I've known for a long time that this time would come, as Stuart was duty bound to go to his close friend Dodge's stag do (Stuart is his best man, after all). I tried not to think about it too much though, tried not to worry about all the things that could go wrong (water dramas, car problems, power cuts, internet outages...) and definitely tried not to fret about the drive to and from Pisa airport that I knew I'd have to do on my own.
Come Friday night, though, all my attempts at not thinking about these things broke down and I spent a sleepless night worrying about everything, so it was with bleary, slightly teary eyes that I got up on Saturday and at 7am reluctantly climbed into the driver's seat of the car while Stuart took the passenger seat. Since I'd never driven on the autostrada before, and would have to 'go solo' on the way back, I'd reluctantly agreed that it would be a good idea for me to do the outward journey as well, to get used to it. Up until this point, the furthest I've really driven over here on my own is into Pescia and back. I've done some slightly longer journeys, such as the trips to Europcar in Montecatini, but those have either been with Stuart or else following him. I kept telling myself that there was really nothing to worry about - it's not as if I can't drive, it's not as if I've never driven on a motorway before... but somehow doing it over here seemed like a big deal to me.
So we set off, Stuart pointing out the places to look out for in order to help me navigate my way on the return journey, me gripping the wheel with white knuckles. Much to my surprise, it was a fairly easy journey, and before I knew it we were arriving at the airport - for the next dreaded step, saying goodbye. After a tearful hug, I left Stuart in the departures hall and ran back to the car, trying to fight back the tears so that I would actually be able to see my way out of the car park.
Surprisingly, I found the return journey easier than the outbound journey - once I'd successfully managed to get myself on the right part of the motorway I knew it was a matter of sitting tight until I got to the Chiesina turnoff, at which point I knew I would be on familiar ground. And so it was that I was pulling into the drive at 9am, just two hours after having left - having managed not to crash the car and not to get lost. I counted that as a huge success.
After letting myself into the house and having a bowl of cereal, I gave Sarah a quick call and arranged to meet her and David at the cava as they kindly agreed to accompany me on a walk with Reggie. So, after spending half an hour re-potting the basil plants that we'd bought last week, I got Reggie harnessed up and into the car. Once again, he stubbornly refused to get in on his own - although it was still only 10am, the heat of the day was already building and I'm sure that sitting in the back of a hot car was not top of his agenda for the day. This meant I had to lift the lump up and post him into his crate - he made sure he was as uncooperative as possible, reminding me of a toddler that doesn't want to be put into his car seat, but I did eventually get him in, and off we went.
It was as I turned right out of the drive that I realised I'd never actually driven up the valley before either - not that it's a difficult drive, but it was another first for me. When we arrived at the cava, David and Sarah were sitting on the wall waiting for us. Reggie gave them a good barking at even before he'd got out of the car, but once he was out of his crate and realised he was going on one of his favourite walks, he soon accepted that David and Sarah were Good People and trotted along happily with us. Once he got off his lead, he happily ran back and forth between us and before long he even started to show signs of true friendship towards both Sarah and David. Thankfully, neither of them minded that Reggie's sign of true friendship is a big slobbery lick. I had a lovely walk, really enjoying chatting with David and Sarah as we went, and Reggie had a proper run around, tearing into the woods and back out again. I was so grateful for the company - I don't think Reggie would have got a proper, off-lead walk all weekend if I'd been left to my own devices. There's nothing particularly scary or dangerous about the cava, but I wasn't ready to do that walk on my own. That will have to be a first for another occasion!
After leaving David and Sarah, Reggie and I drove back down the hill to our house. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful - I was determined to make the most of the time and crack on with some office work, and spent the next 6 hours with my head down, working. In fact, I didn't even finish work until nearly 7.30pm, by which time there was a list of chores building up: feed the cats, feed Reggie, water the plants, get the washing in, do the washing up, check the veg beds and make some dinner. I rattled through the jobs before sitting down to my own dinner. At which point, I suddenly felt very alone and isolated, making me realise that, even more than a year since arriving here, and even with some really, really good friends close by, I still have some 'settling in' to do yet. I think that a very large part of that comes down to language and confidence, with the two things being inextricably linked. Unfortunately there's no quick fix for that, but it is certainly something that we are working on trying to address.
(I should mention that Donatella, David and Sarah had all invited me to go to an event in Vellano with them on Saturday evening, but I had declined, both because I wanted to crack on with some work and because I didn't want to leave the house in the evening - so feeling lonely was partly my own fault for not having accepted their invitation!)
After a terrible night's sleep, I got up at 7am on Sunday and got Reggie ready for a walk. This time, we just walked from the house up and down the road to Vellano. It was lovely and fresh at this time of the morning, and nice and quiet. Well, it was quiet until the return leg of the journey. Every year there is a rally in Vellano for old scooters, motorbikes and sidecars, and even at 7.30am in the morning, the participants were already starting to make their way up there. As we've mentioned on the blog before, Reggie has 'issues' with two-wheeled vehicles, so to see Lambrettas and Vespas pass us one after another was quite a trauma for both of us! Thankfully we were already on the home straight before the rate of traffic started to pick up, and it wasn't long after we got home that I could tell both from the noise on the road and from catching the odd glimpse of traffic below us that we'd got back just in time, as streams and streams of vintage bikes made their way up the valley.
Once again, I got stuck into some office work for most of the day, but come 2.45pm there was the sound of a car drawing up and the Phillips family piling out of it! It was lovely to see them all - they always manage to make me laugh and smile and it was a great tonic to see them. After a while, Chris took Henry and Erik off for a swim in the river near Sorana, while Sue and I had a proper girlie chat.
Not long after that, David and Sarah arrived, bearing the gift of a freshly baked loaf of delicious sourdough bread! I introduced them to Sue, and a little later to Chris, Henry and Erik when they returned from their refreshing swim to collect Sue and head home to get Henry ready for a night out. David and Sarah stayed on for a while longer, and the three of us sat chatting on the patio. What a difference a day makes - whereas on Saturday night I'd felt isolated, on Sunday afternoon I felt surrounded by loveliness and so very fortunate to have such an incredible set of friends. Whether it's the individuals or whether it's the situation we're all living in, it feels like the friendships we have made over here have been made very quickly and very firmly. It's strange to think that we have not know even our "oldest" set of friends here, the Phillipses, longer than a year, Donatella a little less than that, and David and Sarah even less - yet they all feel like very close, very special friends.
It was a much happier evening for me on Sunday - maybe because I'd already got the first night alone under my belt, maybe because I'd spent all afternoon with friends, maybe because I'd managed to speak to Stuart on the phone (albeit a slightly drunk Stuart), maybe because I knew Stuart was due back the next day, or quite possibly a combination of all of those things. Anyway, after a mammoth veg harvesting session, during which I had a phone call from Stuart and Dodge (why do drunk people always think it's a good idea to pass the phone over to their drunk friends as well?!), I settled down to some dinner and TV before heading to bed for what I hoped would be a better night's sleep.
I did indeed sleep better on Sunday night, but that didn't stop me waking up with a banging headache today. I considered turning over and going back to sleep, but Lucca was insistent that it was time for me to get up and feed him and his sister, and once I'd done that I knew that Reggie was also awake so I pulled on some clothes and headed out with Reggie for another early morning walk up the road. Thankfully this time there were no scooters or motorbikes, just the usual few cars heading (mainly) down the hill from the villages into town for the start of the working week.
The rest of the day will mainly be taken up with more office work for me - it is Monday, after all - and later on the return trip to the airport to collect Stuart. This time, however, I shall be driving in convoy - Sarah realised yesterday that Stuart is on the same flight as her sister and brother-in-law, who are coming over to visit, so I will meet with David & Sarah and follow them to the airport. At least that way I shouldn't get lost or take the wrong turning off the autostrada!
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