Goriquo Sicoli

This morning: Gagliano Anterno

Gail, Jim and man that told us about Escher with his drawing.

Yesterday was a great day. Gail (person with house in Boston and Montpelier).drove us all around the valley. I have enjoyed not having a car, but it was also fun to get out and see stuff.

We decided to paint in Goriquo Sicoli. I did my worst painting ever, but bad painting are a sign of taking a chance. I was pretty discouraged, but it didn’t look as bad today. We were at Goriqno Sicoli. This is a town where Gregor would like to buy a house. The train stops in this town, but it would be hard to live there as there is no grocery store and only market once a week. There was a beautiful Roman fountain with dolphins. We thought about painting there, but there were too many wasps. It was a wonderful cool place under large trees, but everyone in town was sitting at the caffe. Goriqno Sicoli is also a place that M.C Escher worked. He did his first lithograph of this village, but from higher up. It looks menacing and dark. I did not know he had an Italian period, but it seems obvious once you know. He was Dutch. Once you know it is obvious his images did not come from Holland. We met a man who’s grandmother had given or sold Escher bread while he was in the village. He was there for five days in the 1920s. The man also went home to get his Escher book to show us the litho and to get some of his artwork. It was not bad. He was very good at sepia watercolor drawings and had a well done oil of his grandfather sharpening a scythe. He was using a tool we found in our cave that we did not know the use of. Gail stayed for dinner. It was fun.