En Italie pour aujourd'hui

            This morning I woke up and said, “I think I’ll go to Italy today.”  No, not really – but that’s kind of how it felt.  I was pretty happy after waking up at 11:30 (first time I’ve slept in this whole trip) and everyone came to tell me we were leaving in twenty minutes.  I hadn’t expected the plan to pull through.  But, after raci

ng down to brunch (I was pretty upset I missed the omelets) and grabbing a pain au chocolat to go, we were headed for the

 train to Italy. 

            We got off in Ventimiglia, a small Mediterranean town right over the French border.  It’s amazing how you can stand on the shore of this little Italian town and see France from the shore, but you’re surrounded by a completely different culture.  The language, the architecture, the food – all we had to do was take an hour train ride and it was as if we were in the heart of Italy.

            Since it was such a spur of the moment decision, we arrived in the town during siesta, the midday “nap” w

here all of the restaurants are closed.  To top if off, it was Sunday and all of the stores were closed.  We traveled over the border just for pizza and gelato and who would have thought you couldn’t find and open pizzeria or gelatteria in Italy?

            We couldn’t complain, however, since the sun was setting over the sea and we had the perfect view.  We eventually did track down some Italians enjoying gelato and with my scarce memories 

of the Italian language, and the boys’ Spanish, we were able to communicate enough to find an open shop.  My cioccolato e caffe held me over until we made it to a little café at seven o’clock, when all of the restaurants re-opened. 

     

       The pizza, the Chianti, and even the water were the authentic and exquisite cuisine that we came for.  W

e were not disappointed.  And the Italians are so much more relaxed than the French; they made 

us feel right at home.  They could care less that we didn’t speak 

a word of Italian and that we tourists didn’t belong in such a quaint little town.  They were happy to chat and share their good culture and cuisine because even they know it’s the best in the world.