A Florentine Journey

Marco waking up by contrast

Marco was in Vancouver last week and now he is in Hawaii with his favorite supermodel, Barbie. From there it's on to LA for an even heavier dose of culture shock.

Firenze or Colorado?

This is Sunday January 25, 2004 and this is what we awoke to. Where's the Duomo? Am I still asleep?

I don't think there will be many motorini on the roads today-a good thing. I almost feel like going for a ride in the hills since I would be one of the few used to driving around in these conditions; on second thought, SCARY IDEA! More updates later-I promise. Baci, C.

Piccolo giro

After Christmas we decided to go on a little tour of surrounding towns in Umbria and the Marche regions. All of them were places we've wanted to visit, but avoided during tourist seasons. We stayed in Perugia, the university town, where we spent New Year's eve. It was a lot of fun but very noisy. The Perugini partied in the piazza until after 4am. Oh well, we knew it would be a happening scene. From there we went to Deruta, where we bought pottery. Being that it was freezing cold out and no one else was there, including shop keepers who opened their doors and then left their stores unattended; we got great deals. If anyone is interested, I can post pics of what we bought and the shop we got it from. The guy was great and more than willing to bargain. FYI, you can buy some beautiful pieces from this region at "Fiori" on Spruce Street. Tell Meagan I sent you and I was thinking about her in Deruta. Next it was on to Assisi, Gubbio, Macerata and Urbino. Of all these places, "the must go back to" are, Assisi and Urbino. Happy back to school!

The goats

I have been working on a series of photos of Nora's goats for use in her booth as Pitti Casa later in January. I spent a few afternoons in the fields with them, and have found them to be very mellow and agreeable animals. The peace of being in that field, with only their bells and chewing for sounds, was a nice break in the holiday turmoil, with which I am never fully in sync. It is nice to have a photo project after many years, and it is nice to be making prints again. I am printing on an Epson 2100 inkjet at 10x14 inches, and I have finally conquered digital printing. The prints are different than traditional black and white darkroom photos, but are very beautiful nonetheless. I have a long way to go to learn the printing process and to become good at it, but I am a long way ahead of the feeling of loss I had just recently when confronted with making acceptable prints from digital media.