3 (Perfect) Days Away
The Olympics are almost here in Italy--just three more days--and, while there have been torches passed and reminders given, I don't feel very close the action up in Torino (well, we are quite a drive away). Still, it's the Olympics, and now, with Antonello and me considering going to Torino for mountain-climbing this summer, I was happy to find news of the city and its sites over at
Hemispheres Magazine's Three Perfect Days.
Hemispheres Magazine is United Airlines' inflight magazine, and it is surprisingly good in terms of writing and photography. I've loved it's Three Perfect Days series for a long time--articles about everything from days in Rome to Montreal to Bangkok give you a getaway for a long weekend.
And this time, I can finally learn a little something about Torino for our upcoming trip (and, of course, for following along better once the Olympics finally get here).
-Jackie
A Bottle in the Arno
"
"We do not remember days... we remember moments."
- Cesare Pavese
Seven years ago, four girls were walking through Florence and had a fabulous idea:
"Let's throw a bottle full of messages into the Arno River." Okay, so maybe it doesn't seem like it's that exciting of an idea if you're not actually walking through Florence's historic streets, seeing the beauty of the Arno underneath the Ponte Vecchio, far away from your boyfriend back home (for three months!), but that's where we were--and that's where this idea, and seven years of friendship--were born.
So we wrote letters to the people that we cared about the most at that time, we sealed them up into a bottle of wine that we had just finished drinking at a restaurant on the edge of the Arno, and we, together, picked an empty bridge and, there, threw the bottle into the river. The funny thing is that now I don't even remember what I wrote--something to my boyfriend at the time--but it doesn't even matter. It isn't the messages that have kept the four of us together, after all.
Yesterday was "Giorno della Bottiglia," or Bottle Day, and every year we four girls celebrate that lasting memory by remembering again. To you girls: Corrie, Cassie, and Erin: Happy Bottle Day! Miss you all! Remember--one of these days we will have to hold a Bottle Day reunion here, in Italy, at that restaurant near the Arno--with a bottle of wine that we don't HAVE to throw in the river :)!
If you're interested in reading in more detail about Bottle Day, read
this article that I wrote for
The Long Trip Home's Florence Spotlight.
In the meantime, Buon Giorno della Bottiglia!
-Jackie
