This summer (dreading the Delhi heat), we gladly accepted our daughter’s invite to stay with her in Budapest. We were pleasantly surprised to know that she had further planned a vacation in Italy with us for 10 days!
Budapest was very beautiful as always…so grand, green and great weather. Soon began our trip to Italy. First four days were in Rome which seemed like an exotic open air museum. Very real almost 14-15 ft tall sculptures adorned the entire city. The works of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Boticelli and so many more speak volumes of the history and culture of Rome, not to mention the gastronomical delights – pastas, pizzas and the mouth watering gelatos.
Next was Florence, where we got to explore the villages of Tuscany, which seemed like heaven on earth. Surrounded by green hills and deep valleys, rows of olive, cherry, plum, mulberry trees…it looked like a dream!
However, we were to spend the last day in a quaint Tuscan village in a vineyard, making pasta and wine tasting. The chirping birds, stories of wolves howling in the night and snakes on the way to the farm, playing with farm pigs and ponies and ducks, picking and eating plums and cherries…it seemed like the best day of my life. The finale was yet to come. We dirtied our hands to make pasta(ravioli) from a scratch, laughing and chatting with people from all across the globe. Lunch was served on a table overlooking the green hills. From pasta and wine to coffee and tiramisu- it was all too good to be true!
All good things come to an end but this one had an unusual one! As we boarded a bus, which was heavily packed, from the train station to our hotel, we realised we were in the wrong bus and got down at the next stop in 5 minutes. It was within these five minutes that my wallet (containing my debit card, Aadhaar and pan card and some euros) got picked from my backpack! We blocked the card immediately but it did dampen our spirits. However, as Swami Vivekanandji says… There are no mistakes in life, only lessons to be learnt…Dear friends, lessons learnt …When in touristy places, don’t trust anyone. Keep your backpack in front and never carry important documents not required on fun trips. Safe travels.
