Heading Down the Boot
by cricketjeff on July 2, 2019. © Jeff Green, All rights reserved
When you see the roads in Italy you understand their cars;
They snake down snow-peaked mountains from the North.
Past views that steal your daydreams, under endless streams of stars,
While tunnels shuttle sunshine back and forth.
Policemen in Ferraris aren’t concerned about your speed
If your car is sleek and stylish and its looks are matched by deed!
Then drive past Europe’s history, and art you need to paint
Through vineyards where you know you need to stop
Every bend reveals a vista or a shrine to someone’s saint
Or a mountain with a monastery on top.
Countless pages from your schoolbooks and from films you think you’ve seen
All the food’s too good to die for and in portions that aren’t mean!
Take a day or two in Florence for some high Renaissance art
The Florentine Pieta, and much more
Michaelangelo kept sculpting, seeing David’s just a start
Of visions that make poets’ spirits soar
And that’s just one ancient city, of the scores in Italy
But you can always change the journey, let’s head westward to the sea.
There’s a square outside Livorno where the floor is black and white
And the sea and sky are every shade of blue
Where the waves wear gold tiaras as the sunset welcomes night
And the old is clearly worshipped by the new
And the bars are always open and the white wine’s always chilled
Our hotel served English Breakfast we were more than slightly thrilled!
Down the coast road in the morning, between vineyards and the sea
There are villas stuck like limpets to the rocks
Yet more food to live not die for in the midsts of history
Passing ports where motor cruisers crowd the docks
We’ve no time for scuba diving all roads lead, of course, to Rome
And we need to see its beauty before it’s time for flying home
We cannot avoid all detours Bagnoregio is the next
That’s a town atop a hill with a footbridge to get in
If you’re wedded to your car you may feel a bit perplexed
Why Etruscans made the access route so thin
Its three thousand years lie heavy as you marvel at each sight
But we had to hurry onwards we want modern beds tonight!
Then at last our end’s upon us we’ve hit Rome, and traffic jams,
Colosseum, Trevi Fountain and the rest
You must dodge two million starlings and at least as many scams
But despite forget those what they’ve got here is the best
And next time we tour this country we’ll be starting in the South
For still more and greater marvels for the eyes and ears and mouth!
Author notes
From the French border down to Rome is a fantastic (British) car seeing
countless wonders and eating and drinking still more!
English