travel writing/ Italian cities

travel writing/ Italian cities

fiction
edward w pritchard

Since I was nine I have been enamoured with the Italian cities and of course the Italian beauties who live there. But this article is not about women, but about my love of Italian cities, like the women there the most beautiful in the world. Rome, Florence, Milan, Naples and many many other Italian cities, many many times have I embraced; savoring their aromas and the gentle curves of the hills and valleys skirting those cities.

Now when I travel to Italy I look for the out of the way, off the path and beyond the ordinary. Such is how I came to know Portingo, a place few travelers find and no one not even a local ever really knows.

Portingo may not be reached by any road, it has no train, no airport and no listing on a map. Portingo is a city of the mind and one may only experience it after a full life of travel to the Italian city states.

Fine wine, beautiful women, high culture and pastoral settings do not await in Portingo.

What does await you in Portingo? Sit back in your chair, throw a log on the fire, dim the lights and imagine a Tuscan countryside. Float one hundred feet in the air as you approach a small village. Listen carefully to the voices of children and the gentle hammering of  craftsmen. As you get closer you can hear the gossiping of two village women as they hang their laundry under a bright blue sky.

To some the ideal Italian city is about history, antiquity, ruins and dead men and heroic deeds. Others come to Italy for food and a fine hotel bar. Pasta i fusilli , trout Piemonte and Fiano wines are the regimen dilizso to relieve stress and rekindle a lost amore for what's left of the good life. Typically, Art, music or religion; murals, orchestras or cathedrals tempt the cultured traveler to leave their comfortable armchair and navigate airport security queues to find the ideal Italian City. Portingo has all of the above and more. Whatever the erudite traveler can imagine Portingo can provide. Cheaply, conveniently and always at hand with no airport delays, no lost luggage and no disappointing hotel stays,

Portingo is an imaginary Italian city where the seasoned travelers supplies the adventures from comfortably at home, in their favorite chair, without any of the realities of actual travel.

Portingo, may you never return, may you never leave. Ciao Italia