green woods. filled with chestnut trees and elms and many more trees with names unknown to me. what i do know is that i am a big fan of all those green canopies we walked beneath to get to our tall white house on the hillside. as seen here from behind a mysterious locked gate.
maybe you will come to spoleto one day. maybe in the spring. and every vine you can imagine will be trying its hardest to capture your attention with their lush and furry climbing arms. spreading everywhere. hugging the houses.
falling from balconies and rooftops.
it’s very likely that you will see a madonna with a tin foil stole. maybe a primrose. little altars everywhere. you can count on that!
and on hypnotic views where you can watch the sun touch the fields and rooftops.
this was our favorite window. on our favorite bridge which i mentioned before in the last post. the ponte delle torri. we walked past it and paused each time. the view different according to the weather. with no umbrellas to our names the hoods of our rainjackets got used to going up and down. one day we took refuge under a stone overhang while we watched hail pinging down on the path. but like all the clouds, even the ones holding the hail were fast moving.
one day my sister walked into town by herself and brought back blood oranges! and apples! and ham! and bread! and pesto! and hazlenut cream sandwich cookies! we ate lunch when she got back home. it was good.
i had to stay on the terrace and sketch, stare into space, make videos, read, and write. engage with the personality of the house and the surrounding olive groves. study the wisteria.
of course it was nice to go across the bridge for 5 course lunches too.
pasta with truffle sauce.
cheesy truffly saucy pastry.
bread soaked in olive oil and rubbed with garlic. then toasted!
sorry. i didn’t get photos of the rest of the courses, but there was a dessert involving chocolate and pumpkin and panna cotta. and a main course starring pigeon. will you believe me if i tell you it tasted like chicken?
we stopped at this park at the top of the hill in town each day to admire the cats.
slow days. filled with small adventures. walking, good food. naps. sketching. and one day a long and lovely drive through the countryside with franco the caretaker of the farmhouse!
we chatted with him daily through the kitchen windows.
he brought us a gift of fresh eggs and wild asparagus.
i have so much to tell you. i’m getting to that country drive. and my sketchbook. and plenty of others notes and observations. bit by bit.
while i was in umbria, one of the class members from TICKET TO VENICE and also someone i featured before on DFLA, took her own trip to venice. i had such fun following her on instagram while i was gone. anyway she’s blogging about her own time in venice. i for one am staying tuned!
i get a lot of emails from blog readers about trips they’re taking. if YOU are headed somewhere and are planning to blog about it either while you’re there or when you get home please let me know in the comments. i try and remember to go back and check out everyone’s trip reports but i need reminders!
My family is from Italy and your gorgeous pix make me want to go back do badly! We eat Pigeon all the time 🙂
Sandy
My girlfriend and i will be going to France next month for two weeks. First week we will be staying in the Rue Cler district of Paris. The second week we will be staying at the beautiful 18th Century Chateau Dumas in the South of France crafting with a small group of women organized by Kaari Meng owner of French General in Silver Lake Ca. I have been following your blog and all your trips for a while now and figure is was about time I took that trip back to Paris that I have been dreaming about for years. Thank You Mary Ann for inspiring all of us with your travels!
Beautiful photos! Love how I feel like I’m traveling through your eyes on your adventures!
Just had breakfast, but this post made me hungry again, so I’m off to finish the garlic pasta, and rolls from Wood Ranch. Naturally I will close my eyes with every bite and try to convince my taste buds that we’re dining on pasta in truffle sauce and bread drenched in olive oil and garlic. Sounds divine
(Yours, not mine).
Welcome home! I am in Paris this week and villefeanche-der-mer next week. Unfortunately I forgot to pack my cable that connects camera to my tablet. So I won’t blog until I return unless I find a replacement cable or figure out how to use my husband’s phone camera. I am however equipped with my travel journal supplies 🙂
What a great trip! Italy never fails to please, does it? I loved the photographs and stories from the trip and look forward to seeing how the journal develops.
We’re off on a quick jaunt to Stockholm tomorrow evening and I’ll be blogging along the way and gathering up a few bits and pieces for journalling as I go. The weather forecast is good, the ABBA museum opens on Tuesday and we’ve got tickets for Wednesday morning! Woohoo!
Isn’t life great? Aren’t we lucky?
Hi Mary Ann, always love your blog. I am traveling at the moment, in France right now but off to Tuscany on Monday for 3 weeks, then to England and Ireland. I am blogging about my trip and about my attempts to keep a travel (art) journal on the journey….at http://www.alisonsartandsoul.com
I see so many potential paintings here. Great photos!
Wow. I wish I was a Moss sister 🙂 I’ve been to Italy in the past, but never been to Spoleto. I swear that house is hanging right off the mountainside! Spectacular views. I yearn to go back.
Jane S.
Welcome back home MaryAnn! It has been lovely reading your account these last few days and following Carol’s throughout the trip… so nice to take our own dream trips along side you both!
As always, thanks so much for sharing with us!
I love this!! I am heading to Panicale in 5 weeks and this is a lovely introduction to those sights and adventures. We will be there two+ weeks and based out of a house in the countryside. We plan to visit Assisi, Siena, and as many of the little towns as our whims allow. I am in tears as I look at all of your lovely photos and anticipate. Thank you so very much for taking us all along. I went to Venice with you also and am dreaming of my next visit back. Of course I will have my watercolors and my handmade journals to love on while I am there. 🙂
Wow! you are making me excited about my trip to Italy in June. The workshop leader calls it Umbria, but it’s sort of on the Tuscany/Umbria line. Those eggs and that asparagus look like they were tasty. I hope you share a bit about how you liked your watercolor journaling while you’re there. I would love to do that, but my heart is really with photography. Can’t wait to see your next posts…
Beautiful photographs. I have not considered Umbria in my travels, but I will now. My trip to Paris and Malaga is not for awhile, but I am still working on my Maui journal from the TTV class. I have not posted to IG for awhile about it, but this is a good reminder. I seem to taking the journal so personally it’s almost beyond art.
I once ate some chicken and I could have sworn it tasted like pigeon.