Full Steam Ahead -Avanti A Tutto Vapore

It's New Year's Eve and I'm homeward bound. 

Sludge- trudging done, I can finally head back to warmer climes. Through the window the sun is already a glowing orange orb and soon the last daylight of 2022 will be gone. Another year has hurtled past us.  Where has all the time gone eh!

Readers you left me in September travelling at full tilt and - as you have guessed from the title- I've continue in similar fashion.. During the autumn I've blasted down roads and railways to see temples, churches, monasteries, ancestral homes, amphitheatres and even dancing horses.

It's not been an easy ride. On the way I've sometimes been travelling at half-steam. We've been delayed by burst boilers and flooding, cracked ceilings and falling plaster and freezing fridges and iced lattes. Yet still I've steamed on.

Sometimes I've travelled faster than time itself. Often waiting in Caserta station for the last train home at 8.30pm whilst the clock told me it was 3pm. I barely noticed this, though as cappucino in hand I was completing yet another practice exam question. Yes, it was the dreaded Italian Citizenship Exam that I was preparing for. Scribbling furiously, 

I knew that time for me was running out. Exam Day was almost upon me!

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Up at 5am I kept going at full tilt to the end. I just hoped that I'd stay awake until I completed all the papers! As the Italians say: 'Il buon giorno si vede dal Mattino' (A good day begins in the morning) However already at  9am things were not looking very promising! 

Having arrived before the invigilators I already had some misgivings. My doubts increased on learning that the only toilet was out of order. Crammed around 5 large tables, I soon realised that my bladder would not be the only distraction. My 'tablemate' to the left kept interupting me to ask for help, whilst my companion opposite's eyes kept moving between the exam paper and her mobile phone.

  'A Chi da'l il dito si prende anche il braccio'. (Give an inch and they'll take a mile) With fools to the left of me and jokers to the right and no usable toilet in sight, it wasn't long before my head was pounding.

Luckily I had just enough fuel on board to go full thortle. There was never such a good time to advance a tutto vapore! 

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A month on. With no blood on the tracks, I can look back and laugh. What a year 2022 has been. I've certainly covered a lot of track. As the legendary journalist Clarkson puts it: 'Speed has never killed anyone'. Yet after a long rocky ride through 2022 I 've decided to apply the brakes.

As the Italian proverb advises: 'Chi va piano va sano e va lontano'. (He who goes slowly, goes safely and far)

2023: The new journey begins. I wish you a good one. God speed! Who knows? We may need it!