Kicking Myself for Days!

Well they say it is not an adventure unless something goes wrong.  I turned in my rental car near Venice and took the train to this well-known ceramic town near Bologna. I had wanted to visit Faenza for several years since I bought some unique Italian plates with a design only known in this area. 

When I arrived and walked from the train station to my hotel, I was surprised to see so few people out and about.  It was a hot Sunday, so I checked in and soon went out to see what the town had to offer. Not much!  A huge square with a few people riding bikes near few open bars and quick food places.  It seemed like a migrant town judging from those I saw who were obviously non-Italian.  It is near Bologna, so it could be a cheaper place to live.

 The next day, there were more people out and about and nice shops were open.  I visited several and decided with shipping, buying here was not a bargain.  I did buy one special item.

I was fascinated with all the bike riding going on – few people walked and no cars.  I thought Fairhope could benefit from larger bike-only lanes after seeing young and old riding.  After spending some time visiting a large ceramic museum that showed the early beginning of ceramics through today in Italy and walking around, I was bored to tears with this town.  My hotel was the nicest in town, which was not saying much.  It was a 4 star but did not serve lunch or dinner in the restaurant two of the 4 days I was there due to summer I guess.  I decided to travel to Bologna the next day.

In the middle of the night I woke up and thought “I have not seen my wallet for a few days”.  I immediately got up, turned on lights and looked everywhere for it.  I had been using a smaller, lighter, cross body leather pouch purse for a few days and not using my larger purse that had the wallet in it.  It was nowhere to be found and I could not even remember when or where I last had it (age setting in).  It was also a very nice woven Italian wallet I had used for 14 years and a favorite.

After a very restless night, I was really worried.  My driver’s license was in that wallet along with my health cards.  I had planned to rent a car in Umbria in a few days and that would be a huge problem! I also needed a car when returning from the airport/train to Aviano after this trip south.

 Thankfully, my credit cards and passport were in another location. I visited Bologna to try to relieve my stress and kicking myself all day for not thinking.  When I returned, I emailed every place I had been while trying to remember when I last saw it.  I think I had it in the car at one point – but never could remember more than that. One by one the emails came back with no good news.  I could not reach the Venice airport and my car rental place despite trying many numbers and getting nowhere.  I was bummed for at least two + days with the worry of it.  

I did immediately order a duplicate and received a temporary DL online.  Unfortunately, everything I read said you had to have the actual card in hand to rent a car! I had copies of my original on my phone – but it did not do me any good.  Note to self: in future – get a duplicate well before you leave and put them in two different places or have a checklist you look at of important documents every day or so!

I had looked forward to seeing friends that live in Fairhope and Umbria during each year for a couple of days.  I was renting a car to get to their area that did not have public transportation. Frankly, I was not in good enough spirits to visit Umbria after my visit to Rome in a few days. Renting a car to get there was impossible without a license, and I did not want to put them to any trouble knowing they would go out of their way to help and entertain me. Unfortunately, it was time for plan B.

My dishes

Ceramic Museum pics

My next stop before Umbria was to be a brief day or two in Rome where I was scheduled to have dinner with an Italian professional colleague.  With regrets,  I decided to forgo Umbria, give myself a needed break and attitude adjustment with two extra days in larger Rome where transportation, lodging, and dining was much easier. It was a needed decision during a stressful time.

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Asolo, Italy: Town of 100 Horizons

 

I am finally back at my computer and will update my blog over the next week from the past 15 days or so traveling to different areas of Italy.

 

To begin my August travels, I visited Asolo  again as I had only driven through when I first arrived in Italy. It is one of my very favorite places in Italy and I wanted 3 days to explore it fully.  

My sister and I once stayed in the villa where Robert Browning lived for a time.  I circled our room.  It is now owned by the Cipriani hotel group.  On this trip, I stayed at the well-known Albergo Al Sole (pink building) perched just above the main square.  I enjoyed watching the variety of people who visited the town's main coffee shop area with the awning and large terrace each day.  Asolo is on a series of very high hills.....also saw a large number of cyclists who rode up the mountain and down the other side at all hours of the day.

Asolo is the former home of Freya Stark, Eleonora Duse, Robert and Pen Browning and many expats from Britain and the U.S.  A really charming place.  I visited the nearby town where Canova was born and his sculpture museum, Villa Maser and the excellent museum in Asolo.  I read biographies of Freya Stark and Eleonora Duse while there.  I did feel more like an oddity, eating by myself in this smaller town, but since I had a rental car, I enjoyed the nearby areas as well. 

Asolo is where Catherine Cornaro lived during her later years.  

She was a daughter of a noble family in Venice and was married off to James II, the King of Cyprus in 1468 when she was just 14 as a way for Venice to have more control over that important island.

James died from a sudden illness shortly thereafter.  She was pregnant and had a infant son, who died mysteriously before his 1^st birthday.  She ruled Cyprus for 15 years and was forced to abdicate in 1489 and sell the administration of the county to the Republic of Venice. 

Venice persuaded her to cede her rights as ruler but retained her title of Queen and was made Lady of Asolo. She lived in a castle that dated back to the 10th century with a full court of subjects. Today the clock tower is visible from all over town.

It is interesting that the theater (a former audience hall) in the castle was bought to Sarasota, Florida in the early 1950’s and restored in 2006.  The historic Asolo Theatre is one of the highlights of the Ringling collection in Sarasota. 

I wish I could share all of the photos of this area.  Too soon, it was time for me to leave, turn in my car at the airport and head on the train to Faenza, a ceramic town near Bologna.  This is where a major problem for me occurred ......

This is my last week in Aviano at Debbie’s comfortable spacious home.  Looking forward to her coming home.  I visited Pocenigo for coffee and walked by the small stream that a friend used to live on when we were all here.  I have many great memories of my time and with friends here.  Also had a lovely dinner and visit with one of my favorite families here – the Nothstine’s.  Drinks, coffee  or dinner with Lois, Liz, and Raffa.  Also fun time at  Creedence Clearwater Revival concert with Phil and Lucia and friends. Amazing music! Proud Mary....etc.

 Grocery shopping has gotten easier though you certainly do not have choices we do – maybe that is good. Dried fish, octopus in packages, and rows of pasta and olive oil are the norm.  They make more tortes instead of cakes.

Well, I am on the road again beginning August 1 to other Italian towns and cities.  Weather has been reasonable – around 84 right now.  Everyone coming  back for summer and I will even get to see old friends who now live near Pensacola who are here to check on their house. So far so good!

An Italian Experience

I wanted to visit a beauty salon and asked a friend to help me.  She asked an Italian friend and made an appointment at the GiGi Effetto Moda in nearby Roveredo in Piano, a small village nearby and graciously went with me. 

We entered a beautiful salon on the main street. Everyone was friendly and most spoke flawless English.  After GiGi, the owner, looked at my hair and suggested a mix of two colors, Sabastian mixed and applied it.  The shampoo area had seats with a gentle massage option while Sebastian was shampooing my hair. He started out with a gentle head massage and ended with selecting a special deep conditioner from a wall of colorful tubes.

Next, Sebastian laid out several items to cut my hair - kinda like a surgeon's assistant. GiGi walked up, selected a couple, and cut and shaped my hair while speaking in rapid Italian with Liz, my friend.  I was pleased with the color, though a little darker than I have had in a while.  It was a professional hair cut done with care.  Next came Danielle who dried and styled my hair.  She was also personable and did a great job I hope I can replicate at home! 

This salon was equal to those in larger cities such as Atlanta, Rome, or Florence and was a reasonable cost.  It was a wonderful, professional experience from start to finish.  I made another appointment just before I leave for Scotland and will make another in December before returning home.  I have been to other Italian salons in the past, but this one was definitely “a cut above” in Italy.

Some blogspot error sent you someone else's blog   the one you got in a foreign language (not italian) was wilson.blogspot.com      Mine is savanwilson.blogspot.com    Type that in your  that to see the 3 parts of my adventure in sculpting!

Thanks to Adele for alerting to this.  For some reason I never see comments!  UGH Technology

Part 3 of 3: "What You Can Learn from a Bucket List"

Our celebration Friday dinner was lovely and an additional guest staying on the property joined us.  Since she was also German, the lively conversation heavily leaned toward their common language. Around 10 or so, I bid everyone a good night and said how much I enjoyed it.  Happy dance when I got home especially since Rainer told me Wolfgang had finished the hair and greatly improved my “Muse” during my afternoon away.  I have included the excellent almost finished projects by Gaby and Rainer at the end of this blog.  Rainer had some experience and really made significant progress.  Amazing what each accomplished in a week!  I was not the star pupil.

The week was a success for me – even with my ups and downs -  I learned it is important to follow your dreams, even if they do not turn out to be spectacular or even a mistake. I remembered the importance of friendship from a friend that sent encouragement all during the week.  I learned to listen to others and be quiet for a change.  I learned different cultures add interest to life, everyone does not have our same values, and Americans have much to learn. I also learned to try to hang in there as long as possible.

My Version of  The Muse 

A downside to the week was many general conversations at lunch, dinner and during working on sculptures were in German.  Many times, someone translated, but on retelling, stories seem to lose their punch. They would ask me things in English and speak in English when everyone remembered I was there. Wolfgang translated as much as he could.  I sometimes felt like I did not belong in this group and was an anomaly.  Even the couple commented I was brave to do this – which really says it all in a nice way. I do think everyone did the best they could in this awkward social/work situation.

I have much more awareness of the immense talent of old masters like Bellini and Michaeangelo  who sculpted true masterpieces chip by chip.  It is a God given talent I obviously do not possess.

I will keep the small block of marble on my desk. However it now represents humility and a knowledge of my lack of skill in stone sculpture and many other things. It also represents having the nerve to follow your curiosity and learn new things.  I did reach my main goal of learning the process, basic tools and techniques.  Maybe, just maybe, I'll get this 70 pound hunk of marble back home!

Part 2: "I've Hit Rock Bottom" (no pun intended)

I awoke the 2nd day with sore hands and praying that I will do better work today.  Wolfgang is an excellent teacher and tries to be patient with me.  All I can do is try, he responds “Don’t try, DO!”  So far, I have wondered about a thousand times why I wanted to do this so much that I would put it first during this sabbatical.  Maybe to try something that seems almost impossible to me at this age, see if there is a creative bone in my body, and be open to cultural differences. I am amazed how hard this is to do.  There is NOTHING easy about this.

Each day is about the same: Breakfast, WORK, Lunch, WORK, Dinner out at 7:30 and home around 11 pm when I crash. One afternoon we have a lovely masseuse and I opt for the last appointment and after working the morning and about an hour in afternoon blow off the last hour reading.  By Wednesday, I hated that huge block of unyielding marble.It seems never-ending as you do different things to every area, sometimes 2 or 3 times to get it right.  Wolfgang is often marking areas in red or black for me to sculpt deeper or better.

I have decided the cost of this week is worth it and a good value overall.  No amount of money would be worth teaching beginners how to do this!  I have been comfortable with the location, excellent food, amenities, people and surroundings. I am not as comfortable with my ability or my project.   By Wednesday, I felt like stopping as I now understand this is not going to be a future creative experience.  I kept going but started counting the hours and days left in the class. The really hard and tedious work seemed easy when he came and showed me a technique for the umpteenth time.  I’m sure he was as frustrated as I was.  The group made a decision to not go to nearby Perugia for an afternoon in order to continue work on our projects.  I had been looking forward to a work afternoon off, but was too tired to go anywhere so was fine with that decision.

On Thursday afternoon, I decided I was crazy to do this and after 39 plus hours of work during the week said I would work through Friday at lunch and be done.  I immediately could see the end of it and quit counting the hours and happily finished all I could Friday morning.  Wolfgang was probably just as happy for me to be away since it had been a long week for both of us.  After lunch, I went for a swim, rested, viewed the sunset, read, packed and felt better. They worked until 8 pm on Friday and looked worn out when they arrived for dinner. 

A good friend later said about my work on this sculpture: “Remember how many people are just like this rock.  You work and work on then but it just wears you out and they never really change.”  Too true.

We were about to celebrate the end of the week and our finished projects.  Rainer had had some experience and did an amazing job of his women with flowing hair.  He seemed to learn a lot from Wolfgang's teaching and his project was truly worthy of any garden.  He modeled his work on his girlfriend.  

Gaby, his girlfriend, worked hard and seemed to get good help from Wolfgang too.  Her shell turned out so well except for her minor disappointment that one false move took a bit more than desired out of her sculpture.  I had wished a hundred times that I had thought of a shell.  Getting her contours right made it a difficult project.  

Next is Part 3 : What I learned from this unique experience.

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Part 1: "It Started with a Block of Marble"

I apologize for the length of this and will put it in 3 parts you can read at once or later.

I always kept a small block of marble on my desk as a reminder of my desire to someday learn the process and techniques of rock sculpture.

When I had the opportunity to spend several months in Italy, I decided this was the time to experience this "bucket list" item.  I began to research possible locations.  Villa La Rogaia has

Main building

a wonderful mix of opportunities for anyone seeking a different vacation from the usual sightseeing and is situated amid rolling hills, scenic vistas and beautiful sunsets in amazing Umbria.  It is an old country house with outbuildings, a large garden and pool.  You can relax in one of their well-appointed holiday apartments or take creative courses in Italian cooking, painting, rock sculpting or even intensive salsa and tango lessons. 

In addition to my intensive sculpting lessons, all meals were included with excursions to Perugia or other nearby villages.  A massage mid-week was a relief for sore muscles. The web information was well done and I signed up!

My experience began even before I left when Wolfgang, my instructor, emailed and we began planning what I might do for my individual stone carving project. He suggested a stylized “Brancusi-Muse“ face.  I was not thrilled but did not have another alternative and felt he knew best. A few months later, I took the train from Florence to Passignano Sul Trasimeno , an historic picturesque village on Lake Trasimeno which is the 4^thlargest lake in Italy.

Annette, from Villa La Rogaia was waiting at the Passignano Sul Trasimeno train station and warmly welcomed me. As we drove through the area, she told me about fishing and boating excursions on the lake, some of the history and how they came to live in this beautiful countryside.  Umbria is the green heart of Italy with hardwoods, silvery olive groves and lighter green vineyards. Lake Trasimeno is enclosed by endless hills and charming little villages.  Less crowded than Tuscany to the West, it is a haven for country holidays away from the bustle of tourists with half hidden retreats which offer a rare opportunity for relaxation, and short trips to Assisi, Perugia, Cortona, Arezzo, and Siena.

We drove higher and higher passing vineyards and olive groves with far views of Perugia and the lake view growing smaller in the distance.  The last 2.5 km was a country road leading to La Rogaia.  

Path to my apartment

I was shown to my spacious apartment “La Grapo”– perfect for 3 or more with a large bedroom, updated bathroom, kitchen and living area with an inviting patio.   I was shown the pool area and also met “Mamma Ornella” a delightful cook gathering fresh herbs for our meal together the first night.  She had been one of the reasons for my selection of this location, but she only cooked two night meals but we were served equally well by “Rosell”, a friendly Filipino who mostly spoke English.

Mamma Ornella and Wolfgang

At eight pm, the dinner bell rang and I walked past the lavender bushes to meet my instructor and the other participants. Rainer and Gaby are an attractive younger German couple who politely spoke English. We had appetizers and wine while we began to get acquainted and visited with Annette, Wolfgang's wife.  Wolfgang, our instructor, joined the group and we soon sat down to a wonderful meal with pasta, meat, potatoes and a very nice dessert.  As the night lingered we discussed politics, our work, and the tango classes they have.  Wolfgang discussed the week’s work. Ideally, it is best to take it with you and I had not considered that enough beforehand.    Enjoyable night and everyone was friendly and nice. Slept well. 

It is hard to describe my nervousness as I walked past garden sculptures to my first class the next morning. Wolfgang had our marble work area ready to view and went over his plan of teaching with each of us.  He gave us our set of tools and showed us how to sharpen them in his workshop. My stone looked huge and forbidding.  We returned to our stones.

A good chip

Smiling while kicking self

This was hard slow work, chipping off areas of stone to reveal the shape.  By lunchtime, I had barely made a dent in my project and I wondered if I was up to this.  Any beginner can do it with taught techniques, lots of patience and time.  Anyone who knows me knows patience is not a strong trait of mine.  

My first day was an eyeopener – first with how hard it is to make something from a block of marble using a hand tool and a hammer alone.  Chip by chip, bit by bit for almost 8 hours.  We worked from 9:30 – 1:00, had a light lunch, then an hour’s rest and returned at 3:30. We finally stopped at 7:00 pm when Wolfgang announced we were going to a restaurant in 30 minutes!  A shower and a glass of wine would have suited me better at that moment but I was just happy we were finally done for the day.

 

Rushed to get ready and off we went barreling down the mountain and feeling every bump! Everyone was ordering 3 courses at the excellent lake restaurant and each course was exquisite with plenty of wine.

I was exhausted but enjoyed watching the Italian families having a great time.  We made it home by 11 pm and I fell into bed.

Part 2 will include my progress as well as that of my more talented fellow- students. 

Part 3 will show our completed projects and how much I learned about myself and the fine art of chipping away stone to reveal a finished sculpture.