Arrival in Italia!!

Ciao lovelies! I am in a small town called Tuoro sul Trasimeno, near Perugia in Umbria. I arrived in Rome on Monday morning, and took a train from the airport to Roma-Termini, the big train station where I would catch my train to Tuoro.  

I suspended my phone service for these two months I am away. I have a fear that I would accidentally push the wrong button on my phone, and next thing I knew I would be paying hundreds of dollars in international roaming fees. I feel disconcertingly naked without my cell phone. Kind of like when my watch died, and I realized how many times I checked it, and panicked, wondering how I would make it on time to the places I needed to go. Then I remembered that it didn't matter as I'm never on time anyway.... very freeing.  

Anyway, since I didn't have my phone, I had to buy a schede-telefonichi from the tabacchi shop, which I then proceeded to stick into everyone public phone I could find, to no avail. Thankfully a kind old Italian man saw me, popped off the corner of my card, dialed Lenka's number, and all was well.  

After a two hour train ride, I arrived at the Terontola-Cortona station. For those of you who saw my solo show, this is the train station where we filmed the video for All The Stories.... which was created the last time I was here. It is so lovely to find a familiar place so far from home. And there was Lenka on the other side of the platform, looking for me, jumping and waving, running for the sottopassagio to come help me with my bagagli.  

This is how I learn a foreign language, by the way - signage.  

The last time I was here, I was really in the country. We had to buy all of our water, since the water from the well was really dirty. We had to use propane gas tanks for the stove and hot water heaters - which we ran out of one night, and ended up making gnocchi in the electric kettle. Not delicious. Internet access was via dial-up modem, so I couldn't even use my computer, which didn't matter anyway after I spilled chamomile tea on it.  

This time I am living in a house with the four members of the company who are touring DejaDonne's latest piece. Christine is from Norway, Martina is from Italy, Natalia is from Poland, and Dagmar is from Germany. And me.  

I can drink the water out of the tap, there is a bathtub - sigh - and there is even a tv. Last night I saw Kanye be an ass to Taylor Swift at the MTV music awards - funny that I would see that in Italy, not Texas.  

I have wireless access at Lenka's office in the theatre. And Facebook. It's a whole new world.