Valentina´s Villa

You may remember some references to my friend Valentina that works at the local gelato shop. She speaks amazing English, has a beautiful demeanor and serves us the most gelato for our money. I asked if she would like to hang out sometime, so we went and got a coke last week and started talking about family. We wanted to hang out again, so she came and picked me up today and we went to her house and then to Perugia.

This girl is fascinating. There are so many little things that the we have in common such as loving to cook, travel, and our reactions to situations. I felt like I was living out a movie scene when she took me to her villa where she lives with her grandmother and mom. I had never seen the inside of an Italian home so it was really exciting to drive up into the hills and then enter her huge villa. The inside was decked out in dark wood and had three stories. Her mom, picture perfect, was inside cooking. She took me to Perugia where we walked miles uphill just to grab a granita drink and overlook the city. She amazes me because she didn´t need shopping or touristy stuff to entertain us. She just loves to walk and imagine the lives of the ancient people who once wandered these streets. Valentina, as I came to find out, was a model in Malta and Milan, plays the guitar, is an incredible artist, and made straight A´s in all English taught classes before she even knew the language.

Back at her villa, we wandered around their many acred backyard and ate fresh lemons, blackberries, and sweet peas before wandering through the strawberry fields and looking at the rabbits and chickens. Their family has olive groves that are harvested in November and pressed for fine olive oil to be exported. The women made a fabulous meal for me, huge and delicious. We had a ¨homegrown¨chicken, roasted and baked zuchinni, fresh cucumbers from the garden, tortillas with thyme, a fresh salad with oil and vinegar. Her family did not speak English, but Valentina was kind enough to translate all of my thank yous and ¨this is a dream¨s. She was so sweet to pack me up a bag and carton full of the gelato from the shop. I eagerly brought this back to anxious mouths at the center which devoured the sweets while I told the stories. This day, though it began in frustration and exhaustion, has turned out to be a day that has defined my time in Italy...new experiences, conversations about family and the Lord, and fufilled dreams of life´s simple pleasures.