looking for family friendly plays that may even teach a lesson?
Please check out my work –

Published Plays by Midge

Train Travel Rocks

by midgeguerrera, posted in Any Day in Pontelandolfo, Travel Comments

Train 9939 for Bari departs from binario 8. Jack and I were ensconced in Italo’s first class lounge at Milano Centrale. Ah, the benefits of senior rates and first class train travel. We didn’t rush and drag our suitcases down two flights or up escalators. We gathered up our bags and took the private elevator right to the tracks.

Italo’s first class lounge in Milan is a long and narrow room that is filled with comfortable “Italo Red” couches. We snagged two that faced each other and stared out the window at the minions racing from binario to binario, while we sipped coffee and noshed on a snack or three.

Great view of the energy of the station.

My phone rang and not being on the concourse I could actually hear my pals talk to me. We swapped stories when I said shit. There is an influencer shooting video and describing the lounge with me in the frame. Should I flip her the bird? Would she give me a SAG day rate? By the time I got my hand over my head she turned her phone in the other direction. Hmm, maybe I need to be more conscious of what or whom I snap a video of?

We boarded the train and discovered I had booked the Italo Club Car with two private rooms, five single seats and our four facing seats. (We were originally traveling with friends and booked the easy conversation facing seats.) Promptly, all cozy in his Club Chair, Jack started snoring. I decided it would be rude to take of picture of him with his mouth open and took this one instead.

If our friends had come we would have played kneesy.
You need to know your seat mates well.

I miss our friends, but am glad we aren’t sitting with knees touching. Luckily, no one sat in the other seats – yet. Obviously, I made a mistake booking a four some. The singles along the window and private rooms looked more comfortable. That said, Jack was so comfortable, even with the train traveling at 248K an hour, my husband slept through five stops.

We had the four top to ourselves until Firenze. The “fixer” boarded and sat across from us. What is an AD Trentino? Anybody know? Seriously, this quasi business attired woman just said that to the ticket taker and no ticket was shown. The big clue she would spend the trip blathering was her reaching under the armrest to plug in her phone. The second clue was the focused scrolling through her contact list. Call one – to a harried professoressa asking the teacher to cut a student a break. It was obviously a hard sell. If she had called me, I would have hung up on her. She kept going on and on about this kid. I wanted to shout, let the kid fail, but I realized then she would know I understood her. Call two – to set up a meeting with someone she wanted to lobby on behalf of something else. Call three – social faces into the FaceTime screen. Call four – and it went on and on. I stared at her. She said to her call Devo parlare basso voce. And then she finally started to whisper. I guess the raised eyebrow stare got to her. My laughter erupted – her whisper was entertaining to the entire cabin.

A wonderfully harried young businessman raced into the car shouting in English on his phone. “No, we can’t meet then. This is important bla bla bla.” He went into one of the private cabins, shut the door and continued not just that conversation, but hung up and started another. Then another and another. All corporate secrets were revealed to the whole car. The little room had walls – but they didn’t reach to the ceiling! I was impressed he spoked English with an Eastern European Accent and about three other languages. Too bad, he was so stressed out. The weather was great and the views he never saw were fabulous.

Great! I snapped just as the letters were changing. But you understand the entertainment value.

Il treno viaggia in orario. The changing sign kept me amused and since it was being read aloud in both Italian and English I really got a giggle out of it. What a great way to learn important phrases in either language. Prossime Fermate. Next Stops. Prossima Fermata Bologna! Next Stop Bologna. Siamo in arriva a Bologna. We have arrived in Bologna. Non fumate nell’ ambiente. I think they meant don’t smoke in the bathrooms. What I heard in English was “Don’t smoke int he ambiences.” Now, I thought I had a fairly decent vocabulary but didn’t have a clue as to what a space called ambience was. Maybe it is a British thing. I texted my talented Niece, Alex, who went to university in London and asked her. “What is an ambience?” We both laughed out loud. Don’t smoke in the atmosphere. Don’t smoke in the feeling. Don’t smoke in the …. The giggling kept me occupied all the way to Benevento. Il treno e in orario. The train is on time. Grazie per aver scelto italo. Thank you for choosing Italo. Arrivederci. See ya!

Ci Vediamo!

Midge – www.midgeguerrera.com

A shout out of thanks to my publisher, Read Furiously, for promoting my interview! Thank you for reading what I write – if you want to know more about me why not check out Episode 165!

Click here to Hear Me!

“Vaffanculo,” Expressive New Wine

by midgeguerrera, posted in Stops Along the Journey - Sites Off the Tourist Track, Travel Comments

When life hands you lemons – or the Pandemic closes your hotel – make lemonade. NOT. The ever creative and entrepreneurial owners of our favorite Milanese B&B, Il Girasole Milano, Nicola and Matteo Negruzzi understood that people around the world were feeling crappy. Hmmm…. In case you didn’t know, the name of their wine that grew out of the Pandemic is a vulgar Italian idiomatic expression – essentially meaning “fuck off” or “up your butt.” It is also a wine that sold rapidly during the two plus years that Covid had as all feeling – well – gulp – fucked and continues to sell today.

Nicola Negruzzi told me the story –

It was the end of November, 2020 and they got a call from a very good friend who was having a very bad year. A disabled child, the pandemic, Milan closed up tight and – well you went through it and you understand. At the end of the call, she said to Nicola, “you don’t know how many vaffanculos I have to say a day.” To make her laugh, Nicola designed a label for a sparkling Trebbiano wine from Abruzzo. He took a picture, sent it to her and said, “Come here, we drink this wine and say vaffanculo together.” It was just a joke – join the rest of us and raise a glass while screaming “vaffanculo!” Their friend not only laughed, she ordered a case. Nicola and Matteo realized they might be on to something that could save their souls. They asked a friend to design a professional label, ordered a bunch of wine from a vineyard in Abruzzo, attached wooden baskets to their bicycles and started creating an old fashioned huckster promotional buzz. They pedaled around Milan looking for groups of masked up, glum looking people. Imagine the surprise and cheers when two men carrying bottles of Vaffanculo Wine, stopped and offered glasses accompanied by the very cheerful, but vulgar, toast. The wine took off like rockets. The timing, creativity and energy of the brothers is a marketing case study.

Taking the project even further, they got the permits to turn their empty hotel into a bar open just for apertivo. Matteo took mixology courses and started creating signature drinks. Together they created a menu of interesting stuzzichini, canapès.

They papered the neighborhood with fliers announcing the opening of “The Garden.” I was shocked when we came to the B&B to see their old parking lot festooned with trees and shrubs in enormous pots. They created spatial social distancing islands of tables surrounded by plants.

From 5:30 PM until 10:00 PM locals visit the Garden to snack, gossip and drink. The featured wine – Vaffanculo. Imagine someone coming to the bar for the first time hearing customers shout, “Matteo, Vaffanculo per due.”

Yes, I did. You know I did. I bought a case and shipped it home to Pontelandolfo.

Here is some exciting Midge News! I was a featured guest on the theatre podcast, OnStage, OffStage. Interviewed by George Sapio, I had a great time. Actually, when I heard it for the first time, I cried. I sounded like a real writer! Who knew that my pandemic lemonade would be getting a book and five plays published! Listen to the podcast and hear all about it.

Ci Vediamo!

Midge Guerrera

What I Learned on our Winter Vacation!

by midgeguerrera, posted in Travel Comments

Oooo, the little demon in my brain is bellowing in my ear – WINTER VACATION??? Cripes, your whole life is one big vacation – you spend months in Italy, bum around Europe and hang out with New Jersey pals.

What can I say, Jack and I have “third act” wanderlust. We also have dear friends – former Asbury Park, NJ pals – who ditched New Jersey for a life in Ecuador. Marie and Jan were our travel buddies for more than ??XX?? years and we love to let them find adventures for us. It is our great joy that they are expats living in Ecuador. It is their great joy that we live in Italy. Do you get the picture? Three years ago, Jan and Marie stayed with us in Pontelandolfo and helped me celebrate my big 70th birthday. Three years have gone by and now it is our turn to celebrate life in general at their home in the mountain outside of Ambato, Ecuador.

LESSONS LEARNED

Lesson 1: You don’t always get what you pay for. We bought United Airlines First class and Business Class tickets. Don’t ask me why each arduous leg of the flight had two diverse class status’s tickets. The first leg was to Houston. The plane configuration was not the Polaris class that we have enjoyed flying to Europe and our seating area was filthy. I always bring alcohol wipes and I was wiping food and crumbs off the seats, tray table, pocket, everything. Where the heck is the foot rest? Is the seat in front of me falling apart? Are Jack’s knees touching the seat back in front of him in Business Class? This reminded me of flights we have taken on the old cheap Norwegian Air recycled planes. Oh, and the staff was barely interested. Eucch, dirty, uncomfortable and ignored. The second leg, Houston to Quito, had a clean plane and wonderful staff. The seats were certainly not anything special, didn’t have foot rests and the control for the in flight entertainment was under my butt. Both flights used Dish TV as the inflight entertainment. Movies started at a specific time, the lackadaisical crew from Newark never gave out headsets until the films had started. I must admit, the United Lounge was a great place to hang during our four hour and forty minute layover. But is the lounge worth the high price for the tickets?

Midge, why did you buy the seats that cost a un sacco di soldi? Are you loaded. Did your book, Cars, Castles, Cows and Chaos, sell a million copies. None of the above, but a great book or play sale would make me smile. We fly in the high price seats because my glorious butt is too gloriously large to squeeze into a coach seat. Yes, I am on a diet. Yes, I am attempting to remember to excersize it off. Meanwhile, gulp, I cough up the cash for big seats in a freaking dirty plane. Glad I brought those wipes along! Sad, we spent all that cash for seats and service that was nothing like the super seats and service we get on United when we soar across the Atlantic to Rome.

Lesson 2: A lot of things in Ecuador remind me of Italy. A. Quito sits high in the Andean Foothills at an altitude of 2,850 meters. Ambato is a wee bit lower on the hill at 2,577 meters above sea level. These are mountain towns, with curves and cliffs that scare the pants off of me. Just like driving in the Italian Sannio hills – only higher. B. They have universal health care, just like Italy. Actually, they have reciprocity with Italy and our Tessera Sanitaria, health insurance would have been accepted. C. We loved looking at all the elementary school children going to school in uniforms. They weren’t the same as the ones in Pontelandolfo but the idea was the same.

Even the little yellow bus with a driver and an aide reminded me of Pontelandolfo

D. Bella Vista! The verdant green mountains, forests, mountain peaks and glacier topped volcanoes are glorious to see in both countries. E. One of the wonders of Pontelandolfo are the huge white dairy cows that summer in the mountains. The contadini travel up the the mountain and milk the cows right where our bovine friends are enjoying the mountain grasses. We were driving and noticed people on stools milking the cows living in the hills between Quito and Ambato too. F. Road and village lawn maintenance is done by tethered cows, goats, pigs and horses! A Pontelandolfo sight that gives me the giggles!

Goats keeping the grass cut in Piazza Roma, Pontelandolfo

G. Wonderful historic architecture juxtaposed with modern buildings, reminded me of many Italian cities. The styles were similar to what we see in Benevento. H. Just like Italy, even the smallest villages have a plaza/piazza! Check out the fresh flowers around the fountain.

Lesson 3: Things I wish both Italy and the USA had. A. Clean bathrooms open to the public in every Ecuadorian gas station. What a brilliant idea! Want to build a gas station? Sure, but you must provide all travelers access to a clean and modern bathroom! We tried more than one and it is a great idea. You might have to spend 10 cents at the toilet paper machine and/or pay the person who cleans a quarter but that is a cheap fix for the “I’ve got to go now” traveler. B. Plug in charging stations can be found in parking lots all over towns. Electric cars in a country rich in oil – imagine that! C. Voting is quasi mandatory. If you don’t vote you will not be able to renew your car’s registration or access any other government related services. Elections are on Sundays too! Italy has elections on Sunday but they don’t make voting mandatory for existing within the framework of government bureaucracy. Ecuador consistently has over 80 percent voter turnout. E. Senior Discounts that are incredible. 50% off all transportation, including airline flights that originate in Ecuador! 50% off all land line telephone services. Senior lines in all banks and offices that are absolutely honored.

Clean bathrooms where ever gas is sold! Speaking of gas – electric charging stations. (They don’t offer bathrooms.)

Lessons learned! Winter, spring, summer or fall travel is a great way to learn new things and appreciate the things that you have. I learned a lot from my winter vacation in Ecuador. Thank you Marie and Jan for being our grasshopper pals of yore, generous hosts and adventurers of today.

Ci vediamo a presto!

Midge

Taxi Drivers – Love Some and Hate Others

by midgeguerrera, posted in Practical Matters - Living Abroad, Travel Comments

I’ve often said, one of the advantages to living in Pontelandolfo is that we can hop around fairly inexpensively to visit other European cities. During one rainy week, four of us hopped over to Amsterdam for a taxing good/bad time.

Like foxes sniffing for prey – taxi drivers roam the streets of Amsterdam looking for wet and bedraggled tourists to gouge. When we landed, the fox phone chain must have been rattling. The foxes didn’t have far to look for new soggy chickens to fleece! Our happy or maybe crazy foursome went out in wind, rain and hail. Ten minutes after leaving point A to get to point B, we looked like dripping shaggy dogs. The foxes pounced-

“Growl, there are four good ones,” drooled the first driver we met. “The white haired guy looks old and about to faint. Errrr, and look at that chubby momma flagging me down. She can barely waddle in the rain. The other two, with hair plastered down, look ready to cry. Hee, hee hee. Yumm.”

Ann Frank Museum visitors que up in the rain.

It was pouring when we left Amsterdam’s Ann Frank Museum. My little party of four was soaked and starting to wrinkle. Sadly, I didn’t see the driver’s drool and flagged the fox’s cab. It stopped. We started to get in and told him the name of our hotel.

€30, he snickered.

What???!!! We had paid the cab to get to the museum only €17. He looked at me. I looked at him. Susi, my friend sputtered, that isn’t just. We all looked at the rain, and sunk into our seats. No tip was getting into his greedy little paws.

After that scurrilous experience you would think we would have learned something. Noooo! We took a fun, yet rain and hail filled, canal boat tour. Seriously, the rain and hail made me feel like a native. We were toasty dry on the boat and laughing at the sounds above us. Then we got off the boat. Merde. It took thirty seconds for the rain to fill our shoes, pockets, hair and drench our coats. We clambered up the metal stairs to the dock and headed for the street. Susi raced ahead and starting talking to a cab drive. We all piled in. The hotel was about eight blocks away. We could see it. If we were nimble youths we would have run. We aren’t nimble or young. We asked the driver if he was going to use the meter.

It’s raining – you want a ride – €30.

Not a sputter came out of our blue and freezing lips. We paid the €30. It must be the official rain on tourists price.

I noted the similarity between the fair and honest taxi drivers of Naples and the fair and honest taxi drivers of Amsterdam. The honest folks clicked on their meters. The price gougers didn’t. The honest ones played by all the rules. Once, the four of us attempted to jump the cab line to enter the second and bigger vehicle in the cue. The noble driver of the second car wouldn’t accept us as customers and sent us back to the first car. Whoever was first in line was to be our driver – no matter how tight a fit it was for four people.

The foxes are always ready to take a bite out of your wallet. In Amsterdam, the unmetered prices versus metered prices fluctuated between thirty to fifty percent more. Some times even the metered fairs varied coming and going too. How could that be, we would bellow. Then one of us would point out that we seemed to have driven in a circle two or three times.

Hmm, has that ever happened in Naples? Until we knew better, Jack and I had been fleeced from the Naples train station to our hotel in the center of town. A tourist, or person who looks like a tourist, needs to beware. Drivers have said things like, your suitcase is big – that costs more. There is a special charge for blah blah blah. Look at the posted price sheets. There should be posted fixed prices in every cab. Amsterdam didn’t seem to have prices posted. Actually, they didn’t have cab licenses posted in the cars either. One time, after we got in, the driver took the sign that said taxi off his roof and tossed in on the front seat floor. He didn’t use the meter either. He had lots of reasons.

One way streets. Construction. Rain. I can tell you about the city. Beh.

Researching after the fact is like being a Monday morning quarterback. As I was writing this rant, I thought I should check with the experts. According to http://www.amsterdamtips.com/amsterdam-taxis –

Taxi Rates in Amsterdam 2022

The cost of a taxi in Amsterdam depends on 3 elements – a starting tariff, a cost per km and a cost per minute which is all calculated by the compulsory meter in the vehicle. The maximum allowable rates are as follows:

Taxi car (4 people): €3.36 start tariff + €2.47 price per km + €0.41 price per minute

Taxi van/bus (5-8 people): €6.83 start tariff + €3.11 price per km + €0.46 price per minute.

Reading that, I began to understand why some drivers took the longest routes. I also read that you didn’t have to tip the drivers – except maybe the change. Sadly, not wanting to be ugly tourists we asked our first driver what the tipping standards in the Netherlands were. He said 10-15% but not mandatory. Duhhhhh. Silly girl, next time I should reasearch before we go anywhere. But why should I have to? Why can’t every driver be like the fair and honest drivers? Sigh…

Happy traveling! Enjoy every voyage – even if it rains.

Ci sentiamo,

Midge

Happy Soon to be Halloween! Click here & check out my children’s play, Wanda the Girl Who Cried Witch!
Visit www.midgeguerrera.com for more of my writing. Hugs to you all for checking it out.

Masks Unmasked

by midgeguerrera, posted in Any Day in Pontelandolfo, Travel Comments

Jack and I came home to Pontelandolfo to find a bag of scrumptious fava beans on our door step. Our neighbor, Lina, had left them for us. (You’ve heard me talk about the ever growing and traveling fava bean before. Click if you haven’t.) The beans themselves are nestled in a furry lined pod. I sat down to clean them and realized I was “unmasking” the hidden delights.

As I unmasked the raw beans, I saw each little bean as a person who had been safely ensconced and came home to me unharmed. On May 4th, we arrived in Italy from the unmasked state of New Jersey. Frankly, since Covid was still active, I never felt particularly safe with the unmasking edict. Prior to boarding our flight to Rome, I was thrilled to read that Italy still had some stringent masking travel rules in place. The FFP2 masks remain mandatory on airplanes – as well as other methods of travel. (FFP2 is similar to N95 or KN95 masks.). Every passenger on our United Flight should have read all the Covid rules and regulations.

Of course, there is always someone who doesn’t read, doesn’t care or obviously knows better and can be a pain in the butt about it. “Why do I have to put on a mask?” shrieked the woman boarding the plane a few people behind me. The United employee at the gate was very calm and tried to explain that it was a rule. The loud mouth continued screaming, “we don’t have to wear masks anymore – didn’t you get the message?”

You who know me, know what is coming. I couldn’t bear it another nanosecond and pulling my school administrator stop the riot voice of authority out of my ass turned and bellowed – “It is an Italian law. We are taking a plane to Italy and Italian law supersedes whatever it is you are talking about.” Jack grabbed my arm and pulled me forward.

I mean what is the big deal about a mask? Since we arrived in Pontelandolfo, we have been surrounded by masks. The day we got here, after a short nap – OK from noon until 7:30 PM – we tossed on some clothes and went to dinner at our favorite seafood restaurant, Sesto Senso. Everyone working there was wearing a mask. Patrons wore masks until they got beverages. Tables were more that ten feet apart. No one complained. Masks in the grocery store, masks in the pharmacy, masks at the butchers, masks anywhere groups of people were congregating and no one was bitching.

Back to the fava beans. The little pods protect the beans until they are big, strong and scrumptious. I enjoy being protected by my mask and look forward to the end of Covid and being strong and scrumptious too.

Ci Vediamo

Midge

Laugh at my antics in Pontelandolfo and Southern Italy. Get a copy of my book, wherever books are sold.

Cars, Castles, Cows and Chaos

Published by Read Furiously

Tales of Pontelandolfo to Hit Bookstores

by midgeguerrera, posted in Any Day in Pontelandolfo, Travel Comments

For the past ten years, many of you have been with me on my journey as a Jersey girl living in Pontelandolfo. My second – or is it third – act as a quasi expat in a small Southern Italian village has been filled with unexpected life detours. Your support of my blog was the kick in the keister I needed to write a book about these Italian adventures. Gulp – the book is being published by independent press, Read Furiously! It even has an ISBN number – it is the freakin’ real deal. Wowza!

I cried when I saw this. Alex said it is like preparing for a Broadway opening – we are in previews!

In these most unpredictable times, a fantastic get away is just at your finger tips! Sip a prosecco, sit in a cozy chair and read about places that you are not only visiting through my book, but can someday experience yourself. Giggle at the illustrations drawn by my best bud Janet Cantore Watson.

Pre-ording the book insures a copy lands in your mailbox at the same time it hits the book stores. All of you have always been here with me. As I think about you now reading my book, my heart fills with emotion. Thank you.

Pre-order from my great publisher – Read Furiously!

Pre-order a book at your local bookstore. Say hi for me. I would be happy to do a zoom reading for them too. You can also use Bookshop.org.

Barnes & Nobel now has it available for pre-order. So does Amazon.it! Amazon.com will have it someday.

Grazie mille! Abbracione a tutti!

Ci Vediamo

Midge

Check out my plays on Next Stage Press and the New Play Exchange.