bocce by the sea

I left Pescara on Thursday morning and arrived in Cinque Terre in the afternoon. Cinque Terre is this beautiful strip of the Italian Riviera

that has five small villages along the coast (cinque terre means five lands), connected by a pretty rugged hiking trail. I rented a room of my own, which is small but very clean and in a lovely little house with a shared patio area (see photo). It’s absolutely gorgeous here, and I spent the day hiking alone between 3 of the towns and eating beautiful meals...also alone. Pesto supposedly originates here (or is at least a specialty, because the climate is perfect for basil growth) so I’ve been trying to incorporate it into every meal. It feels like 90% of the tourists here are either on their honeymoon or celebrating their 50th anniversary. This is a real town (Monterosso), but the line between locals and tourists seems very distinct. In any case, I was just about to go a tiny bit crazy from loneliness after dinner as I walked around town with a glass of wine trying to figure out what to do with myself.

Just as I was about to give up and watch episodes of Gossip Girl in my bedroom, I decided to see if there was any action at the town bocce court. There was. I stood at the fence, watching like a puppy for about 20 minutes…until they ASKED ME TO PLAY WITH THEM. The locals! After watching me throw with Maria Louisa for a while, Carlo said that he and I would play against Maria Louisa and her partner. I felt like I was in a dream. I played bocce with the locals for about 2 hours!!! And I held my own. I did not do amazingly well, but I played solidly and it was a very tricky court. It was slightly slanted, so one side was extremely fast and the other was relatively slow.

Lots of old Italian men were watching, and joining in with Carlo as he yelled instructions at me or commended me for a good point. Piano, piano! Piu forte! Corto! Lungha! Alla sinestra, Nicola. Tira bene. Brava! I could hear some of the locals talking about me –-- she’s American, they said, but she plays with her family at home. She’s not bad. Not bad!!! I’ll take that any day from this crowd.

I didn’t want to take out my camera and risk looking like my head wasn’t in the game, but tourists sprinkled by and took lots of pictures of us playing. When I had a spare second I slipped one of them my email address and asked them to send me the photos they took!!

Ha. These pictures of the court are from earlier in the day; if those people send me any photos I’ll be sure to post them with pride.

Carlo and I lost, I’m sorry to say, but the topping on this bocce-cake: when we parted ways, Carlo casually said: domani sera? (tomorrow evening?). I nearly jumped up and down and squealed with delight as I replied: Si, si, si in rapid succession... ci vediamo domani! (we'll see each other tomorrow). Domani sera!! I found friends in Cinque Terre: and there are no friends that I would rather have here than senior citizens that spend their nights playing bocce by the sea.