Tulips in Italy

April 2 & 3, Wednesday and Thursday:

The days are starting to blend a bit. I wouldn’t say we’ve fallen into any real routine beyond morning coffee and, at least for this week, off to class, then lunch, then whatever we’ve chosen to fill the afternoon with. Next week will be full with showing our friend Stefani around Umbria and “our” piece of Tuscany, so we’ll revert to full-on tourist mode. We’re so excited she can come spend this time with us!

A restaurant we’d gone to a couple of times on our first visit to Spoleto was finally open for lunch – in we went. Excellent lasagna (not your mama’s American style) and oven roasted chicken made us giddily full and fortified for the next stop: the tulip farm Sr. Rolando had spoken to us of.

It’s a small plot of land maybe 15 minutes outside of Spoleto in a small community – a little reincarnation of Holland called TuliPark. There’s even a mock windmill and a giant wooden clog! It is pretty spectacular to come upon; rows of multiple brilliantly vibrant colors that call you like Odysseus’ sirens. A huge parking field guides one in, and once again – it was just us.

A small white tent is the ticket booth where an interesting fellow gave us the run down on how things work. You can pay various levels to wander at leisure, and each level allows picking (actually pulling up) a certain number of tulips. It’s a bit on the pricey side, in our opinion, but maybe not. It’s a labor intensive operation, and what a beautiful thing to offer for only two months out of each year. We were told in the fall it’s a pumpkin patch.

We marveled and oohed and awed over these magnificent delicate flowers. So many various shapes and color combos, some tall, some short, some sleek, some frilly…but all spectacular. The sun, which had been bright all day, decided to nap behind some clouds, so the brilliancy was dimmed a bit. Nonetheless, the colors seemed almost as if plugged into a power source, their tint and depth so amazing.

How to pick out just 10?? It was hard, but we made our choices. You must grab the stem right at the point it enters the dirt, give a small twist, then tug – pop! – out comes the tulip, little bulb and all. At the conclusion, they trim them for you, wrap them in paper, and offer you a bulb to take. Of course, we had to decline that part, but how nice! The young lady that had given us some info, as well as offered us a coffee, was fun to chat with a little more before we left. We told her we might bring a friend out next week, and she said if it were not busy, the owner of the villa (& assumedly the tulip farm) would be willing to show us through the villa. Twist my arm!! We noted at least several old villas in this small agricultural community. I can only surmise it was a wealthy area at one time.

Thursday: language class, then lunch with Claire (eggplant parm to weep over it was so good), a post lunch stroll…and we actually took a small nap!! A leisurely walk later in the afternoon up to the Rocca overlook where we called Stefani to get plans set for her arrival, etc., then aperitivo (first Spritz of the season as the day had warmed nicely) overlooking the surreal view towards the west. A field of cherry trees were showing off their fluffy white flowers – what a pretty contrast to the bright green grass beneath them. Dinner was at the apartment… store-bought gnocchi with a jarred sauce that I embellished with sautéed onion, garlic, tomatoes, and peppers. Shavings of parmigiano on top, and it was pretty dang good.

It’ll be interesting to see how life settles out after Stefani leaves. We won’t be taking classes, and there are many places on our “want to see” list. So who knows, it may be more of a tourist’s life vs. someone living here? Or maybe these things don’t need labeled. I told Marty we are so used to “Vacation on/off, back to work/routine lives” that this retirement thing, so new, is feeling a bit odd. We are retired; we can sightsee every single day whether here or in Texas or wherever if that’s what we want. What a concept!!