Goodbye, Leonardo...

...and Orietta...and Cinzia...and the merceria ladies....

Today we were overwhelmed with gifts from Orietta; Ashley posted on that so I won't duplicate.  But I was overcome by her generosity.  Later we had Leonardo stop by so we could give him his little present (a copy of the Chronicles of Narnia).  He had tears in his eyes as he read our inscriptions.  The story is that Narni is a town in the area, and during one of our road trips, Leonardo mentioned that this town is the provenance of Narnia's name.  Apparently C.S. Lewis really liked the name during one of his trips to Italy, and appropriated it for his mythical land.  I asked Leonardo if he'd ever read the books, and he said no.  Since he's a practicing Catholic, I explained some of the symbolism and the portrayal of heaven and hell in The Last Battle.  Anyway, I thought he'd enjoy the books, so we got the compendium.  I hope he likes them!

Benedetta came by for a drink.  She's always so sweet, and a real breath of fresh air.  She's been a treasure.

Tomorrow, my parents want to go to Orvieto.  James is going with them, and the rest of us will be eking out every last drop of being here in our sweet town.  I'm going to go to purchase a painting that I've looked at every time I have gone up and down the hill.  There's an exhibition in town, too, so I'll take a look. 

It will also be a musical day.  Eleanor has her last piano lesson with Francesco, and then we have a recital in the afternoon.  Eleanor will be singing and Jeremy will be playing a duet with his teacher.  We'll also go by the violin maker in the morning in the hopes of catching him at his work.

Then dinner at Cavour to say goodbye to Fr Jimguin, and the last full day will be over.

Love,

Alexandra