Best party in my life

It was the BEST!
The very best party I've ever gone to.
Just yesterday, at Trasimeno Lake, in the country home of friends, a huge, magnificent very international party, and it was the best and most wonderfully organized party, I have ever been to.

It was a party organized by one of my very dear friends, and English woman who planned for months, getting people from various countries ready to celebrate the wedding that had already taken place in India, for her son, and his Indian bride.
People came from India, from Canada, Paris, London and England. There were all these nationalities, as well as Italian, American, South Africa, a little Chinese girl, and Korean. It was a very colorful party, the Indian men wore their turbans, the women wore their customary dress, and people dressed in various colors, as they do at Indian weddings. The bombonieri and other decorations were in bright colors - violet, orange, pink, red, yellow, green, and flowers were on the tables as well as ribbons hanging from above. There was music and oh was there dancing! There was a dear friend who performed a dance, and a take-off on the song "Oh Happy Day", with words to fit the bride and groom.
One of the guests, a grandmother and important member of the group, was 94 years old, and she definitely enjoyed every moment of the afternoon that rolled into evening.
And as you can see in this photo, there were more photographers taking photos of the meal, dancing, and interesting people to be seen. Yes, never saw so many photographs taken all at the same time.
There was joking, and laughing, and lots of fun for all. And the food was wonderful, with roses on top of the red and white cake, and loads of vegetables, cheeses, wine, champagne, and pasta with truffles.
What a day! What fun! And sun perfect organization to get all those international people settled into accomodation, and then to continue the next day (today) with a trip to the lake.

WITH_OUT -- Fantacity

                                      WITH_OUT

The name of the exhibitions and performances during the festival FANTACITY in Perugia, April 20-22.
Very exciting program and many different innovative artists working in many fields, as the below article describes.
Check out the website down below, and please come visit. I will be there, at the Rocca Paolina, in the center of Perugia's historical center.                                                                                    

Fantacity Festival

FANTACITY

                                        For Fantacity website...click here Fantacity website

BIG event coming up in Perugia, from April 20 - 22.
Here is the link...more news coming up....slowly, but surely.
Don't want to ruin the surprises....and there will be many.
IF you are in town, or IF you want to come on over (I'll be showing inside the underground city Rocca Paolina) check out the link, and plan a trip to Perugia. I'll be there.


http://www.fantacity.eu/

Park your car down the hill, and take the mini metro to the center.

Take a stroll around Perugia for some of the views....

                               You are now in the center of town on the main drag....Corso Vannucci!

                 And if you want, you can get out into the country and admire nature, with magnificent skies.

Me and my sunglasses

This is me, photoshoppped, and wearing my Italian sunglasses, because today was a marvelous day, the day after Easter in Italy which is also a holiday, called Pasquetta (little Easter).
It was a day for we four, as a family, to enjoy a day out in nature, at Castel Rigone, and then a picnic on the grass, on a large sheet that I use for these occasions. It was a relaxing day, even saw snow in the background, on mountains in the distance. Anyhow, we took lots of photos, and this is a close-up of me, with a slight color change.
The glasses were made here in Perugia by a very interesting eyeglass doctor. He makes any shape and color you might want, and he has quite a collection. I had made glasses for reading, and then changed my mind and had sunglasses made with this frame.
Good night to all of you, wherever you may be. It is late here in Perugia, Italy and I am going to bed, after many hours of being outdoors, and another day with my two girls ahead of me, tomorrow.

Siena, Italy - Easter day with family and friends

Fabulous day in a lovely home of friends in Siena, Italy. We were about 20 people, enjoying a guided tour of the Duomo of Siena and extraordinary sections that had been reconstructed only since 1999. Beautifully exquisite artworks, complicated architecture, wonderful company with new friends from Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and our immediate family including both daughters who have been away. Very nice morning walk and tour, afternoon lunch with specialties both from Naples in Southern Italy, and Perugia where I live, plust typical chocolates from both Venice area, and brought from Germany. Spumante, good wine, and special cakes including the pastiera from Naples, and ciaramicola from Umbria.
Here are some of the photos I took (without retouching, just too many to do now and we are out again to celebrate Pasquetta -- the day after Easter, so please excuse me, but here they are!) This is the first group....must get going, the others will be posted next time.

Typical Italian Easter eggs in this bar, where we had our first stop for a cappuccino. The eggs each contain a surprise inside.

Funny, they were selling sandwiches with the famous roasted pig porchetta.

Foutain in front of my friends' house.

Our group, getting the beginning of the tour on the way to the Duomo.

                                                         Some typical ceramics from Siena.

Our tickets held by our friend, Tommaso.

Yes, my feet on a glass panel above another floor way way below.

Double image of a glass mosaic.

Italian cheese bread "Torta al formaggio" above, and various apetizers from Germany, below.

Magnificent centerpiece made with artichokes and flowers.

A view of a quick shot I took while walking to the parking lot after a full and wonderful day.

Driving out of town, from Perugia to Cannara

Just took a long drive to get to a pants factory.
I took the highway, having fast trucks right behind me, and then passing me up without putting on their signal! Yes, that is very Italian. Just pass people up, and don't let them know you are going to.
PLUS you should see how they pass you! I think in inches it might be that they are about20 inches away from your car, and I mean, while you are both driving fast on the freeway.
Well, when the trucks pass you at least you don't have someone else on your tail. Whoops! Yes you do!
I saw someone with a cellphone talking, during driving on the freeway! Actually, I saw two of them today.
Well....

(This wasn't taken by me today while driving...but a few weeks ago towards the lake. These are the kind of fields growing now during this period)

I got to the pants outlet, and it was filled with people. Men and women. Looking for a pair of pants, at a better price than in the stores. Much better.
However, now with the gas being so high, driving there should probably be included in the price of the pants.
Oh well. I did buy only one pair, but then I am sort of picky. I want them to be just right.
You women know what I mean.....
Drove into the countryside getting there, admiring the gold fields that have just bloomed. Very lovely. And I had to stop and ask directions because actually I took the wrong exit. I liked the big smile this man gave me, telling me that the place was the next stop. He was very friendly, had a shop selling cars, right there in the countryside road.
Now here I am. Back at the computer, back at home.
While I was driving I thought of how different it is from driving in L.A. You don't get such a beautiful view like here, but you have to put up with much crazier driving. People are very aggressive. It's too bad....if everyone drove slower they really could enjoy the view more.

ITALIAN CATS

My friend in the country has MANY MANY MANY CATS!
Here are some of them...............

The lighting in this room is wonderful for taking pictures of cats! And I love green so as you can see, the cat understood all of this, easily posing for me. He just knew he looked good, eyes matching the cover.

Being a dog person, I didn't really know that there are two kinds of cats. Those who live outdoors, and those who are kept in. These are some of the outdoor cats. It was a beautiful day the other day, whereas today it is raining. Cats love to sit in the sun, and for taking photos, that is fine with me.

                                               How about this black and white Italian cat?

This is one of the really fluffy ones, have photographed her before. I just remember that lovely little face.

People just don't look!

I was at a beautiful luncheon celebration in the mountains, perhaps let's say, in a hilly area. The restaurant had a lovely view, and from inside you could look out and see and see and see....the distance just never ended.
But before getting into the restaurant, I was attracted by these two little trees. I seemed to be the only one looking that way. And I was glad I did.
I find that one little item, or maybe two like in this case, make one think of a person alone, or a couple. And that feeling is nice, it seems so very "human". The trees to me are like a couple. Just standing there, perhaps waiting for something to happen. Or remembering.
Always look around wherever you are. There just might be something nice to see, right over there, or behind you, or far away to the left or right. If you don't look, you won't know.

Funny sign in a window in Venice

And I think this is probably true!

A walk alone at the lake

Just me and my camera....so quiet, and peaceful. Walked a bit through some tall plants and discovered this boat. I love the color green, for me couldn't have been a better color.

VIDEO of the town I live in PERUGIA

http://youtu.be/sGPn-inutAQ
Click this link to see a video made by the weather station here, and see Perugia covered in SNOW!

Beautiful scenery.....and lovely trash!

Gee, why don't they use a bag that isn't see-through?

This was the view I saw at the lake yesterday. Could not resist taking this shot!

Monte del Lago

WONDERFUL afternoon walk at the Trasimeno Lake, at a small village called Monte del Lago.
When I was leaving it started to get dark. Here's a picture of the lights that line the road I was walking on. Such a relaxing couple of hours, silence, great weather.

Snow covered town in Italy, Tufo

http://it.notizie.yahoo.com/video/yourreporter-25883630/neve-cinghiale-vs-vigili-del-fuoco-28273134.html?nc#crsl=%252Fvideo%252Fyourreporter-25883630%252Fcrollo-chiesa-dei-cappuccini-di-urbino-per-neve-28284291.html

Here is a film of what kind of snow is falling in many towns in Italy, here is the town of Tufo.

February 11 snow

Here are some pics of the snow, and a banana bread I made to enjoy while looking out the window ; )

UFO IN ITALY!!!

Really this is a UFO spotted outside my window today.
AMAZING BUT TRUE!!!!!

Veramente questo è un UFO che ho visto fuori dalla finestra oggi. INCREDIBILE MA VERO!!!

First, I saw this light....sort of plate shaped.

Prima, ho visto una luce...a forma di piatto.

LUCKILY I had my camera! But as soon as I took the photo, the UFO totally disappeared.

PER FORTUNA avevo la mia macchina fotografica! Ma appena ho fatto la foto, la UFO è sparito!

My window

COLD outside
but warm inside, THUS this dripping window with condensation dripping down slowly slowly....

FREDDO fuori

ma dentro casa, calso. COSI' la condnsa sulla mia finestra che continua a sgocciolare giù giù.....

NO SNOW YET

EVERYONE has been talking about the "BIG SNOW", I mean B I G!!!
But we have just had a little sprinkling of it....
This cartoon expresses my feelings.

TUTTI hanno parlato della "GRANDE NEVICATA" e vorrei dire GRANDE!!!
Ma finora abbiamo avuto soltanto qualche fiocco...niente di importante.
Questa vignetta esprime i miei sentimenti.

SNOW ON MY CAR

This is a photo I took another year, of the snow that had fallen on my car.
And the eyes? Well, they were two eyes I prepared and put on top of the car.

Questa è una foto che ho fatto un altro anno quando la neve è caduta sulla mia macchina. E gli occhi? Beh, erano due occhi che ho preparato e messo sopra la macchina.

PERUGIA - festa di S. Costanzo

Oggi è la Festa di S. Costanzo, il patrono di Perugia. Questo il famoso e buonissimo torcolo di S. Costanzo.

 

Today is the festa of S. Costanzo, the patron of Perugia. This is the famous cake for this festival, the torcolo of S. Costanzo.

And here is one I photographed in 2009. Seems to perhaps be just a little bit more filled with rasins and such....could it be the crisis that this year there is just a little less to it?

Ed eccone uno che ho fotografato in 2009. Sembra che ci sia qualche uvetta, ecc in più. Potrebbe essere la crisi quest'anno che significa che ci mettono qualche ingrediente in meno?