Magical Places

Magical Places:  

Have you ever visited, vacationed, or happened on a place that felt positively magical?  It may have been close to home, or at least in the USA.  Or, perhaps it was while traveling in another country.  This morning, as I was journaling, my thoughts took me on a wonderful trip down memory lane.  Visions of the wedding trip the Cowboy and I took at this exact time of year, sixteen years ago.  He planned a fabulous trip to Italy for us.  He is a great travel planner, by the way.  We flew into Milan.  Two days of  streets of fashion was plenty.  Then we drove to Florence, where we stayed for five or six days.  I loved Florence and couldn’t imagine our next destination would exceed our experience there.  When we left Florence, we motored on to Italy’s Tuscany region where we arrived at our destination, Borgo Argenina, too late in the day to see the surrounding area.  I had no idea I would awaken the next morning in this ancient, rock building that had been transformed into an Italian, country, bed and breakfast to the most breathtakingly beautiful scenery imaginable!

When I opened the shutters and pulled back the white lace curtains, the very first thing I saw was the window box brimming with bright, red, Geraniums.  As I looked up, I saw acres of vineyards.  The grapes were so full, lush, and heavy, they weighed the vines down to where they nearly touched the ground.  As my eyes took in the hills and mountains, I saw the tall, skinny, green, Italian Cypress trees scattered around.  It looked just like the paintings of the Tuscany landscape, but real and tangible.

We were about seven miles from Sienna and visited often.  We would stop at a little grocery store to pick up a few simple items to cook for our dinner in our rustic kitchen.  The store employees were lovely.  We all laughed as we tried to describe, and they tried to understand, what we were looking for.  There was no toaster, so I would spear our bread with a fork and toast it over the gas flame on the stove.  We traveled the countryside where we encountered a flock of sheep.  Tom got out to take a picture of them, and they all started trotting toward him, into the road.  It was about that time an old shepherd, long shepherd’s hook and all, came running toward Tom.  He was yelling, and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t saying “hello”.  We made a quick getaway, Laughing like a couple of teenagers who were up to mischief.  As we drove further on the bumpy dirt roads, we came across a tiny monastery.  We were allowed to go quietly inside and listen to the lovely, melodic chanting of the monks.

There was so much more in this magical experience; the wonderful breakfasts prepared by our hostess, Alena, and the fabulous Italian coffee.  But, I will leave it there for now and invite you to recall your own special place in time.  It’s true, our travel is limited at this time, but there are no limits on recalling those places, experiences, or events that were so wonderful we would visit them again.

What was your trip, vacation, or experience that was so fabulous you would love to do it again?  I would love to know, so please feel free to share it in the comments section below.

Blessings,

Marlene (aka: Coach M)