10 Takeaways from Italy, 2023
Buongiorno! Your intrepid “Thoughts” scribe, R. Corydon Perkey, is typing this into the Metasphere (isn’t everything a Metasphere?) from a hotel in Milan, Italy, the culmination of perhaps the best foreign excursion of my young old life.
This will be one of those stream-of-consciousness - whatever pops-to-mind automatic writings, where I have no idea where I will end up (relative to this edition of “Thoughts”) so here it goes:
First, I have a bone to pick with Mrs. Ella Hughes, the wonderful lady who taught Latin at Brookville High School in Lynchburg, Virginia, when I was Brookville “Bee” in the 1970s. I took five years of Latin from Mrs. Hughes, and despite my best efforts, I saw not one single Roman while I have been here in Italy with whom I could carry on a conversation in Latin. Not one!
As impressive as Florence, South Carolina is, Florence, Italy, gives it a run for its money. (I would like to thank my daughter, Mary Brooks, for dissuading me from my mistaken belief that Florence, Italy, was named after Florence Henderson, the mother on the “Brady Bunch”). Oh my! The history! The art! The food! The food! The food!
Seeing Michelangelo’s “David” was awe-inspiring.
Our tour guide in Florence, Monica, was from Orange County, California. Monica moved to Florence in 2008 after her job in the residential real estate business evaporated in the Great Financial Crisis of 2007 – 2009. The command she had over the history of Florence, her explanation of the evolution of the art in the Uffizi Gallery, her recommendations on where to go to find the best pizza and the best gelato – OMG, she was out of this world.
I want to travel by train throughout the United States, just like we traveled from Rome to Florence, from Florence to Cinque Terre, from Cinque Terra to Milan… that is when we can get trains that can get you there faster than by plane or car. What a wonderful way to travel!
Cinque Terre is a collection of five villages literally built into the mountains that line the coast of western Italy. It takes 2.5 hours to hike the 2-mile trail that leads from the town where we stayed, Monterosso, to its southern neighbor, Vernazza.
It takes three hours to get back to Monterosso by boat and by train if you get on the wrong boat that headed south to the town of La Spezia instead of north back to Monterosso. I felt like I was being punked by Ashton Kutcher, or that I was about to finish last in an episode of “The Amazing Race” and get banished from the show. (There is a film clip of me acting like I was in an episode of “The Amazing Race” as we ran through the town center of La Spezia to catch the last train back to Monterosso).
There were plenty of lessons during this trip that have application in all aspects of life, such as:
Slow down, you will take in more information. Savor things.
It is never too early in the day to give someone a smile and a friendly greeting. The hospitality and the kindness we experienced in Italy was out of this world.
I managed to avoid being seen by George Clooney when we wrapped up the trip in Lake Como. This is despite the fact that it was public knowledge that Rich Perkey – winner of the 1975 “Top Camper” award at the Wake Forest Demon Deacon Basketball Camp, the 1976 “Best All-Around Boy” pocketknife at Brookville High School, the recipient of the “Robert McLeod Defensive Player of the Year” award winner for the 1978-1979 Davidson Wildcat basketball team - was in the same zippa coda as George. There were lots of men wearing sunglasses and smoking cigarettes while we were there, so one of them might have been George. I appreciated George giving me some space, and I will do the same for him when he is in Atlanta.
Lake Como is breathtakingly beautiful. It is a feast for the senses – the majesty of the mountains, the gentle breezes, the songs of the birds and the fragrances of the flora. I feel more rejuvenated than at any time in my adult life.
Thank you to my clients and colleagues – especially Kat Tate, Kat Kaloczy, Kelly Blair, and Carlos Cata – for their support in enabling me to enjoy this trip. Two of the searches I am leading went to offer while I was in Italy, and Kelly, Carlos and I were awarded a new project while I was here. Heck, if I had any sense at all, I would go home, wash clothes, and scurry back to Italy next week!
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