It was our delight during this first week in Italy, 2006, to meet and know Giorgio, a gentleman farmer whose acreage adjoined that of our absentee hostess. He's the one who keeps growing things watered, who assures that all visitors are authorized to be there. A good guy. He and his wife took Michele and me to a styling salon (I am usually uncomfortable in barber chairs) for Lina and Michele to get haircuts. Michele looked forward to it, and I, well, I was sitting in a chair waiting, invisible , trying to look interested in an Italian fashion magazine. "Scusi signore, lei vole...?" Well shoot, okay. Guys, it was truly memorable, being fussed over a with tiny gal's continental fingers on my newly shampooed scalp, and scissors doing wonderful things with my curly locks. Not really curly even when there were more of 'em. Heh.

The plan, then, is to click on the stills taken from the several short videos here, to visit ever-so-briefly the places we were. These are very short exposures, licks of the huge banquets our senses tried to get around. Please enjoy.

Maria dalla Francesca was our hostess for the seven nights at Ca Vecchia (pronounced 'kaVEKkia' and meaning 'old place'). Nestled in several layers of official natural-resource protection, these small buildings are relatively near Padova. And in the direction of Mantova, roughly 40 miles due west - note that you do not actually go anywhere by the shortest straight-line route - is a classroom farm. We were privileged to be invited to enjoy, with a gaggle of primary-age kids and their mothers, a day at the farm.

Scuola Fattoria is the name of it. A ride in a tractor-drawn hay wagon, colorful tennies being wiggled with the rest of the energetic little bodies being trucked into the fields of goats and donkeys and bees and similar adventures. Go there if you can. If, of course, you can take time away from the tours and duomos and museums (the big stuff) to see this rather important little stuff. You'll smile that night.

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