I Blush

If you've scrolled through to the bottom of the blog you may notice that I've been given a new award. My friend JacqueSue, better known as YellowDog Granny felt kindly enough to include me in her list of people she wanted to receive the Bella Award.

YDG and I are a little bit like Donny and Marie - we're almost the same age but she's "a little bit country" and I'm a little bit "rock and roll". Okay that isn't really true she a good bit rock and roll too and I'm a little bit everything leaning heavy on the classical. But the point is that we have become friends - as far apart as we are geographically and as differing as our tastes may be, through this Internet thing we've come to appreciate each other as much for our differences as our similarities.

I look forward to hearing about what's been happening in West, Texas because its so much a part of what makes her special. I've come to know how much Annie means to her and through her posts when she was sick, was concerned and worried along with her. I love it when she writes about her beloved Cowboys - don't understand much about it but then she doesn't get my opera thing. And I know I can be guaranteed a laugh when she posts her "Stumbles." I enjoy her wit, her take on things, her wicked and warped sense of humour and the number of times she can use the word "fuck" in one sentence.

Now apparently there are rules with the Bella Award:

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.

2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you've newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

I've accepted the award with pleasure and posted it along with a way to get to over to visit with YDG (be warned that sometimes the posts are not for the faint-hearted or prudish, this is a woman who speaks her mind.)

I'm not going to pass the award along to 15 people - mostly because YDG has taken the links right out of my mouth for a few. But I will add four people - though at the moment the first three are so busy with work, family and homes that they don't necessarily post on a regular basis. The fourth keeps us up to date with happenings in her corner of the North West US and beyond.

So I'm passing it on to four women I have grown to love and care about:

My Darling Dora - the hottest Lady in Red I know.
Cowbell - who's let us in, though not as often as I wish, on the growings and adventures of her brood, the dogs and TOFH!
Elizabeth - an artist in so many ways, though chiefly in living.
Lorraine - our Rainey is the one active wench and here wench is a good word!

Here's to you ladies!

13 maggio - Nostra Signora di Fatima

Christmasy Things - Sharing III

So many wonderful things and stories are being posted in the days leading up to Christmas. I thought I'd just do a final little bit of sharing of things that have made me laugh or perhaps mist up or just smile with the joy of sharing with my wonderful blog buddies.

And I thought I'd also share the incredible frescoes that adorn the bedroom of the Cardinal in the Museo Romano at the Palazzo Altemps near Piazza Novona. We went in to see the Presepe of the King of Naples and stayed to view some of the most fascinating Greek and Roman sculptures in the setting of a Renaissance palace.

And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth ...

• Michelle over at Bleeding Coffee has posted one of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes panels: Christmas Eve. Bill Waterston always seemed to able to capture the honesty of childhood - warts and all. But in this one there are not warts, only love and tenderness. Thanks Michelle.

And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda; And entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth.

• One of the great things about blogging, and there are many, is that you find out all sorts of things about people you love. My darling Dora tells us all about a Christmas party where the celebration reached a new high.

And they came with haste and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe laying in a manager.

• Every day since the first of December my friend Larry has been opening an new door of Rome on his Internet Advent Calender. Its been an incredible series of photo giving a peek into the history of the city. If you haven't been opening them every day from my sidebar might I suggest going over to Amoroma and opening a few doors.

... and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

• Jeff has been posting a different sort of Advent Calender. First he revealed some of Santa's dirty little secrets and now he's leading us up to Christmas with music and dance. Again there are too many good things so just go over to World o'Jeff and click around.

The Madonna and Child

• And though its not a blog entry I came across a book review for The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits by Les Standiford in the Toronto Star. Writer Hans Werner has had adverse comments from a few "devote" Christians for his slightly irreverent remarks but I enjoyed it. And looking around I realize how Dickensian many of our traditions are.

Buone Feste a tutti!
24 dicembre - San Giacobbe

For Dora

Pie Jesu Domine,
dona eis requiem,
requiem sempiternam.

Merciful Lord Jesus,
grant them rest,
rest everlasting.

06 ottobre

Dora's Mojo

My darling Dora seems to have lost her mojo. Strano! Molto strano! As we say here in Italy - well actually they say it, when I say it, it comes out sounding like Straino! Mole toll Straino!

I wasn't able to find it anywhere in Pesaro this past weekend but I did find something that might encourage it to come out of hiding.



Just thinking someone would look good looking for her mojo in that little number.

24 agosto - San Bartolomeo

Sharing

With half of Rome gone on holiday and the other half preparing to go its been quiet in the neighbourhood. But if last night's crowds at Largo Argentina are any indication the void, in Centro at least, is being filled by tourists on a Roman Holiday. We haven't joined the general exodus and really won't be going much anywhere except Pesaro on the Adriatic for a few days at the end of the month. Laurent is busy at work, his dad is coming over for a visit mid-month and we're getting ready to move - so much for Feragosto being the time for rest and relaxation.

Overlooking the Latina Plain from the belvedere at Sermoneta.

But a few of my lucky blog buddies have been doing some travelling and sharing of photos and tales. And two weekends ago we did a Sunday jaunt down to Sermoneta with our friends Lorraine and John. Sermoneta is one of those incredibly charming medieval hillside towns that dot the Latina countryside As always I took a few pictures.

Of course every Italian hill town has to have its castle. After all that's why the town is there. Il Castello di Sermoneta dates from the 12th century.

And every Italian hillside town has to have steps; flights and flights ...

... and flights of steps. That's what you get when you build on a hillside.

• Larry and Vincenzo have been spending the past few weeks in Sicily including a visit with Vin's family in Enna. And they've been touring around the island with stops in Castelbuono , Cefalù, and Erice. This B and B that they stayed at near Palermo looks wonderful. And needless to say they found some incredible beaches. Now I let Laurent postpone Sicily this year because he wanted to spend a few weeks in Japan in October but I am serving notice - publicly - we are going to spend at least two weeks in Sicily sometime in the next year.
  

This is the view down to a belvedere and small piazza from ...

... the top of this flight of stairs.

The town hall on the piazza betrays its origins as a monastic building .

In another part of town an Eternal (electric) Flame burns in memory of sons of Sermoneta who died in the many wars that have raged in the area over the past 200 years.

• And my darling Dora was off to New Orleans, accompanying her Beastman on a business trip, and knocking the town ass over tea kettle in a fabulous new red dress. And being our Dora, she and Madame Destin had a meeting on a rainy street that turned into a lovely and touching experience and started a friendship. And she has... ahem... ahem... promised to give us some shots of her in that red dress!

I did a double take when I saw the Irish lace curtains - shades of my childhood - then I realized it was an Irish pub. Honest! They're everywhere even hill town Italia.

Even amongst the marble, concrete and cobblestones people here make sure there is greenery surrounding them.

The crowds from a bicycle regatta had dispersed by the time we reached the central piazza and it was getting close to pranzo (lunch) so strollers where starting to turn attention to their stomachs.

• Jeff is famous for those drives through the Los Angeles area that he's been taking us on every Sunday - the radio playing classic rock, camera at the ready he has captured the often fantastical architecture that is SoCal and LA. Last Sunday we drove through Beachwood Canyon and found out the real story behind that Hollywood sign. And two weeks ago we had the pleasure (?) of a sleep over at the Madonna Inn. I can only echo Dora on that one: Words fail me.

Il Duomo di Maria Vergine Assunta in Cielo is a fine example of the Fossanova style but sadly in need of restoration. I found this St Joseph with the young Jesus oddly touching.

The most notable treasure in the Duomo is Benozzo Gozzoli's altarpiece of the Madonna holding Sermoneta protectively in her lap.

This family was taking no chances: St Joseph with his flowering staff protected the door way and St. Michael defends against Satan in the entrance way. Hopefully between the two of them they defeated any attempts of evil to enter.

• Back in June Cowie and Brownie at Around Britain with a Paunch - and by the way I'll be damned if I can see a paunch on either one of them - spent a weekend in Burgundy. As always the produce and food photos make the mouth water and the soul yearn for such a weekend. Hell weekend let's make it a week.

A deserted street in an Italian town at 1 PM on a Sunday can only mean one thing: everyone must be at ...

... pranzo. As indeed they were and we joined them in the garden of Simposio, a wonderful restaurant overseen by the ebulient Flabio Stavali. He can charm in five different languages.

But all the charm in the world wouldn't matter if the food wasn't exceptional. And Fabio's food is exceptional. We managed two portions of antipasti (including the best fried artichokes I've ever tasted) between the four of us, a tasting of 4 different pastas, and this secondi of beef and a wild boar sausage, a docle (heavenly pana cotta smothered in Fabio's brandied cherries) a pleasant local prosseco, Fabio's home made grappa and coffee. Colour us well fed!

• And it was wonderful to see comments yesterday from my Blog Mother Lynette- she's been missing for far too long. And though it is travel of a different type she took me down memory lane and frankly made me homesick with her most recent post. Whither she's writing political, social, biographical or nostalgical she always captures with her thoughts and her words. Welcome back Belle!

06 agosto - San Sisto II

More Sharing

And wouldn't you know it, I no sooner finish putting up the previous post than I come across three more items I want to share.

• Our friend Larry is continuing a tradition in Rome that he started with a group in New York - a Lenten Journey. Here in Rome he is making a visit to one of the Station Churches each week of Lent linking his visit with a reading of the Beatitudes. This week a visit to Basilica di San Clemente and a Beatitude brought back memories of his Pacific Coast childhood and his mother. A lovely and loving tribute.

Of course shrines are everywhere in this city - this one is built into an arch of the Passetto Borgo, a fortification that runs from the Papal Apartments to Castel Sant'Angelo.

• At What Would Jackie Wear my darling Doralong tells us about the night she and Jackie O were in harmony. I'm still grinning from ear to ear after reading it.

A very contented cat basks in the sun at the Cat Sanctuary at Torre Argentino. It is one of several homes for the many stray cats that wander the streets of Rome.

• LotusGreen of Japonisme has spotted a Klimt inspired trend in some of the new fashion collections unveiled in the past month. Her keen eye has caught the similarites between many of the materials and designs being used and the works of the Viennese painter. And while your there you might want to listen to the Mills Brothers sing Yellow Bird.

21 febbraio - San Pier Damiani