After yesterday’s rain, today it was lovely and fresh after the dense fog burned off. We were too full from dinner to eat first breakfast. Our friends Vittorio and Emilinda came over for dinner. They had requested “only onion rings” to eat and Jim did make four large onions into delicious rings. We also had arrosticini, tiny green beans, salad, granita, and cookies they brought. It was looking like the quickest meal in Italy ever with all the onion rings consumed by 9pm after an 8:30pm start, but after that things slowed down and dinner ended about 10pm.
This winter Vittorio refinished our front door and painted all the balcony railings with dark gray metal paint. It looks great. He has done so much for us. He and some other guys brought over a giant storage cabinet with drawers and doors for us to keep all our clothes in, one day we discovered a bag full of silverware hanging on our door after he had dinner with us and we did not have matching, or even enough silverware, and he has taken care of all our business with the commune over the last six years.
Gregor spotted him the first summer we were all here and made friends with him and insisted that we had to get to know him. He and Ermilinda are both historians and know so much about the history and people of Valle Subequono. How did Gregor know that this was a guy we should know?
Also, people still are talking about the first summer Jim and Gregor came and worked on the house. The international symbol for Gregor is the motion of pulling a hat onto your head. The first few years, Gregor had a leather hat from Australia that he wore all the time. Yes, people feared the worst when Jim and Gregor were here, and were extremely relieved when the Señora showed up. So thanks again, Gregor for introducing us to Vittorio.
Last night was the quarter finals in the European Cup. Germany beat Italy after 30 minutes of extra play in the sudden death that is the last resort of a tied soccer game. The piazza was filled with a loud buzz, ok more like shouting, this morning with a play by play complete with reenactments of foot play that helped lose the game. Still the paper headlines blared, “Bravo Italia”. I sure would have liked to seem them beat the Germans. Maybe Iceland will beat them, but watching Italy play soccer in the piazza is over for this year.
Here are most of the portraits I did over the winter and in the last 2.5 weeks in Italy. They are the best I can do. If people don’t like them, maybe no one else will ask me to do one. It has been two days since a request!
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| Pina |
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| Davida |
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| ? |
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| Singer from Roma |
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| Violinist from Roma |
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| Sorella Miriam from Roma |
And here are some pastels you have seen before, but now they are really finished after using a triangle and charcoal pencil to draw in all the railings.
And the last two pastels that I started yesterday morning and finished today. In the end, I was pretty happy. One guy asked me if I was painting from a photo. Luckily I could only say, “no” and point. Otherwise I would have had to ask, why, if I was painting from a photo would I be sitting on a low step on the edge of a pretty busy road in front of a door to a garage from which a low, musty, oder was emanating. See, being bad at a language can be a good thing. Someone else asked why I hadn’t put in the Pharmacy sign?(Bright green cross) I counted the doors for him to show that the pharmacy was door number 4 and I only had room for doors 1 & 2. Several people called me by name that I have no idea what their names are. Always embarrassing and one person confessed to following me on Instagram!! True fame these days!
This afternoon we met with a couple of guys who are in charge of culture. We picked Aug 13 & 14 for my art exhibition. It is good to know when it will be. I am so tired from listening to, speaking and interpreting Italian!
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