Posts

Showing posts from September, 2017

Not Bricks, Nor Sticks, But Straw

Image
You Ever Wonder Who Made These And Where Did They Come From? Those Romantic Chianti Bottles Italy is filled with amazing mini adventures.  This weekend we left the Veneto, entered the Province of Ferrara and drove south towards Ravenna.   We would stay overnight at an agritourismo and do some minor bird watching.   The area around the Po River is known for such.   We were also going to take in a Goya exhibition in a nearby village.   While there t he owner of the agritourismo told us about an herb museum in the nearby village of Villanova di Bagnacavallo and we decided to check it out.  This was the tip of the day! Hats, etc! It was not an herb museum but a straw ….. a bit of everything made out of straw museum.   Walking room to room through the past, viewing baskets, shoes, hats, implements, rugs, made me stop to consider how plastic has replaced this old method.   We should have rejected plastic.   Soon to come, I hope.   Harvesting Items Brooms

Directions To Nowhere

Image
Perhaps you know Karl Pilkington, a worldly maladjusted man on tv, who was forced to visit famous places all over the world.   I have had my own frustrating Pilkinton experiences, discouraging me to be disheartened and frustrated.   There have been many incidences where I wanted to throw up my hands and raise a white flag in desperation.   One of the first of these episodes occured when I was first in Padova, completely lost, and in need of directions to an internet shop.   This became a fishing expedition to find someone who could give me exact directions.   My immediate plan was to seek someone on the street who looked like he or she would know where to find   internet shop.   All the people I asked   seemed to know a place, and after speaking to each one, I followed their directions.   Back and forth I walked through Padova, but each time finding that the previous person’s directions led me on a wild goose chase.   After never finding what I was seekiing,   I began to perceiv

A Casual Discussion of the Characteristics of Italians

Image
No Movies Here, We Must Drive to Padova We went into Padova to see the new movie Dunkirk.  They have a few times when they have a bargain showing and we take advantage of that.  We also use the free parking under the theatre, but it takes some expert driving as whomever planned the parking never considered the turns one has to make to get in and out.  They are really tight.   American sized cars would get stuck, probably resulting in a for sale sign and keys left in the ignition The outside of the theatre looks a bit messy as the cement job never received a finishing touch.  Inside it is also total cement.   Darkened by time and all the rain in the winter, it looks like a slum building.   This kind of fits in here as Padova has a lot of  structures built in the 1400's.  People like Galileo and da Vinci were here, for instance. They have a counter that sells popcorn and the usual drinks and snacks.  I have seen only a few people buying this kind of thing.  It is not Italian