Adventures With Patti

Via Dante in Milano, on my last evening in Italy I've finally caught up—sorry that this is out of order. Here's my last blog entry from the trip, written just over a week ago. This one jumps back to Italy and brings me home. It's the last night of my month long trip. I'm in bed, tucked under the eaves of Eduardo and Anna's attic room, resting my head on one of the four huge beams that hold up the roof of this old house and listening to the rain patter on the skylight. After a month of sunny weather, my trip is ending under cloudy skies. Eduardo and Anna's cozy attic guest room The warmth and kindness of Gauss's relatives has more than made up for my crankiness over the sketchy information at the train station. This morning I set out on foot to meet Gauss's aunt Franca, the mother of Silvia, who we saw in Sydney. Franca and I hit it off the first time we met 30 years ago—even though we couldn't speak the same language—and whe...

Andrea, Silvia, and Gauss at Circular Quay, Opera House in the background Gauss's cousin, Silvia, and her husband, Andrea, met us in Sydney. They were really kind, making the drive from their home in Newcastle, two hours north, to spend the day with us. We parked in The Rocks, a neighborhood of narrow streets and small, older buildings. As we made our way to the opera house, we ventured into a couple of galleries featuring aboriginal art and watercolors by local artists. Jellyfish! Arriving at Circular Quay, Gauss pointed out that there were jellyfish in the water right below us. Like cockatoos in the city park, I found it fascinating to see unusual fauna in familiar settings, and I snapped several photos.  The opera house was impressive, but I was a little disappointed to learn that we could not enter unless we paid for a guided tour. Still, it was fun to walk among the soaring shells of the building, see the white tile roof up close, and watch the...

The day after the reunion was another official event, a morning tea, but Gauss and I were tapped out. Instead, we had breakfast at the hostel cafe. Breakfast in the Canberra Central YHA cafe Then we took a walk to Blundell's Cottage on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin where he used to go fishing, meandering past government buildings and stepping aside for bikers cruising the lakeshore walk.  Gauss in front of Blundell's Cottage, where he used to go fishing every weekend On the shores of Lake Burley Griffin, with government buildings in the background The comely Telstra tower now rises in the background. The environmentalists lost that fight. Mapmaker must take hero shot here. It's a memorial to Captain Cook. Gauss, too Closed paths on our return trip—with no detours marked—took us far out of our way, and by the time we got back to the hostel, we were both ready to take a nap. Canberra has beautiful open spaces, but i...