Italy is wonderful – gorgeous architecture seeped in history which the Italians live nonchalantly with, fantastic shops and fashion, tasty simple food, stunning wines, and a glorious attitude to life. The colours are muted but the attitudes are not- voices are raised in excitement, arms waived and shoulders shrugged.

In a crowd it is easy to see who is Italian and who is not simply by the body language and the expressive faces.

Talking to a couple of English speaking women who have been living in Italy for 30 years, they say that an outsider can never quite replicate it – particularly if they come from countries (like NZ and England) where largess is not part of the fabric.
The women seem to move with such confidence, and the men are shameless in their admiration, but not offensive (unless they actually fall off their bikes because they are looking at you..). And again, the children are the centre of the universe – you don’t often see children grizzling or having a tantrum.

I had wondered where all the 60 year old-ish women were hidden (lots of gorgeous teenagers, stunning 20s to 40s, wonderful old nonas on push bikes pedaling around the villages and nonos sitting in cafes). And after crossing the Adriatic Sea overnight, I discovered that they must all be heading to Medugorje! When I came from Rome to Croatia initially the whole plane (except for me) all seemed to be from the same community in Italy, and were all going on a pilgrimage to Medugorje (that middle ‘d’ sounds like the ‘j’ in jam), and on the overnight ferry yesterday it was the same thing - heaps of rounded, ‘set hair’ Italian mothers –plus a priest in a wheelchair and a few nuns - all heading to Medugorje!

So, a little background about Medugorje (I’ve taken this from the website)

“It was June 24, 1981, the Feast of John the Baptist, the proclaimer of the coming Messiah. In the evening the Virgin Mary appeared to two young people, Mirjana Dragicevic * and Ivanka Ivankovic.* The next day, four more young people, Marija Pavlovic,* Jakov Colo, Vicka Ivankovic,* and Ivan Dragicevic saw the Virgin Mary, bringing the total to six visionaries. These visionaries are not related to one another. Three of the six visionaries no longer see Our Lady on a daily basis. As of July, 2009, the Virgin is still appearing everyday to the remaining three visionaries; that’s well over 12,820 apparitions.”

As you can see, this is serious stuff! I was going to say ‘it’s not every day that you see visions’ but as you can see, for some it IS every day! (Wouldn’t that be exhausting??). Medugorje is the new Lourdes – and what a fortunate turn of circumstances for that small town in Bosnia! What was a poor village is now a bustling town with a prosperous facelift. I’ll leave that thought where it lies.

So - from Makarska to Istria to Venice to Verona to Treviglio to Milan to Lake Como… and back again. In my absence schools have closed for the summer holidays (three months of closed!) and the beach here in Makarksa has new toys – a floating aqua park has appeared anchored just off the shore (30 kuna for 30 minutes) and the number of bodies on the beach has doubled. I struggled to find a place to put my towel at 5 o’clock this evening when I went down to cool off in the sea, and ended up about 6 inches away from the next person. No-one cares though.

The thing I have missed most while I was away from here is the music – the music on the bus, the singing teenagers in the water, the music in the shops and the cafes. The Italians are hot… but they don’t have the music.