Artnotes: Berlino's Vacation

Just Playing (It's not the size of the dog in the fight)   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas   12  x 16"  30 x 40cm   550.00

Berlino went on vacation this week.  I say Berlino did, because he had the absolute best time in his doggone life.   He must have met 25 dogs a day – in Siena, San Gimignano, Volterra, Certaldo…    Many were fancy purebreds, some were mutts, but he didn’t care – they were dogs, THEY were fun.  It was an Italian holiday weekend, which accounted for so many people with their dogs – Italians bring their dogs with them everywhere, as most Europeans do.    We celebrated Liberation Day on Tuesday, 25 April, when in 1944, the Italians were liberated from the Nazis.  We have another big holiday on Monday, May 1, honoring all workers. .

Maize, Berlino's Wolf-dog Friend   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/oil crayon/canvas  18  x  10.5"   45 x 27 cm  550.00

We enjoyed our mini-vacation, too.  I’d never been to San Gimignano or Volterra, which were lovely.  I was happy to see Siena after 15 years, and was struck by how different it was from its rival/neighbor, Florence.  There were still some people who lived around there, as demonstrated by laundry hanging from the clotheslines below windows, and parking reserved for locals.  Someone must live there, to keep the shops and restaurants staffed.   We bought a set of four only-slightly-overpriced linen napkins – it’s very difficult to find cloth napkins these days.  The seamstress sat in the back of the store, whirr-whirr-whirring up her confections.

Blair's Sister, celebrating her birthday in Italy

We stayed, courtesy of Blair’s sister, at a nice hotel outside of San Gimignano.   I love hotels, their lobbies, bars, and grounds.  This hotel showed signs of recent (positive) renewal, but you could still see good “bones”..  There was a particular local furniture leg treatment we saw at the Etruscan museum that occurred again in hotel furniture – things like this make Blair and I so happy to be “out” seeing things.   Did I mention Berlino was welcome inside the Etruscan museum in Volterra?  He showed particular interest in some ancient sticks and the bone display.

Geranium 2023   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/oil pastel/cardboard  28 x 20"  70 x  50cm   390.00

It’s curious to me that everyone loves to see historic, interesting older things, but I don’t know many of my countrymen who actually hang out their laundry or live without air conditioning.    Italy is rapidly catching up – I can’t find those cloth napkins, and our last laundry service that starched and ironed them (for 50 cents each) closed their doors.  So now I wash them and iron them myself.

Siena - Florence's longtime rival  It is so different.