Tuesday, August 31, 2010

primo amore

stopped in his tracks

Such tenderness in reading my son's feelings. The little girl on the swing, lives 2 floors above us, in our same apartment building. They meet at the playground occasionally; and when it rains, we moms organize playdates either at our house or upstairs in her flat. Her name is Giulia.

And I think my son loves her.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

trenino




Subway train line along side Via G. Giolitti

Saturday, August 21, 2010

giorno e notte

taken on the same day

Back in the Eternal City.

Friday, August 20, 2010

toscana {6} final chapter

Michelangelo, eat your heart out

On the last day of our Tuscan vacation, the sky decided to part with a final show of its best sunset colors. Tomorrow we return to Rome and will be leaving all of this behind...



...until the grape harvest in October!

Monday, August 16, 2010

toscana {5}

pommarola

Every summer, we harvest crates and crates of vine-ripened tomatoes picked fresh from the vegetable garden. And we make so much pommarola–canned tomato sauce–to last us a whole year. We actually still have lots leftover from last summer...

You can read more about this labor intensive yearly task (and step-by-step recipe) in this post

In the meantime, Buon Ferragosto!

Saturday, August 14, 2010

toscana {4}

oink


My son and I feed these "maiali" most of our organic leftovers and kitchen waste. They live on the farm with us here, and honestly don't smell that bad. The caked mud and the air surrounding their fenced area smells mostly of curry, oddly enough.

My little boy E. loves partaking in the daily chore, even though he's a little bit scared by their vehemence. Pigs can be quite rowdy around dinnertime.
I wonder what makes the whole animal feeding thing so attractive to children. My son likes seeing the swines root the trough clean, slurping up potato peels, watermelon rinds, bits of stale bread and tomato juice. He stands there–mesmerized–at their loud snorting and chewing sounds, and shrieks back at them, calling the large female and the 2 younger males with VIP names like Miss Piggy, Babe and Porky Pig.

We usually go do this late in the afternoon, when the sunlight grazes the horizon and the lazy song of cicadas accompanies us along the sloped olive grove. The atmosphere is idyllic, peaceful and pastoral.

But all I can think of is... prosciutto.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

toscana {3}

sunset - a storm is brewing...
...morning surprise!


After the nighttime rainstorm, we woke to a gorgeous sunny day and a beautiful half rainbow. Can you see it, arching gracefully from behind the hill?

Sunday, August 8, 2010

ponticello sul bisenzio

foot bridge?
uh oh...
...cleared it!

Every day when I go buy the newspapers and to have a cappuccino at the bar Moncelli, I cross this bridge with my car. I have been doing this every day, every summer, ever since I could drive a car. And every time I still hold my breath. The Bisenzio river running beneath the bridge, and its plumed/finned inhabitants, always chuckle...



For more images of bridges from around the world, 
please head over to San Francisco Bay Daily Photo's  



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