July 31, 2026
The blog title, aside from being the name of one of my favorite California wineries, refers in Italian to the concept of the sweetness of doing nothing, when paired with the word ‘dolce’. Which is also the name of Far Niente’s wonderful dessert wine. Yikes. I have digressed very quickly in this blog. For me, this is a concept I have never been able to accept – just sitting on my butt and relaxing. Whenever my wife and I vacationed, I was never able to just sit around, read a book, or just watch the sun rise or set. I have to be doing something active. We’d go to Maui every year, and I’d make reservations for whale watching or snorkel cruises every day – Jan just wanted to sit around and watch the waves. This is why I always come home from vacations exhausted. And now that I’m on my own, and in my mid 70’s, I still have not embraced far niente. Until this morning.
I came back from the Iceland trip pretty much worn out, and then had to deal with a bad cold. As soon as I was up and about, I started training for my next trip with long walks and workouts, and as always, found things to do around the house or in the yard. Relax? Nah. The trip to Denver (I’m still there) was a great opportunity to just relax – absolutely nothing planned other than shopping and visiting friends. And I’ve done a good job of sticking with that plan. But, with only one day left, I started stressing about being in Colorado without doing some kind of hike. Ay, que lastima! So I planned a reasonable hike, the Devils Head trail which ends with a long stairway to a ranger station. Only 2 miles with a 900’ elevation gain. Not a big deal. I had my hiking gear laid out so I could get out early this morning. But then I started thinking – why was I doing this? Was this on my bucket list? Nope. Did I really need to climb yet another steep staircase just to see another mountain view? Nope. Been there done that, many times. Did I really feel like getting out of bed early to drive 90 minutes for something I really did not want to do? Nope. Would it kill me to just sit around another day with friends, relax and take it easy? Nope.
Halleluja!
I have achieved Far Niente. I just wish I could have a glass of their wonderful Chardonnay while I sit around doing nothing today.
Peace
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