Year: 2023

Where is the sweet sound of grace?

Not just an act of grace or simple gratuity

But a perfumed, pervasive grace note

Adding lightness to life’s grinding song of lament.

Screens filled with sadness

The media serving dark news with our dinner

Falling like a weighted blanket on conversations

Loaded words driving people apart

Sowing distrust between us

Insidious weeds that choke conversations

Virus-like stealing our health

Our ungrace sucks our very life

And is exhausting.

Grace defies explanation

Best conveyed in looks and hugs

Gifts or choosing to be silent

Acts of love that cross divides

Costing the giver dearly

But in acceptance are free.

Acts that melt away disgrace, abuse and shame

That spread like soothing oil

And precious perfume.

Acts that break the rules

Gratified to find a lover’s love languages

Gracious love that blesses others

And returns with interest to the givers.

Relationships not regulations

Saving grace.

Servant Babette used all her fortune

Creating a generous feast

Exotic foods that cost her, sourced from afar

Prepared with hospitable love and labour

For those who came.

Opening the way for grace to enter

Changing the village

As only grace can transform.

We sit at a table prepared just for us

Oil slathered on our heads and feet,

Forever.

JW December 2023

Back in the land of schnitzel and strudel! We are working our way back north after six glorious weeks in Italy, this time via the Black Forest region in Germany as we return to Frankfurt.

Our arrival at the station in Freiburg was so easy. I was still looking around for the way out off the platform and realised we were on the street, with taxies right in front of us- unpacking in our hotel no time. It turned out that almost everything in Freiburg was easy. The exception was the language as we only have a few words of German; in retrospect, we had enough Italian to get ourselves around and miss it already.

Every place we stay has its pros and cons, so I try to focus on the good things. The Fourside Hotel in Freiburg is a new chain hotel, further out of town, very clean and shiny, comfy bed, very quiet (we sleep in late here), and has a fantastic large shower, complete with a huge picture of a lady (a local legend) in it! Although a bit of a way from the action centre, it is opposite a massive supermarket and has a tram stop out front. All things to like.

What a beautiful, green city is Freiburg! Trees and gardens everywhere, flourishing flower boxes on the streets and balconies, and forested hills on all sides of town. Tidy, well signed and no rubbish anywhere. Neat blocks of apartments in our area, painted in various combinations of colours. Lots of bikes and dedicated paths (have to look both ways twice to avoid being run down) and a fantastic sustainable and reliable public transport system.

Having seen the weather forecast, we were up and out the first morning to make the most of the last predicted sunny day. Always drawn to heights and cable cars, we pored over the transport map for a way to get to Shauinslandbahn – the world’s longest circular cable car to the top of the mountain. It looked doable – Tram 2 and Bus 21 here we come!

It took five kind Germans to help us find the stop, the tram and buy tickets. It is a bit frustrating not to be able to read information. A friendly young woman at the stop assisted us first, and it turned out that she was going to Brisbane the very next week to do her PhD in chemistry!

Even after we were heading the right way, a gentleman saw us looking at the tram map and asked if we needed help. One lady even grabbed a high school student and told him to help us as she didn’t speak English. So kind! In fact, whenever we look at our map, someone asks us if we need assistance.

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We have fallen in love with this sun-dusted part of Italy. I don’t remember ever watching such a series of glorious sunsets every night for two weeks; the palette is a little different each night. The temperature has been perfectly warming every day, and increasingly refreshing overnight. Only a tiny breeze to break the stillness, and the sound of tractors pulling ploughs all day as the autumn farm routines roll on as they have for hundreds of years. The vines are slowly turning russet while the olives keep their colour, and their fruit is ripening.

Seasonality is very calming. Hard working people in tune with God’s earth. It’s a while since I was content to sit and gaze at the scenery without thoughts of what I need to do! It has been so good for my busy mind and soul.

Tuscany is famous for its wine and people come from all over the world to try it. All the little towns have more enoteca (wine tasting shops) and wine bars than anything else, with the hero wines being Brunello and Rosso. We are not huge wine drinkers; I drink almost none and Peter was driving! But as Marco, our host’s husband, did wine tasting tours as well as looking after an olive farm, we thought we would give it a go. Adventures are the order of the day.

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It was time to leave Sicily, vey reluctantly. Feeling more confident on the roads than when we arrived, we took the the little Panda car to the autostrada, heading back to the huge port city of Messina. When we returned the car safely, I could see relief written all over Peter’s face: a month of challenging driving in Sicily and no scratches or bingles caused by us or any of the mad drivers we saw. A miracle.

The rental car office was happy to mind our luggage, so we had a long day to fill in waiting for the night train, but we were at least unencumbered. Messina, however, is a huge port (with a row of cruise ships in dock) and I didn’t have energy in the heat to go too far, so we did what all good travellers do to fill in time- settle in at KFC for chicken and salad, and then Maccers for coffee and tiramisu. Food, coffee, toilets and wifi all helped to pass the day. In KFC we shared a table with two young men from Uzbekistan who are studying in Messina. They had perfect English and were very assured as we chatted. Both supported by their parents, clearly the new middle class.

Two things of note about MacDonalds: it was modern, clean and had service to the table, and, we were the oldest people there by a couple of decades!

We still had time to kill at the station for our 10.10pm train, but started to see and hear information that it was running an hour late. It was immediately clear that we would miss our connection in Rome to Florence the next morning and the trip was all downhill from there. For starters, we discovered that the toilets at the station were locked up at 10pm! We were relieved in every way when the train finally arrived.

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Mount Etna is always referred to as a female in Sicily, even as a mother figure. She smothers the defeated monster Typhon and protects the local inhabitants. That’s a different way of seeing one of the world’s most active volcanoes! Mama Etna had been shrouded in clouds and mist since we arrived in Sicily. We drove past and around it several times, but Taormina, our last destination in Sicily, was all about the smoking mountain. 

The drive from Polizzi Generosa to Taormina was long and demanding, even with Pietro’s local knowledge of ‘shortcuts’ to get to the highway. I didn’t mind travelling the last winding, rough roads and had come to terms with the hairpin bends (by closing my eyes mostly). Our memories of the Madonie mountains and nature reserve will always be special.  Eventually we were on the autostrada, travelling very fast, but being overtaken by those driving even faster. And woe betide any car that gets in their way!

Our new bed and breakfast was in Giardini Naxos, a little way south of Taormina, which is incredibly expensive.  Villa Chiarenza is a stunning old villa with Roman remains scattered around, mixed with hundreds of terracotta pots of succulents and cacti. It was apparently a nunnery originally and has been renovated and used for hospitality for about forty years.

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Our drive from Agrigento to the next destination was not a long one, so we decided to take a side trip to Villa Romano. It is reputed to have some of the best preserved mosaics in the world. Sometimes it is hard to plan without clear information, and this was the case for this trip. 

By the time we arrived, we were at the furthest extent of a massive parking area, radiating heat in the midday sun. We also had all our luggage in the car and had read too many forums about tourists losing everything they owned out of a rental car! We decided to take it in turns.

So I set off first, and realised as I toiled up the first slope that it was a long, steep climb up to the entrance. After a determined effort (without Peter to push me from behind – not elegant but it helps) I made a call and turned back. That’s a world class attraction I will have to pass up!

Peter went up then and verified that it was so big and uneven that I would have found it too much. He was awestruck with the Villa, so I will include some of his photos of what I didn’t see.

In the meantime I went shopping in the souvenir and other shops at the base. Most of it was the usual gaudy Sicilian colours and designs, but I found a lovely leather and jewellery shop where the owners were the artisans. Beautiful options for some presents to take home, and a way to support local artists. So that was my outing. 

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