Morning Light

When it’s less than fun to be the one who gave the cold away.

Another Fine Invention

Plainly seen: It’s hard to beat the Opera Box.
Four walls, with a door at one end and a window opposite.
Such a practically designed and perfectly confined room:
Just enough space for a seating of six.

This year we had the perfect mix:
Two Italians from Rome, their oft-visiting Belgian friends,
And then the two of us, Spoletini transients from the US.
Three languages, with one polyglot

Sharing short stories between acts:
Learning more about the (opera) company, at times by pretending
To know less than what U should have prepared for on the big test.
Such a refined idea, the opera box!

A Night at the Opera

Influenced by Rossini’s music, Verdi should prove to be more to our liking.

The orchestra alone, from what I can tell, has enough strings to avoid dissonance.
And, who knows? The scoring for flute may explain all of our neighbor’s practicing.
Now, if I can only keep the arias straight … The plot, setting aside, is simple enough.

Art in the City

A Tale of Two Visits

Feed a Cold, Starve a Blog

Caption as You Like

Because these old goats are tired from climbing these hills. More at 11:00.

Assisi Behind Us

The Mother of Invention

In the Arts:
When it comes to abstruse poetry, Wallace Stevens is the mother of invention.
One of his most famous, a Cubist haiku, is “13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.”

In Real Life:
When it comes to practical necessities, Rebecca knows how to shift things a bit.
Take the bidet, which she has transformed in more ways than discretion admits.

Assisi Ahead

As with our 2013 stay in Rome, the Pope’s invitation has been lost in the mail.

But we are soon headed for Assisi, putting our faith in the trains, as planned many months ago.

And his Eminence will be arriving the same day, signs say, in a quite different way.

Now if our two parties can only avoid sharing a bus up to the top of the hill.