Day 109 &110 - Trains and Physios

30 - 31 March 2022

30 March 2022

Train back to Rome. I am not sure if we have these fast trains in Australia. It is an excellent way to get from place to place. I love trains, fast trains with reserved seats are on another level. We read our books and arrive back in Rome. It is rainy but when you don’t ride, that is a good thing.

“Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.” ― Vladimir Nabokov

Grab some things for dinner and a bottle of wine. Cook, eat, and chat. When we left Malaysia it felt as if we were riding away from something. With Cambodia a few months away, contracts signed and arrival dates set, we are now heading toward something. It is exciting. It does not feel like something great is making its way to a climax. It feels like we are riding toward something even more exciting.

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!” ― Hunter S. Thompson

We open the windows and listen to the rain while we read. It is cool, but not cold. We plan a trip to La Spezia in the northwest for Friday and the weekend.

Read some more. Bed.

31 March 2022

Breakfast and a few jobs today. Sending some cold weather clothes back to Australia. Booking trains. Physio.

We head to Poste Italiane. The first place does not do post. Strange. The next place is closed. We finally find one open. You need a Green Pass to get a number. We don't have a Green Pass. Tap on the window of an office and a lady helps us out. She suggests we go to DHL. Poste Italiane does not do boxes.

DHL sorts us. We squash the clothes into the smallest possible box. The DHL man tapes it all together. You get the feeling that it will pop open like a jack in the box when someone cuts the tape.

“In the morning it was morning and I was still alive.

Maybe I'll write a novel, I thought.

And then I did.”

― Charles Bukowski

Grab some coffee at the new regular. Grab a light lunch and make a reservation at a restaurant nearby. It is my birthday. Sure I don’t celebrate, but if there is an excuse for dinner out and a bottle of wine, I will take it.

Head home and there is a bottle of wine in our room as a birthday gift from our hosts. I am starting to rethink the not celebrating birthday deal I have going. A bottle of wine, yes, please. We book our train La Spezia. Fast train.

“I grabbed a pile of dust, and holding it up, foolishly asked for as many birthdays as the grains of dust, I forgot to ask that they be years of youth. ” ― Ovid

Off to the physio. All excellent news. We have the all clear to ride again. An appointment next week with the surgeon and we are good to go. Impressive recovery from Shell. She has been dedicated to her rehab. Basically limited to me massaging her finger several times a day.

We grab a pre dinner Aperol Spritz at the tea shop. Head home for a pre dinner wine. Dinner was great. The restaurant has a butcher. He talked me through the cuts of beef he was using for the chef to prepare our carpaccio, meatballs, and ragu. Then the t-bone steak.

A bit drunk. Home. Bed. La Spezia on the train tomorrow.