Delayed.
My last day in Bologna was pretty close to perfect. It was a beautiful morning and I was up and at ’em and meeting with my future employer by 10:30a in the city center. Afterwards I enjoyed a caffe and was invited to listen to some live music on Friday night…I couldn’t make myself say that I was leaving for the States at 7am domani. That fact was taking some time to process. I hadn’t really eaten much in the last two days so I sat down at a tiny cafe and had a fresh tuna and white bean salad for “brunch”…a word completely lost in the Italian culture. Damn, I miss brunch. I basically just had lunch two hours early at 12n. Of course, Zouheir had offered to prepare a traditional Moroccan lunch for me while a group of us were out the evening before so I couldn’t eat anything too heavy and spoil my appetite. I was looking forward to eating traditional dishes from his culture – I’d heard good things about his cooking. Typical lunch time in Italy is around 2:30p so I needed something to keep me going until then. I finished my salad and walked toward Piazza Maggiore, bought some coffee beans to take home with me and enjoyed basking in the sun and taking in the sites and sounds of my home away from home one last time.
I arrived at Zou’s at 2:30p. He lives in a splendid apartment in a perfect area…something I envision for myself upon my arrival back here in the winter. I’ve already got him scoping things out for me. Like most people I’ve met in Bologna, Zou is kind and generous and welcoming. He’s light-hearted and funny and makes me want to know Italian just so I can know him better. I promised him that the next time we saw each other I would be a better communicator in the Italian tongue. I’ve got my homework cut out for me over the next few months, but it’s important to me and I want to learn. I hope the Universe cuts me some slack because of it and the Italian will begin to flow. So, lunch at Zou’s…I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t have any pictures of it. I was just so in the moment that stopping to get my iPhone wasn’t a priority. He prepared an amazing melt-in-your-mouth beef roast, goat, a roasted veggie medley of various peppers, potatoes, eggplant, mushrooms, zucchini, and then there were the prunes. Wow! They were a perfect addition to the two meat dishes and he taught me the trick to making them Moroccan-style. I look forward to hanging out with Crystal in the kitchen and recreating the dish. Oh! And the olives. And the crusty bread to sop up all of the amazing gravy from the roast and prunes. And the wine…there were four of us at lunch and we took down 3 bottles and then sipped Scotch for dessert. Later, Zou gave my hair one last trim before I left for Jen and Grant’s wedding in Cali. He’s a genius. I’m so happy to trust him with my thick, long mane, although it’s not so long anymore. I’m told it was his first “house call” and I must be extra special. Believe me when I say, he does make me feel extra special. It was hands down my favorite lunch experience in Bologna. And, my three lunch companions were perfect.
Around 6p we made our way toward the center and enjoyed a few glasses of prosecco at this very old Italian bar/club. The place was great until I had to use a key with an enormous plastic pipe attached to it to unlock the bathroom, which was turkish-style. That will always dampen the experience. No pun intended.
I arrived home around 7:30p to the smells of Il Sellaio pizza coming from the kitchen. Pips and Consuelo were working furiously preparing my favorite pizza in Bologna for my last night. The owner of Il Sellaio had given us several balls of the pizza pasta for my party and by the time I got home Pippo and Consuelo had perfected their technique and were turning out some very delicious pies. Over the course of the evening many of my favorite people dropped by to have a few slices, drink beer and wish me well on my trip home.
I finished packing and got almost four hours of sleep before my alarm went off at 4:15a. And, of course, I had a horrible hangover. I steadily drank from 2:30p until after midnight. But, I wouldn’t change a thing about my day. It was perfect.
I thought my travel day was going to also be perfect, at least it started off that way. I hopped out of bed, got out of the house right on time, the cab was waiting for me downstairs, no hiccups at the airport ticketing counter or getting through security. And then, I got the dreaded text message from my TripItPro service as I was ordering a ham sandwich for breakfast. There was (supposed) bad weather in Dallas and my American Airlines flight was delayed almost four hours. It was 9:30am and I would sit in the Madrid airport until boarding the plane around 5pm. The delay meant I’d arrive in DFW at 7:56p CST. My connecting flight would be touching down in Austin at 7:50p without me.
I finally arrived at DFW around 8p, hustled through customs, baggage re-check and security and made it to my gate ten minutes before boarding time. Except, when I got there, American Airlines had canceled my flight and I had to wait an extra hour for the next flight to Austin. I finally arrived in Austin at 11:30pm. It was a 27-hour travel day. By the time I got to bed that night I had been up for 30 hours.
I spent Wednesday unpacking/repacking for Santa Barbara, and then enjoyed the afternoon with Mom, Crystal and Dionne. I was back at the airport at 6:15a on Thursday.
Can you say jet-lag?
