curi·ous {Old French curios} Drawn to investigate, prick up the ears, ponder for the sake of pondering. Enticed by mysteriously labeled bottles.
vo·luptu·ary {Late Latin volupturius} A lass devoted to the pursuit of pleasure. An unabashed epicurean, hedonist, libertine, sensualist, lotus-eater.
We drove down to Umbria, to Civita di Bagnoregio, aka il paese che muore (the dying town). It is perched on a bit of volcanic ash which regularly crumbles, dropping buildings into Tiber river valley.
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The current population is 12. The modernish town of Bagnoregio (two images above) links Etruscan Cività to [...]
Lucca is a town known for eats, and as the birth place of Puccini (of La bohème and Madama Butterfly fame), but the lost grandeur seen in the Belle Epoque signage (particularly on Via Fillungo) is what caught my eye.
A lovely town, another half work day, so more of a walking tour of Siena/quest for internet cafe.
We missed the Sanctuary of Santa Caterina, which incorporates the birth house of the levitating gal who called the pope “Daddy.” We did manage to have a fine lunch at the lovely Enoteca I Terzi.
Piazza Del Campo (click [...]
Storm, battistero di San Giovanni ceiling mosaic, dinner, and spooky night drive: birthday in Florence.
The work of many unknown Venetian craftsmen dates from 1225. The mosaic cycle depicts the Last Judgment, the rewards of the saved (at Jesus’ right hand), and the punishments of the damned (at Jesus’ left hand).
Do-gooders.
Do-baders. Sorta [...]
Alfonso in his natural habitat. We still have a tiny piece of parm and a bottle of olive oil. sigh.
local old-school restaurant Da Marino, where we lunched a handful of times, along with the local work dudes, or (as in these photos) in a sudden, fierce storm.
dinner on the farm comes with Dingo the dog, [...]
We spent my birthday week at fattoria il poeta, an agriturismo above Pontassieve, in eastern Tuscany. The farm is near the top of a windy mountain road, it was very spooky returning late at night when even the bats are asleep.
Our apartment included the two doors on the right.
We drove 4000km from Switzerland to Italy [...]
On our drive home (that would last fifteen hours and saw us arrive home at three am) Ali sweetly indulged my curiosity about the 16th century garden known as Bosco dei Monstri in Bomarzo, Lazio (just beyond Rome). The Monster’s Grove–it’s visionary preferred Sacred Wood of Bomarzo–is something Mannerist and surreal, created to astonish and [...]
Now the Sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence. And though admittedly such a thing never happened, it is still conceivable that someone might possibly have escaped from their singing; but from their silence certainly never. Franz Kafka, 1917
I had learned through the little research I did before leaving [...]
It was heaven. A hangout of the original Bloomsbury Group: Lytton Strachey, Virginia Woolf, Keynes, E.M. Forster, and also Piaget, D.H. Lawrence, and Winston Churchill. It is believed that English botanist (and special friend of Woolf) Vita Sackville-West planned the garden. It was the setting for the legendary elopement of actress Greta Garbo and Leopold [...]
Whenever I hear the word “culture,” I bring out my checkbook. ~Le Mépris, Godard, 1963
We spent the following day on the gorgeous island of Capri, or part of it, as you can see above. One lands at the large port (x number 1) and can from there take the funicular to the main piazetta of [...]