Thursday, November 1
A cold and blustery day that turned sunny and windy

This was a quiet day spent in my cabin taking care of my sore throat, reading a mystery novel catching up with my blog journal. I decided to join the community here in sitting in silent mediation for 30 minutes in the newly cleaned Gompo. It was nice sitting quietly in a room full of people (at least 80); time passed quickly. We were led by an old Tibetan monk who is obviously very ill; he has throat cancer and only whispered the prayers. He lives here and is intended to teach part of the Master Course next year but everyone is wondering whether he’ll make it past December.


Friday, November 2
Brilliantly sunny, windy and turning hot in the afternoon

Today, after a cappuccino and brioche at the little cafe here, Karen and I decided to walk to the little hill town of Castellina Maritima. It was a beautiful walk with magnificent views of the countryside, farmland and the Mediterranean shimmering in the distance. We explored the pretty little town, trying to imagine what it would be like to live in one of the red tile-roofed, bougainvillea-covered stone houses with chickens, cats and dogs in the yard. Decent size properties were being sold for about €200,000. Our lunch at the osteria in town, consisting of crostini with a variety of amazing toppings, white house wine, soup, and tagliatelli with fungi (mushrooms & pasta) was amazingly delicious and we had no trouble retracing our steps back down to our little cabins for a nap. It took us 3 hrs to walk the 10K. Tonight I’ll treat Karen to a dinner at the local restaurant and order some Brunello wine - the best red in the west.
Tomorrow, my last day in Italy, I take the train to Rome.