Spello 6/4/11

Travelling 2 weeks back in time, the weather today in Belgium is just as gorgeous as it was in Italy than; Sunny and warm. We planned a trip to Dunarobba to see the fossilised forest and than make our way back trought the mountains and visit some more places. When walking to the car, which was parked just outside the old city walls, we found there was a market in Spello, so we had a quick look around. I liked the way they used umbrellas as baskets.

The colors of the trees were just stunning, fresh green mixed with warm browns.

We drove past a large industry producing bricks, just before we found the centre for the fosil forest. Not so strange it turned out as they found the trees in the clay they were mining for the bricks.

If you go to the above link or this one, you'll see what it looked like when they found it. Now all trees are covered with a tin roof to protect them from the elements. 

The wood is still wood, bone dry wood, it has not turned to stone. They date back from the time of the mamoets  and are all  under an angle as the ground has shifted position since. They are huge all over 1 meter in diameter and 1 or more meters tall.

 After all this amazement it was time for lunch with a large coke for a change, instead of wine, as we still had lots of driving to do.

Of course we came across some sheep in the mountains.

We stopped at Gualdo Cattaneo and hoped to climb the tower, unfortunately we were to early in the season and it was not open on Wednesdays yet. 

The views from the tower would have been more spectacular, but from the village we got some great views too.

We spotted a lovely ceiling through an open window, which was closed quickly when they heard us outside, but we got the picture anyway :-)

 We leave the top of the mountain and Gualdo-Cattaneo to drive to our next destination.

Montefalco, famous for it's wines (and oils).

We stepped throught the doors of another old church, Chiesa Sant' Agostina, dating back to the 13th century and were amazed, this was much older than any of the other churches we had seen so far, it had old beams for the ceiling, very few status and sculptures, but lots of wall panitings.

 The church also housed the exceptionally well preserved remains of someone. 

(I now know after reading about the church (see link above) that it is a 14th century unknown pilgrim)

It seriously gave me the creeps as he was suddenly there sitting in a glass box, so unexpected, that I needed some sun ....

....... and famous Montefalco wine to get rid of the chills.

We left Montefalco to have our dinner in Spello, with more local wines :-)

On the way we saw a place with old FIAT cars, the original version of the FIAT 500 we were driving, it's bigger brother the 750 and this tiny bus, isn't it the cutest one you've ever seen.

Spello 5/4/11

Two weeks ago we were having breakfast on the terrace of our apartment in Spello, planning the day. The weather was a bit grey, so no mountain drives, cause the views would not be there anyway. We decided to drive to Foligno and Bevagna. In Foligno we quickly found this arch after parking our car and thought the centre has to be near.

But alas no luck, we only found it after an hour and a half, turned out we passed the tourist info on our search, but missed it and missed the centre too, we did see some nice houses on our walk though.

 When we finally found the old centre we had a good look around.

And a detailed shot, one can only see these with a zoom or binoculars, so when they were created no one could really see them well, makes you wonder.

A nice surprise was a square with a statue dedicated to 18th centrury architect Giuseppe Piermarini

A man carrying a spike crawling with little man and on each side of the base a plaque with little faces, turtles and sketches of his work

After a nice lunch we set out for Bevagna and hoped to be more lucky and not spend first half looking for everything.

We quickly found a church dedicated to St Francis, it was apparently here that he preached to the birds :-)

 Some nice views, the weather had cleared by now.

Somewhere in June Bevagna is send back in time to the middle ages. During the year several houses are open where one can see mediaeval crafts in progress. There was the paper maker:

   

Rags were sorted by type, cotton, linen, ... and torn, than meshed up in these stone containers with help of a watermill. The slush was transferred to a bigger vessel, were the paper was made by draining the slush through a screen, leaving the fibers behind. Once dry you would have paper, here some is drying further:

The bell maker, were bells for churches and so are cast, below the kiln were the will heat the bronze and let it flow into the pit were the mould of the bell is waiting to be filled.

Below the bench were the bell mould was made in clay. I would not mind seeing this process in work, so one day we might have to go back in June.

Besides these there was also a place were they make candles form beeswax, a weaver and an atelier where they made pigment, paints and painting. 

More nice views driving back to Spello. 

Were it was high time for a pizza :-) and more local wine.

Spello 4/4/11

Two weeks ago my hubby and me flew to Perugia airport in Italy for a short holiday. We "only"  took 730 pictures in 5 days, so I'll have no problem sharing some with you, not difficult to select some at all......
To make it a bit easier on me I decide I will share some with you each day this week of our adventures 2 weeks ago.

Monday 4th of April

We said goodbye to our cats and let the neighbour know we would be away for the week. Off to the airport, to land in Perugia around 16h.

The cutest little airport with just one tiny conveyor belt for all flights, which were only a few a week.

We picked up our rental car and set out for Spello

Once we arrived we left our luggage in the appartment and set out to discover Spello. 

Spello is a small mediaeval town, with lots of nice streets like this one below.

An arch dating back to Roman times

And St Francis. Only being 10 minutes drive form Assisi, the area was littered with everything St Francis. This statue represents the return of Frances to Assisi, we would see other copies later in the week in other places. St Francis is the one who preached to the birds, which makes him rather cute ;-)

Spello is not very touristy, but their were some nice shops with crafts, linen, olive wood, foods, ceramics and such. Some nice restaurants too.

The cherry tree in "our" garden was blossoming :-)

After a nice meal and lost of wine we slept like roses, ready for a new day.

The Chair Project part 3

My chair is nearly finished, I will finished it when I'm back from my trip to Italy. below you find some pictures, so you can see how it's progressing. (Previous posts here: part 1 and part 2.)

First carrots are glued in place and testing how the rabbit
and birds sit on the chair.

The carrots got their leaves now too. A little white mouse is sitting in the dark half globe; more underworld items still have to be added with more mice, earth-worm and a mole.

The chair will be on display the first weekend of September in Sint Job, Belgium together with the chairs of my fellow ceramist. You find more info on the event here (in Dutch)

Happy Stats

I didn't write any happy stats for a long time, but I do think they are a good way of looking back, see what you have achieved and give yourself a pat on the shoulder. I guess I sort of have made them in my mind. But writing them down is better as you add the all up and see the total picture.
This week I got some real sad news about a cousin of mine and it only made me realise one should enjoy life every single day of it. It made me realise I'm real happy with the way I'm living my life, working from home, doing various jobs, from admin for a real nice group of coaches, to the odd interior design job and, last but not least, to the creating in porcelain, silver and glass and the selling of my creations. I love to be connected to all these other crafters around the world, thanks to the wonderful internet. So here we go my list of happy stats:

• all came from the kiln in good shape, including my new Namaste Rabbit
• enjoying the good weather
• house hunting and dreaming about what the new house will be
• creating lots of custom orders
• my dear yoga teacher who organised a home party for me to sell my creations
• planning the next Two Trees pop-up-shop at Lombardia in Antwerp
• seeing the first lambs hop around the fields
• the frog that came to live in our pond
• me and hubby going to Italy for a few days soon
• being very happy with my (way of) life

Have a great week!