Siamo Qui. We are here. You know those postcards you see of the Mediterranean Sea by Portofino? The ones where the colorful houses line up in layers like so many Lego blocks climbing up the hill with the sea twinkling below — here — much like the movie ‘Luca’. It’s really our tourist stop, which …
Author Archives: Judith Lavezzi
Blog #5 – Italy 2023
We are Italian party animals of a different sort. We seem to go from one thing to another with sweet abandon. So — let me tell you our lunch today,, as ordered by the prete (priest) Don Salvator, in whose church we have been trying to record baptisms from 1626-1700 today. He recommended the place; …
Blog #4 – Italy 2023
Romaggi is in the backview mirror today as we move to our B&B in Soglio. We left behind some accidentally thrown-out trash which was our laundry, but enjoyed a full week of mainly boneless relaxing. We are now in our newly remodeled Locanda da Sale — next door to church #2, San Michaele di Soglio, …
Blog #3 – Italy 2023
Okay – truth – we’ve been here for 7 days now and have done squat. We’ve eaten gelato, fine dinners, and pasta “fatto en casa” (homemade), yummy stuff with lots of pesto and multiple hands to make it easy. It is easy — we have five adults, each courteous and responsible for themselves. Nice. We …
Blog Two — Italy 2023
Arrivato — 26 hours after we shuttled off to the now-common public spectacle of travel, we sat in the snack and coffee end of the terminal. Airports feel like current events-type geography lessons. Uzbekistan was in Milan, and so was Droha , wherever that is. So, if one computes the luxury of travel and who …
Blog One — Italy 2023
We leave on a shuttle tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM. If all goes well, we will be meeting cousins in Milan sometime tomorrow, a few hours after we land, and await their Chicago direct flight (jealous, much?). Plausible deniability: Some of the folks who get this blog have made the regrettable error of encouraging the …
Blog5
Spiders, Snakes, and other Oz trivia, Lew’s friendly email from an Australian said, ” Watch out for reptiles. They have a reputation!” Enough for me. Of the first 100 poisonous snakes in the world – 98 of them are here. Fuzzy Koalas are endangered and have large claws. Some kangaroos, the red ones, get 6 …
Blog 4 – water water everywhere
Nearly all names for things are shortened, and then an ‘O’ or a ‘Y’ are added. So Jack and Steff are from Carbondale, now Carbo, Lew and I are from Westy, a friend is from Pottsville, or Potty. It seems like I’ve said this before, but we really could live here among the rather casual, …
Blog 3 – A chocky for breaky?
The weekend is nearly finished. We showed up and did our commitment, drank tons of water, and went home to nap before joining humanity on the mall walk. It was intense, although intensely good, at our weekend event. We were treated with exquisite kindness and courtesy by our hosts. Surprisingly, many women seemed grateful that …
Blog 2 – Oz unleashed, but not unhinged
Sleeping is good. So is a shower. Really wonderful to wake up in a new place with a full battery. We are fully here after a couple of days — now we can be Ozians for the next ten days. So, let me tell you about the Gold Coast area we are in — miles …