The Visitors

The Visitors

What a day so far in Italy. In most ways, we feel very isolated here. In my mind, I find it hard to believe that anyone else would brave the path to our house. But just like us, there are ones who will. And I met four of them today.

There is one place on the path where I can get a little cell service. I call it “the rock”. It is a place by a steep set of stairs leading down. You can hear beach goers from there. You can hear dogs barking. You can hear other things besides just the cicadas. But you don’t expect anyone to be coming up those stairs.

This morning, I was writing the dog blog as I usually do with Fruitycake by my side. And I heard voices. I thought sound was carrying. But all of a sudden, there were two men in front of me. Fruitycake jumped up and they were happy to see him. Like it was totally normal for us to be there. They said “buon giorno” and kept walking by me. Now, the path to our house only goes to our house. It ends there. So I stopped them and asked them in my best Italian where they were going. They told me they were cutting down weeds and wines. Technically, the path is shared if needed. And another rustico a little ways from us  is being worked on. Our guess is that those owners may want to use some of the path for another way to get to their house. But we don’t know. The men stopped at our gate and said ciao and were on their way. I guess we will find out soon.

We were laughing about this, and maybe excited at the thought someone else may widen the path. I decided to go back down to the rock. And try to write again. I was there for a few minutes when I heard more talking. I thought I was really hearing things now. And all of a sudden, there was a woman and man in front of me. “Buon giorno”, they said. Again, Fruitycake loved on them, they walked past us. And again, I asked where they were going. They said they didn’t know. That they were just exploring from Austria. I told them they were welcome to keep walking. But that it just led to our house. They seemed confused, asking how in the world we found a house up here. I was just as confused. But here we all were. All being confused.

The hikers took a look at the house, and went on their way, remarking how romantic it was. For sure. Dirt, a solar shower, using sweatshirts for pillows and left over trash is so romantic. But I laughed again.

I never know what will happen here on a daily basis. It’s not only a learning experience, but a physical boot camp of sorts. I told them the next time they visited, maybe we would have electricity to make them espresso. And it was their turn to laugh.

-Rachael

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