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.

Will the luggage arrive?

This email from Nico, our host here in Montepulciano:

Good morning,

I am expecting the luggage to get here this morning if they keep their promise.

Please do not wait and enjoy your day as these people are mainly liars to try and shut people like me up from complaining to them!!!!

They sub hire private couriers who hold onto the packages and when they have a few that need to be delivered in our area, that is the only time they will move to make it worth their while. It is crazy of customer unfriendly they are.

Enjoy your day and I am sorry you have to go through this as it is not nice at all.

Warm regards,

Nico

Que Sera, Sera

"Uno piccolo gelato....Cocco, per favore"
(A small gelato....coconut, please). Coconut is the BEST. Il Campo di something-or-other, in Siena.












For you Catherine of Siena fans....here she is prostrate (and dead) being blessed by Pope Pius II).












For 50 cents (in Euro coins) you can pay to get in this self-cleaning toilet.

How do you flush a toilet? Let me count the ways:
1. Push a button on the wall behind the bowl....large button for #2, small for #1.
2. Push a button on the tank.
3. Push upward on a plunger thing above the tank.
4. Pull a chain.
5. Step out of the "toilet booth" and the door closes and you hear flushing and spraying and whooshing.











Day 4:
Last night this email arrived:

Greetings Dr. Morris,

I have contacted British Airlines and received further information regarding your luggage and forwarding information. Your luggage was forwarded from Venice on flight AZ1468 to Rome and Rome to Florence AZ1675. The flight landed in Florence this morning around 11am. I was advised delivery can take up to 12 hours and it takes a few hours for your luggage to get scanned in from the flight once arrived in Florence and then is released to the delivery company. We will continue to keep you updated and will email tomorrow with further information. If you receive your luggage or need further assistance please reply to this email or call internationally collect 715.346.0852. We are available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week and would be happy to further assist you.

Best Regards,

Heidi

Personal Assistance Specialist

Then a woman called and woke me up about 10:45 pm to say she is from British Airlines and she has my bag in Florence and would I like to pick it up? "No," I said, (with some bird-in-the-hand anxiety), "I was told it would be delivered." She said, "What is your address? You'll be there till June 24th, right? We'll get it to you 'as soon as possible.'"

No bag yet.

Meanwhile, we drove to San Gimignano and Siena today, thanks to our trusty Diamonte and her lovely directions. More perfect Tuscan weather...bright sunshine and maybe 80 degrees. More lush green countryside with groves of grape trees and olive trees and soft golden hay.

There's a pattern of history here: Find a hill, stake your claim, build a wall around it to protect it because somebody always wants your hill, plunk a church on it, build some towers to watch for enemies. After hundreds of years of wars and plundering, set up shops on main street with leather handbags, shoes, chatchkes, and gelato and rake in the tourist euros.

Thanks to Chip's camera and artistic eye....

This is our trusty steed. The car, that is.

No billboards, no Walmart, this is heaven.

Most villages have a bell tower like this one.

Lunch today....tagliatelle (flat noodles on left) with wild boar, and grilled wild boar on the right....tastes like steak. Mmmm.

Everywhere in Tuscany is a version of this view.

Day 3 in Tuscany

Today we prowled around small towns in Tuscany, and every hairpin turn revealed yet another breathtaking vista. I can see why all the great painters roamed around the countryside painting the beautiful shades of azure, gray-green, terracotta, dark green, and sienna brown. I have enough photos to paint for the rest of my life. Our horse, Diamonte, is a female with a British accent, and she speaks to us politely and gently, guiding us from one town to another. Who knew?

We return in the evening to this email from our travel insurance agent:

Greetings Dr. Morris,

I am emailing today to confirm you have received both pieces of delayed luggage. I have contacted British Airlines and your file has been closed, this means your luggage should have been either received or is in route with the delivery company. If you have not received your luggage or need further assistance please reply to this email or call internationally collect 715.346.0852. We are available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week and would be happy to further assist you.

....but no luggage has appeared. Yet.

Yesterday afternoon's exhilaration in Venice (walking tour of St. Mark's Square and surrounding neighborhoods, dodging Italian thunder and rain in the middle of it....where are the umbrellas?....in the suitcases!!) followed by a beautiful boatride along the Grand Canal that snakes its way through the heart of Venice and floats past incredible palaces and hotels and churches and museums. We saw Elton John's house, heard about how Lord Byron used to swim in the Grand Canal followed by his gondola of clothes and necessities. We drank Bellinis (sparkling wine and peach juice) at Harry's Bar, a place where famous people hang, though we didn't see any.....

..where was I? Oh yes, yesterday's exhilaration was offset a bit by anxiety as the day wore on and no luggage appeared. Each time we came by the hotel desk, the clerk would shrug his shoulders and look apologetic and say, "All we get is a recorded message that says some pieces of your luggage have been found, we don't know which, and hopefully will be here by tonight or tomorrow." Well, we are leaving at 7:30am tomorrow, so the worry spikes. By 6pm we were beginning to wonder if we were going to have to spend some number of hours in the local hospital or "farmacia" waiting for Chip's blood pressure and cholesterol prescriptions to be arranged and filled (oh yes, several dope slaps for not packing all meds in carry-on)....then lo and behold one "piece" aka Chip's luggage blessedly makes its appearance.

Meanwhile I am imagining my bag is lost forever, and what would I do if I arrive at a painting workshop with no equipment? Well we have a week to figure that out. In any event, we settle down with relief that Chip has his stuff, then another spike of worry....our train tickets are in....you guessed it....Jan's luggage! Back on the travel insurance hotline to see if there's anything to do. Now it's 10pm the night before we leave, and after a long research time they tell us to go to the station and buy tickets there.

So at 7:30am we are picked up by water taxi and ferried over to the Venice train station where we approach the window and ask for tickets for the 8:37 train to Florence and he shakes his head....no seats, not until Noon. Four hours in the train station? OMG. He says when the train rolls in, ask the conductor what to do, explain about the lost luggage. So we do. I've been holding it together until this point....the luggage, the anxiety, the challenges....then I begin explaining to the conductor our situation and start to cry. Well, between the tears and the insistence the train couldn't possibly be full because we have reservations in Coach 1 seats 23&24, he gets on the cellphone and talks to the other conductor and somehow we are on the train and it costs 50 more Euros each to buy the tickets ON the train, plus two new tickets at 60 Euros each. Desperate times, desperate measures.

More anxiety because our International Driver's Licenses are....in Jan's suitcase....but nobody asks for them, and we are in our rental car and on to Montepulciano....the Promised Land. Our rental car is a Black Mercedes, big enough for 6 people and it looks like we are the Italian Mafia. We've named it Diamonte, for Zorro's horse. How much does it cost to feed Diamonte? We'll see!

Photos to come one of these days if I ever get my suitcase. We have a glorious apartment with a balcony and view of the Tuscan countryside. Heaven.

Day 1 in Venice

Venice is incredibly beautiful!! I would send you photos but the cable is in the suitcase which is in the London airport or someplace between here and there. Guess who packed an extra set of clothes in HER backpack? And a toothbrush. Guess who is sick of his clothes after 36 hours of wearing them? OK, we could buy deodorant, a toothbrush, a razor....but we keep thinking it will all arrive any minute. Meanwhile the stubble grows, the teeth decay, the body smells. But we've eaten the most wonderful lasagne ever in our lives. And seen incredible baroque, gothic, and other architecture and eaten four kinds of gelato. Buono!

Countdown

Cellphones, kindle, laptop, ipod, cpap....chargers and plug converters....check.
Vitamins, ambien, arthritis gel, muscle relaxers, cholesterol meds, ibuprofen, Thermacare patches, Azo, Cipro….check.

We need bigger suitcases.