One More Cup of Coffee

Buona mattina, bambini. Some photographs while waiting for espresso. (Giulia is still asleep.) We hope to be back today; allergies & such have laid us (GG, too) quite low. Mimph.

ciao-meow/GG's barista

[Coffee Break by Emiliano (credit); sleepy cat-your life, it seems extravagant, & Napoli, beauty in everything/tumblr, both via we heart it]

Neapolitan Impressionism

...or expressionism or..you decide. Anyway, it's a colorful wall in Naples by Robert in Toronto, via flickr & we love it. He has quite an eye for color & composition & is very generous with his work. [Please see here for large format; it makes a difference.]

We leave you this wall & the thought that you will now have time to visit humanitarian organization sites, play with the goldfish in the right sidebar, visit an online museum in Paris, look at the Eiffel Tower web-cam, & read about Tianamen Square in yesterday's post.

The Management

Pasquetta in Italia

It's Pasquetta in Italy. Easter Monday is lots of fun. It's traditional to have a picnic or otherwise run around al fresco. People often say: "Natale con i tuoi, Pasqua con chi vuoi." or "Christmas with your family, Easter with the family and friends of your choice." Yay! Sadly, we are not in Italy today. But GG & her editor count as Pasquetta pals. Hope you had fun yesterday. Read Bleeding Espresso's Still Celebrating (Pasquetta) from last year. We were going to include a good recipe for pastiera but can't find the one we used in years past & those popping up in a search are just plain weird. There aren't people around this year to dig in, so we'll not make it. It's full of flavors , such as orange-blossom water, that remind us of Greece & the eastern Mediterranean, reflecting the region's heritage. GG's editor has photographs of still-standing date palm gardens, intarsia boxes, & other mementos that remind us of the area's ever-present history. Now, ciao-meow, because we have eggs to dye. xoxo

(via scan/ Gourmet magazine/April 2006/by John Kernick)

Autumn cameo

Isn't she lovely? This is the allegorical figure of Autumn (in Italian, Cammeo su conchiglia raffigurante testa femminile allegoria dell'autunno) carved into shell. [Generously offered to the public by Italian photographer Matteo Pedani under a Creative Commons license. There is no other link.]

GG's editor is fond of southern Italian cameos (where the art form originated). Along with seashell cameos, Campania is well-known for coral jewellry. We treasure dainty earrings with tiny coral oval drops surrounded by simple gold filigree, 'dropping' from little gold seashells. (Oh, we do need a camera; how frustrating.) The miniature earrings were waiting for us in a neglected Neapolitan church charity shop more than 20 years ago. They are not valuable to anyone but GG's editor.

Why cameos today? We are listening to Italian opera (at night) on the radio. Then we thought about decorative material representations of Autumn, the Palazzo Reale in Caserta (in Campania) with its huge ceiling "seasons" paintings, while we took off our costume cameo earrings. That is how a disorganized, overwhelmed mind works!

Ciao.
GG Central

The Bay of Noon

GG Central had to scan a personal copy of Shirley Hazzard's The Bay of Noon for a half-way decent image. Grrr. It must be the third copy we've had in our library over many years. If you've not read her, you simply must. Don't forget The Transit of Venus, Greene on Capri, & The Great Fire. There isn't a living soul writing better English prose than Hazzard. Here is the epigraph for The Bay of Noon, which we've loved forever. (Naples & the Mezzogiorno--an obsession, for over 25 years. We first visited at age, um, 10 years.)

To bless this region, its vendages, and those
Who call it home: though one cannot always
Remember exactly why one has been happy,
There is no forgetting that one was.

W.H. Auden, Good-bye to the Mezzogiorno

baci, bisou, ciao-meow...see you next week.
xoxo, GG