Lisa&Francesca

I love to read.  Francesca also loves to read.  In our equally busy lives, we still most often end our days with at least a chapter or two in the book we are currently reading. There is something sort of comforting about leaving "real life" just for a few moments each day and before you head off into a night of dreams. I also love to read all types of books.  Female crime authors, women's modern fiction, pop psych, historical fiction, young adult fiction...the list is long.  When we were traveling this summer, I read a book review of this book, Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee.  I was happy to find it in the Chicago airport this weekend, and have spent a good deal of time reading it.  While I'm not finished (so I won't consider this at all a book review), I have been struck at the first several chapters and how they speak to the joy I find when I visit Italy. Now, "of course", you say, I find joy in Italy.  It's beautiful, the people are won...

So you've read how we met, and you've maybe come to understand that Francesca and I enjoy a very close friendship.  Here is another story of us...and how we discovered something we shared in common (with another friend as well). We arrived for our stay with Francesca for Christmas 2015.  One of her friends, Anna, and her family came to celebrate Christmas Eve with us.  Anna was sweet and curious about us, and I could tell she had a generous soul.  One thing that told me so was that Anna had made bread and brought it for our Christmas Day lunch the next day.  I enjoy baking, so homemade bread is a wonderful thing to enjoy.  But this was no ordinary loaf of bread. It seemed to be perfect in every bread way...a crisp outside layer, followed by a soft and chewy inside, full of amazing seeds and flavor.  I mentioned to Francesca how much I loved this bread, and she invited Anna over to give me a lesson in how to make her amazing bread. During thi...

Lisa is for me... I met Lisa in a hot summer, in a period of great weariness. It's ever happened to you? A disastrous hairstyle, Mr. Magoo glasses , a pulled smile that tries to turn a grimace of discomfort into a moment of extreme joy. A disaster, not even beautiful. Knowing Lisa literally changed my life. She taught me to put myself in the middle sometimes, to sit down without having to do something (I'm still working on this ...) She takes lots of pictures while I really don't. She loves playing cards and every sort of games. She bakes a lot, and she knows if a cake is ready just by smelling. She knows what I like sometimes before me. She knows what fits me well. She knows when it's time to insist and when step a side. She knows my priorities and she respects them. And most of all, she really loves my with all my little and big foults.

I have always said that I am the luckiest girl in the world.  My husband, Mark, is absolutely the best.  He entertains my crazy ideas, lets me drag him around on adventures, and is always here for me.   Then we became friends with Francesca...and Mark supported this connection fully.  He affectionately calls her my "girlfriend".  But it helps that Mark also REALLY has come to know and like Francesca AND her husband, Alberto.  Alberto is the shorter, slightly more bald, Italian version of Mark.  It's true!  They both enjoy an adult beverage or two, have a dry and witty sense of humor, enjoy bikes (regular and motor), can't get enough seafood, work in jobs with numbers that require a high attention to detail, and...they have the pleasure of being married to us. We came home from the market one day this summer and saw this: both of the boys in the pool scrubbing with big smiles.  And we laughed and knew they too were ...

...are not things (non sono gli oggetti) They are the people we are lucky to know, the relationships we grow and nurture, the memories we share, and the connections that remain despite distance and time.  The summer of 2015, I was indulging my dream of taking a cooking class in Italy. I had always been drawn to the Piedmont region of Italy. I can't tell you why (because I do not know...although now I have more of an idea).  The internet brought me to The International Kitchen, which led me to Via Vai, a B&B who's hostess and owner did kitchen classes in addition to keeping her inn guests content.  Francesca and I shared three days of cooking together, and a bond began to form in those short days.   Just months later, we had been invited back to Francesca's home for Christmas. Sharing a holiday together (the first of what has been and I hope will continue to be many) after just a few days of knowing one another...some people said we we...