Our friend Bob, the artist, recently took off from his home in Southern France for a trip by automobile to the far reaches of Northeastern Italy.We received a couple of e-mails from Bob (he claims to be tech-illiterate, but he's learned how to send e-mails with photos attached).
And rather than me translating, I'll just let Bob tell it in his own words and pictures. But do note the sun-dappled, park-like settings, the gorgeous food, the wine, the wonderfully relaxed looking people...
On the road near Alps, spent night driving till about 2:00am, then slept in car.
Decided to spend half a day in a little town on Lake Garda to paint and bike around.
At 7:00 am there's nobody, perfect time to paint. Then on to Palmanova in Friuli, and to the little village of Cluoiano where Sarah was working in the beautiful Villa Manin.
I helped do some restoration and did a portrait of Vittoria, the lovely daughter of Count Maoro.
It was hot so we spent a lot of time in the pool and drinking delicious vino bianco from the region. I also had a lot of time to bike around to some other cities, Udine, Chividale and even into Slovenia.
more later
And then this note:
Penticost Monday they have a big feast in most parts of Europe. Sarah and I went to a small church just outside Cluoiano at midday to see the mass and feast at the table with the Italians.
After many glasses of wine and some great food ( really the best pancetta in all of Italy), and a little BINGO and many hours with wonderful people and some spilt wine we were still a little thirsty, so Gino suggests we go to his place for some Grappa he makes himself. Then we take a bunch of the grappa to some other friends place, and then I think we somehow got back to our bikes and biked home.
A fun day that I'll never forget, if I could only remember.
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