Note: This post is a short one to give you a glimpse, of what it is like to wake up in a small town in Italy. More about what we did will be in the next post. Join me now, as I wake up on the Vernazza town square at the hotel Alberga Barbara.
The church bells begin a new day confidently announcing that it is 7 am. A single bell drones on and on, as though it knows you won’t hear the first one. It will take five or six or a dozen to lull each slumbering soul out of their sleepfulness. So it doesn’t stop at seven dongs… it just keeps donging until it is sure everyone has heard it. (But may the Good Lord help you if you sleep until 8 am. The bells for 8 and noon are wild, unbridled, and louder.) So the monotonous drone of the 7 am bell is actually a nicer way to wake up.
My mind slowly came out of sleep, and after the bell became silent, the first thing I heard were the high pitched cheering of the swallows as they circled near the square, just above the harbor. You can hear the Doppler effect as they swarm toward you, then away, with those high pitch cheeps. Swallows do short, fast circles, and seem to change leaders often in pursuit of their flying food.
Vernazza is one of the towns of Cinque Terra. It’s the second one in the chain of five. And looking out my window, I see the empty town square right in front of me. At 7 am, it is as still as a full moon. An occasional worker breaks the silence with a closing of a hatch or pushing of a broom.
It is a blessing to really see the life that moves in front of us.
It’s quite lovely, this early morning quietness. It’s good to stay in a hotel near the center of the square, because you can witness its growth, from first breathe to its jazzy ending around 11 pm.
In the morning, its activity increases slowly, just like the start-up acceleration of Italy’s fully electric trains that pause for passengers at the station up the hill. Oh, how slowly the acceleration happens. By 10 am, the town square is in full motion with vendors selling their wares and tourists flooding the alleys, coming downhill from the train station, and finally filling up the town square.
It is a blessing to really see the life that moves in front of us. When we pause, from the hectic pace, we can really see, hear and feel it. A different language is spoken here in Vernazza, but these same blessings can be obtained anywhere you are.