The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful.
ee cummings
I love the world in reflection ... have loved it since I was small.
There is something about those soft reflections, a promise of an imperfect world that might just exist ... down there, by our feet perhaps.
In Venice, there were gondolas, canals, a million tourists, some rain, one very kind woman who stopped to ask if we were lost (then gave us directions because we were).
There was affordable pizza, a gift (or two) for Miss 9, from Julie and another from me.
And there were dogs, more than adept at beating the pigeons to tourist food ...
I did the crime ... an Italian espresso at 5pm in Venice. And although it was in celebration of finding our way out of the maze that is Venice, it seems I must do the time. It's 1.29am and I'm still awake. Wide awake!
Today has been all about leaving Trieste, then impulsively stopping for an hour or two of wandering through Venice, and driving on afterwards, another million miles towards Milan then Lake Como.
An impulsive couple of hours in Venice that became 4 hours when we were lost for a while on our way out of that ancient city.
And Venice ...!!! I'm not even sure how to write up the experience. Not yet. But tonight, once we found our way to Bellano, Italy, there was this dinner consisting of this divine smokey cheese, provided by our lovely Air B&B hostess, and a bottle of Italian red wine we had been carrying since Budapest.
Julie made herself pasta but it felt too late for me to be eating something so serious and anyway, I was still recovering from The Most Delicious pasta dinner I had ever tasted ... the previous evening, back in Trieste. Something to do with mushrooms, a cream sauce, and pasta at Al Barattolo.
If you find yourself in Trieste, I can only tell you that you must eat at Al Barattolo because the food is divine. The house red wine is also delicious but that's a whole other story.
That said, tonight's pasta did inspire Julie to write up a blogpost about our roadtrip so far. But our journey is almost done and tomorrow we're off to the airport. I'm heading back to Antwerp while she's continuing on her long journey home, with Athens as her next destination.
I will miss that cousin of mine after almost 2 months of living and traveling together. We do have the most excellent adventures though. Always. Last time we wandered all over England, wondering about speed limits and road rules as we went, occasionally phoning home to seek wise counsel on these serious matters.
We drank wine with mercenaries on that journey. I actually went through a stage where I met 3 different groups of them socially ... by chance and yes, I found it bizarre. We also managed to accidentally walked out of a cafe without paying, realised, then found a branch of the same chain in another town over there, confessed, felt the love ... well actually, their surprise that we were so honest. I think they might have been stunned but anyway, they'd written it off, much to our relief. And so much more. It's never sedate when we get together.
Anyway ... tonight finds us in a lovely Air B&B in Bellano in Italy. It seems to be located on one of the arms of Lake Como, not Como itself though. Everything we've viewed online tells us it's lovely however ...spending time lost in Venice complicated our arrival here and made us some hours late, in fact, after darkness had fallen.
The light was fading fast when we began driving the 50 minutes alongside Lake Como to Bellano. Darkness AND there were masses of tunnels, some as much as 5kms long. And while The Homer Tunnel experience in New Zealand last year, seems to have cured me of my previously intense dislike of tunnels, I wasn't the happiest creature when I realised we had driven an extra 16kms beyond our destination exit road, due to our troublesome GPS losing its satellite connection while in those very same very long tunnels.
But arriving here, meeting Laura - our lovely B&B hostess, settling in, drinking the last bottle of red wine Julie and I will share in a while ... somehow everything took on a rosy restropective glow and voila, we were happy again.
We are fortunate, it doesn't take much to right our sometimes wonky worlds. Well ... I could have done without the whole 'sleepless in Bellano' thing but you wouldn't have this post and nor would you have this small glimpse of a scene I spotted in Venice.
It's been a freefall into life and people and adventures lately ...
A. Free. Fall.
Sometimes I've found myself wondering if I might hit the wall, other times it has been about 'when' I would hit that wall.
And people. It has been a festival of folk I adore, or folk I have come to adore. And family. And everyone else too.
But tonight ... tonight finds me, in Verona, Italy, listening to Zucchero, Pavarotti, and Bocelli singing Miserere. Introducing Julie to the music of Zucchero actually... because we need him in the car as we roadtrip tomorrow and because she confessed that, like me, she loves Pavarotti.
We ate dinner at Locandina Cappello tonight and matched a delicious pasta with a delightful red wine ... a Valpollicella Classico Superiore Ognisanti Bertani DOC. I wouldn't mind finding some more of that particular red wine.
You see we had wandered through the old city centre, in search of the perfect place to have our 'first night in Italy' dinner, and realised that we are really looking forward to wandering in tomorrow morning's first light. It seems like a pretty city ... and while Genova has my heart and soul, it seems my head could be slightly turned by Verona.
Although that turn of head might be because of the kindness of strangers here. You see, just before we arrived at our 'tricky to find anyway' destination, and after Julie had driven 201kms, our NEW GPS died. For some reason it wasn't receiving a charge from the car's cigarette lighter ...despite me pressing it in there when we got the low battery warning.
So there we were, in the ancient part of the city ...without directions.
I saw a man walking along the street, and stopped him to ask for directions. He turned on his phone, pulled up his GPS, frowned, sighed a little, and gave us a couple of options on locating this difficult to find street. He apologised for the complications we would encounter.
We set off and ended up taking the most difficult option while managing to follow his spoken directions then we saw two young men walking along the street and we stopped so I could ask them if they could help a little. They turned on their phones, turned on their GPS function ... our street didn't come up and they admitted that while they were studying in Verona, they weren't from Verona.
We 3 stopped a woman walking by ... as you do, gently and politely, and she had no English but the young men spoke with her. I saw some head-shaking and heard muttering. I asked if it was complicated and yes, I was told. Very. She apologised and left.
We drove on. I saw a guy walking along the street and stopped him to ask. We had parked the car by now. He was a local and said he was in no hurry to go home and that he would walk us there. And he did.
But, of course, we had no street number and so it was that another kind stranger, seeing us looking confused and staring at our papers while talking to our rescuer, came out and asked if he might help. But he wasn't sure either ... and then another neighbour came over, and she offered her advice, and then another neighbour.
And suddenly, just as we were wandering off to the viccolo with the same name, The Guy arrived and we were rescued. He took up up upstairs to this cute little student flat/summer Air B&B. And here we are, after a delicious dinner in this ancient city ... the location of a story I studied so long ago, back home in New Zealand, never imagining that one day I might wander by Juliet's balcony while searching out a place for dinner, one September evening in 2013.
The Beautiful Truth workshop in Piedmont was intense ... I'm only beginning to unpack everything that happened and to go through the images we all took there.
Intense in that way it is when like-minded women gather together. As always, I met some truly superb people who made me laugh so hard sometimes ... other times, well I'll post a photograph of Sara, Sandy and Julie trying on shoes at the Market in Acqui Terme - cameras dangling over their shoulders.
But no, that made me smile too. They were delicious and we're all still in touch. In fact, Julie and Sara arrive at my place tomorrow, flying in from a quick trip to Portugal .
In the image that follows ... Sara made us pause while she captured herself, Diana, and I in reflection while taking aperitivo in Acqui Terme.
I realise it has been a while since I've posted.
I've been so empty of words.
My cousin is staying. I adore my cousin, she's family, and I've been trying to make the most of her being here before she heads off to the Southern Hemisphere.
But before she leaves ... there will be Verona, Trieste, Lake Blad, maybe Senj, Budapest, and Vienna if there's time. Julie wanted to go wandering and it seemed like a very good idea.
There's a party coming up at our place, with 3 favourite friends staying over at the weekend. And there's an attendance at a Gregorian Chant performance in a couple of days. And the new Red Star Line Museum invited me in for a sneak preview this weekend.
I've been busy with ticking off my 'to-do' list. Catching up on long overdue emails. And I need to talk beer with these guys. To write a blog post for the Loving Genova people ... because I do love Genova, just in case you had missed that fact about me.
I have sent previous photography workshop photographs to the lovely baker in Genova, and an English menu off to my favourite pizzeria in the world. Photographs to the lovely Giulia, the results of asking if I might photograph her and her puppy while doing the aperitivo thing in Acqui Terme.
In-between times, I had the most incredible luck. I found a novel set in one of the places I lived in New Zealand. I've been reading that on the trams, in my bed, anyplace there's is space for a book. I wrote home to Manapouri and Te Anau, asking old friends if the book was as good as it seemed, only to discover that people I knew, or their family, were used as character inspiration for the writer.
I loved the book. I loved being home in New Zealand for the duration of the read.
Gert returns from Genova tomorrow. He's had a week out of the madness and chaos of here,. Actually he has been tormenting me a little, talking of temperatures I could barely imagine back here in Belgium, where autumn has arrived and I'm wearing boots and my polar fleece ... that is after weeks of glorious Italian sunshine and warmth.
I'm deep-cleaning the house, making sure all is ready for everyone and the weekend ahead. Stories may follow ...
I wonder if I sensed something about the road ahead of me after the workshop. I seem wary. This photograph, taken by Sandy during the workshop in Acqui Terme ... is me, responding with that discomfort that comes when I realise I am the 'subject' rather than the photographer.
An 'ohmygoodness' moment I think.
I have a new toy and in these days where I recover from 'much', I am occasionally playing with photographs taken over weeks.
Roberto took me wandering through Genova, introducing me to this place and that. And this was a place of much quiet beauty and grandeur.
Sometimes, bouncing between worlds take more out of my soul than I expect.
Today I lay down after lunch and woke just before 5pm. I am exhausted again. There was France and another truly exquisite wedding. A love so big that it melted my heart.
Then the Beautiful Truth workshop in Piedmont, where the people of Piedmont impressed me with their open-hearted welcome. Their food. And their wine. I discovered Brachetto. One of those discoveries of a lifetime ... or so is my story.
Then Genova, that city I love more than any other in the world.
And now I am home, doing the re-entry thing. It involves resting a lot, eating vegetables, resting some more.
There is a party to plan. More travels perhaps. My cousin.
It's like that.
And below, another image from the exquisite Ligurian weavers ... Cordani Velluti
These days in Genova have been filled with adventures of an unimagined kind ...
Anna, from Beautiful Liguria, has teamed up with me and we're working on a project (or two) together. These last few days we have wandered in Liguria, interviewing and photographing some very special artisans. People using techniques that sometimes go back as far as medieval times because 'they still work'. People keeping the personal touch alive in their creations and creating so much beauty in the process.
It has been both a pleasure and a privilege to visit these worlds I knew nothing of and in a region so beautiful that the journey has been as much a part of the destination.
I feel like I have fallen through the looking glass, from one beautiful adventure and into another. And still it continues.
As always, in Italy, it's about the people, and I am meeting truly excellent people. They are kind to this foreigner, that one with so many questions and a desire to photograph all.
Here is a taste of the beauty I saw today. Can you guess what it might be?
Today began with pastries and espresso from a bar along Via San Lorenzo, and then the chance meeting with Amedeo the artist ... and another espresso, this one with that friend I thought I had lost.
There was a walk through the city and the interesting conversation in the Loving Genova office. The delightful post-lunch drinks with Simon and Paola, as they passed through the city on their way back to Brussels.
Then a long catch-up with the artists on Via San Lorenzo, with Amedeo, with Karla, with Franco and the rest too.
Dinner ended being a buffet selection at a bar just off Piazza de Ferrari, with a drink down in Piazza delle Erbe on the way home.
This visit has been about more than a few chance meetings too. I met Anna, from Beautiful Liguria, out there in the caruggi. And tonight it was Roberto, a kind friend who has introduced me to new places in Genova ... he walked into the bar with his friend.
It's good to be back ... as always. And there is this, the painting I might have bought from Amedeo today. Just absolutely celebrating the fact that he made it off life-support and is painting again.
I met Amedeo Baldovino a few years ago now ... I wrote of it here.
A few months ago, I received bad news. He had collapsed in the city and was on life-support. It didn't look good and I grieved for both the man and the talented artist.
Karla kept me informed. He came through surgery, he was recovering ... it was so good to hear but this morning, out picking up breakfast, I stopped to say hi to the artists in Via San Lorenzo.
Angelo gestured to the cafe, I walked in, and it was Amedeo!!! Back painting, back in his weekend spot, BACK.
I didn't quite jump all over him like a happy puppy but I was so very very pleased to see him.
That man ... he painted this painting as a gift to me. He painted me into Genova. You can imagine how much I loved that.
Today I am celebrating Amedeo here on the blog. Everyone should have some Amedeo hanging in their home. If you think you would like to see some of his work, let me know, I'll go photograph some of the delights he has hanging and we'll work out the shipping costs.
Back in Genova, and loving it, as always.
Ciao!
There are so many reasons that Italy has slipped into my heart but one of the biggest is surely the people I have met here over the years.
The people of Piedmont have simply added to that particular experience of Italy. There was the intensity, the laughter, and the pure joy of spending those hours working with Carla in her restaurant kitchen on Monday ... then the kindness and patience of the people in Acqui Terme's Market with those foreign photographers yesterday. Last night it was all about the generosity of the people who led us through an exquisite multi-course dinner.
There is a saturation that occurs, for me, here. A saturation that is not just of a physical nature but there is a very real sensation of my soul being filled ... or whatever 'organ' it is that stores joy. It fills and overflows and simply sparkles so many times in day when I'm here.
Sure there is the beautiful landscape, the visible histories, the wine, the food, and the language but there are also the people.
Yesterday the lovely man pictured below arrived at Diana and Micha's, laden down with gifts and toting his own gentle charm. Needless to say we adored him, both for the fruit and even more after he called us all beautiful women.
For all that is difficult, in Italy in these current days, there is still so much that is beautiful and I am truly grateful to the people who allow me in.
Genova tomorrow, the day when I get to introduce everyone here to that Ligurian city I love so very well.
I don't know if I have the words to capture half of the beauty that happened todayon our Beautiful Truth Retreat.
I am learning that something extraordinary happens whenever women come together in a small group to talk and learn. Something so powerfully beautiful that it feels a privilege just to be a part of it.
Yesterday some of us met for the first time. Today, dare I claim it ... we're friends. It has been an intense day. It's only 9.42pm as I write this but I could easily sleep now.
This morning we gathered for breakfast ... a divine breakfast of fresh fruits, Italian coffee, tea, muesli, and pastries. Freshly-squeezed orange juice too.
Then there was a photography workshop with me ... out by the pool. It was made up of more than a little laughter and many photographs were taken out there in the blue-sky summer's day that was today.
But then a most extraordinary thing ... we jumped in the car and headed off to Carla's restaurant. We spent the next few hours learning how to make pasta and bruschetta the old-fashioned way ... no machines. Carla made us all smile as she opened a bottle of some divine Piedmont white wine and we began with a toast.
Of course, as the hours unfolded, there was more laughter and so many courses of beautiful food that we almost had to be rolled away from the table.
There was bruschetta, a pesto cream sauce for our handmade pasta. There was this turkey, pot-roasted, in sauce made from its juices, some cream, dried mushrooms and other secret ingredients. Some of us could have attempted that as the soup course. The gravy was divine.
And we ended with a bowl of plain gelato ... no flavour, not even vanilla just gelato and I had never tasted anything so good. And understand, I could have stopped with the bruschetta, I definitely could have stopped after the pasta. But I ate it all, well most of it, like everyone else.
And like everyone else, I left having absolutely fallen for Carla. She hugged and kissed us all when we left and, I think I speak for everyone, when I write that we left feeling like the sun had been shining on us ... just us, for those hours spent in her company learning those everyday things that meant so very much to us.
Dinner tonight and we gathered in the kitchen, a selection of beautiful Italian meats and vegetables there in front of us, some red wine ... all of talking, and laughing. I needed this laughter. Life so serious so often and to gather with these women who simply astound me ... it is good.
Perhaps the photograph that follows captures a little of fun of it all. Then again, I said quite a lot ... didn't I, writes this bemused woman, hoping she will be forgiven for raving, again.
There is more, there was the visit the ancient home of an artist, his lovely architect wife, and his film-making son. But I don't dare try to add that on here. That story is a whole other post.
The photograph below ... Diana and Carla, serving up the pasta we made.
As Diana and I put this 5-day photography and storytelling workshop we never let go of the idea that we wanted to create a beautiful space for the work to unfold in.
And it wasn't simply about the physical space, it was about creating a nurturing space too. It is this desire that has informed all our decisions made over months.
Yesterday, making last-minute checks, we were pleased with what we have created. Gift packages that contain not just the physical gifts but a whole lot of thought too. These are the kind of things we would be touched by.
The evenings we eat out are evenings that made us smile as we planned them. We are eating at some very special places in and around Acqui Terme. Our menus for meals eaten here at the B&B have been put together with quite some consideration of what is required each day. And Diana and I will be up early each morning to prepare breakfast.
Our intention was create a safe and nurturing space for those working with us over the days ahead. We believe we have achieved that.
Below is another glimpse ... our tea table set up for those who love tea.
So here I am writing this post from that small desk in front of the window, the one that looks out over the pool set in the heart of the Piedmont countryside. We are ready to begin ...
Acqui Terme has been a revelation to me. I had imagined a small Italian village that serviced the farming community.
I am now so ashamed of my extreme ignorance. I should have searched Diana's name with 'Acqui Terme'. She wrote a lovely piece over on Slow Travel Italy, with the title: So, Ok, But, Well, Why Acqui Terme?
I need to go back and photograph it all but imagine, I dipped my hand into this fountain ... La Bollente, a fountain built in 1879 by Giovanni Ceruti that is arguably Acqui Terme's most famous landmark. At all hours of the day and late into the night men, women and children can be seen visiting La Bollente (literally "the boiling source"), filling jugs and buckets with the curative waters that rise to the earth's surface here at 75 degrees celsius.
Today it is a thriving town surrounded by vineyards that produce some of the most remarkable wines I've ever tasted. But more on the wines another time, although this wine was indescribably delicious.
We were there for the market and I managed to replace that hat I lost in Genova too.
Diana bought a chicken from a man who grows the tastiest chickens (I imagine I might be getting boring with all this 'exquisite' and 'best ever' stuff, I know. It will pass. Forgive me.) And she selected some cheeses and some gloriously sweet juicy tomatoes.
Diana roasted the chicken until it was golden on the outside, some potatoes, and whipped up a tomato salad too. Micha opened another delicious Piedmont red wine and voila ... dinner was truly divine.
Diana and Micha have created an extraordinary space here at their B&B in Piedmont.
It's a photographer's delight really. Everywhere you look, there is some exquisite detail. Yesterday, swimming in their pool, I would stop sometimes, lean on the side and just concentrate on how much beauty there was there in front of me.
And perhaps it seems like I'm exaggerating, or that I don't get out much, or I'm easily impressed but really, I'm almost sure that it's just about the fact that B&B Baur is beautiful.
To step out of the world, to stop for a little bit ... I discover that I am tired.
I discover so many ideas clamouring to be explored.
I see a need to change how I live.
Here in my exquisite room, going over workshop notes, I need to lie on my bed periodically ... to rest, just for a couple of days. And there's time, we don't begin until Sunday.
My mind was still racing and so I began with one of those meditative visualisations ...imagine you are lying on a beach in a beautiful place, then smiled, as I understood my reality. I am here in a beautiful place, lying on a comfortable bed in a exquisitely decorated bedroom, in Italy.
Viktoria Mullova is playing Bach on my laptop, quietly, without destroying the peace of the Piedmont countryside.
Sitting outside earlier, just before Diana and I set out to the market in Acqui Terme, I looked up ... of course there are grapes growing overhead here.
You know when you step into so much beauty that you almost cry ... ?
It was like that today, as I arrived at my new 'location' for these next few days.
Diana and I are preparing our Beautiful Truth Retreat for a small group of women who are flying in from all over the world.
And while we made plans together over months, the reality of where I am to spend the next few days is truly overwhelming today.
I remember my first visit to Diana and Micha's place. During the tour I noticed a small table next to a green-shuttered window, with a view out over a lush Italian hillside, and I imagined how it would be to inhabit that space for a while ...
Today I am writing this from that exquisite location. And it is as good as I imagined.
There is work to be done in the days leading up to Sunday but for today, I am luxuriating in the quiet joy that has filled me to overflowing.
A glimpse ... just a really small taste of what I am talking about.
Only a glimpse because I am running on a few hours of sleep, after a 3am start for the 4am airport bus and my 6.30am flight to Mlian. Despite that, it has been a day filled with quiet joy.
I woke while my plane was crossing the Italian Alps. Laid out below me and not too far away, it seemed, was ridge after shadowy-sunrise ridge, rising up out of the delicate early morning mist.
It's been like that today ...
I have these incredibly talented friends ... Peter Furlong, the fabulous tenor and Julie Wyma, a truly talented soprano.
Back in July when I was in Genova, and referring to the post that follows this one, Simon began posting dreadful photographs of me on Facebook. His Facebook comments section came to life.
It turned out Julie and Peter were reading it all in Berlin and voila, before Simon and I had moved on from our third aperitivo bar, the song of it all was there on the internet.
I love them. They make me laugh. They did another short opera about my new office chair ... over here.
The lovely Veronica features in it, warning Simon of witches and calling him mean.