Those who knew me in high school know this was painted on the side of my 1965 VW bug, The Brother Bug we called it, That was written on it too, It was the late sixties I’m sure – Summer of Love, Merry Pranksters and all. Had to be there I guess but it was in vogue at the time. Looked like it was written in lip stick or something, not exactly sure how it got on there – but any way it said Go with the Flow.
Now some of you may recall Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. He had a term he referred to when you got involved in someone else‘s life. He referred to this as entering someone‘s “karess”, Kind of like a being in a virtual reality of someone’s head space. All of sudden things are different, your in their vortex, their orbit, but it ain’t virtual, it’s reality.
Go with the flow.
And in this case it has nothing to do with Florence or Merry Prankster activities, it has to do with hanging out with Julia. In which case, one must learn to go with the flow. And that is exactly what we did just as soon as we hit Florence. Beginning with encountering her in all her glory at our beautiful hotel – the Bernini Palace. She greeted us at our room (the bellman let her up) and we were soon cruising the streets. Turns out her flat is kitty corner from the Palace, how’s that for planning of which I had nothing to do with. Sweet.
We hung at this place with hanging meats and wonderful cheeses. Shared a bottle of house wine and wandered the streets and walked along the river. Julia talked and talked. We had never her her talk so much ever! Not since she was a baby and we could not understand her. Now it was becoming clearer. Enchanting actually. She had been here, been there, going here, and now we were going with her. We had entered her karess. And it was going to be AMAZING.
Julia cooking up a storm in her cooking class. Dozens of people watched like you are at an aquarium…including us.
Must have turned out cuz she ate it too.
and where should we eat tonight?
The frantic search begins …each night. Where can we get in? …without a reservation…
Oh yes, and we had to make time for a fish kisses. Unbelievable, i would do it again – weekly. They eat the dead cells on your feet. Yes, dozens of them.
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meanwhile we decided to head out of town toward the Chianti region – Land of many vinos – all good :).
The rampage continued…
The wine tasting begins..
Julia was running this joint.
Best Gelato in the world – hello San Gimignano!
And a cat nap in Seina on the steps of Duomo. Nice work California girls (Julia & Rachel).
Go pro-ing it in Monteriggioni, another walled city.
This is not the end of the line …you can absolutely follow more of Julia’s adventures at: https://wanderlustinitaly.wordpress.com/
lifeintheclickstream 