On Wednesday, it rained. We drove the whole way, from Speyer, Germany to the Lunigiana, without stopping at the lakes as we had planned, which were being deluged when we passed.
But the Lunigiana had begun to clear by the time we reached home. Except we weren’t home alone. No, we had hired cleaners to get the house in shape for our arrival. It wasn’t easy getting them out.
It was 6:30 in the evening when we arrived. Two of them were scrubbing away, still.
“Leave it!” we kept saying.
“It would be a shame not to scrub the entrance-way now!”
“No, really, trust us, we’ll do it!”
“Oh, no! That’s not right!”
Finally, with our urging, they scrubbed themselves out the door.
Never try to stop Italian woman from cleaning.
Finally, we went to dinner, as our house now smelled like a Monsanto plant at that moment.
The next day we did the predictable: we went out for gelato in Fivizzano, eating our cones right in front of the Medici fountain. Now everything is ok. We have arrived.
