Aulla

Today is Sunday, and I am in Tirrenia on the sea, just south of Pisa. It is cloudy and rainy here, but I am off to the leaning tower and then a long drive south to a wine and Etruscan region that I have wanted to get to for years. 

This is a new type of thing for me, not having everything planned out....I am living day to day. I think my car will be ready on Thursday or Friday, but till then, I will keep. Seeing , moving and experiencing. I feel a bit on the edge. It's a strange experience for me.

Yesterday, I said good bye to B and J and drove up to see my good friends O and A.  O was making pizza and cleaning big pans when I arrived. As usual we had a one hour intense talk about all kinds of things. His English is very good. He always gives it to me straight, so he has always been one of my favorite people. I ran out to the car when I was there and I could hear someone chopping vegetables a. The sound echoed up the street. 

They invited me to come back and be there for a canasta party that they were hosting that night. I had already Made a reservation here.

After I left Graganella, I drove north. I quickly found a quince tree that had no leaves, just fruit...just beautiful. I spent some time photographing this against the grey sky.

Somehow, I took a wrong turn, looking for an out of the way restaurant experience. I knew where I was, but it was a road I had never taken before. It was grey and rainy with low fog in the mountains. 

I found some more of the steles that I saw in the museum in Pontremoli ( which, after much practice and coaching, can now pronounce correctly...PO TREM O LEE)

It was like a small grave yard of sorts, up an obscure road, in front of a monastery in the pines.

There was a pomegranate tree turned yellow with a few fruits and mushrooms in the wet grass. It made a very nice stop. 

I happened upon a 15th century church in the rain with a beautiful bell tower. I stopped to take some photos. 

I still could not find a restaurant and it was about 2:30, which is not a good time on a Saturday in Italy to find anything open.

Finally, in Aulla, I found a place that I drove by that was a fish restaurant. There were many people on the porch, so I thought I would give it a try. I parked around the back and walked up through stone archway to the restaurant. 

There were all men playing cards and drinking wine on the porch. There was a tabacci there too, so I had to settle for a piece of pizza. There was a blue and white beaded curtain, but I tried to exit out of the door. That brought a big uproar from everyone...oh..I see,...go through the beads.

I am way be young being embarrassed by my foreign faux pas.

I sat way down at the end, out of the way. A very handsome yes Montana man, maybe in his late 70's, poured me a glass of white wine from their bottle and gave it to me. He and his friends were already quiet tipsy. He kept trying to talk to me in Italian.

He was distressed by my being alone. He just didn't think that was right.

In fact, when I came to the hotel last night, the man kept looking behind me, looking for my husband..."are you all alone?"...also, at the restaurant..." Solo?" 

Back to the restaurant, tabacchi. Many women were walking in the direction of the church down the road. The road was very narrow by the restaurant. All of the women seemed to be in an odd time warp. They all had big puffy hair, with strange colors and cuts. They had on lots of make up and their close were studded or bedazzled. Aulla is a blue collar town, nothing exciting about it that I know of. It's a river town and there is a big factory there. I guess it would be like a factory town in the US.

They were in some type of time slow down there.