In the same week, I had dreamt of my friends Lorenzo and Katie. In the first dream, I had visited Italy again and met up with Lori, my dear friend from the 2nd farm. We hugged with joy and he was suddenly lost in a sea of sweating chiselled bodies in a kickboxing match while I cheered him on outside the ring. Marco was nowhere in sight, instead there was Francois, a French friend of mine who was a chef in Singapore! Totally bizarre! I immediately emailed Lori and told him about it. His hilarious reply was "I hope in your dreams who don’t have take much of spank to me, but don’t worry, this morning in the mirror my face was ok." I couldn't understand what the hell he said! But according to him, it is now cold and raining heavily in Toscana. Enrica (Bologna) and Elena (Milano) also emailed me that it is snowing in the north - I can't imagine how it looks like. Anyway Lori will be working with horses on a farm near Monte Amiata at Maremma, south of Tuscany, which is truly magnificent.
Bella Katie had also written to me when she got back safely to the States. She made it to Croatia with Em, her best friend and returned to Italy in time for the olive harvest in October. Oh how I wished I was there too! She was afraid she'd forget all the Italian language and wondered if she'll fit back in. That made me feel relieved that I was not alone in this (Katie, the bad news is the pain doesn't really go away!). Sweet Ben also emailed me to say he's harvesting grapes in Emilia-Romagna and that he'd be going to Nepal after all. Wow - you go, Ben! I've just finished my travel story on my white-truffle hunting experience in San Miniato and it felt good to relive the memory again. I can't wait to see it in print and share the article with the folks at the Barbialla Nuova farm.
