illuminated

It’s Thursday morning and raining still.  We did get a break last night around dinner time, which was nice for the short walk.  But otherwise?  It’s been basically 40 or more hours of heavy and light rain.  That drove us into museums yesterday.

The Museo Civico Medievale is basically next door to our hotel, so that was an easy one to get to.  And it sounded cool.  And parts of it were, truly.  The collection was founded on a private collection from centuries ago, and so there is some stuff in there that may be medieval but doesn’t reflect Bologna or even Italy.  Fair enough, I guess, but it was odd to see a room dedicated to East Asian items that the man had collected in among everything else.  Stranger still were the Mexican items, especially without much context given regarding colonialism.  But there were other treasures that were more local in nature and pointed to glories of a city that once was.

For my part, I was keen to see the illuminated manuscripts.  I always am.  There were several on display in a room, and I took my time with them.  Lovely.

I am honestly not certain I would recommend the museum to Bologna visitors, but maybe?  No matter.  Cool stuff to see in among stuff that made no sense to me or I had no interest in.  But ah, those books…

Silencio

A short post to feature the most wonderfully, unintentionally camp thing I have seen on this trip.  A painting of Silencio at the La Quadreria museum.

I aspire to this somehow.

A rainy day in Bologna,

our last day in Bologna.  I’m writing postcards and thinking ahead to aperitivo hour and dinner….

gelato

I would be remiss if I came to Italy and didn’t enjoy the greatest hits, right?  Bring on the gelato!

Cassata flavour for me on Ischia.  

A scoop of spagnola and  a scoop of zabaione for me in Bologna.

And yes, I am enjoying all the other very Italian things as well!

a city of towers and porticoes

Hello from Bologna where it has just gone 5AM.  My pattern of short nights of sleep on vacation continues.  May as well use that to post here, right?

A bit of a photo dump post, I apologize.  Towers and porticoes for you.  Bologna was once home to many tall brick towers, similar to what may be found in other Italian cities.  Our walking tour guide, Sarah, told us about a few yesterday.  In fact, our own hotel is in a building that once had a tower, but now there is only a hint of that past glory.  So then, towers:

The porticoes of Bologna are a UNESCO world heritage site.  I’ve seen a few numbers, going up to 53km in aggregate length.  Which will be very helpful today and tomorrow as rain is forecast, and quite a bit at that!  The porticoes started off as cantilevered second floors to make space for students in a medieval university city.  

The first porticoes were wooden, and there are some that remain, all of them shored up now.  

Some are quite grand, all of them are beautiful.  And practical!

It’s a handsome city, and there is so much see.  The rain may confine us to museums in days to come, but at least we had one fine day of weather to see things.

transition

From South to North yesterday for us as we went by boat

and train

from Ischia

to Bologna.

 I think when I get home to my laptop, I’ll do a deeper dive on Ischia, so stay tuned for that.  For now, short and sweet posts on Bologna!

leaving Ischia

A short, bittersweet post.  We are checking out of this wonderful hotel and leaving this wonderful island.  If only we could have more days here.  On to the next stop.  Thank you, Ischia.

morning wandering

I’m not yet fully in sync with this time zone, but I am trying.  I was up before 6 yesterday and the same thing again today.  Not ideal for rest, but at least that gives me early mornings for walking when the town of Ischia is quiet.  I’ll head out shortly for today’s walk.  But first, how about a few photos from yesterday’s jaunt, from the end of town close to the castle?  Sure, why not?

Il Monastero

Van has exceptional taste in hotels, I have to say.  I’ve stayed in some lovely places with him, and the start of our Italian vacation finds us at another such beauty:  Il Monastero.

We’ve been here one night only so far, three to go.  And yet, already yesterday we joked about canceling the rest of the trip and just staying here for two-plus weeks.  We have a spacious

two-bedroom,

two-bathroom

suite.  Zoom in on this photo if you can:  the leftmost glads window is the window of one of our bedrooms.

There are many stairs, but, happily, there is an elevator to take us most of the way up from the water level.

I’m currently sitting out on one deck,

enjoying the breeze, writing some postcards and posting to social media.  Van is feeling less than 100%, so Conrad

and I will stick close to the room.  Plenty to see and enjoy on grounds anyway.

But ah, what a treat this is!

made it!

We arrived at our hotel (and what a hotel it is!) about 26 hours after leaving home in Pasadena.  Planes, cars, a shuttle bus, a hydrofoil - it got us to Ischia.  Four nights here to settle into vacation mode. Ahhhhh…

ready to go

Much packing and repacking and repacking again, and I am still unsure of my preparedness.  Our driver is picking us up in 28 minutes - 5AM - to head to LAX, and I am still second guessing myself.  I think we all were.  You would think we had never been on a long vacation before!  Sheesh!

The first of my mini-posts in the next few weeks.  I’ll check in as much as I can!

pork tenderloin

Sometimes good meals come about from trying to use up what is left.  Conrad bought a pork tenderloin for us on Saturday night, but everything else came from trying to use up what was in the condo.  Tuesday is travel, Monday night will be at Van's, and I want to leave a fridge with nothing rotting in it.

So, yes, a nice dinner!

not a willful lull!

I swear, I promise.  Two things have conspired against postings this past week.  

First, I have had a cold.  Not a bad one, happily.  But I have a trip coming up (more on that in a moment), and I babied myself as much as I could.  So that meant a lot of low key time at home (and one evening at Van's

watching most of that trainwreck of a The Bachelorette finale - we couldn't finish, it was so terrible).

Second, it's been hot.  Really hot.  Bloody awful hot.  I think it only made it to 103 here today, a comedown from 108 yesterday when we had an hourlong rolling blackout that, happily, didn't affect us too much.  We've hardly been out because of the heat.

All will change soon.  A big trip coming up, leaving Tuesday morning.  Exciting!  Packing is underway, and it's hard to know how much to bring. 

We'll figure it out.  I won't take the laptop with me, but I'll make an effort to blog as best I can!

oven-braised pork chops

I haven't posted much of my own cooking lately, I think.  I haven't cooked much of interest lately, perhaps.  Or else it has tasted fine but not been especially photogenic.  So let me share this from tonight:  pork chops that I seasoned and browned, then left to cook slowly for a few hours in the oven with some onions, garlic, and a tomato-chile sauce left over from last week.  Served with some cilantro rice and roasted cabbage wedge. 

Not a bad meal at all, I have to say!

oystahs!

Hey there, happy September!  I came back from Colorado and, because it's a long weekend, I have a cold.  Of course.  Ugh.  Ah well.

So, not much to post the past couple of days.  Sorry!  But how about a small delight or two from this past Friday.  The Whole Foods that Courtney and Robert go to sells and shucks fresh oysters at a special low price.  So we bought a bunch. 

Three dozen, in fact.  And I made us a round of Italicus margaritas,

and we closed out the afternoon sipping and slurping.  Good times.