Buon anno nuovo a tutti / Happy new year everyone!
I hope you’ve all had a good few weeks.
I’m back in Italy after spending a week over Christmas with my family and friends back in the UK. Last year was a bit of a mixed bag with good things and bad things so I’ve had a few days taking stock and now I’m busy planning this year’s activities!
My last post was back in September (time flies!) so to get you up to date on the remainder of last year….
…I had a couple of days at the natural hot springs in Saturnia in Tuscany….
I loved these springs – it’s like walking into a warm bath! The best thing is that it’s completely free. My only slight concern being that the water was full of tiny little red worm things which it turns out are the larvae of a mosquito type insect. I suspect that’s not the case all year around but I’d recommend not looking too closely at the water.
…followed by a visit to Pitigliano (Tuscany) …
Pitigliano is a spectacular little town built straight out of some rock. It’s difficult to see where the rock finishes and the buildings begin.
It’s known as “Little Jerusalem” due to its historical presence of Jews there – its got a very interesting past and it’s well worth a visit.
…Then a girls weekend away in Venice where we experienced the flooding first hand (Venice had the highest flooding in 20 years the week before we arrived) and got a private demonstration of how to make a glass horse (alas we didn’t get to have a go!) over on the beautiful island of Murano….
And finally a day trip with my pottery class to see Castelli, a beautiful little town in Abruzzo famous for its maiolica ceramics.
On the subject of art, I’ve had a few commissions in the last few weeks which has been good and I was reasonably productive in my ceramics class.
These are some of attempts (I’ve recently got interested in succulent plants, mainly because they’re slightly harder to kill off) so there’s a distinct theme to my work this year!
I’ve just got some alcohol inks for Christmas so I’ve been having fun with those too…
Who knows, maybe this year I’ll try and exhibit again…
I’ll be going to Sicily for a week later in the month which I’m thrilled about. It’s been on my list of places to go to for ages. Then really hoping to get to Israel and I’ve booked a trip to Copenhagen in April and possibly Thailand or Bali later in the year. This year will be the year of travel! I tend to just go back and forth to the UK which doesn’t feel quite so adventurous.
I’ve got plans for the new house (for those new to the blog, my house was badly damaged in the earthquakes in 2016 so it’s been knocked down and I’m waiting for it to be rebuild) which is a step in the right direction. Hopefully things can start moving along but I don’t imagine any work will be starting within the next year or two at the very earliest. I was told I would be getting an apartment in Sarnano instead of the money the government pay out monthly which goes towards rent, however, there’s alas no movement on that at all.
In other news I’ve signed up for a sort of cross-country skiing course. I can ski, I just can’t stop, so I’m looking forward to that. The local pistes were open just before I came back for Christmas so I went snowboarding for the first time in a couple of years and had a great time! There should be more snow this week so hopefully it bodes well for the skiing course. I shall report back (hopefully in more of a timely manner this time!).
Meanwhile, have a fabulous start to 2019!
x
movetoitaly 