And I'm Feeling Good..

I'm sorry it seems like this will be a photoless blog at least for a while as I didn't manage to excavate my camera. This journey could have been it's whole purpose in life but it's not meant to be- maybe it'll motivate me to draw travel sketches the oldfashioned way instead of clicking snaps.

I made a plane friend which is always a promising start to a trip. A courtly,cravat-wearing, older Italian gentleman who stepped aside to let me and my fifty handluggage bags tumble into the two seats near the window. It's lucky no one claimed the extra seat cause I needed all the seat and underfoot space available for my, as I said, fifty bags. Anyway we exchanged a friendly (and on my part apologetic) smiles and settled in with our books to determinedly ignore the safety spiel. As we took off I had that usual enchanted moment with the patchwork land and sun rising over pillowy skies that you feel whenever it's been too long since your last flight for you to take the magnificence for granted. And then I went to sleep.

In fact we both slept for about 2 hours until the plane began to descend and we both looked out at the suddenly Italian view. The gentleman pointed out to the farmland below and proudly said "that's my land" and I was unsure for a moment about whether he meant the precise farm we were flying over because it seemed amazingly coincidental. But despite my confusiom it broke the ice and with about 10 minutes before touchdown and constant interruptions from the pilot chatting about the weather and changing our watches, we managed to discover much in common and briefly sketch out our Manchester lives and Roman ambitions. He happened to be a former Italian Consulate something and current MMU and Stockport College Italian teacher. So naturally we talked about languages and English and Italian dialects and culture and by the time we reached baggage we were matily chatting in Italian (well he was, I was unabashed speaking incomprehensible cod-Italian which was actually Spanish with what I considered a Italian twist) He had no luggage to collect so he just taught me about five goodbye and good luck phrases and went on his way.