Boy! My two cousins come into town and a riot ensues! Connie and Gerry arrived yesterday morning, crashed out for a nap then wandered the town for a while. I met them in the evening at their Duomo-close hotel and we goofed around the piazza for a while. Connie succumbed to the bird food man, [...]

The original plan was to head to Firenze for the day (!), but I caught a short, quick cold Friday night and couldn’t dare think of hopping on the train this morning. (I could hardly get out of bed!) After eventually getting up-and-at-em, I dragged myself up to the Naviglio Grande, knowing they were having [...]

On the last Sunday of the month, one can browse Antiques and Flea-Market-Finds for as far as the eye can see (2 kilometers), on both sides of  the Naviglio Grande, the Grand Canal. (This canal intersects with the Naviglio Pavese, the one I ride my bike along.) . . There is still some limited boat [...]

“My car fits. Doesn’t that make it a parking space?” “It looks like a parking space.” “Oh. You mean this is a sidewalk?” “If I park here in the road, when I come out I can just put the car in gear and go.” Not ALL Italians are on foot, bike or metro! Seattle cops would [...]

Running parallel to the Naviglio Pavese canal, between the bike path and the highway, is a drainage ditch overgrown by a tangle of brush and trees in every state of growth or death. Luigi knows this. The 82-year-old man rides his 70-year-old bike along the canal and stops to cut deadwood. Today he worked on [...]

Journal Entry – 10 Aprile 2010 Really, I’ve kept my world very small. There are some that would rush to assure me otherwise, but when I honestly scan the content and structure of my life, my relationships are one-on-one and my focus is on small details. I’m not a “Grand, Big Picture” thinker. I think [...]

THIS is the time to be in Milano. The temperature is warm enough (75 degrees) to be comfortable in light linen and cotton, and enjoyable having the windows open to fresh air, but not so warm that there’s any thought  yet of air conditioning. I had a wandering, leisurely ride through the farmland exploring roads [...]

The first order of business this morning was to usher the flock* of ants OUT. As soon as the weather warmed, the ants returned. When I first shared my apartment with them last summer and mentioned it to a friend here, he said “It’s summer.” As in, “Ants? And your point is?” (A corollary response:”Welcome [...]

One month ago I wrote this entry in my journal, and am now ready to post it, announcing that I’ve decided to move back to Seattle at the end of July. I now have less than 4 months remaining here, and that perspective is very much affecting my time and my outlook. Sometimes I catch [...]

Wednesday is “ricotta day”, the day they make fresh ricotta at the Cascina Femegro. Even though I had just been there yesterday, a sunny afternoon and the thought of hours-fresh ricotta on some nice bread easily convinced me to hop on my bike. I headed south along the canal, and turned west into the farmland. [...]

The windows are open to the day’s remaining warmth while trout and green beans grill and steam for dinner. I had awakened this morning to bright sun direct into my bedroom, and the day held promise. After some tasks around the house and a light lunch, I went for a bike ride along the canal, [...]

They put the temporary, scaffold-and-tin poster walls back up in my neighborhood just in time to feature advertising for the regional elections. Three inch holes are bored into the sidewalk, with rubber plugs for the off-season. Overnight, they can pop the plugs and throw up the walls clean and ready to be weighted with soon-flaking [...]

After the flea market at Piazza dei Ciompi in Firenze last Sunday, I walked a few blocks further and saw yellow-tented stalls. Hmm. A food market: cheeses, meats, breads and a few other goodies. Some from Toscana (Tuscany), Firenze’s region. Some spicier ones from the south. ‘Nduja is a casing-stuffed meat that is spicy and [...]