Chapter 1; Casa Fleming

Medical school is mind numbing. My Id longs for escape. Lots of thoughts have been roaming through my head lately…Now, if you're tempted to stop reading right this minute, wondering if this is one amuse-bouche-for-the-mind too many--relax. 'Chillax' if you will, as I attempt to convince you that my mind's musings are worth your time, during lunch breaks, at your cubicle. To start, Molly's meditation on traveling has spurned me to conceive what I hope to be a series of entries on my travel experiences, in bite size, stylized vignettes. Call it a retroactive travel journal if you want.
Here goes...

-CASA FLEMING-

We arrived in Tuscany via bus, crossing the Swiss/Italian border on a day trip across luminous fields of wheat and tall cypress that I glimpsed intermittently between naps. The driver left us at the bottom of the hill, forcing me to drag my uncooperative Samsonite up-hill, grinding the wheels against the coarse gravel pavement lining the path to the house. From the drive way, the house was reminiscent of an old barn, and it was not until I cleared the row of cypress blinding my view that I realized how gracefully proportioned it was, this old thing, with red tiles for a roof and stone facades and uneven ledges, worn from years of use. Casa Flemming was old; apparently the house stood on a medieval fort, its foundation a collection of stone slabs gathered from all across Italy by long dead descendents of Roman gods. The stately house stood on a tall hill that oversaw what seemed to me an endless carpet of olive trees--their waxy leaves fluttering in the midday sun--stretching as far as the eye could see. The nearest neighbor was at least four hills away, I counted.

Mrs. Flemming, our host, grabbed my hand. "Welcome! It's good to see all of you." Her bejeweled wrist flickered as she talked. Casa Flemming was her summer residence, her rejuvenation before returning to the business of running the 'American Schools,' a European educational empire stitched together by her own two hands half a century ago. Except for Mrs. Flemming, her cook, and assistants, we had the house to ourselves. In her opera night robe, she cut a billowing trail of black embroidered silk and perfume as we followed her to the back patio to see the stone swimming pool buttressed on one side by 2 tall cypresses, the white cast-iron benches strewn about with ease, and the fuzzy hills of Tuscany undulating before us, unfolding into a misty haze before emptying into the blazing sunset.
I think I gasped.