From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"

By Betty Smith

The night was heady and frosty. There was no wind and the air was cold and still. The stars were brilliant and hung low in the sky. There were so many stars that their light made the sky a deep cobalt blue. There wasn't a moon, but the starlight served better than moonlight.

Francie stood on tiptoe and stretched her arms wide.

"Oh I want to hold it all!" she cried, "I want to hold the say the night is-- cold without wind. And the way the stars are so near and shiny. I want to hold all of it tight until it hollers, 'Let me go! Let me go!'"

"Don't stand so near the edge," said Neely uneasily, "You might fall off the roof."...

"I need someone," Francie thought desperately, "I need someone. I need someone to hold close. And I need more than this holding. I need someone to understand how I feel at a time like now. And understanding must be part of the holding."...

"Neely, if you had to die, wouldn't it be wonderful to die now- While you believed that everything was perfect, the way this night is perfect?"

Friends, it was my last day in Cortona on Tuesday. The last days were spent packing things and enjoying the company of my friends. We watched a meteor shower on Monday night/Tuesday morning. My friends, this was the perfect passage for the evening. We walked up to The Fortress
which is right above Santa Margarita (the church at the top of the hill above the JDK center. Oh, and also, did I tell you that Santa Margarita is the patron saint of Cortona? She protects Cortona from earthquakes and bombs. I somehow seem to remember talking about her, but maybe I didn't. Her big miracle is finding her dead lover in the middle of a field. I think the story is sad...)
But anyway, a friend and I went with some friends, most of whom were very alcoholically charged. Lexi and I were not, so we listened to the others and talked to each other and wished upon falling stars.

On Tuesday, we packed everything and had dinner for the very last time at Tonino's. We had dinner there the night before as the "Last Supper" which was Tonino's finest. Tonino's is actually a five star restaurant and hotel. We did not experience the "fivestarness" of Tonino's most of the time. Not that the food was bad, it just wasn't "five star." But the last supper was pretty good and it was also the twins' birthday. They turned twenty one. We've had many a birthday here, and it's great because they always make an extra effort at dessert the night where we have a birthday, not that it mattered that night... but we did have fun.

That was Monday night. On Tuesday night, the twins' dad came down. We took him to a place in town called "Dulce Maria" and had dessert. Apparently, I was very funny. I was making jokes about feminists, the Cookie Monster and Land Before Time (3,000,005! Watch them turn into oil!) And then I tripped, which was only funnier until the next day when I noticed a huge bruise on my left knee. The stories that left knee has. I think in a different life, I would be a comedienne. Maybe I will be some day... maybe.

On Wednesday we said good-bye to our dear Cortona and made our way to Naples. Napoli is a bit of a shock in comparison to the rest of Italy that we have seen. Naples is VERY industrial/urban. We have thus far been to very scenic and rural towns (even Rome had its rural moments). Naples is also scenic, but very much like a big city, full of cars and apartments and noise. It has been very hazy here all day. We went to the beach yesterday (not so huge for me since I have lived next to beaches literally my entire life) and it was very nice. The sand here is black and filled with sea glass and worn ceramic pieces. Sea glass, for those who don't know what it is, is glass from bottles or wherever, that has been worn away by the ocean to be translucent and rounded at the edges, much like smooth, round rocks only they are still in odd shapes. It's very pretty against the black of the sand. There were a lot of stairs to get down to the seaside. It made Cortona's hill look a little silly (but not much).

Today, we went to the Compadimonte, which is a huge museum that used to be a mansion filled with paintings from the Renaissance, Italian and otherwise. It contained a Caravaggio, which we all went on a mad hunt to find, before sauntering through the rest of the museum. It was a huge building and one could certainly imagine balls and events being held there before it became a museum. Then we hung out on the lawn for a long time, playing with a soccer ball that a couple of teenagers did not want anymore. Then we went to the Archeological museum. Lea called it "the Superbowl of Archeology." I must admit, it has a LOT of classical sculpture in it, including a room filled with "naughty" objects taken from Ancient Roman villas and homes.

During the 19th century when excavations were beginning to be made, naturally, there was a lot of scandal around these explicit objects that they found. Not wanting to damage the pure minds of the lady folk who went on the Grand Tour, they decided to take all of these objects and put them into one room, so that their gentility could be preserved. This just means that now we have a room full of ancient phallic objects. It's pretty funny when you think about it... rather than be spread out and less shocking, you get shock all at once... and a lot of it. Naw, it wasn't all that bad. Romans used these objects to ward away bad spirits. They were considered signs of fertility and because of the completely ridiculous nature of some of them, rather funny. And laughter was the best way to ward away evil spirits, thus these were talismans against bad spirits.

The rest of the museum was remarkable. It contained many figures and mosaics from bathhouses and from the temples located in Pompeii before the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Most of these figures were colossal, well over twice to three times my height, I am sure. Oddly, though all of us have been feeling rather exhausted and we were all rather glad to be back on the bus to go back to our hotel. And now I am at an internet cafe... and very late for dinner.