In fact, Riomaggiore is pretty much a beautiful, living, breathing Stairmaster!
There are steps — literally! — everywhere you go here.
What makes them especially challenging is that they’re not your typical modern-day city steps — all evenly spaced and at the perfect height.
No, most of these steps have been around for centuries and are, more often than not, irregularly spaced and way higher than what I’m accustomed to.
It’s been rather taxing, but I can feel my leg muscles getting stronger every day, and I definitely prefer “working out” like this, rather than in a gym. 😂
It seems the spotty internet at our Airbnb is why I can’t easily upload photos and videos, so the full story of where we are and what we’re doing will wait until we get back to strong wi-fi land.
Meanwhile, my goal will be to share just one photo a day.
So, today we took the train to Vernazza — another one of the Cinque Terre. After visiting a beautiful 14th century church and walking around the harbor, we were finally ready to have our first Cinque Terre gelato.
Imagine our delight when we realized that we were standing directly in front of Amore Mio Gelato. Too perfect!
The station in Genova where we caught the train to Riomaggiore
First we drove to Genova to leave our car parked at the home of Ramesha’s cousin, Marco.
After some time hanging out with him, his wife (Roberta), and their two daughters, he walked with us to the train station. Two hours later we were in Riomaggiore.
The yellow circle at street level in the photo below shows the front door of our apartment, while the other yellow circle is the window we can open and look out on the ocean, the boats, and all the people (this is an amazing place for people watching!).
I have a bunch more photos, but for some reason (I suspect it’s the continuation of Mercury retrograde) I’ve only been able to get these two to upload to my blog. 🤔
It’s been quite a full week, with photos piling up from Thursday lunch at Graziella’s; Friday’s visit to the cemetery and church in Canobbio; Saturday dinner at Dudo and Karin’s; and finally, a super fun lunch/sing-along with extended family, during which we were treated to the traditional popular music of Ticino, performed by the duo Tacalà.
I’ll be sharing all about that, plus lots of photos, in the near future.
But the top priority right now is being ready to leave early in the morning for the next phase of our trip: Cinque Terre!
We’ve really enjoyed our stay here at the Utoring complex in Aldesago, but it’s time to say goodbye — to this little apartment and to the expansive view of Lugano and the distant mountains.
Day after tomorrow we’ll say goodbye to Lugano itself for a little over a week while we visit Italy; first Riomaggiore in Cinque Terre, then Ananda Assisi.
An espresso serving set (plate, sugar bowl, cups) made by a friend’s relative in Sicily
It was almost exactly seventeen years ago that Ramesha and I packed up our Pregassona (Lugano) apartment and put everything in storage.
He had taken a leave of absence from his middle school teaching job, and we were heading off to live in California for one year — mainly so he could experience some established Ananda communities.
Of course, as most of you know, we were asked to stay and be part of the music ministry at Ananda Village, which meant that on our visits to Switzerland we had to gradually get rid of all that stuff.
Year after year we gave things away; transported what we could to America in suitcases; consolidated what was left into a few storage locations, and — bit by bit — forgot we even owned a lot of the remaining items.
But we recently decided that — for various reasons — this would be the year when we finally emptied the last few storage areas.
It wasn’t easy. First of all, it’s amazing how you can not have thought of something for over fifteen years, but then you see it–! And you immediately remember how much you liked it and how much it means to you and you’re suddenly as attached to it as if you had been using it every day for the past decade (and it’s a thousand times harder when it was a gift). 🤦♀️
The solution in this case was to find new homes for certain items. That way we feel good about passing them along to people we love.
The other challenging aspect of this is that one of the final storage spots was the “locale” (or studio) where Ramesha’s band used to rehearse. When I first moved to Lugano, I would go to rehearsal with him, studying my Italian while wearing earplugs.
At this point, Ramesha hasn’t sung with the band in forever; the band itself broke up a number of years ago; and his friend, Dudo, will very soon be letting go of the locale altogether.
So. yeah… it’s been a little sad and nostalgic, because today was about letting go of some precious memories and releasing some strong attachments. But it was time.
Does Mercury retrograde also affect laundry?!? All I know is I spent hours in the laundry room today and only got one load washed.
The washing machine looks deceptively normal, but pretty much everything about the process is a challenge.
The money goes into a black box that looks like something from the last century; the coins go in and it starts, but you really have no idea what’s actually going on.
For example, I came back expecting the load to be finished, but it still looked wet even though the door was open. So, I closed the door to see if it would resume. It didn’t, but I couldn’t open the door anymore. I finally pushed some buttons in frustration and…it started up again — from the beginning! Why, I have no idea.
Then, the symbols on the machine are different, but when you try to read the instructions they’re in Italian.
I spent a lot of time studying them because the second time I came back — after setting a timer to be sure and arrive before it finished — the machine had stopped, with the door closed, and nothing I did would get it to go again.
Finally, in desperation I added another two coins — and it started…at the beginning yet again. At this point I knew I couldn’t leave; I had to stay and try to catch the moment when I would be able to open the door and take out my clothes.
Actually, the instructions are in Italian if you’re lucky — sometimes they’re only in German! (The photo below isn’t very clear but it doesn’t really matter because most of us wouldn’t be able to read it anyway.)
I won’t bore you with every detail, but I did finally figure out how to get the washing machine to complete its full cycle and let me get my clothes out.
Bottom line? I truly do love the multilingual reality that is Switzerland, but it does make things more difficult when it comes to laundry.
L-R: Jayadev, Arudra, Triveni, Ruby at Hotel Pestalozzi in Lugano
Saturday before last we learned that there was going to be an Ananda event here in Lugano. We knew that our Ananda friends Jayadev, Arudra, and Ruby would be there.
Well, tonight we attended that event and were thrilled to find a number of dear Ananda friends in attendance — starting with Peter, Aanadi, Triveni, Rita, and Monica; but including many new “old” friends that we were meeting for the first time.
It’s always a thrill for me to experience the joy of being with spiritual family no matter where I am in the world.
