The Villa Serbelloni

This morning, Eric and I spent our last day in Italy in a very special place on Lake Como - the Villa Serbelloni, site of the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Conference and Study Center. Eric's father Bill and his mother Betsy had spent many years at the Villa when Bill was the Director of the Center. Eric and his siblings Peter and Annie spent their school holidays at the Villa, and Eric was eager to return to the place that held so many happy memories for his family. We were invited to tour the grounds of the Villa, which is located on a hill high above the beautiful lake town of Bellagio.

Como

After a nearly six hour train trip, we arrived at Lake Como in the early evening Monday. We are staying at the Hotel Borgovico in the town of Como and will soon be exploring some of the more well known lake towns.

We met two nice, well spoken young men at the railroad station in Milan who were on their way back to their hometown Hamburg, Germany. They had been traveling all over Europe with back packs and guitars, playing music in town plazas for the sheer joy of it. They admitted being somewhat "travel weary", and I now can identify with them. I am looking forward to seeing Lake Como, but I will also be happy to be home at the end of the week!

Goodbye to Chianciano

We leave by train tomorrow for Milan, and then on to beautiful Lake Como for a few days. We are sad to leave our friends the Peleggi family who own the Hotel Alba here in Chianciano. We are thankful for their warmth and hospitality. We also are honored to have been part of the exhibition at the Museo d'Arte Chianciano. At the awards ceremony yesterday, it was announced that over 1300 artists applied to participate in the exhibition and only "an elite group" of 100 finalists was selected from 35 different countries. We feel especially fortunate to have made new friends from the Phillipines, Israel, Holland, Germany, Norway and Turkey. Most of all, we treasure the special friendship of Elaine Poggi from Florence and admire her dedication to her Foundation for Photo/Art in Hospitals.

The best news came later today when Eric was informed that one of his pieces "Gold Hot Rays" will stay in Chianciano as part of the Museum's permanent collection. "Aquanta 8" will be delivered to the Gagliardi Gallery in London! Bravo!

Breathing Art Everyday

I am reading "Bella Tuscany" by Frances Mayes who also wrote "Under the Tuscan Sun". She describes the Italians as being intimate with art, growing up with art every day. She writes, "Art always has been outside, something I appreciated, loved, sought, but something not exactly natural. American towns are often void of art and are often actively ugly. In schools, art is usually a luxury which falls with no thud when the budget ax swings. Art, music, poetry - natural pleasures we were born to love - are expendables, fancy extras, so very non-binary. The unnaturalness comes, too, from the hushed atmosphere of the museums, where most of us experience art. In Italy, so much art is in the churches. Artists were commissioned to paint churches, chapels, grain markets, banks, cloisters, city halls, bedrooms, cemetery memorials, and standards borne through the streets. Sculptors glorified the rich with statues and local piazze with playful and joyous fountains. The people began to breathe the art everyday. Art in Everyday Life".

We see art all around us here, in the small hill town churches, homes and gardens. The abstract patterns of the wine fields and olive tree groves are pleasing to the eye. I feel joyously content.

Monte Oliveto Maggiore

Adreamy day to drive and take in the landscape. We decided that our destination would be Monte Oliveto Maggiore, one of the great monasteries of Italy. We stopped for lunch in Trequanda where Eric tried the wild boar in a renaissance sauce with cocoa, currents and other "medieval" ingredients. I am still in love with the pasta in Tuscany, and ordered the green ravioli filled with spinach and cheese and a light goat cheese sauce.

The landscape leading to the monastery was a wild and dramatic, almost forbidding clay soil with deep crevices. We went around a curve and suddenly saw the red brick building, complete with moat and draw bridge. Once we entered the 15th century cloister, the impression of a fortress dissolved into the serene quiet of a walled court yard with magnificent frescos. Occasionally, we would see the Benedictine monks in their long white robes walking to chapel. The monks restore old books and sell herbs and honey.

Montefollonico

Art here in Tuscany is also found in the food and the gardens. We traveled again in the hill towns, with no particular destination in mind. We stopped at a gem of a village called Montefollonico, the last stronghold in the famous wars between Siena and Florence in medieval times. Today, the village is famous for its panoramic views of the Tuscan countryside and its cuisine. We ate lunch at a small family owned restaurant called "13 Gobbi". The chef still uses medieval recipes for dishes like "peposa"(Eric's choice on the menu, much to his delight), a stew made from meat from the famous white cattle here. I ordered homemade "Pici" (pasta) with pecorino cheese. The restaurant owner mixed the pasta at table side in a large, hollowed out wheel of cheese - fantastico! It is a good thing we walk a lot around here - mostly up hill. We finished our day with a stop at Church of San Biagio on the outskirts of Montepulciano, a masterpiece of honey and cream colored travertine begun in 1518.

Montepulciano and Senor Mazzetti

Today was our day to pick up our rental car in Chiusi. We were delighted to see our Fiat mini-SUV in front of the Hertz office. Eric is the designated driver, since my standard shift skills are pretty rusty. We drove the 15 minute trip back to our hotel in Chianciano. Our afternoon plan was to have lunch in town and then go out in the country side for a photo shoot. We decided to head in the direction of Montepulciano, a medieval walled town known for its wine. We parked below the town and started up the steep steps to the top level of the city wall in a zig zag manner. We came to a stop in one of the passageways where an elderly gentleman was busy in his workshop where copper pots are made. Eric asked him if we could photograph him and Senor Mazzetti invited us into his studio and later his private museum. This third generation skilled craftsman makes copper ware for famous and not so famous admirers. He had just completed a copper fish steamer for an American multi-millionaire. Senor Mazzetti has also made a chalice for the Pope and two lanterns for the Prince of Monaco. He also showed us a copper Donald Duck plaque for one of his grand children. We spent more than a half hour with this artisan whose pride in his work showed in his face as he spoke only in Italian about each piece he had crafted. We do not speak Italian, but we understood every word he said.

Opening day for the exhibition in Chianciano. Before the event in the late afternoon, we were treated to a photographic tour of several towns in the area by our friend Elaine. We stopped for lunch in Pienza, a beautiful walled town about 30 km from our home base in Chianciano. I am sharing some of the "flavors" of the region - grapes for wine, cheeses, meats and home made pasta.

Room with a View

We arrived at our Hotel Alba in Chianciano, Tuscany in the dark last night after a long flight and train ride. The hotel owner asked us if we wanted a room with a view, and of course we said "yes". When we awoke this morning and opened the wooden blinds, this is what we saw from our floor to ceiling hotel window:

The Universal Language of Art

A new Facebook artist friend, Mona Youssef, has made a wonderful little video about art being the universal language of understanding. This universal language includes music and performance art as well as visual art. When we go to the Museo d'Arte in Chianciano in a few weeks to exhibit Eric's new work, it is safe to say that our knowledge of the Italian language is almost non-existent. However, we look forward to "speaking" with many of the artist representatives from 35 different countries by looking at the unique expressions of their creativity. Many of our collectors have told us that Eric's art "speaks" to them. We anticipate that the works of our international artist colleagues will have a special meaning for us as well, and that we all come together to spread peace and goodwill through art.