I had a lump in my throat the whole day. It is so hard to leave this place that we both are so fond of, where we are so comfortable, where life is a carnival. But leave we must.

First off we went down to say goodbye to Donna as she set off for London and to buy our tickets for the Alilaguna the next day. Then we went to a small exhibit nearby called To Where the Flowers are Blooming from the Korean city of Gwangju. The door was open for the lovely bright space so we just walked in to look around.

After just a few minutes we hear a voice saying “Chiuso, Chiuso!” and a cleaning woman came out of the back and basically kicked us out. No big deal; we saw the whole thing anyway.

We had a lunch date to which, miraculously, both Nan and Jill could come. Sullaluna, a new place to us on the Misericordia has great vegetarian sandwiches and we all enjoyed our lunch. I was so glad to see Jill, if only at the very last minute. After lunch we went with Nan and her friend Freddy to the Impiraresse shop, in the area near the train station. Here is the link to their website: https://dittagioia.it/en/ The owner, Luisa, is a friend of Nan’s and the shop includes a small “museum” type display of various beads and beadworks as well as a very healthy inventory of necklaces, bracelets etc. I got a necklace and we hung out there for quite a while learning about the art and history of beading.

Finally we walked home, lump in throat persisting. I made Ken a final Italian meal of pasta with and Amatriciana style sauce and some nice little zucchini. We both spent a good amount of time staring out the window. The light on San Michelle was just beautiful:

We had to get in bed early in preparation for the next day.

Big sighs…