Italian delights and another New Year celebration

SARAH AND TIM FIFE

ITALY. For some, simply the name conjures up images of rolling vineyards and dramatic coastlines. For others, they see endlessly flowing vino and mountains of delicious food.

Others still picture shadowy Mafioso-types in clouds of cigarette smoke. Throw in warehouses of artistic masterpieces, about 28 gallons of gelato, and an occasional forest fire, and you’ve pretty much summed up our experience in this legendary land of romance and history.

We began our time in Italy in Cinque Terre, a set of five little villages dotting Italy’s picturesque northwestern Riviera.

Nestled into the steep hills of the coast, the towns are linked by 9 km of walking trails that zig and zag their way through tiny vineyards, bushlands, or trace the rocky coast.

Each little town is the definition of quaint, with twisting alleyways, just one or two main streets (all car-free), and a healthy sprinkling of cafés and olive oil shops.

We rented an apartment for a few days in the southern-most village where the atmosphere was so deeply romantic that we couldn’t help but get overcome by the ambiance -— we felt like we were on a second honeymoon!

Our time in Cinque Terre was spent hiking from one village to the next, sampling the views and the gelatos in equal measure. Each town hummed with life, between its narrowly stacked pastel buildings and smiling locals.

Each path wandered past tiny vineyards and babbling streams overflowing with runoff from the previous night’s rains. We started the hike with ambition and vigour, and ended it slightly out of breath and nearly overwhelmed by the views of the Italian countryside crashing into the sea.

From Cinque Terre, we travelled to Florence, which is apparently the place where art comes from, or at least where art spends most of the year when not touring the rest of the world.

Here we saw Michelangelo’s David, who in person is much closer in size to Goliath that his own namesake, as well as the two copies of David that inhabit the city.

We also saw a couple of Di Vincis, as well as Donatello and Brunelleschi’s work on Florence’s Duomo (that’s Italian for Great Big Friggin’ Church Dome).

All told, we spent nearly a week in this wonderful city, wandering its streets hunting for the perfect leather bag, the perfect pizza, and the perfect panini.

Just up the street from Dant√©’s house (famous for his Inferno) is a little pizza joint called Pizza Toto, where the pizza was that good that Sarah has frequently described her experience there as “life changing.” Wow.

And just down the street and around the corner from the Duomo is a tiny little walk-up panini place called Il Fratellini where I nearly died and went to Paradise.

Each afternoon, we’d rock up to this little hole in the wall with our 5EUR and Sarah would rattle off something about “due panini con tacchini por favore” (which means 2 turkey panini please).

We never knew what would accompany the turkey — one day it was lettuce, tomato and olive oil, another day it was simply covered in roasted red pepper and artichokes.

No matter what it was, our tummies were happy and were ready to continue our pursuits of the perfect day in Italy.

We had a fantastic time wandering the quaint little streets and taking it all in.

Our time in Florence also happened to coincide with Rosh Hashanah, making it the fourth New Year we’ve rung in during our 10 months of travelling (the other three being secular New Year in Tasmania, Chinese New Year in Beijing, and Khmer New Year in Cambodia). It was also the second major Jewish holiday we’ve spent away from home (the first being Passover in Cambodia).

Unfortunately, Rosh Hashanah in Italy wasn’t nearly as interesting as Passover in Cambodia, since we were not lucky enough to have anyone to celebrate it with who spoke our language.

However, we did have the interesting opportunity to visit the Great Synagogue of Florence during the day (it houses the Jewish Museum) and then to experience it in a completely different way when we returned for Rosh Hashanah services.

We both enjoyed hearing the choir sing and seeing it “in action” since most other synagogues we’ve visited have been empty.

That said, the acoustics had an echo and since neither of us speak enough Italian to do much more than order gelato (which we were getting pretty good at, I might add), the sermon was lost on us.

In the end, it was nice getting to see the ancient building in use, but we missed the normal warmth and closeness of our congregations back in Sydney or Pittsburgh.

I think Sarah and I both spent the majority of the day sitting in the synagogue reflecting on how profoundly grateful we both are for having the opportunity to take such a remarkable adventure, and how lucky we are to have each other to share it with.

We can only pray that the next year will hold equal good fortune for us both.

Sarah and Tim Fife, of Sydney, are living their dream by travelling around the world for a year. Their journey is taking them through Asia, Europe, Israel and the US.