11 Thursday Sep 2014
Posted in Travel
By mid-afternoon the sky has changed. Safe enough to drop off the trash, pick up some cash, and climb back home, stopping to see about dinner choices; then off again, up the hill, to see if we can’t lose a few of those Euros on art supplies, perhaps a jacket or blouse, before slipping past the art gallery below (hint: think “mermaids”) to steeple-watch and to sky-gaze from the terrazzo.
10 Wednesday Sep 2014
Not much, since the rains of September finally came.
If Chaucer were writing his Canterbury Tales today, I suppose he’d frame them as independent blogs. Or, to keep up the social interaction between the multiple tellers and the tales, as a series of postings on “The facebook.”
10 Wednesday Sep 2014
A year ago I was amazed by a Moka coffee maker, which perks up (instead of dripping down).
This year, more so, I am mesmerized by the locking mechanism on the terrace shutter doors. A good place to start, as always, is at the bottom of things:
Around this innocent-looking (but do not be fooled, lest you happen to trip over it) device on the left, the two doors (one with and one without a mechanism like the one on the right) fit snuggly into place:
How the mechanism manages to hold these pieces against themselves, thereby keeping the doors locked in place, is a marvel to behold:
Far be it from me to divulge the magician’s tricks of the trade. Suffice it to say, it works.
10 Wednesday Sep 2014
Posted in Travel
Sundays, we clean house. (Most of Italy seems to take the day for family.)
Rainy days, we wait on cloud breaks for the trip to EuroSpin (supermercato).
Days after (another big adventure), we sleep and eat, aim to write and paint.
09 Tuesday Sep 2014
Posted in Travel
“Steep.”
“Tall.”
“Steep.”
“More resourceful than the folks in Raleigh when it comes to solving mass transport.”
09 Tuesday Sep 2014
I’m still working on the Italian. Longing, as well, for the photographer’s eye.
Click here for a first-rate image, plus the critical exchange that accompanies it.
I, on the other hand, am still pealing back Euros, like onions, from my belt-pack and trying to decipher the history and the dynamics of this two-day commercial festival. (At least we found the short-sleeve shirts to beat the heat. Porchetta, I shall save for another day.)
09 Tuesday Sep 2014
With talent enough and time, I might not commit a crime against the sensations of “Sensational Umbria.” But don’t count on it (or wait for it).
Instead, thanks to the marvels of the web: here at your finger tips is the reason, one of them anyway, that we decided to make our first day-trip to Perugia:
Click here for Exhibit web site and get a taste, at least, of what we enjoyed this morning.
09 Tuesday Sep 2014
Posted in Travel
“Turn around, idiot, turn around.”
“I swear, honey, this alley really is the right way to the exhibit.”
“Steep hill ahead. Turn around, idiot, turn around.”
“Here is the perfect beginning, day-trippers, to your forays into Umbria.”
08 Monday Sep 2014
Posted in Travel
The family Osteria promises “Vini e Cucina,” and our weekly return to it yields:
a) feast as good as (maybe better than) before; b) friendly neighbor who offers help with our choice of a scrumptious dessert; c) kindly addition of Sambuca to cap off the meal; d) life story told in great spirit, together with a few history lessons, the wife’s editorial revisions, and a glimpse of her cell-phone pics.
08 Monday Sep 2014
Posted in Travel
Booty not at all in the derogatory slang sense. By no means. Booty, rather, by way of the Middle Low German bute (originally a taking of the spoils, say on the order of what we tourists do). More generally, any prize or gain, as with these signs of the same:
