Ciao, Baby

What if we went to Italy
A suitcase of books and one bag a piece
for the summer
I don't speak a word of Italian
except for Campari and soda for two
How much is a lire
Yes, a villa will do
and a breeze
in Tuscany, please

What if we never got back on the plane
as summer turned colder then warmer again
losing all track of the passing of years
until it no longer mattered how long we'd been here

What if we went to Italy
maybe next year, just you and me
for the summer
I still can't speak any Italian
But words are replaced under Siennese skies
by nothing so much as a nod and a sigh
and a wish
to be always like this

~ Mary Chapin Carpenter


I've got a thing for Italy. Some of you knew that. Someday I will go and, as I've said before, I may not come back. Think "Under the Tuscan Sun."

Check out the book, In Tuscany, by Frances Mayes. [sigh] I have literally checked it out of the library a blue zillion times. It takes me to such a good place inside myself. Well, it used to. I haven't looked at it in the past year, I don't think. It might just cause emotional commotion like so many other things do these days. We'll see. It was my dream first. I need to take it back.