6th Week in Lockdown

This village has an amazing button Museum
Sant' Arcangelo di Romagna, Italy

Not much to say that is different than what I have written in the past.  People here in my  village continue to observe the stay home rule.  Some are doing yard work, mowing lawns, trimming hedges and such.  Dog walkers are out and about.

Button Museum Ahead

Our friends and relatives have been good to write and tell us how it is going for them.  All of them are staying in home and not circulating outside their property.  A  few have gone out for food and some have arranged for home delivery of food.




On the positive side, we are lucky here to have sun and this week we will reach 70 degrees on many days.  For those of you who use centigrade, that means short sleeves, and short pants.  Put the jackets away!  It would be so nice to take a drive in the hills and look down on Padova and all the tiny churches that decorate the hillsides.   Since the smog is much less, we might have been able to see Venice.

Needs more carving and
then sanding to smooth

It seems that Italy is taking this epidemic two weeks at a time.  We stay inside for another two weeks.  Life has become slower.  We are all hoping for a change soon, but for many like me, who are older, we may have to stay apart from people for a lot longer.   How do I stay busy?  I spend a small part of the day sitting in the sun and carving wood.  Here is an olive bowl I am working on.  The small end will be for the pits when finished.

I started another small watercolor.  You see the original sketch on the left.  I thought I would finish it yesterday but got distracted and the time just flew by.  You can see how far I have gotten below.


The scene is a small restaurant in Chania on the island of Crete.  The people drawn are taken from photos on painting trips.  The chef is from a photo I took along a canal in Cesenatico, Italy.  The middle girl is from Athens, the sweeper man is from Catania, Italy and the lady on the right from Spain.  These  folks sure get around, don't they?   International group.

Not Finished Yet
It was early for customers

While I was near that restaurant in Chania, I watched a fisherman take an octopus and beat the living daylights out of it against the side of the dock.  Without this smacking about the octopus would be quite hard to chew.  Another way would be to freeze the octopus, but he did it the easy way.  He spent way over 5 minutes whacking away, getting a little good exercise.

When I lived in America I never ate octopus, but here in Europe it is sometimes readily available, especially in Italy.  The best I ever had, though, was in Croatia where our favorite restaurant, Barba Danilo,  featured it fried.  That was memorable!   They create some great food, Let me out of here!  I need to go there!  Here are some other dishes, but from Italy.  I made them large because some of you view the blog on a cell phone.

Pumpkin Lasagna
Ferrara, Italy

All this makes me think that I should start a Facebook challenge to show best dish of food and where.  Maybe I will do that.

Artichoke Souffle'
Osteria Savonarola
Ferrara, Italy

One more photo to show, this one from Firenze (Florence), Italy.  Florence is a MUST VISIT if you come to Italy.  The city makes sure you can enjoy its history even at night.

Glass of wine
Warm summer night
The great view

I hope that this blog post gave you a few minutes away from the stress we are all feeling.  Stay safe.  Don't  take chances.  Until next time, Ciao!