Stanley è malato

20 Oct

Stanley is sick!

Today is our last day in Rapallo and, arguably, the most dramatic so far. As you may have noticed in earlier posts, the weather here has turned. Stan hasn’t been able to go out without his coat on. I’d noticed a small sore on his back but assumed it was linked to the combination of his harness and coat rubbing together. After the first day of rain, I put the harness away so it wouldn’t bother him and he went to school in just his coat. However, my hypothesis about the provenance of the sore on his back was wrong. As we arrived at school this morning it was clear his back was still sore and not getting better. Elisabeta suggested we go and meet Nicoletta, the vet at Via Trento - I’m glad we did! Stan’s temperature was 39.5 degrees celsius so Nicoletta did a blood test. Fortunately, we have caught the infection just as it has taken hold - all of his stats indicated he wasn’t very well. He was given an injection that lasts two weeks, a cleansing foam and some antibiotics.

My first reaction was relief that Stan’s OK and my second was a little bit of guilt. Was it my fault he’d got it in the first place? Nicoletta informed me that the infection was caused by a mosquito bite. That did not surprise me as I am covered in them - and they hurt like hell. How funny that Stan and I should be suffering from the same affliction - albeit that Stan’s reaction is much worse!

To alleviate the itching, I’d been to the chemist earlier in the week and managed (in my broken Italian) to learn that this was an unusual time for so many to be around. Mosquitos die at temperatures lower than 10 degrees and are lethargic below 15. The chemist informed me that the temperature here in Rapallo this week is around 10 degrees higher than it should be. The fact that we have biblical rain and a humid atmosphere provides the perfect place for them to survive longer.

That got me thinking about a story Carol had told me about the storms that hit Rapallo in November 2018. She’d just left the area, but her local friends shared the dramatic pictures you can see here. This is the year that Venice was under water with record water levels; three quarters of the city was submerged. Here in Rapallo, the impact was even more shocking. It’s hard to get a clear view of exactly how many yachts were destroyed as a result of the storm - but the total definitely runs in excess of two hundred and fifty. Many of them were superyachts taking advantage of Rapallo’s ship building capacity and general attractiveness of the area. Across Italy, and according to newspaper reports, more than eleven people died. The story of Rapallo’s flooding is particularly relevant as Storm Babet pounds Scotland resulting in the evacuation of many villages in the Fife area and considerable flooding in the country. Stan wanted you to know that it’s high time we accept that global warming has big impacts on our lives and we should do what we can to reduce carbon emissions.

So what do you do in Rapallo in the rain? You work, you go to the spa, you learn Italian and you cook! Since I didn’t know Stan was sick yesterday, I headed to the Hotel Bristol after my coaching sessions for a bit of TLC . It’s less than five minutes walk from the home we’re staying in, and provided a sanctuary away from the rain. The spa is very beautiful and I guarantee it won’t disappoint. The hotel itself also has an illustrious past, much like the Excelsior and Splendido hotels we visited earlier in the week. The Hotel Bristol has a stronger association with the arts than either of the other two. If the Excelsior and Splendido were the hotels of filmstars. The Hotel Bristol was the home of writers, artists and architects. Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote, André Gide, Jean-Paul Sartre are all past visitors. In one way, the visit to the Hotel Bristol got me a step closer to understanding whether it was even feasible that Stan’s relatives set foot here. My brief visit there led me to learn that there had been an airport here in Rapallo in the 1950s with a seaplane that ran from Southampton in the UK. Perhaps some of those celebrity sealyhams got here in style!

Learning Italian at Grasshopper was a brilliant thing to do. Not only have I begun to learn a new skill but I’ve made a new friend. Solo travel works best for me when I have a moment each day to share an experience or reflect on what’s happening with someone else. Without that, I’ve got to admit I start to feel alone. So, the language classes have worked on two fronts. Firstly, I made a great new friend in Carol. Secondly, I got to learn Italian thanks to Cynthia’s great teaching. Whenever you’re learning something new it’s good to reflect on the progress you’ve made. At the beginning of the week I had no Italian at all. Today our group learnt how to make the typical meal of pasta pesto - not by actually cooking it but by reading a recipe and its instructions in Italian. It did make me smile as pasta pesto is my son, Hector’s go to choice of meal - I don’t like it. I’m afraid that Stan and I didn’t get to taste the home made variety. I’m reliably infomed by Cynthia that shop bought pesto in England is a world away from the home made variety. So, when I get home from Italy I promise to make the pesto sauce using the recipe we translated in class today. I have every faith it will taste considerably better than anything I’ve tasted so far to date!

And, what of Stan. Well, he’s taking it easy. And I plan to do the same. Long drive tomorrow.

Ciao Rapallo and grazie mille.

Tornerò - I’ll be back!