Jan Stone, our dear friend from TCU days and now our neighbor in Jemez Springs, came to Rome to visit us for a week. We spent most of the week (April 21-26) on the road in Tuscany. Our base of operations was a beautiful newly renovated flat in the tiny village of Lajatico, population ca. 1300. The tiny, compact village sits on a high hilltop and is about 25 miles southwest of Florence. We took a drive through the countryside every day with Susie at the wheel, Steve navigating with a huge folding map, and Jan keeping a sharp lookout for roadsigns (which are very few and far between).On Good Friday, we went to evening services at the village church, hoping to participate in a candlelight procession through the town. For reasons that were unclear to us -- perhaps because of a light rain -- the procession didn't take place, but we did listen to the readings for the Fourteen Stations of the Cross performed by villagers in front of a large effigy of the dead Christ and his sorrowing mother.
Lajatico's favorite son is Andrea Bocelli, an operatic tenor who was born here. He is the moving force behind the creation of the Theater of Silence, an outdoor amphitheater that hosts only a single performance every year. We can't imagine where the 10,000 spectators park their cars, lodge, or eat in this tiny village.
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