August – Peaceful Reader

A trip well-traveled

At the beginning of August I took a 10 hour flight to Rome, Italy with my friend Barb but the story actually begins years ago when she and I met in Denver, CO as waitresses. She ended up moving back to Chicago and we stayed connected by cards and letters (before the internet!) In one of those notes I said something about when we’re older and walking around Italy with a glass of wine! She called me this spring after rereading this message and yelled “we need to go to Italy!” and so we did. Sometimes you need a kickstart to really get going; this was mine. We did some preliminary research, making decisions on where exactly we wanted to go but the rest of it was pretty spur of the moment. And really until I drove into Chicago with my family, went to a Cubs/Cardinals game on my birthday and then dropped off at Barb’s I still had feelings of uncertainty. And the next afternoon we headed to O’Hare and got on an Italia airplane! I remembered my passport and all other relevant things including a suitcase full of clothes and the trip began!

I’ve never been on a plane that long and it made me a little antsy – doesn’t the pilot get sleepy?- but we settled in with a glass of wine and a plastic container of decent lasagna. Neither of us had working screens so we watched Madame Secretary with Tea Leoni on Barb’s phone because that’s what she had in her downloads. We tried to sleep to no avail-personally I was too excited and nervous.

We landed in Rome, easily made it through customs because they had these great scanners and we only had to stop to get our passports stamped. At baggage claim we hooked up with Barb’s hairdresser who was also traveling to Italy. And we headed out into the Rome sunshine pulling our suitcases behind us. We paid an Uber driver to tour us around the high points in Rome and with just one day there it was the easiest way to see everything. The Coliseum, St Peter’s Square and the Basilica, the Fountain of Trevi, and the Spanish Steps were all amazing to see. Being near such old buildings, statues and monuments was awe-inspiring and it never got old. In Florence I walked through a perfumery that has existed since 1221. We had.an amazing meal that evening at Trattoria Pommidoro dal 1890 tucked away in a little neighborhood and we sat on the patio and lazily enjoyed our meal and wine. I was still pinching myself that I was eating dinner in Rome. We discovered a fountain near our hotel that had two cafes for croissants and cappuccinos.

The next day we headed north by train to the beautiful Cinque Terre region to stay for three days in Monterosso, one of the 5 hill towns on the coast. We had a little AirB&B on the hill and we could walk down to the town but we always caught a ride back up. Because we were on the coast and the seafood was fresh a lot of our meals here were straight from the sea. The second day we took a boat ride around the 5 hill towns to see them from the water. We were there during a heat wave and hiking around the hills (the preferred method to sightseeing here) was just not going to happen. The boat ride was lovely and we loved Lorenzo, our handsome boat guide and that we were able to get in the water and swim in the sparkling water. We had several amazing meals in Monterosso and a delicious meal right off the boat at Ristorante Gambero Rosso in Vernazza.

On the fourth day we headed back to the train and headed an hour south to Livorno, another coastal town where Barb and I were excited to see a concert that night. We stayed in a cool old hotel right across from the Fort where the Xavier Rudd concert would take place later that night. We cooled off in the hotel and then headed out for dinner and a cold bottle of Prosecco before heading into the concert. We hadn’t finished our bubbly so our server gave us plastic glasses to travel with as we traipsed our way down the cobblestones. The concert was a very relaxed affair and one that I’m so glad we took the time to see. Nobody looked through our bags or cared that we had cups already in our hands. The sky was beautiful and the crowd was easily like family. It was a great place to people watch as we bopped our bodies to Xavier’s music.

The next day our adventure took us to beautiful Florence where we started our days with cappuccinos on the piazza and watched the fountains spurt out water and eventually made our way to the Uffizi Galleries witnessing masterpieces of art. We also visited the Gucci museum and store which took us through the history of the artisitic brand. We had more delicious food including a meal at La Tenda Rossa. During our time here we also took a Walk About Tours cooking class in the Tuscan countryside and a vegan dinner in the San Gimignano region at a 600 years old farmhouse. We shopped at tiny boutiques where Barb and I bought matching silky dresses and I bought a beautiful linen dress. We walked through dozens of leather stores with so many purses. I had a shopkeeper try and sell me very beautiful but expensive earrings, I had to walk away unfortunately. And Barb and I wandered through the Basilica di Santa Croce which is where Galileo and Michelangelo are entombed. We drank quite a few carafes of red wine, Prosecco, Limoncello and Hugo spritzers. We enjoyed it all. I loved the trains and the sleek Uber cars/drivers. I also enjoyed seeing a world that treasured the old, embraced their history, had access to good food (great little mercados), and did their part for the world with recycling and compost bins everywhere plus everyone we ran into was friendly and happy to help us. In Livorno the front desk woman called her son in the U.S. to translate something for us.

And then we took a high speed train back to Rome and headed to the airport hotel to spend one last night before flying home. We spent a funny 20 minutes in a gas station/restaurant and I will never forget the Prosecco and freshly made potato chips served to us as we waited for our Uber driver! It was the trip of a lifetime but I plan to get out there more. I want to go to Spain and Portugal next…

How is it August already?

This summer is flying by…

Even when I was a young school girl I knew that as soon as August rolled around it wouldn’t be long before school started again. I love summer. I like to have equal time to relax and get things done in a very balanced summer way. This summer I’ve not had as much downtime as I would have liked. The one day I had time to lay in the hammock and read I broke the hammock trying to get Ruby the dog in with me! Luckily the crash was soft as the tree trunk timbered slowly down and didn’t hit me.

I spent my birthday weekend with Groovy Girl, her BFF Katy and Katy’s mom, Beth in St. Charles, IA for Hinterland Music Festival. We saw Hozier, Kacey Musgraves, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile, The Wood Brothers, Jade Bird, Maggie Rogers, and St Paul and the Broken Bones just to literally name a few. I had so much fun listening to music under the sun and the moon.

(Hozier)

We camped and thankfully it didn’t rain. Camping in the rain is just not fun yet the weekend was super sunny and we all about suffered from heat stroke. Sunday afternoon we took a little break and headed into Winterset for a little lunch and a lot of air conditioning. We found a wonderful Mexican restaurant open and then found the Winterset Cidery where we relaxed with a flight of delicious ciders and a game of cards with the girls. Once we soaked up enough cool air we headed back to the festival to hear the last 4 musical acts. Maggie and Brandi were the last two singers and they were both amazing performers. Brandi is a natural storyteller and I love how she openly shares about her family.

I’ve had two teacher-librarian meetings this week and have a bunch of projects to work on before school begins. I’m going to have to cut out my summer naps from now on I guess. I still have a lot of books on my to-read stack (but really – who am I kidding-that stack grows more than it dwindles!)

Happy last weeks of summer..

August Update-13 books!

I’ve read a bunch of wonderful books in August! I had minor surgery to remove a cyst and have spent a lot of time resting and reading! Look at all the fun stuff I read this month! Links are for my reviews. Some toward the end of the list are still waiting for their own review and some I probably won’t review at all.

1. Where She Went by Gayle Forman – RF- I liked If I Stay better yet it was interesting hearing his voice. These two could win cutest musical couple award!

2. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly -HF- Top Author of the Month! I loved depressed teen Andi mixed with Alex’s fight to save the prince during the French Revolution. It was, well, revolutionary!

3. The Kneebone Boy by Ellen Potter -Modern Fantasy-The Hardscrabble kids are tough and show us just how kids feel about being ostracized.

4. Gemma by Meg Tilly – RF- Wow. Brutally honest abusive/pedophile story. Made me want to hold my children very close. Tilly has this creepy guy written just right.

5. In The Green Kitchen by Alice Waters -Cookbook-Simple start-off recipes to help you accomplish bigger tasks. I loved the pantry list. I showed it to my mother while she was visiting and loved it when she laughed and said…”Oh, I bought this for you! Can you wait until Christmas to get it?” So typical. And yes, I can wait.

6. A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly -HF-It’s 1906 and this is Mattie’s coming-of-age story where she figures it all out after her mother dies. Luckily, she takes the road less traveled.

7. Countdown by Deborah Wiles – HF-It’s the 60’s and everyone is worried about the Russian’s and Cuba, students learn how to duck and cover to stay safe and Franny figures out why her Uncle Otts is so important.

8. How To Buy a Love Of Reading by Tanya Egan Gibson -RF-Drunken, super rich children figure out they do have something to say at the last minute. Carley-I grew to like and Hunter-made me want to go to AA.

9. The Penderwicks; A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall- RF- Sweet, summer tale with a charming cottage and lots of room to play. Mrs. Tipton figured out her parenting skills at the last second-thankfully! I’m interested in the rest of this series.

10. True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet by Lola Douglass -RF- too-young-party-girl falls off the face of the earth and lands in Indiana. She’s startled to find real characters in the Midwest. Never too off for me-too much nap dropping.

11. The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas -Fantasy-Lovely magical tale about Oliver Twist-ish character who saves the magic and helps Nevery. I plan to read more of this series and was excited to see Prineas is an Iowa writer!

12. Matched by Allie Condie-Dystopian-Cassia has two loves on her post-warming world matched card and she must find a way to deal with her feelings for the unsanctioned Ky. This was a fast read and kept me reading even though I hated this overly organized world.

13.. The Love Season by Elin Hildenbrand – RF -Love the Nantucket setting, and the culinary experience of listening to Margo put together food-ohhhh! Did not enjoy Cade and his family or Miles. Loved Action’s character-could she have a spin-off book!

I am sad to say goodbye to summer. I always am. I’m a summer girl. I like to be warm. I like going to the pool. I like margaritas. Fall has it’s good points though and I’ve already made an Autumn dish and I especially like going into an Indian Summer September like we seem to be. My girl’s birthday comes up in September also!

Hope everyone has a blissful Labor Day Weekend. I will be celebrating my anniversary all weekend-we were married in Galena, IL and had all kinds of activities from golf outings to wine tastings for our guests to participate in. I’m sure we’ll find some fun this weekend even if I’m still healing.