Amazing to think that I actually left this place all those years ago. I needed a job and I knew I could generate money in the States, when all my contacts in Florence had generated nothing in a year. It does seem silly to have left the beauty and tranquility behind, but I had a beautiful girlfriend and I had to support her. Money does that. I wonder now what would life be like if I had stayed and struggled to make it work over there. I just felt it was the right thing to do at the time and I feel that if we had not made the choices we did, we wouldn’t be where we are and have the family we do.
When I was in Florence, I did an amazing amount of writing. Of course I had lots of time, we rehearsed maybe three times a week and gigged once every two or so, so I wasn’t busy. I used to write on command, poems, songs and short stories. I have a stack of that stuff. Then it was like waking up, here in America, ok time to go to work now, dream is over! Hup! Hup! Put that silly stuff aside and get your lazy ass moving! And guess what? I did. For fifteen years I haven’t written a lick, other than the usual letter or proposal, contract and now email. Writing takes time and needs a quiet place of inspiration, of which Florence is very much. Every time I think that maybe I can sit down for a couple of weeks and hammer out some things, life gets in the way, things like the electric bill, cable and phone, and oh! Oh! Can’t forget taxes!
The funny thing about life in Tuscany is that there seems to be more time. The days seem longer, with the minutes stretching before snapping to the next. Maybe it’s a space time contortion thingy, you know, the fact that they are six hours ahead of us gives them more flexibility, rubberizes there minutes and stretches their hours! Or maybe some things are just not that important that they can’t wait until tomorrow and hey there’s Fede and Vitoria let’s sit and have a coffee! Time seems to be found almost as easily as turning over that next rock and finding a worm! You know those roll over minute commercials for cell phones, the ones where you can reuse unspent minutes? I think maybe that is what the Italians have mastered. They have figured out how to roll up all those unused minutes at the end of the day and reuse them the next! Fantastic! If only they could market that…………………….
