Tag: italy
sacred spaces
Religion is, as I say, something universal and something human, and something impossible to eradicate, nor would I want to eradicate it. I am a religious person, although I am not a believer.
Philip Pullman
These pictures were taken from a few of the many breathtakingly beautiful churches around Italy. I always love the feeling that becomes present when you first step through the doors into these places, and take the moment to really see, what it is that is surrounding you. Religious or not, believer or non, really it doesn’t matter or is of concern. You are welcome into the divinity of these walls that have been standing for the test of time. They have heard and hold deep within the deepest of secrets, immeasurable stories and prayers to ever be recounted. These places are sacred, not only by vertue of religious believers but by their very presence and the silence they keep on all that has ever been confided. It is here, that it is for ever memorable that I light a candle for the passing of my mum’s dearest friend, Ruth.
words from whitman..
words from whitman..
Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.
You must travel it by yourself.
It is not far. It is within reach.
Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know.
Perhaps it is everywhere – on water and land.”
– Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
Photographs taken at MISO DI RISO, BIO BISTRO, Vegetarian, Vegan, macrobiotic restruant Borgo degli 54r Firenze (FLORENCE)
where we layed our hats, in Florence
where we layed our hats, in Florence
Our studio apartment in S.Maria Novella, Florence can be described as no more than, à la mode, perfectly designed in layout, filling every space so cleverly that you really didn’t feel confined at all. The windows opened wide looking onto the streets below and across to neighbouring apartments in true Italian style. It was light and airy and full of chic with bountiful books and mags to read in moments between exploring this wonderfully alive city. We soon discovered a vibrant little cafe around the corner that humoured us as we practiced our limited Italian with ordering our coffee and croissants to have standing at the bar, as the locals would tell you, there’s simply no other way to do it.
Via dei Canacci, Florence, Tuscany 50123, Italy, book through Airbnb.com
thoughts on Venice
thoughts on Venice
Venice, she’s relic, loved passionately, admired for all her beauty,taken
advantage of, mistreated, deep in-depth, full of secrets, helpless, relentless, breathtakingly beautiful, fierce yet ravishing, seductive in nature and history, provocative, hidden, devastatingly captivating and deeply mysterious in all her ways.. how could you not fall madly, deeply in love with her.
-carly macaulay
“You may have the universe if I may have Italy… -Giuseppe Verdi
“You may have the universe if I may have Italy… -Giuseppe Verdi
It’s alluring, but complicated. It’s the kind of place that can have you fuming and then purring in the space of a hundred metres, or in the course of ten minutes.
Beppa Severgnini, La Bella Figura
ZàZà Ristorante Trattoria Firenze -Piazza del mercato centrale
lovely Venice..
Artists Apartment, Trastvere, Roma
cobble stone paths and names for remembering 
Luca, waiting for un caffè, NO NAME CAFE, TRASTEVERE
the open door bookshop, Via della Lungaretta, 23 Trastevere 00153 Rome,Italy Ph:+39065896478 
Piazza dei Ciompi, flea market
one of the most wonderful things to do is to get lost in a city that you have never seen before. the most enchanting of all our discoveries so far on this journey have come purely by accident or a touch of fate. my husband and i tend to wander with no plans or intent, except to maybe eat perhaps. This little endearing market discovery, we found on the outer skirts of Florence’s city centre. Tiny stalls lined and filled with Italy’s lost treasures. There was an abundance of old preloved paintings, books, and nostalgia quite similar to that of France’s Saint-Ouen flea markets (located in the northern suburbs of Paris, and as featured in Woody Allen’s 2011 film ‘Midnight In Paris’). There was something to be found here for anyone interested in grazing through the days offerings.
You will find this delightfully alluring market in Piazza dei Ciompi, Florence.
Roma’s own, shakespeare and company’
Roma’s secret, in the quaint cobble stone lane ways of the old town Trastevere, hides this priceless little book shop that quietly sits with its door open, awaiting or not any one who happens to pass by. It has managed somehow to remain untouched and unharmed by the many wondering tourists. For any respectful lover of books, to step into this shop you are immediately filled with a profound affection for the literary authors of past times. This is truly a memorable moment. This is not a place for hasty decisions but rather deep breaths of gratitude and contemplation of all that lies upon the shelves, each book having already passed through one or many hands before, touching fellow beings and shaping lives. The shelves are filled from wall to wall and to the high ceilings, calling you to look deeply and with a sense of faith that the right book shall make its way into the palms of your hands. This truly is the authentic Shakespeare and Company of Roma. If ever in Rome, seek out this untouched wonder and treat yourself to a little slice of literary heaven.
find,
OPEN DOOR BOOK SHOP http://www.books-in-italy.com, opendoor@books-in-italy.com
Via della Lungaretta, 23 Trastevere 00153 Rome,Italy Ph:+39065896478
from an apartment in Roma, words ..germain greer
This book is dedicated to LILLIAN, who lives with nobody
but a colony of New York roaches, whose energy has never failed despite her anxieties and her asthma and her overweight, who is always interested in everybody, often angry, sometimes bitchy, but always involved. Lillian the abundant, the golden, the eloquent, the well and badly loved; Lillian the beautiful who thinks she is ugly, Lillian the indefatigable who thinks she is always tired.
It is dedicated to CAROLINE, who danced,but badly, painted but badly, jumped up from a dinner table in tears, crying that she wanted to be a person, went out and was one, despite her great beauty. Caroline who smarts at every attack, and doubts all praise, who has done great things with gentleness and humility, who assaulted the authorities with valorous love and cannot be defeated.
It is for my fairy godmother, JOY with the green eyes, whose husband decried her commonsence and belittled her mind, because she was more passionately intelligent, and more intelligently passionate than he, until she ran away from him and recovered herself, her insight, and her sense of humour, and never cried again, except in compassion.
It is for KASOUNDRA, who makes magic out of skins and skeins and pens, who is never still, never unaware, riding her strange destiny in the wilderness of New York, loyal and bitter, as strong as a rope of steel and as soft as a sigh.
For MARCIA, whose mind contains everything and destroys nothing, understanding dreams and nightmares, who looks on tempests and is not shaken, who lives among the damned and is not afraid of them, a living soul among the dead.
-words lovingly borrowed from Germain Greer, THE FEMALE EUNUCH
St GEORGIA & Boo 