Who Am I? and Why Me?

I'm back in Vancouver, a not too shabby spot on the planet to land after a long time in Europe living, eating, loving, and painting ... and blogging about it. We drove from Morruzze to Paris to spend a few days exploring and saying a fond goodbye to Europe, staying in a charming little hotel in the Marais (home to Rabelais).
Today's Thought
Many a trip continues long after the movement in time and space have ceased.
-- John Steinbeck

My re-entry to North America was a very bumpy one, though. I had  had my passport, wallet, cards, etc. stolen in Paris, one of my favorite cities, leaving a cloud hanging over me. I'll spare you the frustrating and exhausting details. But I arrived in Vancouver feeling like a nasty pointed finger was coming down from a dark cloud in the sky and poking right at me.

What did I do wrong? Did I have too much fun in Europe? Did I not mix in sufficient guilt with my dollups of pleasure? Was there some capricious universal principle I'd offended that needed appeasement?  Did I need to curb my enthusiasm?
Another Thought

Travel penetrates your consciousness but not in a rational way.

--Milton Glaser

OK. I know bad things happen to good people. And I'm not even that good. But a whole string of bad things happening? Even after arriving home and the myriad of things you have to do just to re-connect the phone and get the house running, the string of mishaps continued. There were appliances that broke, a computer glitch, things found in the suitcase that had spilled, things not found in the suitcase that should have been there, and more things misplaced or lost in the confusion that was me.

Each day brought a new lament.  I couldn't shake the feeling that it was not only jet-lag I had to endure. but a cloud of misfortune hovering around me. If Ray Bradbury's right about much of the fun of travelling being in the esthetic of lostness, then I should be having a ball! Not so. Lost is how I feel... more now than when travelling. This lost-ness is too concrete and blunt, too externally manufactured (though of course my mindlessness contributed to it), too much of a confederacy of nuisances boiling over into problems to give me anything but a  headache!
Yet Another Possibility
I love to travel but hate to arrive.

--Albert Einstein

Who knows? So, I've been laying low for a while, getting my bearings, cautiously doing what I can each day to put things in order. Trying not to be overwhelmed by the list of things I "have to" do, from getting services reconnected to searching for an affordable studio space in the city.

I have a mid August deadline for a big group juried art exhibit  I'm part of. Hah! it's called Painting On the Edge!  That's where I am right now: on the edge. I've learned (and travelling is part of it)  that artful living involves living earnestly but lightly, intensely but without a heavy footprint. I need to find that way of living here at home....and soon.
Today's Final Thought

He who would travel happily must travel light.

--Antoine de Saint Exupéry

I'm still, trying to collect the bits of light together that make me recognize my own true life while I'm also in the process of reconstructing my official identity here. The sun, at least, is shining graciously. I hear neighbors across the lane having a BBQ. And today, I actually found my long-lost camera!

Tommorrow I venture forth to see some of the friends I've missed.  It's a garden-party. I will try to curb my enthusiasm, just in case.

Once my computer comes back from the repair shop, I'll plan to insert some homecoming artwork for this blog.

Write me, insert comments please. I need some anchor lines.

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Morruzze: a little Italian village in which nothing happens

all photos by JS

Last night was a beautiful night. We spent it sitting on the stone porch looking out at the sky, its half-moon and stars steadily brightening as the hour approached 10 pm. It was cool at this hour, but the stones still held warmth from the full day’s sunshine. 

The geckos had retired. We’d just finished some deliciously cool and sweet watermelon, its taste mixing with the pleasures of the darkening night with its brightening, star-lit sky. A distant owl was hooting, and the lovely daily birdsong had long been put to rest.  

one of our gecko families on the porch

And then, like sprinkles on ice-cream, fireflies (lucciole) came out, flickering illuminated bits of sparkle upon the night. 

It was peaceful, fragrant, and lovely.  Time out and being in. How few are such moments in most of our life-management styles of living. 

Today’s Thought

Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro' the mellow shade
Glitter like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid.
-- Alfred Lord Tennyson

My fancies are fireflies
Specks of living light twinkling in the dark.
-- Rabindranath Tagore

The stone country house, to which we returned after an absence of six years, has been our home for the past several months in Italy. You've seen pictures of it in my previous posts. It's like so many in this region, which mandates that homes be kept to a certain,very agreeable, style. It's really beautiful to see the different harmonies of simple shapes and colors in the stonework. 

Soon we’ll be leaving this house we've just lived in once again, returning to Canada after a remarkable nine months in Europe. 

Morruzze in early April

Why live in this tiny village commune of Morruzze in Umbria? 

I’ve written and shown pictures of this place in previous posts. So I’ll now show you one of the first things I found on the internet when searching   “Morruzze” (from MBendi information services)

 

Isn’t it impressive? In each category, it lists absolutely Nothing! Actually, as you know if you’ve been looking in this blog, there’s much here. Lots of life, including the human social variety. Local notices are always changing on the large notice board behind the well  in the Piazza Cesare Paparini. And, there’s even a fine little guest house to rent adjoining the Palazzo Paparini (click to see). You can see website photos of this charming place, but below I want to show a rather bare but, I think, striking photo of an unrenovated part of the palace we routinely walk by.

We arrived here in Morruzze when everything was some shade of green. The different wild and cultivated flowers added their particular shapes and colors throughout the spring. 


As the summer approached, we saw the green casting more yellow and tan as fields were mowed and hay was baled.

 

And now, full summer, the girasole/sunflowers are out in full regalia performing sun salutions. It remains a simple joy to me to see whole fields of girasole turn their faces to the sun, wherever it may be, bowing slightly at the end of day. Despite my factually-competent brain, it’s easy when observing girasole to imagine a plant-consciousness that adores the sun.

Of course, I will have to paint some variation of this!

What continues to impress me most here is the quality of the region, itself. The clean air, the sounds, the fragrance, the colors, the living and growing things all around, the pace, the openness, the welcomeness, the variety of small and great things to walk amongst. Not much, ... but nearly everything.

I want to tell you more, about nearby Todi and Orvieto, about many the other local sights we’ve seen, and to share with you more wonders. But we leave soon for Verona, city of Romeo and Juliet. We have tickets for an open-air  performance of Aida at their beautifully intact Coliseum. From there, we drive to Paris, and from there…. ah, we take the metal bird home.

There is so much more. But can I catch up with myself? Will these postings feel different when I write them from afar, instead of amidst these sights? Will I write at all of here once no longer here?

For now, perhaps goodbye, perhaps arrivederci. 

Thank you.

Long Life: Communanza

Oh, forgetfulness. But  I mustn''t forget quickly to leave you with something that impressed me from Communanza, the city in Le Marche in which we did our marketing. Nothing gorgeous here to catch your eye; just a convenient place nearby to shop. But  look at the sign above the main market street (enlarge it if you can).

JS Photo

It translates to: Communanza, Land of Longevity: the Secrets of  Living More than 100 Years!

It seems Le Marche is not only a region of living well; it's a region of living long. The sign celebrates this region being one noted for the longevity of its inhabitants. Indeed, people there told me of their neighbors who are over 100, and have birh certificates to prove it. 

Is it quality or quantity that most interests you? Well, asking a resident we befriended, he told us that his neighbor, a woman now having reached 100, was complaining to him as she continued gardening at full pace, that she no longer felt spry enough to cut the firewood herself!

So what's the secret? I've got quite some years to travel before I know. But I'm looking forward to it!

Ascoli Piceno and Jesi: Two Cities in Le Marche

There are at least two more cities I wanted to mention worth visiting in Le Marche. If Firenze/Florence wows you with its abundance of everything, it’s worth remembering the many pleasures to be found in the lesser-know and less- visited places of Italy. One can actually discover sights on one’s own, and you needed wait your turn within throngs of visitors

Ascoli Piceno

Ascoli Piceno is located towards the south of Le Marche. It has a pleasing Renaissance piazza, including a covered arcade along one side. 

all photos by JS

There’s much to appreciate about Ascoli, past and present. It was founded by an ancient Italic population called the Piceni, (thus its name, Ascoli Piceno ) several centuries before Rome was founded. 

The Piazza del Popolo (People’s Square), is its traffic-free, beautifully designed main square. It is one of the most elegant provincial squares in Italy with its travertine pavement and generous spaces.

The other main square, Piazza Arringo, is flanked by the Duomo/cathedral and the town hall, which now houses Ascoli’s historic art gallery, the Pinacoteca Civica. The Pinacoteca contains a carpet-bag collection of elaborate furnishings and decorative art ...  plus some really stand-out art , like that of Carlo Crivelli , the  Renaissance master painter associated with this region. 

Carlo Crivelli

detail, Mary Magdalene, Carlo Crivelli, 1480

I like Crivelli's paintings, though they fell out of favour once later Renaissance masters of realism took hold of the art scene. Crivelli's paintings seem fit better to Late Gothic style than Renaissance naturalism. Although he mastered perspective and fully rendered modelling of the human form, Crivelli seemed to prefer the sinuous lines, flat and filled space, highly decorative elements, and love of small details characteristic of an earlier epoch. He also continued to paint only in tempera, even after the fluidity of oil paints had come into use.  

The Fountains

Not sure why, but I gravitate towards the fountains in an old city.

Below are two close-up photos of the fountain in this piazza. Inventive and lively grace.

 
















   

Food in Ascoli

There is one absolutely famous dish from Ascoli. This cit is where it’s done best. It’s called Olive all'ascolana, or olives done in the Ascoli way.  Regional  olives are stuffed with pork, beef, chicken livers, tomato paste and Parmesan cheese and then fried! 

I have given recipes in these columns before. But, come on! You are not going to make them at home, are you?  Preparing the mix and filling all those little olive holes? You’ll just have to come here and get take-away. I tell you, for sure, one can get hooked on these tasty little morsels.

An Unusual Discovery

Here's an example of what happens when you're not in a tourist crowd in a place famed for all those pre-programmed things you  must see. You wander around and tend to find things of interest. For example, I found this window in a church whose name and exact location I no longer recall. (That’s a plug for putting captions on your photos at the time you take them.) I’m pretty sure it was the church of Saint FrancesAscoli Piceno.

Most of the stained glass windows in this church portrayed the expectable variety of religious themes. But this once was modern, and I did a double-take to make certain that I was correct in what I thought I saw.

The  central panel shows a depiction of Nazi brutality and concentration-camp victims. Especially when  placed here, among themes in the "house of god", this depiction,, makes a marked  impact.

I can only speculate  that the religious leaders and congregation here thought it significant to include this piece of relatively recent and very painful human history with more traditional evocative scenes relating the life and suffering of Jesus. To remind us of human cruelty and misguided ambitions? How remarkable, I thought, to include this window in a house of worship: to remind oneself  of the sins we  are capable of committing upon each other. In the name of what? 

Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.
~Adolph Hitler

There are antidotes to such enduring and often hateful cynicism. There have always been and, I trust, will be, people who value decency and mindfully search for truth, knowing it may not bet easily come by. But also knowing it cannot be indoctrinated or mass-influenced, and that it may  require both courage and exploration of differing viewpoints. 

Jesi

As for the courage to search for and uphold truth, I was surprised by this plaque to Girodano Bruno. in another nearby city. You might recall that Bruno is  the mathmatician and astronomer burned at the stake in 1600 after being found guilty of heresy by the Inquisition. His crime?  Bruno's scientific findings led him to propose the sun is a star, the earth being only one of its orbiters in a vast universe.  This idea didn't fit the hierarchical church values of the time.

This  plaque rests in the ancient stones walls of of the main piazza at Jesi.  Of course, it took several centuries before Bruno was so honourably commemorated as a "martyr of free thought".

Jesi  is very industrialized and not so lovely in its extensive lower city. But  its upper walled, historic medieval city provides yet another wonderful blast of the past in Italy.An impressive piazza is seen here, too, and some lovely works of art by Lorenzo Lotto are in its Pinacoteca. 

One of the things I love about Italy is how the old is cherished and maintains its use and value, as in this contemporary habitation of apartments (below), replete with hanging plants, in the medieval walls surrounding the historic city centre of Jesi.

More Creative Life News

You can read and see more about Italy plus other travels and creative adventures by this itinerant artist at Creative Life News here.

Regards, Janet @ https://www.janetstrayer.com