The trainride from Torino, Italy to Cinque Terre along the coast was beautiful. Mind blowing villas decaying in fields and bordered by encroaching industry were hard to miss. Gone are the agriculture pastoral days, buried under decades and centuries of political upheaval, and contemporary urban-centric living. The IKEA europe HQ and distro center was a mile long building.
We couldn't help but see the Cinque Terre coast, cliffs jutting out of Aqua Water with a cluster of buildings piled around a central cathedral. These peoples lives were rugged, they traveled between towns on foot, they all lived close together, and were surrounded by their crops. The church bound them together, seemingly successfully, as the one in Vernazza, Church of Santa Margherita d'Antiochia, was built in 1318.
From Cinque Terre, we head to Parma to visit with Emilia's uncle and learn of her lineage along the Bennecchi family line. Rick, her uncle, is a lute player and US citizen, studying for 10 years to achieve a certificate from the Masters here. We have a wonderful visit with Rick, Maria and Kiara, their daughter, who prattles to me in non-stop Italian, giving me a tour of the countryside that I sadly can't understand well.
We leave Parma and fly to the UK with little trouble, but are held at customs, who demand to see bank statements, tickets of departure from the UK, and get no love from the officials there. After 45 min. of haranguing, we are released to catch our (thankfully) delayed flight. We land in Aberdeen, Scotland, and are met by the lovely Adele, to be our point of contact for the Findhorn Foundation. Our Findhorn immersion begins.
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