(Read in Italian) In the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life“ Jimmy Stewart asks his friend: “Do you know the greatest sounds in the world are?” and then answers: “Anchor chains, airplane motors and train whistles!”

I agree with George Bailey – Jimmy Stewart’s character in “It’s a Wonderful Life“. These sounds awaken also in me the excitement and the urge to travel the world far and wide. This month along with my friends from Circolo delle Mamme Viaggiatrici I am tackling the theme “Preferred method of transportation with kids“.

I must admit that is really hard for me to choose only one favorite way to travel, because I like all methods of transportation that take me away to new places! But am particularly fond of traveling by car because since I was a child it was the way my family always traveled together. We lived in the middle of the states, in Iowa and every summer the entire family, including the dog, traveled to the East Coast to spend a month with my grandparents. The trip from Iowa to New Jersey, where my grandparents lived, took two days and along the way we stopped to visit realatives and spent the nights with aunts and uncles and cousins in Indiana and Ohio. I remember so well, our routine of rising before dawn to avoid the heat and make tracks on the highway. With sleep still in our eyes, my brother and sister and I seated in the back seat, watched as the mists rose up over the cornfields and the sun’s rays began to illuminate the world. It seemed a perfectly magical moment and we were happy to be beginning a new adventure. Now my family travels by car to visit fantastic places here in California. From San Diego and Los Angeles in the south, to Monterey Bay and Yosemite Valley in the north, it is possible to see sea lions, waterfalls, giant redwood trees and curving coast lines all just a car ride away. To learn more about things to see in California by car I recommend taking a look at my friend Barbara Zarago’s web site California Notebook (for whom I designed the logo). I am always a fan of traveling by car because it is relaxed and comfortable and we can stop and enjoy the vistas and sights with out hurrying and without having to adhere to a rigid time table. We all feel closer after sharing a car trip together. There are the jokes and songs we sing along the way that create wonderful memories that we talk about years later.

I like traveling by car, by on the other hand, there is nothing finer than traveling by train! I had my first train experience in Italy. After having landed in Belgium on my first trip to Europe I took the overnight train to Florence. There is something really emotive about hearing the “clickity clak clickity clak” of the wheels of the train carriage and I remember well the first time I woke up in the morning on the train bound for Italy. Looking out the window in the dawns early light, I had my first glimpse of “il bel paese” and I fell in love!

Autos and trains are grand, but without a doubt I love traveling by air! The first time I flew in an airplane I was only six years old and we were destined for Chile. There is something magical about the idea of flying and I have always loved looking out the window to see the clouds and a miniature earth below. Even though I have travelled many times by plane I always get excited all over again to be boarding a jet, because these days usually my destination is Italy! Even in these times of advanced technology I am somewhat amazed that it is possibile to jump on board a flight, fly across the ocean and visit far off places, in just a matter of hours. And surely for me, there is no better sound than the voice on the intercom that says to me in Italian: “vi prego di allacciare la cintura di sicurezza…e buon viaggio!”/”Please fasten your seat belts…happy flying!”

This is the first post of Circolo delle Mamme Viaggiatrici Circle of Mommy Travellers. Check out what Monica, Valentina, Alessandra, Silvia e Silvana have written on their blog for “Modes of Transportation”

To watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” with Jimmy Stewart in Italian check out this link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNZx4pRAINc

(Read in Italian) Ok, I’m back after a brief station break! I know you were all beginning to think that I had run off to join the circus…o that I had escaped to Italy never to return agan! I wish the latter were true! Unfortunately it seems the first is more like it. Infact, lately my house has seemed like a kind of three ring Barnum and Bailey circus. The last couple of weeks I have been making some home improvements. It is a project that we have been taking about for almost five years and finally got around to doing this month. All in all it has involved repainting the walls and redoing the tile work in the bathroom. There are so many things to do and every day the doors fly open with the arrivals and the departures of the workers, painters and plumbers. For almost two weeks, wait perhaps three, there has been disruption everywhere. The work party begins early in the morning and finishes up late in the afternoon. Through out the day the loud noise of banging, hammering, drilling can be heard. Beyond the work being done to re-do bricks, stone and paint, I have taken this opportunity to re-arrange furniture, change out pictures on the walls and throw out boat load of things…a kind of spring cleaning on steroids.

The result of this super-intense moment of feng shui is that for almost two weeks I have pulled the plug on my on-line life. Now I am returning to the internet and starting to catch up on all the goings in the world on beyond my front porch that I have missed during my absence. In my last blog I wrote of Rossella Urru. Even though there were some reports that she was about to be released, unfortunately no, the case is not closed. She is still in the hands of her captors and her life still hangs in the balance. We continue to wait for her liberation.

The news doesn’t seem to get much brighter and I read in the newspapers with sadness of the death of Lucio Dalla. Dalla was a famous musician in Italy. His worked at his art for more than fifty years. He played clarinet and saxofone and had a predilection for jazz, and returned often to songwriting. He hauntingly beautiful melody “Caruso” was very popular and Dalla sold 9 million copies worldwide and he sang the song with Luciano Pavarotti in concert in Modena in 1992. Dalla travelled the world, including the United States, and was often accompanied by Francesco De Gregori another famous Italian singer songwriter.

Giorgio Napolitano, Italy’s president paid homage to Dalla saying: (Dalla) was a strong and original voice who contributed to renew and promote Italian song in the world. He was an artist beloved by so many Italians,

Luccio Dalla is gone, but we are fortunate to still have his music. The beautiful thing about an artistist is that he can leave a piece of his soul with us for ever. The beat goes on…

(Read in Italian) Here I am, happily living my life, doing normal things like reading tweets, writing blogs, designing, walking my dog and learning Italian. For the most part my world is running smoothly, peacefully and without interruptions. The only thing that is clouding this picture of domestic happiness and annoying me at the moment, is the fact that I made a bad color choice for the walls in the living room that I am repainting. Instead of the chic taupe and coffee color scheme I was going for, I now am dealing with a unsettling salmon pink and rusty brown combo. It’s a real mess and causing knots in my stomach and making my head ache when I look at this failed attempt to class up my living space. In fact, this morning I woke up at four in the morning in a panic thinking about my color scheme disaster.

But problems such as a picking the wrong color to paint a room can be easily resolved by buying a new can of paint and beginning over again. My problem is really quite insignificant and pales in comparison to the much graver issues facing Rossella Urra, a 29 year old Italian girl and volunteer for the Comitato Italiano Sviluppo dei Popoli (CISP). Rossella has been working this past year in the camps of Tindouf, in Algeria, to help women and children. On 22 October 2011 she was kidnapped along with her Spanish colleagues Ainhoa Gonyalons and Enric Fernandez. The kidnapping was claimed by the Movement for the Kingdom Jiahad in Africa. The Italian Foreign Ministry has immediately turned to free the girl, but at present there is no news. In the following months the media have talked less and less about her plight, and has just about forgotten about her. So this week, on February 29, a group of bloggers decided to unite and speak about Rosella’s plight in hopes of making her kidnapping known to a larger audience. By blogging and tweeting about Rossella’s plight the intention is to shake up the media so that they will once again champion Rossella’s cause, helping to expedite her release. My blog about Rossella arrives two days late, but I also want to make a contribution to help spread the news about this extraordinary woman that never desired to be singled, but instead with a heart full of love, gladly choose to dedicate her life to helping others.

I want only this. Free Rossella. I look at her photo and her youthful smile and I wonder where is she right now. What is she thinking and what she is feeling? Is she all by herself, scared and in confinement? I would wish instead, that she were set free to return home to Italy were she could go about her normal life as a free person. I would like her to be able to peacefully watch the sun rise and the sun set. I would like her to be able to fix her favorite dish, go for a ride on her bike and breath freely the warm air that is beginning to smell of spring. I wish the only thing that would cause Rossella distress, to be the color of paint she chooses for her room.

Even if the Blogger day for Rossella has passed, I continue to think about her and will continue to think about her, as if she were a dear daughter. It isn’t right that she should be withheld from all those who love her. This is my plea. Free Rossella. Now.

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