Contemplating the Next Move

Maybe it is because we are nearing the end of another year. Or because the last five months have been so very busy. Perhaps it is the new look of the blog that has caused me to think about this. Or maybe this is just overindulgence from one who thinks too much about this. I don’t really know.

What I do know is this- the world as we know it, as we all know it, is our own little unique world. And everyone has one. Some of us have bigger orbits; some of us have more mobility. A few of us have means to make their world bigger than others. And many more of us have a world that has been handed to them, in an instant, and with little time to plan. And here we are, all together, but separated by our skulls. And so we aren’t really all together. We just live on the same funny little green planet. More by accident than design.

I have been writing here at On the Wine Trail in Italy for almost five years now. I have met new friends, made new acquaintance, widened the network. It has been a good run.

And no, I am not signing off or taking leave. Or at least, I don’t think so. But I am contemplating the next move.

I am mystified by the Italy I have studied for 40 years. I look at it and feel like I don’t know her. I could say the same thing for my own country. Perhaps it is a sign of the times. I just don’t think that wine is the most important thing in life. Wine as a metaphor, perhaps. And those who have read between the lines of these posts know that has been a theme.

The occasional person who emails me, to ask about a particular wine or place in Italy, does so thinking what I am writing about on the surface must be what I am interested in. But my friends know that is not what stirs me. I do not have patience to memorize the best vintages of Brunello or the crus of Barbaresco. There are lists and sites for those kinds of things. I don’t have that kind of mind or memory.

I was recently explaining to a friend that when I do think it is often not in words. It is in images, sometimes not even that. And thankfully both Italy and my country have been very helpful in fertilizing the mind for my imaginings. But that is really the realm of my world that no one else really sees. Or reads. And as I said in the beginning, we all have those little worlds.

If anything can be said, today, it is this: the simpler the better. The fewer encumbrances, the fewer decisions, the slice of the sword through the air to arrive at the edge of the bottle to open it and let out the frothy juice, that is what interests me in this period. And if this is something that is of interest to you, dear reader, then you are welcome to visit these pages in the next year. If you are looking for where to stay in Florence or where to eat in Avellino, look not here. If you want to know which is the better Chianti, the one from Castellina or the one from Pontessieve, I won’t be much help. If you want controversy or heated debate, there are other places to find that kind of activity.

I am free of those needs. This is my little bubble. It makes me happy. And if it makes you happy to be here, then, benvenuto. Because that is where On the Wine Trail in Italy is heading.

Thank you.

written and photographed by Alfonso Cevola limited rights reserved On the Wine Trail in Italy