August 2, 2015

Last night there was a concert in the newly re-finished convento. There were no concerts there last year because they were working on it. The singer was Nicoletta Fabbri.

 She had a great voice and sang in Italian, English and French. She sang “Get your kicks on Route 66”. This the second time I have heard an Italian sing this song. You may not remember it contains the line, “Oklahoma City looks oh so pretty.” I am not sure if she knew what a Route 66 is. The pianist was also good and the sax player was amazing. 

One of the new and beautiful things in the convent is that there are little halogen lights agains the walls that light up the arches. I took a few pictures, but they don not show how beautiful it is. It was magic to look up and see the bell tower and the stars and the arches with each facet a different colour from the lights. However, it was hot. Mostly there was no breeze, BUT when there was, everyone put on their sweaters. Luckily they were prepared. When I stood up at the end, I thought my chair was going to come with me because I was so sweaty. 

Tonight is another concert. We are excited. 

This morning we went downtown as usual. I was planing to tour the museum and some other things that were promised on the poster, but there was not really any activity in evidence, BUT there was the first ever souvenir shopping available in the San Francesco Gadget Store. I might have been the big spender at 20E. My first chance to have a magnet that says, “Castelvecchio Subequo.” Pretty exciting!! 

I took some more pictures in the convent with the bell tower in the background sans scaffolding. 

Chairs are not medieval

This is another day where, so far, it did not rain. At least the clouds keep one from bursting into flames. I have accomplished NOTHING!! It is embarrassing. I keep thinking I am so tired, but then I close my eyes and my brain pops awake and now I am writing this instead of sleeping. 

This is a one way street.

This is a tractor going up the street.

This is a tractor going down the street.

One way is a relative concept.

Two small things:

1. inscribing on a door in the convent

2. A man left his cigarette burning on the doorstep while he went into the bakery. 

Our neighbours took us to see their daughter’s new house. It was Salvatore’s sister’s house. It is amazing how pathetic houses look from the outside and then you go in and it is a palace. Parts of the house are completely finished and parts aren’t really started. She has space for a garden in front of her house and a large balcony. We had just been saying it would be great to have a house that faces east so it would not get so hot in the afternoon. She does have windows on the west side with a great view of the Sirentes.There is a kitchen, living space that has a beautiful fire place and a little room that will be a studio. I am not sure what they mean by that, but the room has floor to ceiling windows that have a garage door like thing to cover them. Jim has always wanted that in a house. The bottom floor is open to the outside, but is covered by the top two floors of the house and has space for a garden. It is like an interior courtyard. It was so cool and nice and it seemed to suck the air into it creating a little breeze. Her dad has been working on it and he will be busy for a while. Her mom is quite a gardener and she has started adding planters and flowers. It is going to be an incredible home. Next summer I will take pictures. 

Tomorrow I am going to finish my two paintings that I started days ago. No more excuses. Tomorrow night we are going to a party and on Tuesday to Nardo, Puglia. I will take my camera and I will have new and exciting things to say about a new, to us, region of Italy. Brava, Jeneane!

Maybe you saw this on facebook or maybe I already posted it, but tough, I am posting it again. You will see my name on 12 Augusto. A mostra is an art exhibition! Finally I made the poster, although I suspect they were looking for anything they could do for free. I have fifteen framed pastels all of which are new this year. I also have about 10 water-colour portraits which may go down to nine as I am on the verge of tearing one up. If that happens I am giving up on water-colour for a while.

If you are an English scholar you may have noticed that my computer insists on English spelling, instead of American. Other weird things are that my calendar has switched to the Italian style of starting on Monday and ending on Sunday. It makes much more sense, but I was pretty confused for a while. AND my calculator no longer has a decimal point. It has a comma which is how Italians divide their numbers. I wish my brain would automatically switch to Italian, but no way. I am better than I was, but still pathetic. For some reason I do not give up even in the face of obvious inability. That is how I got to be such a good artist so in about 30 years it might work out for my Italian.