Italy, Crazy Ideas and an Invitation
Before I pick up where we left off yesterday with the contents of Date #7’s email, I need to explain something: I love Italy. I love pretty much all of Europe actually (except Frankfurt—Frankfurt has never done it for me) but Italy holds a special place in my heart. This for three reasons:
1) Italy contains the city of Florence. Florence is my favorite city in the entire world.
2) Italy produces wine. And cheese. And some of the greatest bread I’ve ever tasted. (In case you’re wondering, the second greatest bread I’ve ever tasted comes from Finland but something tells me you’re more interested in the contents of Date #7’s email than my take on Scandinavian baked goods.)
3) Italy provides the backdrop for my favorite film of all times: Under the Tuscan Sun.
(In case you’re not up on your post-divorce, expat memoirs, I basically want to be Diane Lane in Under the Tuscan Sun. And thanks to a recent conversation on our favorite films, Date #7 knows this).
So, getting back to the wine tasting, the subsequent under-the-influence text messages and the part where the word “Tuscany” enters into the conversation:
I get home, pull up an email from Date #7 and have (as I mentioned yesterday) a minor heart attack. This is because his email is actually a forwarded message—from the owner of an old farmhouse in Tuscany. My eyes glaze over as phrases like “two big bedrooms” and “fireplace” jump off the page. By the time I get to the part where the owner asks “Will there just be the two of you?” I think I must be dreaming (or else just really, really drunk) but I’m not.
“Are you serious?” I text Date #7.
“Yes,” he replies, “totally.”
Over the course of the next 48 hours, we determine that it would best to schedule a Pittsburgh visit before we decide to fly off to Tuscany together (I guess that’s me being “practical” again) but can you blame me for the minor heart attack I sustained in the interim? It’s not every day that my experiment garners invitations to Europe. Date #4 once hinted at a trip to Ireland if I “played my cards right” (whatever the f*ck that was supposed to mean) but this is way different.
And seeing as one of my most constant complaints about previous boyfriends has been their inability to up-and-go, I’m feeling much better about the current state of affairs. So we’re not going to Tuscany—at least not right this minute—but I am going to Pittsburgh.
Kat Echevarría Richter 
17 Responses to “Italy, Crazy Ideas and an Invitation”
OH MY!
As someone who lives vicariously through your posts, my heart skipped a bit!
WOW! WOW!
Pittsburgh is awesome. Tuscany may be more awesome, but Pittsburgh is awesome.
As a fellow lover of Italy (especially Tuscany…) I say you just grab your passports and go! Live! At least you will have a great adventure. On the other hand, there are great mung bean pancakes at the outdoor market in Pittsburgh…
Hmm… I think I’ll take a pass on those pancakes, lol!
Wow. That was all she could say. Wow. (in all the books you’ve used with your preschoolers, have you come across Lilly and the Purple Plastic Purse? Check it out. There’s interpretive dance.)
Olly Chihuahua!!! Ai caramba!!! Tracy and I and some friends went to Tuscany last September and it was awesome. Although, I have to say that going to Tuscany as a second date may be a bit soon, but then again, I’m old and old fashioned. Good luck.
WOW, you kept this under your hat! I’m so glad you blog or I would be clueless! You are becoming quite the mata hari with regards to your love life 😉 As your Abuela would say, “WOWEE”
Wow, this is cool. Could Date #7 be The One? By the way, I hated “The One” phrase, HATED it, until I met The One. So much for 2nd dates “going too fast”…I had a firm belief that you should date for at least a year before deciding anything. Then I met The One, and we decided to get married on our 3rd date. Trust your feelings, Kat! And I want a rolling report from Tuscany.
Soooo jealous! You should plan this fabulous Italian trip for right after our show…a relaxing getaway!
Right– just in time for the start of school year and prepping for my first of the holiday concerts 😦
Do you need someone to carry your bags and who speaks the language???? Just trying to help 😉
Haha, thanks B. In the event that this trip ever actually happens, I’ll keep you in mind 🙂
Buon viaggio, cara, fino a Pittsburgh e oltre. Vai! Vai!
(That’s) what she said.
As another who rates Florence as the greatest city to visit in the world….. Keep us posted, Have to see what happens after a visit to his home turf, …But you only live once. When opportunity knocks…..
I understand your feelings for Italy and especially Florence. This is what I wrote for Dave, the main charictor in “Through a Stranger’s Eyes” an unpublished novel…and yes, fiction is based on reality:
“If I believed in reincarnation it would be Florence that played in my past. It was on the Palazzo Pitti, soon after seeing Masaccio’s frescoes in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine, I was once asked by a local for directions.”
“Of all the art galleries I have ever visited only two have made lasting impressions; impressions far more than appreciation for the art inside, impressions that elevated art far above what my simple eyes could ever see on their own. The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square for its collection of Italian Renaissance paintings, Florentine and Venetian, Dutch and Flemish, Rembrandt, Rubens, Michelangelo and Renoir. All sequestered away from the hectic pace of tourist rampage. The other is the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, which contains a collection of works by the greatest painters of Italy. Then, there is Michelangelo’s David in the Galleria dell’Accademia.”
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