House Guest!!

Finally we have company. Bella has come to stay for three days. She is so little compared to Angie. She comes with a TV, internet connection, a beautifully appointed Danish home and an IKEA catalog.

Today I have done nothing. I did not even walk downtown. There are some nasty, invisible, bugs here. I think, just a theory, that people who live here are immune to their bites. I have never seen one, but suddenly I will have a bite on the end of my nose or my arm, etc. Last night I noticed that one had bit me on my eye brow. This morning my eye was swollen shut. It didn't hurt, but I could hardly open it. I put ice on it and it is much better, but at one o'clock it still is over sized. Now no one will come visit us since I have told the truth about these bugs. I wanted to go to the pharmacy, but Jim said it would be too expensive. We brought hydro cortisone cream with us, but I wish I had some antihistamine pills as well.

Italian flags are flying all over town in anticipation of the game against Spain on Sunday. Viva Italia!!

We had dramatic storms yesterday afternoon. We could see the rain across the valley moving slowly over the mountains. It was raining so hard and the line of rain was so consistent that we could see it bouncing up along the edges as it reached each new hill. The lightening was hitting the mountains about two miles away. Behind us, out of sight, the lightening and thunder were simultaneous.  At the same time, from the east, a storm was overtaking Castel di Iere. (I think I am finally spelling it correctly. I depend on Gregor.) We could see the line of rain coming over the fields toward the storm that was moving in from the west. Rows of trees would be standing out in sharp contrast only to be consumed by the rain and disappear behind its curtain. It is unclear to me how three storms can converge from three different directions, but there you have it. Rain has gone up from its statis as an Italian word you do not need to know. (pioggio)



Here is another view of our house. We are just to the right of the melon colored house. Are house did not look so bad before they painted. The white car belongs to our neighbors. Just to the right of the lamp post is the first floor garage with the mercedes (not ours') Our door to the right of that, the second floor little balcony with French doors that opens in to the kitchen, and the third floor terrace. The next window to the right is our bathroom window. Just above our roof line you can see a tiny bit of the roof that covers all our house except the terrace. This is the house that all the water leaked from when their pipes broke. All the scaffolding you see in the upper left is around the church and other areas damaged in the earthquake in L'Aquila six years ago.

In this picture, of indeterminate age,  you can see our house just above the man on the left, behind the pile of rubble. There is no roof on the terrace and I assume no bathroom.

Viva Italia!

Although expected to lose, Italy pulled off an almost flawless game against Germany in the EUFA 2012 semi-finals. (Ok Germany got three penalty kicks and four minutes of penalty time at the end of the game, but the score was still 2-1 for Italy) It feels like we are at the world Quiditch cup! Once again we were in the piazza. The screen situation was new and improved. Last game must have been the first time they projected on the wall. A sheet had been procured complete with sleeves for a piece of wood across the top and bottom. This sheet was attached to the underside of the usual tent that is there with plastic strips. The bottom of the sheet was attached to the decking with expensive rope. The projector enjoyed a new mounting at the top of the other side of the tent. It all was amazing and perfectly done, until a kid pulled the plug out of the wall across the piazza. Luckily nothing happened during the time the screen was dark. Porcetta sandwiches were available, but I had gelato. The finals will be Sunday at noon, so no watching in the piazza. Luckily we are dog sitting over the weekend and the dog has a flat screen TV with satellite reception. But nothing could ever be as fun as watching the games in the piazza.

Winds coming up from Africa will make the heat fierce again this week until Tuesday. (I love the way that sounds, but I do not love the effect) In the meantime three thunderstorms collided directly over our heads today. We could see the rain moving across the mountains from two different storms and the storm behind us was producing simultaneous thunder and lightening. Rain is no longer a word you do not need to know in CVS. After two weeks, at least, it has rained. The air is moist and smells of wet hay.

 This is today's efforts. Step 1: Drawing, step 2: Lay-in, step 3: 2nd lay-in

I am not showing you the picture of the real place because my drawing is so off. It might not look like too much, but it is really hard.

This morning was market and after that we went up into the cool earthquake zone behind us to start paintings. I am on my quest for arches. I have made progress on my two Italian language goals:
1. I can sometimes know what time people are talking about  can express what time I mean and
2. I can usually tell how much something costs if the price is said to me. Today I was stunned by a food processor, ice cream maker, bread kneader, you name it, all in one machine on sale for 999E. I don’t think this woman is going to sell any. We do not have enough electricity in our house to even run one. I think the way it works is that our house has a certain amount of electricity coming into it. If we buy something like a washer-dryer or an electric stove we will have to ask for more. This is a theory.

Today's  picture of clouds.

geography 101 Italy

 It has come to my attention in several ways this week that people may need a little geography lesson about Abruzzo. The name for Italy in English is not Tuscany. It isn't even Tuscany in Italy. It is Tuscano. At the top is the map of Abruzzo. Our town is under the first Z in Aburzzi. Abruzzi is the plural of Abruzzo and it did used to be called the Abruzzi, because there are four regions. We live in L'Aquila: eagle, area. Abruzzo is bordered on the east by the Adriatic ocean and on the west by the province, Lazio that contains Roma.

Below is the map of Italy compared to the states of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. It has been mentioned that we are not in Kansas anymore, but on this map I think we might be.

More fun facts:

If you lived in Italy rather than the United States, you would:
use 56.56% less electricity
consume 55.11% less oil
have 42.08% fewer children
make 34.7% less money
spend 60.84% less on health care
have 19.35% less chance of being unemployed
have 11.89% less chance of dying in infancy
live 2.09 years longer
experience 28.89% less of a economic class divide

retrieved from
http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/US/IT
June 28, 2012

Great painting day!

 The Italian Hammock

Jim focused on his drawing from Castel d Iire.

Drawing and step one of today's new pastel of the church in Castel d Iire.

Finished pastel that I started yesterday. Unfortunately I see two mistakes that I will fix. See if you can find them, because I am not telling. I have also been working on my book on pastels. I have done a lot, specifically I have started captioning all the demo sequence photos I have taken of works in progress.

Today's Nice Views!
Top is from Castel d Iire. You can see the round part of the church that is in the pastel above and the the church tower from the pastel that is just started.

This is one of the wheat fields on the way back toward CVS.

Ho hum, just another day....

Italian friend

We had to spend a day recovering from that festivale!! Now we are back on track. We got up pretty early, before 9am and walked to Castel d Iire. The bus did not pick us up, but it is only 2 km. Just a typical day, painted, had coffee, walked home, down hill all the way, had lunch, took a nap and now I am lurking outside the Dane's home. 

Italian friend

Danish Friends

View of the valley

Sunset from our terrace

This morning's pastel step 1

Castel d Irie...morning painting spot

Roses for Deborah

More roses

Walking home from Castel d Iire

Pastel at the end of the morning, but not finished

Finished pastel from up in the earth quake zone

More of the Festivale

The delights of the Festival of San Giovanni continued until this morning. We missed the performance by the children because it started an hour early (!!) The EUFA (European Union Football Assoc. ) 2012 game between Italy and England started at 8:30 pushing the children up an hour. The band was pushed back to the early hour of 11pm.

My friend, Olga and her friend at the soccer match.

The Komoda bar had set up a projector in the piazza and projected the game on to the wall of a building. As the evening progressed more and more people came to watch the game, have a drink and talk to friends. It was an expressive crowd made more so by the many goals Italy attempted and missed. Italy had dozens of attempts and England maybe only 3 or 4. During the half, a replay of Italy’s attempts were shown. The despair at watching these was equal to or greater than the original broadcast. The English goalie was the most valuable player. He had to withstand multiple attacks with multiple shots within an attack. He saved England from a rout. In the end it came to each team picking five players to attempt a shot. England and Italy were successful in their first attempts at the goal. Then Italy missed the shot. Great was the devastation in the piazza. MA NO!! England missed their shot, Italy scored again, England scored again and all that stood between defeat and victory was the Italian goalie.  England shot. The Italian goalie caught their last endeavor. Outrageous uproar! Children were lifted high above their father’s heads. People cheered, “Bravo” and “Viva Italia!” It was a great night to have been a part of. People made sure we had chairs, that children did not stand in our way and several tried to engage us in our limited conversation. We had a gelato, our only meal after that lunch. Next, Italy plays Germany. I am informed this will be a harder game.

With victory uppermost in their minds, some people headed up to the large piazza to listen to the band and others stayed below to rehash the victory. After enjoying the air of victory we sauntered up to the large piazza. Amazingly cars were still trying to use this road. I don’t think it is of necessity, but rather a chance to be seen. Upon reaching the piazza we were delighted (too much Jane Austin) by the sight of a dozen really old people, about my age, dancing in sync to the music. I thought my face would split from smiling. Some young girl scouts tried to jump in, but they were not in the oldies grove. They were tolerated along the edges, but basically ignored. When the polka started up we were even more amazed. There weren’t many couples, but each pair made it look easy. Backwards in heels on cobble stones!

We got home about 11:30 having walked the ten minutes from the piazza followed by the sounds of electric guitars and the accordion.

San Giovanni

The special bread for the saint's day.

Today, June 24, is the Festivale of San Giovanni. (St. John) He is the patron saint of Castelvecchio. San Francesco is the protector of Castelvecchio. The band started playing at 8:30 this morning. They walked by our house and all around Castelvecchio.

Later we went down to the piazza to see the procession of the saint. It started an hour late. No one cared. The band gave up and went to sit in the shade. The guys who were to direct traffic stayed in the middle of the street; the cars and people took no notice of them.  A woman I know a little helped me buy one of the special breads. 6 Euros, but it was to benefit the park. It is a hard round bread that is a little sweet and has anise seeds, but not too strong. The woman told me that we must eat it with salami and wine. (We took it for lunch.) Everyone was happy talking and waiting with no evidence of impatience.








Finally all the people came out of the church after mass. I thought I did not have appropriate clothes to go in the church, but this was not true. After the people came the flag, the cross, the band, the priest, his helpers, the megaphone holder and the saint.

The four stages of women: from left to right. Young, trying to look young, widower, and husband is still living.

The saint was carried on poles by four sturdy men. Hanging from the poles were four of the special breads made for this day. The priest was thanking God for the bread, the fruit, life in general and blessing everywhere he passed. Many of the women of town followed the priest and then the men behind. It is the first time I have seen women walk ahead of men in Italy. We went with the procession a little ways, but it was hot and we were invited to our neighbors’ for lunch: the important meal of the day.

Two hours and 45 minutes of eating and we are home again. Jim is snoring away. We had pasta with black truffles, then veal Milano, which is a little like chicken fried steak, as well as tomatoes with oregano, and salad. This does not do the meal justice. My meat covered my entire plate and I took home 1/2 for dinner, although maybe tomorrow’s dinner. The oregano here is completely different than in America. It is not a mint. It is a little spicy like a pepper and a little lemony.

Now we know why the dried oregano in our house, that is 15 years old at least, is still so strong. We also had lemoncello, aranciacello ( made from blood oranges of Scilly), nocca cello, which is made from nuts, fruit, coffee and gelato. Enrica made all of these liquors. She dried the oregano and made all of the meal, of course. She did not make the gelato, which was surprising. Salvatore found the truffles with his truffle dogs.


It is nice to have a long lunch and talk and eat and talk and eat. It gives credit to all the time it takes to make such a nice meal. Tonight there is a concert of the band, something for children, an accordion player and, because Italy is playing soccer against England tonight, there will be a large screen tv in the small piazza. I feel sorry for the accordion player. Even for me it is no contest. Possibly he will wait to play after the soccer game. That would actually be about on time for Italy. The soccer game will start on at 8:30 and it would be amazing if the concert, also scheduled for 8:30, started before 9:30 at the earliest. I wish you could see how little everyone cares about things starting late. It is just an excuse to talk and hang out.  Last year our first day in Italy was the festival of San Giovanno. We only saw the band and did not know about the other festivities. I thought the band was for me. It may have really been for the saint, but they were playing for me as well.

Mayor of CVS, smiling for the camera.

This is our next to next door neighbor. He is the civil policeman in town. (as opposed to the military police, of whom I think there are zero)























People are headed up the hill toward the Church of SanGiovano. It was damaged in the earthquake, but was the primary church in town and people headed back down toward San Francesca Church. The bell tower is in the distance with earthquake repairs in progress. San Giovanno is wreathed in scaffolding.

The men of the cloth walking past the gelato place with Danes in the background.







And now it is time for THE SHOES OF THE DAY!!! Imagine walking in these on cobble stones.