Cervo beyond the Boats Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 15 x 21.5" 38 x 55cm
C
View St Bartolomeo Laurie Fox Pessemier acrylic/canvas 18 x 21.5" 46 x 55cm
Castello at St Bartolomeo Blair Pessemier acrylic/canvas 13 x 16 " 33 x 41 cm
View from above Cervo Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 15 x 18 " 38 x 46 cm
Early Morning Moonlight Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 9.5 x 12" 24 x 30
Bell Tower and Chimney Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 16 x 10.5" 41 x 27cm
Chair Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 16 x 9.5" 41 x 24cm
Looking up the street Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 16 x 13 41 x 33cm
Artnotes: Buon Natale
“Cash only for stamps,” the clerk announced. (after Blair spent a half hour in line)
Blair waited for the stamps.
50 euros, yikes.
“I WILL put them on,” she continued, “LATER”.
So we’ll be interested to hear if anyone receives our
Christmas card from Italy. (it bears my painting of Bologna at Christmas, and an
Italian stamp)
As Blair’s uncle Hy used to say “you don’t make a fuss over
change when there’s fifty people behind you in line.” He used to have a concession at Dodger
Stadium in the 1960s.
This wasn’t our first postal experience here. The day before, after spending 45 and 30
minutes in line at two different post offices, we learned that not all post
offices mail packages to the USA.
“You’ll have to go to San Bartolomeo,” the clerk announced. Of course, it was closed.
I remarked that no one else in the line had a package. Mostly the queue-ers were waiting for bank
transactions. In most European
countries, there is a bank tied to the postal service. You wait in line for your weekly 50 euros, or
to deposit your check. No machines here.
It is always interesting to spend time in another country –
more than the two week vacation, but to really LIVE in a town, using services,
making acquaintances at the café, struggling through an explanation. Yesterday we found a place to print three
posters – just on regular paper, but nonetheless well printed. We all beamed at the result.
Earlier, we hunted down a portable modem at the WIND store
(the Italian telecom). I even got an
English speaking clerk (my Italian learning is S L O W) who told me I could use
this device “in the middle of the ocean”.
The town we are staying in has a water-for-five-cents
fountain – it rings of the day when people used to go to the well. Christmas carolers sang beneath our window two
nights ago. The church bell ringer
practices “Oh come all ye faithful” on the carillon every day at 12:30.
And the package? Luckily,
we are only 45 minutes from France, and we drove to the post office at Menton
to mail. We got a tracing number and a receipt. No line.
While we were there we picked up a live Christmas tree, almost
impossible to find here on the “Riviere dei Fiori” (flower coast). We made our own ornaments, and PRESTO: Merry Christmas.
