Primavera a Levanto

Next spring, as some of you know, I celebrate a landmark birthday.  (For purposes of this post, we shall designate it as my 30th.)  I'm arranging a two-week celebratory stay in Italy, which -- to this point -- some 28 persons, in addition to myself, have indicated a desire to attend.

I don't fool myself that my birthday -- rather than any old excuse to hang out in Italy -- is the chief drawing card.

Anyway, as always, my motto is that if you want something done the way you want it done, you do it yourself.  Hence, I myself am planning the logistics for this extravaganza.

We have picked Levanto -- a beach town on the Ligurian coast, between Genoa and Pisa, as the destination.  Levanto is a gateway to the Cinque Terre, five small, impossibly picturesque villages hanging on hills overlooking the sea -- all of them reachable from Levanto by both mountain hiking trails and railroad.  In high season, the area is overrun by tourists.  We will gather in late May -- a couple months after my actual birthday, but a time when the weather is becoming recognizably warm and "Italian," and (hopefully) before the crowds of summer descend.

My original plan was to find a small town where I could sit, drink espresso, and mull over my life for two weeks -- with friends invited to drop by for visits.  But, like Topsy, the plan just grew.  They say that planning a vacation is, for many, half the fun -- and I find that it's an aphorism that applies to me.  So I'm enjoying the experience of finding ways to fit some 29 people into residences in a small beach town, all in the same two-week period.

Luckily, the relatives and friends invited are, with few or no exceptions, pretty laid back and accepting of whatever comes their way.  In my experience, moreover, long hours in the Italian sun, nourished with pasta, wine, gelati, and strong coffee, only accentuates that pleasant languor, that relaxed sense of la dolce vita. 

I have a year to complete arrangements.  While I refuse to wish a year of my life away, I admit I'm looking forward to Birthday 2020.