Inclement Doldrums

Since the room at Casa Celeste’s that I’m sleeping in has only one small window in an upper corner, I’m initially surprised to find it cloudy when I arrive downstairs for breakfast. Looks like rain, and indeed, some drops start sprinkling on my table, which they laugh and move for me… A couple from Connecticut are friendly and we chat; his parents are Italian and he’s studied the language and is competent enough to speak it freely. Marco is there and I accost him for the use of his internet wiring which he generously lends me, and sit there and read my email and write my blog for several hours, with a plate of spaghetti being the only interruption. Later on, in the evening, I’m in my room and I can see the flashes of lightning and hear the claps of thunder, so I listen to my Ipod… It pours until the middle of the night.

Sunday, Rich and Nancy (or “Elizabeth” as he calls her) invite me to go for a ride down the Amalfi Coast with them. They’ve rented a car and he’s actually a respectable driver. So, off we go down to Amalfi and through the other towns in the area, stopping for lunch at a restaurant in Ravello. While we are walking the streets still wet from the night before, we see our first scooter accident. A woman is riding with her 10- or 11-year-old daughter on back and she skids trying to avoid a car coming up her path. Her daughter is ok, but the woman’s suffering some injuries and a broken helmet. We leave them calling the emergency number but we notify the police even before she gets through…

Later, I hear Italian music from the town and also fireworks, but they’re finished by the time I arrive. They’re having a yearly celebration of the Rosary at the local church. My landlady’s there and she points out the free pasta and wine prepared in prodigious amounts. There’s a band that takes until 10:00 p.m. to set up but they’re actually pretty good after they play a few songs. The music is a strange cross between Southern Italian and Moorish. And, zeppolli, like I remember it, is in abundance. Lots of the crowd is dancing and I stay until 11:30 p.m.