DanielSonenberg.com

Flying over the Italian alps…I woke up almost 24 hours ago, and finally a hint that it might all have been worth it. The clouds hover like little tufts of cotton, casting shadows on the peaks that lie scant meters below. In the valley, congested red-thatched houses, here and there a body of still, blue water. And just like that the mountains yield to flatland…geometric shapes in every shade of green and brown. The Italian August sun casts a sultry, seductive haze across the endless swathes, squares and squares and rectangles. And then, trees! Sprinkled in like kale amidst the meat. The map shows us above Genoa. Or Turin? Where are we actually…hard to say. But 285 miles to our destination. That’s half an hour, right? Oh there’s Athens and Istanbul and Kiev and Moscow and Warsaw and Helsinki and London and Madrid and Barcelona. The world is a small place, it turns out. And somewhere in the sky, or maybe just touching down, is sleepy Alex, nervous about her Italian, searching out her bags and my flight. If she doesn’t find me when I pop out of the gate, we’re to meet by the train, where there’s a little café that injects their freshly made cornettos with chocolate or jam, your choice. I have had more breakfasts than I care to recount. One after the other. Breakfast breakfast breakfast. No matter where I go, it seems eternal morning. My computer clock tells me it is 5:55AM. But that’s a world behind me, and I’m really careening on towards noon. I have the Daily Mail and the Observer, and a whole row of seats to myself. Pisa! Florence! Dear Florence, I’ll see you again shortly… too bad travel is no longer the shortest distance between two points. And now the bright blue sea. The Mediterranean – some coastal town or city even. The water is cyan with strange beige ripples. The city, maroon. The captain announces we picked up a great tailwind so we're only a little late. We'll be in at 12:30. That gives 2.5 hours to find A, get bags, get to Rome Termini, and find our train to Firenze. I am ever hopeful.