sarah

Dear Willie:

You would love Tuscany. The countryside, the City of Florence, the wine, the people all made me think of you.

We stayed in the mountain village of La Valle 20 km outside of Florence. La Valle is just a cluster of houses hugging the road passing through the most glorious rolling countryside. Everyone seems to have vegetable gardens, chickens and fruit trees. La Valle has a single store by the bus stop that sells basics plus meats, cheeses and breads made on premises. Like all of Tuscany (except the tourist spots) the store hours are 7am-1pm and 4pm-7pm. I want to be an Italian!

Life slowed way down. The land, the buildings and the people were beautiful, inviting and earthy. All of Tuscany seemed to take its time and occupy space with languorous confidence.

Even Florence, a city of 400,000 people, was in no rush. The narrow streets and incredible architecture hug the Arno River and are in turn are hugged by the mountains. The city is all old stone, fountains and flowers. Even the working class neighborhoods on the edge of the city, with the newer apartments and shopping centers, were lovely. Cars were small, busses were easy and bikes were everywhere.

The people, the buildings, and even the roads and trails are part of the landscape. I read this quote from Luciano Bartolini, Mayor of Bagno a Ripoli (one of the Tuscan municipalities) in a tour book:

“…the trails along which you will walk … have been opened, marked and cleared by those same women and men who … teach us the value of slowness, of a more respectful, almost symbiotic, relationship with nature.”

Wow, what a way to live!

XOX, Your little sister

Paris makes me think of that Marianne Faithfull song, The Eyes of Lucy Jordan – “at the age of 37 she realized she’d never ride through Paris in in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair.” I am 48. I have now felt the warm Paris wind and, … meh.

Lucy Jordan’s Paris was about running away from her family. My Paris was about reuniting with mine after being separated from them for a month. Big cities aren’t the best places for kids. But, it was a mighty glamorous spot for our much anticipated rendezvous.

We had a lovely flat with plenty of cafes and shops nearby. The closest park had a duck pond. You couldn’t sit on the beautiful lawn surrounding the pond. Everyone was of course, until a gendarme came through blowing a shrill whistle and scooting everyone off onto the walkway. The most fun we had as a family was in the Jardin des Plantes at the Museum of Natural History, the Zoo and the Botanical Gardens. It was beautiful AND you could sit on the grass! The kids could finally run amok.

Nadine and I had a fun girls’ day of shopping in the department stores of Boulevard Haussmann (I LOVE the fact that a street is named after a famous urban planner!). We saw the stained glass ceilings of Printemps and Galeries Lafayette. We marveled at the women of Paris who all wear painfully fashionable heels and flats. Even if our course American speech hadn’t marked us as tourists, our sensible shoes would have.

On a professional note, the urban planning and transportation system of Paris is excellent. Zoning and building codes have succeeded in making the city feel ancient and modern at the same time. If the historic buildings of the Louvre can coexist with a modern glass pyramid at their center, we in Travis County can figure out how to preserve the iconic buildings of our past while accommodating the new .

Narrow neighborhood collector streets open up to grand boulevards connecting neighborhoods. Cars are small, there are lots of motorcycles, buses and bikes and bikes and bikes. Women in painfully fashionable heels even ride bikes. Paris has self-serve bike sharing and electric car sharing stands, too. Although I missed seeing Copenhagen with Kurt and the kids, I hear Paris is working on adding grade separated bike lanes like their buddies in Denmark. Will some streets be designated for bikes only?

I’m glad I saw Paris! But, we’re all happy to move on to the fresh air and rolling hills of Tuscany.