Six Trips, Finally, and I’m Speechless in the Making.
02 Monday Apr 2018
Posted in Art
On Easter, Our Progress Around Town
01 Sunday Apr 2018
Posted in Travel
I.
Sleeping late, then writing and painting, as we wait for the rain to come to an end.
II.
Heading out, after some hemming and hawing, to make reservations at Osteria del Trivio.
III.
Walking down, our options fully weighed, to catch the moving staircase to the top.
IV.
Perched high above the town with all its stone, La Rocca is a mighty fortress still.
V.
On the circled path, we walk the whole way round accompanied by the caprice of weather.
VI.
Headed down, we take the street that leads the crowd beside La Piazza del Duomo.
VII.
Once we are sure there’s nothing going on, we step inside the church to sit a spell.
VIII.
Then back out the way we came, down the steps to the right, beside a favored park.
IX.
Wending our way, past apartments we will only buy in the fever of unbridled imagination.
X.
Stopped short by tomorrow’s date on the Exhibit poster, we double-check the itinerary.
XI.
Turning this way and that, without discussion or map, until we pass SS. Giovanni e Paolo.
XII.
From the corner of our eyes, we spot the patient clerk from the fine arts supply store.
XIII.
Glance inside La Ciocolateria, wondering if Grazia has to work at all on Easter Sunday.
XIV.
A final hitch in our giddy up: five, maybe six, flights of stairs (depending on who’s counting).
This Time of Year, This Trip, A Photo Op is Done
01 Sunday Apr 2018
Posted in Art
Thou mayst behold that fewer leaves do hang
Upon the boughs still shaking against the cold.
-
- Bare ruin’d choirs, where soon the birds will sing
Toward San Pietro, the twilight of such a day
Before trees blossom and their leaves return.
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- Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest
“Banned in Boston”
01 Sunday Apr 2018
Posted in Travel
Just when I thought I had solved the technology of NCAA coverage by clicking here for CBS Sports, the Internet Border Control informed me last night that certain precious content is not allowed to cross international waters. Argggh!
“The Usual”
01 Sunday Apr 2018
Posted in Food
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- Un cappuccino e un cornetto
The Reunion (a work in progress)
01 Sunday Apr 2018
Posted in Education
Act I, scene 1: The setup
The night of the parents meeting on “The New Math,” back in the mid-60s, the guinea pigs stayed home: uninvited. So I cannot recall the dialogue verbatim. Yet the way my father always retold the tale, one remarkable line stood out: “If you’re planning to help your children with their homework, then start studying from Day 1. Otherwise, you’re toast….”
Now, I couldn’t actually swear to it. Yet I seem to have a vague recollection that the approach to our French Instruction in Junior High had a similar pedigree: with a fancy name and a distinct history that set it apart from old-school ways. (With a bit of research, I should be able to fill in the _____________ here.
Already, the term “Audio-Lingual” seems to be making its way from off-site storage into my central processing unit. Before I plug it into a Google search, though, one thing is certain: I can remember the dialogue from “The Library Trip” as if it were yesterday.)
Jean: Dis donc, ou est la bibliotheque?
Paul: C’est tout droit. Tu y vas tout suite?
Jean: Oui, il faut que j’aille chercher un livre.
Paul: J’y vais aussi.
Further research, no doubt, will cast the method in a favorable or unflattering light. Yet for now, as we approach La Cioccolateria desiring to greet Grazia with a warmth sufficient to our continuously developing affection, I dearly wish that my Italian textbook had a “Reunion” Scene with enough lines, sufficiently memorable, to surf the shoals of unwanted silence.
Shuttered, the Thought
31 Saturday Mar 2018
Years of great memories (and lots of good food)
Are locked away behind a shuttered front. “O lost,”
Our thought, “and by the wind grieved, ghost come back.”
Another Invitation
31 Saturday Mar 2018
Posted in Art
Indoors offers a more certain outcome
Whether the forecast is spot-on or not;
And since Teatro Nuovo is quite close,
Only the program could raise any doubt.
Yet we have received conflicting reports:
In one, the evening is incredibly short;
Whereas according to my usual source
The Mozart alone could register a tort.
Proof of a Dour Report
31 Saturday Mar 2018
Posted in Education
L’attestato:
Aka, proof on the roof:
That would be a shower
Of hail out there
On the terrazzo.
Plans, What Plans?
31 Saturday Mar 2018
Posted in Travel
Sights of Easter coming soon
On every street, around every
Storefront, all over town.
Invitations have been sent.
Only given my bad Italian
I don’t know what is meant.
The first time we go out,
We get as far as breakfast
Before getting all that wet.
Safe and dry, back at home,
We wait for the sun to crest
Before making our grocery run.
Happy to be out and about
Even if completing errands–
Then a torrent comes down.
Plain to see, in this town,
The rain falls unpredictably
Sooner or later, now and again;
While plans, like the one
Many years in the making,
Are now open for the season.
