Contentment

If there was one word I would use to describe the overwhelming feeling I’ve experienced over the past two days it would be contentment.  Florence is a beautiful city full of great little shops, world renown museums and historical monuments and of course, plenty of great little cafes and restaurants to choose from.  With that also brings lots of people.  The streets here are incredibly crowded.  Street vendors trying to sell you their cheap knock offs by pushing them in your face, sweaty sticky tourists from every corner of the world huddling in groups with ear pieces to listen to their tour guides describe what it is they are looking at and locals that do not have patiences for any of it.  They will push you off the side walk, run you off the road and make an obscene gesture towards you while doing it.  It did take long before we felt we were over it.

We woke up early and were greeted by the smiling face of a small English woman downstairs of our hotel.  We hoped in her van while listening to he life story while picking up 3 other couples.  Our host for the day traveled to Italy in the early 1970’s and planned on heading back home to England after studying for a year.  Instead she met her now husband of over 40 years and never left.  The van filled up with 3 other couples all who were either celebrating their honeymoons or anniversaries.  One man and woman were from North Carolina and had the accent to match who were celebrating 30 years of marriage.  The woman who was 50 years young had the skin of a teenager and would be able to pass for her young 30s in any circle.  We asked what their secret to a happy marriage was and she said contentment.  No matter what place the were in through their lives, the highs and the lows they were content with what they had and where they were.  Such a simple concept that we all tend to overcomplicate.  How much time do we waste stressing out over life?  Stressed about how much work we have to do at our job, how much money we don’t have, the weekend that is overbooked, etc.  Wouldn’t life be more enjoyable if we could all just practice the art of being content no matter what?

Our hostess drove us out of the city and up through the country side.  As we cruised up into the Chianti region of Tuscany we slowly increased altitude along beautiful hillsides covered in row after row of grapevines.  The landscape was filled with huge farms and cute cottages.  This was the Italy I came to see.  I am now seeing the part of the country that inspired this vacation in the first place.  We arrive at a castle looking vineyard that is the home of Castello Di Verrazzano.  I do not feel I can adequately describe the experience we had here.  It was more then just a tour, wine tasting and lunch.  It was an experience that anyone who is fortunate enough to be able to travel to Italy must share in.  We pampered ourselves with a 5-course meal, each course paired perfectly with a glass of wine.  The two and a half hour long lunch was by far the best culinary experience I’ve ever had.  I was in perfect bliss.

We floated back into Florence where the high didn’t leave.  Suddenly walking the streets of Florence didn’t seem as hectic, the crowds didn’t seem as big and I was so focused on being in this beautiful city with Logan it was almost as if everyone else disappeared.  That evening we weren’t as hungry after the indulgence we had earlier so we looked for a place we could split a meal.  We found a cute little place and explained to our server that we weren’t starving but would love to try whatever it was the restaurant was known for.  We wanted a taste of their specialty.  We were told by friends that we should be eating this way everywhere we went, but this was the first time it seemed like the proper way to eat.  They did not disappoint.  The owner of the restaurant dropped of a plate that had a small sample of every meat and cheese they had in the place.  It was an unbelievable variety, but just the right portion for Logan and I to try a little bit of it all.  After the meats and cheeses they brought out a bowl of home made pasta tossed in a spicy sausage red sauce and of course, covered with fresh basil and parmesan cheese.  The noodles alone were the best noodles of any pasta I’ve ever tried. 

We wrapped up our meal and tried to hurry to finish our wine because we saw we were the last people in the restaurant.  The owner and his wife did not make us feel hurried at all but we didn’t want them to have to wait on us either.  We went to pay and as one final treat, the owner handed us each a glass with melonchello and asked us about our trip and where we were from in the best English they could.  The high from earlier continued…

We woke up early and hit the street towards Plaza de Michelangelo.  We could have caught a bus to get there but we both were ready for a little exercise.  We hiked up the steep roads and stairs that lead to a large plaza with amazing views of the city.  The plaza was a little crowded so we walked for a while until we found a quite church up a long staircase.  We found a little spot in the shade and were able to enjoy the views where it was quiet.  Logan finally was able to sit and sketch and I sat and used this time for a little quiet time with God.  It was the perfect spot to reflect and soak in what all we have experienced the first half of our excursion through Italy.  We are so fortunate to be here.  With all that is going on in our lives with our job, our move, etc. it is nice to be reminded that we have a lot to be joyful about.  It is a nice reminder to be content.