Dec 22, 2005 10:30 AM Mentoulles

“I gatti volano! “ The cats are flying.
Packing our bags to the sound of Rolling Stones blasting from itunes on my laptop. We’re leaving today for Cortona where we will spend Christmas. Art is staying on until January 5th, longer than planned. He wants to see the system running, just to make sure. A friend of Peter B, our crew captain, has a house in the Tuscan countryside, and she’s giving it to us for the holidays. We’ll be able to cook our own meals, coffee, settle in, save a bit of money. We’re coming back with a full car: Peter and JC and their luggage and us, Tre Galli, named after the restaurant in Torino, where the waitress was really cool.



It is hard to leave the skates behind,but Corotona is supposed to be warmer, no outdoor ice. I’ve got to get some exercise! In Sestriere we played squash. Well not exactly played. The air is so thin up there, it’s quite a struggle to breathe! But if we keep going up the mountain and hitting the ball around, eventually our blood will be more oxygen rich. After all, we’re coming from sea level. We practiced our Italian with some young wait persons in Sestriere. They love the effort!



Last night we had our last supper at Mezouin Blancho before Christmas. I brought out one of the ice candle forms that Nancy got, and gave it to Sylvia. Then I handed out a scarf and a hat to Art’s girls, with the Ice Painting Project embroidery, plus a cassette tape of Stories for A Winter Solstice. Little Allessandra sat on the steps peeking out, so we gave one to her and then sang “We wish you a merry Christmas” to the family. I think they like us because at every meal, I bring out the yellow flash cards, and Jaz asks how we can say this, or that in Italian. Sara and Christina have even learned a few words. Sylvia said most English-speaking people don’t even make an effort to learn Italian. They gave us a bottle of ganapy, a green liquer made from an herb which only grows in the Fenestrelle mountains. It doesn’t feel like Christmas at all.

Got the following email, and a comments from a bunch of people re: the article in the Vancouver Sun.

Hi Gordon,

I work at the CBC in Vancouver at Zed. We are working on a weekly
segment (Zed Index) in which we list 'What's cool in Canada'. We would
like to feature your work - with the upcoming Olympics in Turins - in
this list as well.

Thanks!
Renske Werner CBC - ZED



Dec 23rd. To Cortona!. But first, Carrera, the marble quarry where Michaelangelo ordered up his blank canvases. A quiet, haunting place out of James Bond. Steep, majestic mountains being ripped apart by machines. Deep pits carving up the mountain in square blocks. In the distance, over the hill, you could hear from time to time, enormous sounds of marble slabs falling down the hills. Obviously a tourist attraction, the place was deserted on December 23rd, two days before Christmas. Italian buildings I’ve been in from hotels to government buildings to cheap restaurants, each one has marble somewhere, the stairs, the floors, the counters, and of course the beautiful statues so lifelike they seem to breathe. We stood dwarfed beside smooth blocks of marble, walked up the hill past the vietato signs, watched workers, so small, so far down the gulley operate supersize green cranes to lift the blocks. Everything covered in the white dust. Gord and Jaz hopped into a sporty jeep with a complete stranger, albeit upbeat, who, though he only spoke Italian, offered to take them to the top of the hill, past the visitors forbidden sign. Then, they disappeared up the mountain, around the sharp corners on the narrow gravel roads, out of sight. Eerie, quiet and yet over the hill, the churning of machines, the loud, thunderous slides.



After a half hour of silence, crashing rock and no jeep, they both returned, exhilirated from their ride. “It was a good thing you didn’t go,” Jaz said. I don’t like those white knuckle rides on narrow gravel roads.