Bill Thayer's diary • November 13, 1994

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Sunday 13 November

Up earlyish but not so very. Purgative sort of "breakfast" with a pint and a half of strong tea — Needless to say, the obligatory last meal at the Umbria last night — and last night was the last possible night in view of the theater tonight and Monday they close even if I weren't skating — didn't bring my weight down any: now standing at 78-.

Beautiful weather (if cool), last free day in Umbria, weight to lose, so I'm going for a walk. Of the eight places (of 48) not yet seen in "Todi e Dintorni", four can be done in one walk, as it so happens in the general area of both Carlo from yesterday and Renata who will be at home precisely today Sunday — so off I go; concerned about the cool temperature but mainly about the broken blisters on the top of my feet from the Viterbo situps — should be alright.

I'm back. Most of the day it was pleasant rather than cool; the feet blisters caused no problem. The Sargasso Sea on the other hand, which this week has migrated to the Gulf of Guinea, was uncomfortable for a while — but generally, my walk went well and enjoyably.

I managed to get out of the house at 9:30, and Todi is full of surprises, immediately heard an odd noise — a pair of bagpipers it was, starting the Christmas season on their own, playing the same little tune, something very uplifting about it, one on the drone, the other on the chanter — a perfectly delightful sendoff for me — dressed in a simple modern dress version of traditional shepherd's clothing, with fleece jackets.

[. . .] I've just had dinner, winding down the strongozzi capers and parmesan, gone Renata's Ciliegiolo — don't right now feel like recording minutiae of today's walking — [. . .] the day was so beautiful and the views so stunning [. . .]

Back from the theater — Shakespeare is wonderful, even when robbed of his finesse by translation1 adaptation and overacting (although the performance was by and large good) — half past midnite past —

Still don't want to write up the day's walking: do it in the train tomorrow [. . .]