Italy, The Wonder

     I have had the privilege of visiting Italy several times, but two visits stand out in my mind.  The first of the two was when I was sixteen with my school.  And the second of the two was with my mother.
     Members of my school spent six weeks in sunny Italy learning about the history of art and practicing our Italian language skills.  It was fun going to the market and asking for food for lunch in Venice.  In Cortona, a hill town in Tuscany, we didn't have to go out for lunch.  There we ate lunch at the convent where we stayed.  Every day we had a different kind of pasta!  We had a good time.
     I was not a member of the Church at this time and was unfortunately a coffee drinker.  The Italian coffee tasted good enough but was unwise to drink - it even gave me heart palpitations afterward, it was so strong. 
     I was the height of fashion in my bright pink pants and pink blouse and long hair.  The Italians were very wisely dressed in less conspicuous fashions, and were all trim and lean for the most part.  So was I slim, in those days.
     In Florence we visited a world famous ice cream parlour with many different flavours of Italian gelato ice cream, where the night was warm and the ice cream eaters sat outside on the sidewalk and leaned against the storefront eating their dessert.  Mmm.
     When I visited Italy with my mother years later, I was a baptized member of the Church.  She wanted me along to translate for her.  We went to the sights, but she had hurt her foot and had to stay in the hotel room part of the way through the trip.  So we didn't see much together.  But we did see Sorrento and Capri and a little bit of Rome together.