Pescara to Roma

2.5 hrs. Wow, so the bus is the way to go. Chop chop. The train was a lovely (5.5 hr.) trip, but the bus is fast, comfy and air-conditioned. So there you go, for future reference.

Exiting the bus, however....... ma donna, fa caldo! Easy cab ride from Tiburtina to Termini area, where hotel is located. First stop: post office... ok, BILL... you owe me a seared scallop dinner for my travail getting a freaking TWO EURO!! stamp (roughly $3) for your post card, and getting it mailed. And remind me to pantomime the postal service worker pace, here in Italia. Oh my!!! hahahaha

So now I am--quite literally--cowering here in my hotel room in the A/C, which--thanks again to my improving Italian language skills, I was able to comprehend how to get the darn thing to work. Really, it is suffocatingly hot outside. The market is very nearby, so ensalata mista, vino, prociuto, formagio tartufo, and other assorted goodies, and I am a happy camper with lunch eaten, about to take a nap. Maybe. Rome beckons.............

Oh, forgot to mention, yesterday I accomplished my capolavoro!! (pictured) Ma donna, what a GLORIOUS day at the beach it was!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I so very very very much did not want to leave it, to go inside to pack.)

Note: I gifted this painting to Carlo and Maria Letizia, my extra-extraordinary hosts for much longer than they would have liked, I am sure!!!!!!!!

6/9/14

Life's a beach.

Today, I am left to my own devices, here in Francavilla al Mare. Fa caldo! I'm off to the beach shortly, after this hasty posting of a weeks' worth of experience. Tomorrow I return to Roma, for my last few days before the flight home. Sigh.

Yesterday evening, upon arrival back to the farm, I tried once again to force the camera to take a decent picture of the view from the ridge on which it is perched. What you see above is slightly more successful, but the spectacular panorama--especially during dusk--is truly impossible to represent here. That's Miella (snow-covered) in the deep distance.

6/8/14

On the road again..........

....while Carlo did all the driving back to Francavilla al Mare and the region of the farm, I finished the novel I'd picked up in Certaldo, a few weeks ago: Intervention, by Robin Cook. Quite good.

About seven hours on the road, including all the pit stops (4? 5?) along the autostrada for coffees etc.  Ahhh, that autostrada is soooo much easier when you have a telepass (which I did not have during my rental car week). Another superb dinner--possibly the best of the three I've been fortunate to enjoy--up in Tollo. Roberto is SUCH an awesome chef!!! (Roberto and Carlo pictured, from an earlier visit to the ristorante.)

6/7/14

The Brera: an excellent choice.

Today, a successful solo journey via feet, train and metro into Milano from Monza.

With so many possibilities of what to do there, I thought I'd focus on the Brera museum, then see if I had time for more. I was especially happy to see one of the last paintings before the exit--Silvestre Lega, Il Pergolato (pictured above).

Other images? Well, I could post many touristy shots that can already be found by a google image search, but above I will show you the subject of my next painting. It's title will be "Napping in Rizzoli". Ahhh, a woman after my own heart. I spent a very happy hour in Rizzoli--after lunch, which was after the Brera. (I did not nap there, however much I might have liked to!)

6/6/14

Wait, where am I?

Woke up a bit disoriented this morning. Botched up my phone... long call to verizon... successfully talked down out of my tree! Geesh. OK, ready to start my day now, the way I should have in the first place!

I am at Carlo and Maria Letizia's main home in Monza, near Milano. I strolled to the duomo and discovered a wedding in progress. Strolled back to meet Maria Letizia at the market. A ladybug helped me choose which pair of cheezy earings to buy. And the shoes...... um, what size do you need? Surely we have it here!

6/5/14

Road trip!

[pics to come]

Well, why not traverse half the country... again... I haven't seen Milano yet. Who could turn down a trip to the family home in Monza, and the opportunity to see another stupendous museum.... or two?

Overnight bag packed, and we're off!

6/4/14

Halleluja, I'm a bum!

I hung out on the beach, scuffling my feet in the soft sand and watching the the little waves wash them. My toenail polish is badly damaged. And that's a good thing!

Big farm dinner in the evening. It's amazing to me, how many people Carlo and Maria Letizia are able to feed effortlessly.

6/3/14

E arrivato, l'estate!

It's official, summer has arrived, and so have some beach-goers. The bar ristorantes are open, umbrellas unfurled and sunshine abounds.  The family is sprawled out on snappy green and orange beach chairs, which make a nice complement to the unspeakably beautiful color of the sea. I will try to paint it in words: emerald creme de menthe tending toward teal at the horizon line, and becoming paler--pistachio perhaps?--as it nears the gently breaking waves. Highlights of chartreuse and ochre sand. Blue-green shadows cast by umbrellas, whose fringes dance in the gentle wind and mesmerize these tired eyes. Camera frustration. The color of the sea is not even remotely represented accurately. I snap many photos, as if taking more might force it to capture one true one.

The painting: Alyssia has a lot of company, but she is pictured here, digging happily in her own world.

6/2/14

Way too ambitious!

Today was just a stupid long drive, back to Italy. I forgot that I'd overnighted on the way to.... and thought, since the Cinque Terre drive was so long, that I could do the whole stretch back in a day.  Well, I did.... but that was very much not ideal. I also ducked into the Matisse museum in Nice, along the way... and traffic through Genoa was L.A.-ish... so I ended up getting to Lucca at 10 p.m.  Oh well. (There's that phrase again!) It was perfect, the room had a little fridge, and a table, and the window opened to a beautiful courtyard with nice night lighting... so I was a happy camper, eating the last of my road food which included some Pecorino cheese with tartufo, ohmygosh, soooooo good! (and some leftover wine, lord help me if I'm ever out of wine!!)

The next morning, I had a mere two hours to see Lucca. It was raining a bit (borrowed a hotel umbrella), and there seemed to be no locals in town... only pods of tourists, following their leader's waving flag around the wet stone streets. But I got two of my favorite pics of the trip (above), and two hours felt like plenty. Once on the road, I cranked up the volume on my one-and-only CD, purchased in San Gimignano (from the couple who serenaded us while painting there--did I mention that before?)

And I slid into home base--the rental car company--in Firenze with 25 minutes to spare. (Thanks to googlemaps nav--boy has that been a life-saver.)  And the rest of this day I'll have to cover later. Pooped. As usual.

5/31/14

Oh yes, the painting..........

Forgot to include that in my Arles post, so voila!

The Van Gogh Museum has no Van Goghs

I rented the car and made this trip to Arles to go to the new museum, created by the Fondation Van Gogh. Lucky for them, they had some Van Gogh paintings on loan from the Riiksmuseum, because if there had been no Van Gogh paintings on view, there would have been bloody hell to pay. That was today's surprise (there is at least one every day!)--that the museum does not own any Van Gogh paintings--it is not a Van Gogh museum--and those on view will return at the end of the summer, and then there will be none to see there. Boy, is that going to be a problem for them. Oh well, I got to see seven of his paintings, and that made it worth the trip, for me.

Indeed, my visit in Arles was a lovely respite (two nights). I met some new friends and was able to spend part of a day painting. What more does a traveler need?

5/29/14

One Wild Ride!

Cinque Terre in a day. Now that's crazy! I can't believe I did that, with the narrow road (some bits still not well repaired from the 2011 landslides), the hairpin turns, and the seeming endlessness of the route. But surprisingly, not much traffic. It was truly spectacular! I actually GASPED a few times! I ducked into Manarola for a stellar lunch at Trattoria dal Billy--my first stuffed clams--YUM, molto gustoso!--and was severely tempted to buy a bottle of their Crema all'Aceto Balsamico di Modena, but decided to give it a try when I get home. (And maybe sell it for $20 per little bottle like the Trattoria! lol)

The day's drive was long but well worth it. Slept in Varazze, which was not remarkable in any way, except for the comfortable bed and quietude, which allowed me to recharge for the next day's drive.

5/27/14

Viareggio. No tourists for miles and miles and miles...........

Well this place is interesting. I've never been to Atlantic City, but this may be the equivalent. 100% certified Italian, and I'm loving it. Long expanses of beach, with the skeletons of beach activity in evidence; umbrellas folded and strapped down, chairs turned up on tables, all in perfect rows stretching as far as the eye can see.

WONDERFUL hotel and friendly staff. Love, love, loved dear old Piero (owner)--we chatted for quite a while in the beauuuuuuuuuuuuutiful courtyard--I with my Aperol spritzer that the cameriere at the restaurant let me take (the rest of) back to my hotel, because I couldn't stand the smoke blowing in my face any longer at dinner--Piero practicing his English, and me my Italian. I think it's more confirmation that I'm an old Italian soul, because whenever I have a conversation with a local, they are astounded and tell me they can "understand everything you say".

Yeaaa!  All that study is paying off.

5/26/14