Ciao tutti, Hello everyone.
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| Several years ago I visited the house of Marco Polo in Venezia |
Today I am looking out my window and seeing a blue sky and the day is just about as perfect as it could be. However, in a few hours the rain will arrive in the big clouds that are building over the volcanic hills nearby. We have had a wonderful August and September this year. If we had tourists, they would be having a memorable visit. Now is the perfect time to paint Italy, no tourists in the scenery.
Yesterday I voted in Italy's election. The process is about the same as in the United States, but the lines are not as long and everything seems to go faster. Elections here are held on weekends so that everyone has a chance to vote. A second day is open for voting on Mondays. Many merchants who have small shops do not have them open on Monday morning, so this helps them to have the time to vote.
Upon arriving at the middle school I see a huge chart with all the parties and individuals listed. It is best to know where they are before going in to vote. I think a big problem that Italy has is that there are too many parties, maybe more than ten. So the vote is split many ways. One can find a party that is progressive, right wing, racist, green, left, and more. It is a bit confusing to me and I had to do a bit of research before voting.
At the first door of the school I found a Carabinieri officer, several volunteers and a guy dressed in a suit (don't know why he was there, maybe some election official.) There were no signs pushing who to vote for, or people encouraging a vote for someone in evidence anywhere. We walked down the hallway and found which of four doors to enter. I was curious to see into the classrooms, and a bit shocked to find nothing hanging on the walls, such as bulletin boards or educational things for the students. My wife mentioned that maybe it was because they have a rule to take things down during the election.
We stood on markers designating social distance, everyone wore a mask properly, and moved up to the door until it was our turn. I went inside, showed my identity card and my election paper which said I could vote. Then I moved to the left and a man handed me a pencil and three separate ballot forms. I went into the booth with a shower curtain like set up for privacy. It took me about two minutes to make my X on candidates, etc. and I went and put my ballots in boxes indicated for which belonged inside. All done.
We walk back down the hall and I mentioned to my wife that most of the people we were seeing were older than 45. She joked that the young were still asleep after a night out at the disco. I think all the discos are closed now due to the virus, however. I think most of the young people were sleeping as it was early.
It is kind of funny that one can sleep in my village on a Sunday as the priests wake everyone up with the bells banging away at 7:30. Then it seems they clang them every half hour. Can you tell I am not a fan of this? My downstairs neighbor, a man that has an irritating character, is the bell ringer which doesn't help my feelings when those bells go off. I live three blocks away, but those bells are right up in my attic!
My Province, the Veneto, has 5 million residents. The officials have done a pretty good job slowing the covid down, and at this time we have a total of 12 people in intensive care in all our hospitals. The cases in all of Italy have risen a bit after August, which is vacation month for most Italians, but nothing like what we are seeing in France or the United States. One can only hope that this remains the case. Here it will be up to the youth to do their share of the mask wearing, as they tend to not wear masks when hanging out together. The older folks are wearing them when away from home.
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| 3rd Oldest Astronomical Clock Padova, Italy |
The next days will bring rain to our area and the air will be more clean and clear. I kind of miss the days when the freeways were empty and the skies were a beautiful blue. The sound of silence was wonderful. Someday there will be only electric cars, and old guys like me that do not hear will have to be careful crossing the street. This week I am hoping to go out and paint on days with no rain. Here are some paintings I have finished these past few days.
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| A visit to a castle in Slovenia |
We drove by the fields of grape vines and it looks like they have been harvested and new wine is making. I always think back to watching I Love Lucy and her episode of stomping grapes in Italy. I was 8 years old then, a while back. I hardly knew what Europe was. I saw that they had borders where you had to have a passport, which Lucy lost and caused Ricky to pulls out his hair and speak Spanish, Cuban accented. I didn't know back then that I would live in Italy, or even had spent a total of two years in European travel before moving to Italy. I just remember that I wanted to know more about places far far away. I still have that desire.
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| Back roads in Slovenia |
This next two weeks I plan to take photos of my village and what you would see if you were here. Then you will see them in this blog. I hope that you and your family is safe and taking care to remain so. Wish you a good day. Ciao
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