Italia.

It has been quite a while since that train station in the Rhineland. That night I ended up sharing the floor of the station with a Polish political exile. I spoke no Polish and he no English but we still managed to have an intense and satisfying conversation. The next day I met up with a friend's family and enjoyed fine wines in a castle over looking the Rhine River valley.

Then south to Roma to meet up with a fellow wandering Watson and old friend. My three days spent there, a few hundred meters from the Pantheon, flew by and since then I've been living on a small farm near the northern Italian town of Piacenza. Long hours each day cutting wood in the forest and working in the vineyard followed by nightly Italian lessons and so much pasta.

The farm is located in the valley surrounding the River Trebbia, "the cleanest" river in Italy and a major tributary of the Po. Last week I spent most of a long day navigating my way to a amazing beach along the Trebbia--where I slept and swam away a sunny afternoon.

And in few days I head to the Alps, then finally to the coast.