sta poviendo!
on saturdays in bergamo, italy, there are is a surprising number of bike races. this was the third one we watched go by, i think. the first one was the best -- the leader was about two minutes ahead of the whole rest of the crowd. i got goosebumps. this reminded me of the tour de france, which i saw go by when i was in the french countryside many years ago. oh, memories...
in bergamo there is a castle that sits atop the citta alta (upper city), surrounded below by the city walls and protected by the city gates. i wish i had taken more pictures of bergamo but this one is pretty cool. it's an archway down in the grounds of the castle. wicked awesome.
and here is me, looking all slumpy and bad-postured, standing against the wall of the castle, with a fine view of bergamo's lower city in the background, and the fucking beautiful mountains that surrounded the whole town. amazing.
well, i'm lame so i didn't take more pictures than this. actually it's not because i'm lame it's just because i didn't want to have my camera out all of the time and seem like a "tourist". i really should have, though... i met amazing people and did amazing things in italy -- among them, catching the last act of a traditional milanese playhouse play; happy hour where the drinks are 7 euros but then you can eat all you want of indian food for free; a gigantic park in the middle of a city where mosquitos leave bugbites bigger than your head (or so it feels); perfect outdoor cafes with leaf covered terraces; stores built at the ground floor of old towers where the ceilings retain their original brick or wood structure and the store just sort of wraps around it; and so much more! i really want to go back, for longer than a weekend. makes me wish i had just gone both weekends after all! maybe in july i'll go again for the week the kids are in london studying their hearts out.
soon it will be august and friends will be here visiting. i am so excited to see friends! and i am so excited to be continuing on to my next big adventure...who knows what that will be. a trip to greece is in the works for august (my friend aleksandros is moving back there this summer), with likely a stopover in sevilla and cordoba because sagrario will kill me if i don't go to sevilla. and i am very, very excited.
anyway, friends. i hope all is well. this is not the most fascinating update ever, but there are pictures. i'm off to get dressed (it is 1:30 in the afternoon, after all), and watch gilmore girls with darby. it's a cloudy windswept day, so there's not much better to do. take care dudes.