Saturday May 15 - Arezzo

Absolutely the most amazing day that I have had so far. Words can not even explain how incredibly crazy today was. My bus ride was quite the success. And I figured when the bus pulled over in a town square and even the bus driver got off, that it might be time to get off the bus. I got dropped off in this small town, at the intersection of two huge streets. So standing in the middle, I basically had four options to take. I had to meet Joyce at a café outside of a church, so I figured I might head towards this chapel looking point that I saw up on the hill. I have to say, I navigate Italy a lot better than I have ever navigated in Georgia. Literally up the hill ten minutes later, I find the café where I’m supposed to be…only problem is, I’m two and half hours early. So I start to wander around. I come across some old churches and buildings and wander outside the city gate and then back in. And then I notice this big church where there seems to be somewhat of busy people running around. The front two massive wooden doors are open and there are men in tuxedos and corsages and a picture man somewhat standing at the doors greeting people, so I kinda sneak it to figure out what’s going on. And the most amazing thing, there was a wedding about to start, in this huge church, in Arezzo. So I snuck my way into the crowd lining the aisle, and sure enough, a few minutes later the wedding procession all stood, and the bride walked through the two opened wooden doors (under a bright blue umbrella because it has not stopped raining for 3 days straight). She looked beautiful and I watched this amazing bride and her father walk down the aisle and watched and listened to their Italian wedding, almost like I knew the family. As amazing as all the architecture is here, this was probably the most breathtaking part of my trip. I couldn’t stop smiling, thinking that I had traveled, by myself, in Italy, and was witnessing the most amazing Italian wedding, inside this incredibly overwhelming Cathedral. What a feeling, it’s so indescribable. I really wish I could also describe the multiple other places I saw, and their incredible architecture, but I really saw so much just by wondering around, that it was so hard to remember to what I’d seen and what I hadn’t.

After the wedding, I decided I wanted to see what else I could discover. Maybe not the best idea, considering I had no map and no way of communicating. I truly wandered too far and ended up getting lost for about 25 minutes trying to find anything that I had recognized to get back to my little café. I learned my lesson to not travel alone without an umbrella because men will walk up to you and cover you with their umbrella and ask something….not sure what, my Italian hasn’t gotten to that language yet.

I ended up calling Joyce when I finally found my way back and discovered she was still over an hour away. So I found myself wandering over one more street in the other direction, and I hit the jackpot. It was basically shopping heaven. An Italian street lined with incredible Italian designer clothes. Granted all the kids from high school were running around in their umbrellas, but the clothing stores were beautiful. I found a Zara at the very end, and about that time I heard from Joyce and after a little misunderstanding, I was able to finally meet this incredible woman who opened her home to me for the weekend. She did take me by this old building, and on the outside were these three rows of multiple, multiple columns. And as she was talking about it, she told me that when the building was being built, that the building had asked all different artists to each design and sculpt one column on the side of the building. And remarkably enough, all one hundred plus of the columns were all different in size. Joyce then asked me to pick out my favorite one, and my initial thought is that it was going to take forever to stare at these columns looking up into the sun, but in a split second my eye was caught by these simple column with the ‘forever knot” on it. And immediately I told Joyce that was my favorite, and preceded to show her my James Avery ring that also has the “forever knot” on it. In essence the ring is one never-ending line, tied in a knot, representing the never-ending idea of love. She was amazed by my ring and told me that those who find the knot their favorite are tied in their roots and have a strong background and therefore a strong standing in life. I couldn’t have asked for a better description of my life.

It was crazy to think that for five hours today, I walked around a small town in Italy by myself, and trying to blend in, and I managed to do quite well for myself. And like Joyce said, it’s hard to find an unattractive Italian man, so I knew that I was never without an umbrella or directions if I had really needed them… but doing it alone, was awesome.