Ciao, Italy. Ciao, Texas.

After a little Ricky and Lucy routine this morning (ohmygosh, we're on the wrong subway, how can this be, I swear I read the sign pointing us this way, we have to get off and go the other way, here it is, let's get on, wait, this is not the right one, GET OFF RIGHT NOW! ohmygosh, we were on the right one the first time) we headed out to the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica. We had our personal guide, so we were two of the special people who got to get in line with the hundreds of other special people, which I guess is a lot better than being in line with thousands of un-special people. Upon our guide's suggestion we raced through the secret passageways to the Sistine Chapel first for a few relatively quiet and unpopulated moments of reflection and observation before starting the main tour. It was a wonderful tour through the magnificent complex that is so rich with history.


Here's a little reminder of where we're going tomorrow, pardner.


And here's a lake at the Villa Borghese, which is a lot like Central Park in its pathways and scenery. A good, serene way to end this wonderful trip.

Thanks for coming along with us. Hope you enjoyed this blog as much as I did putting it together!

It's just around the corner and 132 steps up.

Seems like wherever we go, we're going up and down stairs in this city. And all over Italy, for that matter. Arthritic mountain goats, if you recall.

OK, so about 10 people told us we really should see the Borghese Gallery, so we finally got the idea it's something to pay attention to. But you need reservations. They only let a certain number of people in at 9, 11, 1 and 3, and they kick you out after 2 hours. So our hotel concierge said, call at 8:30am and see if there are any openings for the day, maybe you'll get lucky. So we went online this morning and worked our way through the Italian ticket sales website with the help of the concierge, and at 8:45am she said, the only tickets available for today are at 9am, so you should get a cab and go NOW. So we raced over there, only to find when we got up to the admissions desk, the grouchy ol' ticket-taker said our reservation didn't go through. I was about to cry. Suddenly when you are in a hurry and you feel lucky, you REALLY want to get in. Anyway, he said, come back in 20 minutes and see if there are any spaces left. We came back in about 10 minutes and a much friendlier clerk was there with two tickets in hand and ... we were IN!

And by the way, while standing in line, the people behind us saw the red rash on Chip's legs....they look like flowery ankle bracelets... and the woman said, "I got the very same thing after we went to Florence." Well, so did Chip. And he had a second conversation that day with someone who also got a rash after Florence. So we're calling it the Firenze Fire. Or the Firenze 'flammation.

And also, by the way, Chip had on his Longhorn shirt and cap, and several people said, "Hook 'em" or "I'm from Austin, too!"

Anyway, the Borghese is truly a wonderful gallery even for someone like me who is not easily impressed by sculpture. Beautiful pieces by Bernini, the rock star of Italian sculptors.

You can see some of the pieces if you Google Borghese Gallery.

After that we rode the tour bus around town, got off at a couple of stops, went up and down a zillion more steps, and saw the highlights. Including Michelangelo's Moses in the St. Peter in Chains church.

I didn't take any photos today....you all know what the Colosseum looks like. But I'll close with another close-up of the Trevi Fountain.

Tomorrow, our last day in Italy, we wrap it all up with a tour of St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel.

Rome Roaming

After bidding arrivederci to Amalfi and our painting friends, we drove into Naples, boarded the train for Rome, and arrived about 2:30 pm at the Hotel Alexandra, which is situated within walking distance of the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, Piazza Navone, and the Pantheon. All of which we saw on a great walking tour this afternoon. Rome is all about magnificent buildings and sculptures appearing around every corner. Great ravioli Borghese for dinner. Ah, Roma. Can't you just see Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn hanging out at the Trevi?

"Grazie mille, I love you!"

We waited almost an hour for a bus this morning, only to learn that the tour bus was blocked by the city bus that was "broken down" parked in front of it, the result of a country-wide bus strike. The tour bus isn't part of the strike, but the city buses don't want any other buses running. So we hired a taxi for $10 Euros apiece, which at that point seemed like a really good deal, and our driver, Angelo, was a very handsome, very chatty guy who pointed out all the sights and commented on all the restaurants and ceramics factories and such along the way. He drove us home at the end of the day as well, and by that time he was telling us all, "I love you!" And we loved him.

Ravello was our destination again today, but we went to the Hotel Ruffalo this time. We painted in a large shaded patio area full of scenic vistas. Then we had a delicious lunch and a chance to do some sightseeing. Because of the bus strike there were very few tourists, which made for a quiet and peaceful afternoon. The Villa Cimbrone is a 20-minute walk down a hill and is full of beautiful gardens and places overlooking the sea. The photos above were taken there....a young (pre-hunk) David and some interesting flowers and doorways.

The last photo is of one of many brides who appeared on the town square this day.

Sam, our instructor, had each of us spread out all of our paintings for the week in chronological order, for a final (supportive and encouraging) critique and thoughts on where to take our drawing and painting from this point. He has suggested I take photos and enlarge them and work on representing little parts of the photos with simple, free strokes to create impressions. "Alla prima" (one stroke) painting is a great technique to learn when mastering watercolors. We were all proud of our work and excited to see the progression throughout the week.

Tomorrow we drive to Naples ("city of garbage" at the moment, due to a strike of a different sort), and board the train for Rome.

Is this heaven? No it's Mama Agata's in Ravello.

Ravello is about a 15-minute zigzag up the mountainside from Amalfi. Today was spent entirely at Mama Agata's home and gardens, where we were greeted by Mama Agata, her daughter Chiara, and other members of the family. They run a cooking school, which Chip was a part of, and they also gave us free license to roam the grounds looking for painting subjects.

We were warmly greeted by Chiara, who has recently published a gold-medal-winning cookbook, seated at a long table of beautiful place settings, and served capuccino and the most luscious, moist lemon cake we've ever tasted.

On the grounds there are groves of lemon trees, herb gardens, kumquat trees, lavender, and much much more.

The painters set about painting, and the cooking students set about cooking. After maybe 90 minutes of demonstrations, the entire group was seated at the table (which is on an outdoor shaded porch overlooking the sea) for a 3 1/2-hour, seven-course meal of fritters (fluffy pancake-type batter with salami, zucchini, cheeses mixed in and deep-fried to a puffy, light texture), fried zucchini flowers (dipped in the same batter, stuffed with cheese and proscuitto), eggplant parmesan (like no eggplant I've ever tasted), spaghetti with tomato sauce and arugula, some other pasta with sausage and parmesan, lemon chicken with rosemary and basil, and more lemon cake with limoncello (a liqueur made from grain alcohol and lemons).

I simply cannot believe how much food was served up, and all of it extraordinary.


The eggplant parmesan.

The spaghetti with arugula.

Mama Agata (left) and daughter Chiara autographing her cookbook.

Tomorrow is our last day in Amalfi, and we are returning to the town of Ravello for our final day of painting.

Capri Cruising

Yesterday dawned another crystal clear day, and the group hired a boat to take us to, and around, the island of Capri (the locals pronounce it "CAP ree"), with its famous Blue Grotto. We didn't see the Blue Grotto because it would have added at least an hour of waiting time, as tourists have to wait to ride into it in small boats. There are smaller grottos, as seen above, that have the same magical, luminous effect.
Who knew that lemons grow everywhere in southern Italy? Capri is no exception.


What magnificent scenery, eh?

Painting in Amalfi

Early this morning (the sun rises by 5am but 8am was the earliest I could get out) we set up on a pier that stretches out across the bay. The view of the town of Amalfi is fabulous at this hour. Here's what my painting set-up looks like, and the crucial component is that umbrella that clamps onto the leg of the easel. Without it you bake in the sun very quickly.

Knowing my time was limited made me paint faster, which apparently generates better results because otherwise I get too controlled and obsessed with detail. So here is this morning's product and I was quite happy with it.


Tomorrow we leave our paints at the hotel and head out for the island of Capri. Can't wait!

Positano

Positano....a little village nestled into the coastline....has a watercolor painter named Pasquale. Isn't this a fabulous painting in the making? Inspiration for me.
Here's a look at Positano, where we spent a lovely day painting and roaming the streets and shops.

Feast of St. Andrew

Hooray, got a photo up tonight...it's all I can do to get the internet working. This is the view from our balcony at the La Bussola Hotel.

We were awakened at 6am with the BOOM BOOM BOOM of fireworks, the opening to an all-day celebration of the Feast of St. Andrew, who was the one the locals prayed to in order to save them from the dread pirate Barbarosa. Arrrg! And he did. So forever after he is worshipped on this day with fireworks...a real show tonight, a procession from the church where they carry a big silver statue of St. Andrew...all up and down the streets with much music and celebration.

Yesterday we found a little wind-sheltered place to paint and did more landscape painting off the deck of the hotel on another beautiful day. I'm learning how to paint trees without making a big mess, and how to fix stuff in my paintings by wetting and rubbing the brush. Many new things to learn and it is very fun. We are enjoying our fellow "campers" as well.

Today we're catching the ferry to Positano for an all-day paint-out there. More to come and I'll keep trying to post photos.

Next time let's leave the piano at home.

This phrase was uttered by Chip as he hefted my suitcase up and down the steep steps of the train car. One of the advantages of losing your luggage is somebody else was hauling that 50-pound behemoth on and off airplanes and vans and upstairs.

We arose at 5:45 am yesterday, early enough to shower, pack up, fetch the car, and drive to the train station in Chiusi, about 45 minutes away. After dropping off the car, we boarded the 8:31 train to Roma.

Speaking of bathrooms again, train bathrooms are very, very exciting. But I digress.

In Roma, we switched to the train for Napoli and arrived at our destination at around 12:30pm, where we were greeted by Pasquale, our driver to Amalfi. He is a friendly fellow and very calm, which you need to be when you are driving a van on Italian highways that are wide enough for two mid-sized cars and a razor blade. He asked us if we'd just arrived from the U.S., and we said, no, we just spent a week in Tuscany. He said, "Oh, so first you go to the monte and now you go to the bitch."

The "bitch" is the glorious coastline of Ravello, Positano, Amalfi (where we are), and other villages. Our hotel room at La Bussola Hotel has a balcony that looks out over the bay, with boats bobbing in the harbor and white buildings built into the high cliffs. I cannot believe I'm here.

After a light lunch, we met my painting group on the 4th floor deck that overlooks the bay. Sam, our instructor, is a gregarious, friendly, supportive teacher who loves to eat, loves to laugh, and loves this town of Amalfi. He and his wife organize painting trips to Italy 3-5 times a year, and this is their 10th year in Amalfi. They like 3-star, family-owned hotels with staff that stays for a lifetime, and they are well-acquainted with the staff here. During our first class, I learned how to "scumble" (look it up), to mix cobalt blue, cadmium yellow, and yellow ochre to get various shades of green for the trees here, and how to sketch out the composition of a painting before you start slapping paint on paper. There are five of us students, including a woman who has never put paint on paper, and a couple of other hackers like me. That's a relief...I'm not competing with master painters here. Sam is 66 years old and has been a professional painter for over 40 years. He is talented and has intelligence backing his creativity. So we're off to a great start.

We had cocktails in the bar, then a really fine dinner including calamari, veal, pasta, and lemon cream cake. Lemons are big in Amalfi.

Last night was very eventful in this 3-star hotel with the rock-hard 2-star bed. The wind blew like a hurricane outside, the door to our room banged open in the middle of the night (must not have shut it tightly), and the power went out twice. This morning's class has been postponed because, although the water and sky are sparkling blue, the wind just howls. Unusual for this time of year, and all our painting stuff would just fly away if we tried to paint outside. So we're doing laundry and hanging out on the internet.

Our last day in Tuscany

On this our last day in Tuscany, we scouted out a couple of hamlets we hadn't seen yet....Sarteano and (here's a mouthful) Castiglioncello del Trinoro. More beautiful churches, and up a long dusty gravel road we found more beautiful scenery. In Sarteano we stumbled upon the Walmart of the locals....a large marketplace with all sorts of clothing, food, fabric, tools, cleaning products, etc.





Italy is for lovers! Choose your favorite couple:

Assisi and other thoughts

This is our lovely bathroom, complete with toilet, bidet, large tub, shower, and two sinks, about six times the size of our bathroom at home.

While I'm on the subject of bathrooms, I must complain about the over-zealous green-designers of public bathrooms in Italy. They either have a motion sensor that turns on the lights when you enter or a timing device. Four times so far I have been in one of these bathrooms just doin' my thing, when the lights go out and I am plunged into total darkness. There are two ways to get the lights back on.....either sit there and wave your arms like mad, or get up and grope around for the light switch, depending on the bathroom. I believe these lights were designed by Italian men intent on getting their wives out of the bathroom in a hurry.


On to Assisi, about an hour and 45 minutes from Montepulciano, on another day of sparkling sunshine. Here's what Rick Steves says about Assisi: "In the early 1200s, a simple friar from Assisi challenged the decadence of church government and society in general with a powerful message of simplicity, nonmaterialism, service to the community, and a “slow down and smell God’s roses” lifestyle."

St. Francis must have lost his luggage in the Heathrow airport and learned to live without. But I'm over all that.
















Here's his beautiful basilica.








The buildings and streets are in very good condition....better than a lot of the old towns.



After the usual sights, we drove toward the fort which looks out over the valley, but we got going in the wrong direction and ended up driving up to the top of a mountain where we could stop and look out over all creation. Much to our surprise there were people sprinkled about the hillside with their fold-out lounge chairs sunning themselves and reading....like so....


















At the end of the day....a tasty American-style dinner of grilled steak, toasted bread, green beans, onions (grilled, of course), tomatoes, nectarines, and Pinot Grigio from Venice.

Florence, etc.

Ok, with the luggage fiasco all settled, it's time to talk about shoes. Vote for your favorite!
































































Florence is busy, crowded, hot, noisy, smelly, and expensive. The line to see this massive wedding-cake-like cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore) snaked around the building for what seemed like miles. But it was swell from the outside. After that, we saw a bazillion renditions of Renaissance Madonna(s) and Child(s).

Jubilation Day

The bell rang in our apartment at about 1pm, and there at the door stood Nico, his worker Paolo, and my suitcase! Oh happy day. Now I have my hat, my camera hook-up, my razor (enough of this go-European), my own deodorant (forget that Old Spice stuff), my International Driver's License, and my pillow, among other delights. It took 'em five days, fergodssakes.




Cherries up the street.










Buoyed by this development, we went off to Cortona, which is perched on a mountain. This is where Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed. Chip and I are like two arthritic mountain goats....functional but slow. Up, and up, and up and up we hiked to the very top, where there was a fortress and, of course, a church. With nuns wandering around. Here's the view from the Fortezza.




Then down, down, down, and back to the city center to have a late lunch/early dinner. Whew!







Salad with cheese, mushrooms, walnuts, celery. Ravioli with butter and sage.




And at the end of the day....we come home to
our beautiful balcony, uncork a bottle of wine,
and relax.