photohunts: planter ~ at home

A terra cotta planter I'd love to have at home. Posted in a hurry from my archives.

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K is for kiwis

ABC Wednesday             

Being the city gal I am, imagine my surprise when I went for a stroll at a hotel garden in Liguria (2008), and I found out they had kiwis growing right before my very eyes! a delightful discovery.

PhotoHunt: ripped

There is something wrong with this picture from my archives. Maybe you can guess what it is, if you are not ripped, that is...!  I know, I know, but I couldn't do any better for this week's PhotoHunt. Cheers! FB Group

Update: keep the hunting up by signing here with your picture for the "ripped" theme, meet Gattina's Saturday's Photo Hunting!

Have I shown you these?

The above pictures were taken from the hotel room in Liguria, Italy. I loved the peaceful white. The hotel had a large garden in the back, perfect for a little walk.

All of a sudden I looked to the right and I saw... k i w i s! for the first time in my life, I had only seen them at the store and never expected to find them here.

Moreover, they had a whole row of them! this city person was fascinated looking at them.


Didn't take many pictures that day because the light wasn't good. I put off visiting the garden to the very last morning right before leaving, which proved to be wrong: one should get the camera out when the weather conditions are right. Below is a view of the garden and a glimpse of the village from the garden. And a most charming key holder, don't you think!!!

thursday thirtheen [48] : where was I? part two

sharing vacation pics

1. ( Click here for Part One)
We skied in France until the Alps started to look like this:

then we knew our season was over and it was time to pack our skiing things away...
2. And headed out to Italy. We took the Tunnel du Frejus . Funny thing: you start in France and 13 km/8.5 miles later you are in Italy, through the Alps!
3. Here is the pic I took without a flash

4, Then we reached Livorno, which is in the Liguria region
5. and saw the beautiful old fortress


6. Drove along Tuscany on a sunday



7 . Here is a view of Tuscan wine fields in the back, not far away from the coastline. A post about lunch in a little Tuscan village is being prepared :)

8. Visited Populonia, the only major Etruscan city by the sea. It is situated on the western coast of central Italy on the Monte Massoncello Peninsula, in front of the Elba island. The reason for the city's existence is found in the vast slag remnants from the smelting of silver and iron… More about Populonia can be found here.

Those are somebody else's helmets, we took our car... Particularly on sunny days, it is difficult for me to see what I am photographing and then I have the surprise effect when I get to see the pics on my computer...!

9. We drove further and reached Piombino. "While under the rule of the Boncompagni-Ludovisi family it was taken by the French and in 1805 Napoleon Bonaparte gave it to his sister Elisa, She left her mark, and Piombino became known for a time as "little Paris". Leonardo da Vinci was among the many illustrious visitors to the city". How about that!!
At any rate, from Piombino we saw the Elba Island , too bad that was a cloudy day...but I hope you get the idea:

10. After so much history we drove to Genoa for some city life and some business for Mr Mar.



11. This is a view from the Piazza de Ferrari, which is an ancient Genoese family name and it's not related to the automobile company. This picture is taken from the Opera Theater in the heart of Genoa and you can see the de Ferrari fountain, which was constructed in 1936,




12. Genoa is the home of pesto, but they not only know how to eat well, they had these lovely flowers decorating the surroundings of the Piazza de Ferrari:

I counted more than a dozen pots and I took many pictures of them, I find those huge terra cotta pots simply fascinating!

13. And here is a closer look of one of those magnificent pots. I wish I could have taken
all of themone pot with me but there was absolutely no room left in the car, believe me!


Happy thirteening!

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Italian breeze

This was a short visit to the small town of Cicagna, near Genoa, in Italy. Here are some pics of the beautiful, quiet place. As you can see, there is always history around every corner and you can always find an ancient Roman trail...!

One of the most fascinating things in Italy is to admire the "fake" architecture and hand painting of the façades, here's an example, I will be posting more pics on this just because I can't have enough of it! click to enlarge, it is worth it.

Aren't they just precious paintings? If it was my home I would be covering the walls to avoid dust and to protect them from the elements, lol! This is another home, the white decoration around the window is -again- hand-painted, as are the little birds on top, don't let the beauty of it fool your eye! the surface is completely regular, just like in the prior picture (now I need all those pretty architectural names - which I don't know- to better describe all this, but I hope you get the picture) Click to enlarge. Alternatively, click here!

The local church. I was told this is the typical construction of the Liguria churches: white Carrara marble and the local (more affordable) black stone.

This is across the street from the church. All windows closed because of the heat wave!

And then I heard the story of one of the most famous Cicagna daughters: Rosa Maria Segale (1850-1941), better known as Sister Blandina, an Italian nun who moved to the US with her family at an early age and wrote of her life in the American west of the nineteenth century. Sister Blandina Maria Segale fought against great odds , including encounters with the renowned outlaw Billy The Kid. It is a fascinating story (I am a fan of such interesting women's biographies)! a short biography in pdf format can be found here