Crossing the Alps

My time in Switzerland was just a stop over on my way to my real destination, Italy. I was grateful for Adrian's hospitality and the chance to reconnect. We stayed up late lingering after dinner at the home of his sister and her husband. Mere hours later we both barely made our trains hoofing it to through the predawn dark and then we said farewell. Until next time, hopefully I'll host him..

And then the train sped south into the mountains, through narrow valleys, up steep grades, through tunnels, and in winding paths up and through the Alps. As we passed through the highest mountains the land was still buried in snow though it is April. Then the skies cleared and the land broke open into green valley's and spring in bloom. Somewhere we had crossed an imaginary line into southern Europe.

Changing trains in Milan the people have changed too, the energy is different. Chaotic, warm, alive - latin. I like it here! This I know. A stranger helped me find my train in the rush that I was in, a nice Italian woman on holiday, and then disappeared with a smile. I rode first class, the only seats left, gazing out the windows on the fields of Italy and the mountains whence I came receding in the distance. And so it was eventually that I arrived in Florence in the midst of the Easter holiday celebrations.