The Long Walk

We only got first breakfast today, because we were walking over to Castel di Irie with Karin and Bjarne to the local, farmers or crafts people market. It is still not tourist season here so it was a little disappointing. One woman had made croqueted earrings that were very pretty. From there we took a different road back from CdI to see if there were any good places to do long landscapes. It was a long walk and there was no where in the shade that you could actually see anything worth painting. Eventually we made it back to the parking area for the catacombs. There was bench in the shade and a good view of Castelvecchio. Jim did his drawing and I got one layer of color on and sprayed it. We will go back earlier in the day tomorrow.

This morning: Pastelmatt paper

Jim is getting pizza ready for lunch and, although I swore I would not, I think I am going to have to take a nap. We have a painting to work on later in the day.

Lunch plus Watermelon

Yesterday afternoon and this afternoon.

Jim's finished piece

My finished pastel done on Richeson Paper

The Meeting

I am wondering how I ever found time to paint here. If i didn’t take so many naps and if I wasn’t so lazy I would get more done. I can’t even blame it on TV.

Last night at 9pm we had a meeting with the choir from CVS and our friend Pasquale. They are planning a trip to NYC, Boston and Vermont. They want to stay in people’s homes, not hotels. They want to come this December. Yikes. Any and all advice or suggestions would be welcome. We talked till 10:30 and then the choir members still had business to take care of. I showed them the watercolors of people that I had done in CVS. They were pretty excited and knew who everyone was. People are going to send me photos so I can put together a collection of 200 portraits. That is my plan. But that was not all. Next Pasquale called the family of Angela and we went over there to give them my watercolor. It was horrifically sad. We had to come home and drink lemoncello and eat chocolate. That sounds like a joke, but I assure you it is not.

This morning is beautiful. The sky started out completely clear, but now the clouds are forming over the mountains casting swiftly changing shadows. Somewhere some kids and a dad are playing basket ball and a swarm of bees just flew by. The swallows are making forays back and forth to catch mosquitos and feed their babies on our outside terrace  wall. There are sounds of the neighbors cleaning. How it is almost noon I do not know.

We have to eat fruit all the time. We went over board at the market and have 2 quarts of strawberries, 1/2 kilo of cherries and another of grapes, watermelon and cantaloupe. We ate so much fruit, we didn’t get out of the house till after 9:00.

Then it was time for second breakfast and a trip to the grocery store. The piazza has had some barricades installed to keep cars out and make it safer to drink coffee. In some ways this has only increased the danger with cars backing out of the piazza into the most dangerous intersection ever. I cannot believe anyone would ever pull into that space, but they do and they go up and down the one way street. Non-stop entertainment.

Things you do not see in our meat department and things that also see you.

         Tons of pasta.

Litari del vino

Interesting woman I saw at the grocery store

Vegetable man parked in worst place ever.

Driving away

My garden

Maria and me shelling peas

Our house!!

Danes on the way to our house for strawberry shortcake. The Italian flags are for the world cup.

                          

The day that never ends….

Karin and Bjarne: our internet cafe and good friends.

                                                    Bella: second best dog in the world.

Gail, friend from Vermont, picked us up for dinner at 8pm. We had pizza with her, Rolf and Kirsten who were only in Galiano for a day. The winters have proved to be to lonely and they have bought a place in Puglia. After pizza we had gelato.

 And that brought to an end our first day in CVS.

Day 2

We were awakened by the day time fire works that let us know that Castel di Ire is in festa. Today is the festival of San Luigi. (one of the Mario brothers) It was also market day so first things first. As you see we made our usual market score after first and second breakfast. The road from CVS to Raino is closed and this means there were fewer vendors as they now have to take a circuitous route to get here. No roasted chicken.

However there were plenty of T-shirts. The tight pants are modeled on blow up legs. You can decide for yourselves if you think this is funny or not, but we sure did.

Last year I did a painting of some people’s house. It turned out well and they like it. Somehow they made a tile copy of it and now it is on there house! These are the things that make my day.

After the market and putting away our swag we headed for Castel di Ieri to check out the festa. Well we did get coffee and saw the marching band. There was one small tent with people selling vacuum cleaners so perhaps San Luigi likes to keep it clean.

Church at Castel di Ieri

Virgin Mary with Candle lit for Annie

Caffe Bar in Castel di Ieri

The Band in Castel di Ieri

Castel di Ieri

A very sad thing has happened in CVS in the last month. A young woman, who sang in the choir and was my facebook friend has died. Pasquale, his wife and mother took us out to the cemetery to pay our respects. More about the cemeteries in Italy another time, but today was to personal.

Angela Santilli in memoria

The Joy of Friends

How can you thank the people that pick you up at Pratola, a 25 minute journey, now that the only straight shot out of the valley is closed because of rock slides? Besides Bjarne picking us up, Karin made us dinner: a delicious chicken stew over rice and my favorite ricotta cake. Buono!

We did not have our suitcases upstairs, before Enrica ran out with a bag of milk, coffee, breakfast cookies and homemade jam. The hugs!! The laughing!! The kisses!! The happiness!!

After a lovely sleep we headed to the piazza for caffe!! More hugs, more kisses, more smiling until your face cracks open.  I could just think that people here are so bored that they are excited for a new face, but I want to believe that they love us and are thrilled to see us. We saw almost everyone we know, including Pasquale who had come from Roma so he could see us before he leaves for a month in Africa. Tomorrow night, after the wold cup, we are having a 9pm meeting with Pasquale, Patricia, from the Commune, and members of the choir, including the director, via Skype, to talk about the U.S. tour of the local choir. It is an extremely frightening prospect. Luckily I have touched base with Naomi’s sister and so have something to say to them. I am afraid they think I am more than I am. Actually I know they do. We will also talk about my portraits of people from CVS.

Some things have changed here. The little shop we loved near our house is closed. No more gorgonzola or bottles of fizzy water. Gorgonzola is too expensive and frizzante is too heavy. The little old ladies cannot make it to the big store. It is too far away. A positive change is I believe our second neighbors over have put in a very nice trail down what used to be sticker alley. As usual their craftsmanship is impeccable.

In the convento restoration work continues. It does make me wonder when I see all the scaffolding holding up the arches that we casually walked under last summer. Alas, no concerts in the convento this year.

Things that do not change: Suduko on the deck

First Shopping

I forgot to mention the woman I asked for help in the Roma airport. She let me go on and on, before stopping me to say she spoke English. Pretty funny. And today I helped Maria shell peas. She was astounded that we will not have peas in Vermont for weeks. She is my friend across the street that I always sing “Maria” from Westside Story when I see her. I try to share it all with you, but you will not understand until you come here. Paradisimo.

Poppies

View from the Terrace

Traveling

nally we are sitting on our terrace overlooking the beyond beautiful Sirente mountains and the Subequo Valley.

It was a hard and long trip to get here, but already it is hard to remember. Many modes of transportation were involved.

Montpelier Train Station

Amtrak

Amtrak was not running so we took a bus to Springfield Ma and then changed to the train. The tracks are up several flights of stairs. It was not an improvement. In Hartford we changed to an electric train. Once we arrived in NYC we took an elevator to the station level. it was obvious that we were nearing NYC because of the increasing amounts of trash along the tracks, but so far it was a relaxing trip. This all changed at Penn station. We took a tiny elevator up to the station level and were confronted with 100s or 1000s of people going the opposite  direction as us. Only one woman was going our way and I positioned myself behind her with Jim behind me. People are running, texting, welding brief cases and the steely eyes of business men as weapons. The world is a rushing roaring river pouring over us in a tiny hallway underground with exposed pipes and electrical line in the cieling—welcome to the downtown 7th avenue line. Jim had to head butt one guy.. We were wide eyed deer swimming upstream. Brookly, Atlantic Ave. Still agains the flow we pop up into the fresh air of Park Slope.

Dinner and the night spent with the friends that introduced us. They have a new shower that makes you want to rip your clothes off and jump in. Now we want one too.

Breakfast with Ed, Ruth and Susan:
crepes and cupcakes. 

Tornando in Italia

Summer 2014
God willing and the crick don't rise we will be in Italy on 18 June. It is a long trip: Amtrak to NYC, plane to Dublin, plane to Rome, wait, bus to Pratola, get picked up by Bjorne for the trip to Castelvecchio Subequo. The next time you hear from me I will be waking up in Italy or possibly lost in the Atlantic ocean. Arrivederci!!

Post Italy

Ok, I know I said good by for the summer all poignant and tearful, but hey, life goes on. (did you catch all the song titles?)

Our trip home went as good as it could. In Dublin we actually went through U.S. customs so there was no waiting in NYC. Last year it took two hours in NY. This was much better, although it was creepy when they showed us pictures taken of our luggage in Rome and asked if it was ours. No doubt he looked at pictures taken of us to be sure we were we.

Just a note for you gals: get a non-underwire bra unless you wanted to be body searched, in public, at the airport. Every woman I saw got searched. That was one happy dude, no really it was a woman who did it.

We made all our flights, found our friends house, and caught the mega bus. We were first in line and got to sit in the panorama seats. The dog is good, the house is good, the garden is wild and unrestrained.

But, I want to talk about how we were able to ease back into American culture by staying with our friend, and maybe yours, Fran Solin. I did not take any pictures of Fran, but I took pictures of her chandelier and her bathroom and I think you will see why. She lives in what was an old Italian neighborhood. At her front door I was amazed at how Italian it looked.

This could be in any home in Italy

Fran's bathroom

Our bathroom, prior to cleaning.

Note the roses painted on the tiles. I am pretty sure each was hand painted on top of the glaze.

Now you have seen the only pictures I deemed worthy to take on the whole, entire trip from CVS to Northfield, VT. 

I think I will do one last post of my garden so don't give up yet.
ciao