Thursday, 5 June 2014

DAY 2 - SANT' AGATA DEI GOTI

Our day 2 blogger is Sean Hardie

Our home for three days - Palazzo Rainone Mustilli - an agriturismo in Sant' Agata dei Goti, Benevento
Beautiful Sant' Agata dei Goti
Thursday June 5, 2014

Ah but a writers life is hard, no-one understands. We are always working. As dawn breaks over the eternal city Nuala is already at her desk thumbing through her thesaurus for acronyms for aurora; at breakfast Noel scribbles another ode, already he is onto his fourth napkin. As we drive south along the Appian way – working, always working – Mia studies the driver’s  body language, the way his nicotined  finger reaches out to touch the sat nav. As we pull our suitcases along the narrow cobbled streets of Sant’ Agata  I’m already plagiarising  Merchant Ivory and Henry James, or perhaps The Leopard.  Liz has fallen silent, a new metaphor forming, we are all jealous. Bill – working, always working – eats constantly, searching for the perfect words to match the tastes and textures of Italian cuisine. It is hard, this life, exhausting. Poor Afric is in despair, crossing out the adverbs, gazing into space while poor Valerie attempts to herd her mice on to the next cross roads. And this is only day two and already the clichés are running out...

Wine made by the Mustilli family (with apricots!)

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