This is surreal to even me, but I learned to water ski on Lake Como while staying at Villa d'Este with my parents. I had just turned thirteen and my father had taken us on his version of the Grand Tour . Well, to say this part of the trip was paradise is an understatement. I'd never experienced anything like it. I still had a child's curiosity and imagination and can remember wandering the gardens and and nearby town pretending that I was a young italian girl totally at home in the surroundings. I had cast of the shackles of southern american circa 1968 teenager and felt the freedom of reinventing myself.
