Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

....and I thought I knew something about colours.......

My first morning in Venezia, my first morning in Murano. I was up early, out to breath the air of the laguna, out to dance with the colours of the water and the houses. My heart beated in anticipation, for the days ahead, and especially for the morning ahead as Mauro had promised me I would go with him to buy new glass for his art.

We bought the glass, we had coffee and we started to walk over the island for the vaporetta stop, he to go to Venice for work, I to go to Venice for walking. We did not walk the tourist route though, and soon Mauro stopped to call for someone inside a glass factory.

 

"Hi Afro, my friend from Norway is here, she is a famous blog writer and she would love to write about you. Can we come in?" (well, I must confess that Mauro spoke in Italian, so I couldn't quite figure out his words, but.......... anyway, I am sure he used the word famous ;-)) Standing there with the glass safely wrapped, carried in one of his hands, Mauro got an answer back, the door was open, and all of a sudden I was inside a real glass factory, I mean "real" as in real without a queue of other tourists.

Not only was I inside a facory, watching men at work with the glass, it was the factory of the famous Afro Celotto, and he was there himself, showing me around, explaining, talking about his childhood when he met Mauro, even though they grew up on two different islands, Afro on Burano, Mauro on Murano.

Afro even took me up on the first floor where he had his very special private showroom.

.....and I though I knew something about colours.......

 

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Are you still here or are you drunk by colours by now?

I was completely seduced, but Mauro had more up in his sleeve for me. A visit to Francesco Ferro, who makes the traditional Murini Millefiori, and use them to make the most wonderful art, like plates and pendants using a technique called Effetre Murrine

Press the link, and you are will get a wonderful treat.

With days like this, may be it is not strange that I feel dizzy here I sit, working on my computer. Dagmar has gone back to Austria and I am alone again. Tomorrow I will meet Antonella at the train station and I will say goodbye to Venezia. Goodbye to Mauro, my glassblower from Murano.

I though the dizziness was because of too much time spent in vaporettas, but may be the impressions of the last days, combined with spaghetti vongole and white wine also have something to say......

Thank you Mauro, you have given me memories for a lifetime, a friendship for life!

When it rain sweets you need a flower umbrella

When the sweets are raining you need a flower umbrella.

My friend Dagmar from Austria is here to visit me. I wonder what Venice will show us today.......

Tonight I will be alone again and then I plan to make a very special post about a walk I did yesterday morning in Murano together with Mauro. I though I knew alot about colours, but then Mauro took me along...........

Under the spell of La Serenissima's charm and Mauro's colours

As soon as I walked out of the train station I was under the spell. I could breath Venice, in seconds it was all under my skin. Mauro met me at the station and made sure that I got on the right vaporetta out to Murano, Luigi, who owns the flat where I stay, met me at Murano and took me to the flat. All I could do, all I had to do, was to smile. Back in Venezia at last!

 

After lunch I made it to Mauro's workshop. We went out for coffee and a talk, and as it always is with true friendship, our talk just continued from where we stopped 10 months ago.

Back in the workshop I greedily drank in the colours of Mauro's glass, ths long sticks he works with, the figures he is creating.

"What do you want me to make?" Mauro asked.

"Please make a frog"

" If I kiss the frog, will it become a prince then?"

"Of course it will. Not the way you think though. It is still a secret" Mauro said while working on the frog, me totally mesmerized.

Then the frog was finished, and Mauro revealed his secret. All Mauro's work is marked with a small circle with the tiny letters MV for Mauro Vianello. He has made these letters into a glass stick, handy to use when he needs them. Now he has made another stick, to mark his very special work, a tiny, tiny little heart, still with MV inside, but now so small you need a microscope to see the letters.

My frog has this heart with the almost invisible letters, I will need to kiss the frog to see them, to reveal the prince :-)

My few days in Venezia will fly away. Today I'll meet Mauro again in the morning, then I will walk with my dottore Feli in the afternoon, and in the evening Dagmar is arriving from Austria.

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A visit in The Iris Garden in Florence is now up in the Europe a la carte blog.

Fish soup and A Room with a View

My last night in Florence, dinner alone, and I decided to give myself a treat. Dinner at Golden View Open Bar, with a look right over to where Lucy Honeychurch stayed in her Room with a View. Jane's husband told me about this restaurant, and after enjoying a meal there I am sending a kiss his way :-).....no, I'm sending three kisses, the Italian way!

As soon as I saw that they had fish soup, or actually hot seafood soup, I knew what to have for a starter. I had a hard time when they forgot to give me a spoon at first, and I didn't want to ask for it, what if they eat fish soup with fork and bread in Florence........ I did a pretty good job but must confess it was all much easier when the waitress came running over with a spoon for me. So much for my stubbornness!

Thank you very much for your comments on yesterday's post. It is good to know that I am not all alone here in the blogging world. I must tell you though that the hotel room you saw is not the one where I sleep, but the livingroom of Hotel Scoti, where I write my blog and my emails, and where I meet my family on Skype.

Today I am on my way up to Venice by train. I'll meet Mauro, Dagmar is coming down from Austria, I'll have a walk with dottore Carlo Feli, and on Saturday I'll meet Antonella, a blog reader who has invited me to spend the week-end with her and her family.

I'll try to get online, but don't know if I'll manage.

Blogging from a hotelroom

Siesta time in a hotel in Firenze. I am supposed to blog, to share my experiences, but the words are not coming.....at least not for the blog. It is all dry as chalk, and I can tell from lack of comments that you, my dear readers feel the same. Where is the Britt-Arnhild we know? Doesn't she have any better than this to share? Where is her creativity, her flow if words......

I am writing page up and page down in my diary (the private one where I write every day), and also in my travel diary. But here in the blog.........I don't know.

I will hopefully be back to my own self some day, I will continue to blog every day as long as I find internet........but I am sorry, I don't have much inspiration to share here right now.

One day dry chalk will be coloured again, creations never stops......

....and I AM having a lovely time. Like last night when Jane and Lanny took me out to dinner, and we knotted a friendship which I hope will last for life.

Collecting sweets along the path

I was never sure if I would make it to Italy or not. The ash cloud hung heavily over Europe. Wednesday I knew, or at least almost knew, that the planes would be going. But if I flew down, what about my return. Would I take the chance? Yes, I said to myself some time during Wednesday, I am flying. I was sitting in Stiklestad church for a morning prayer, my reflection from Monday morning still fresh in my mind, I prayed for God's guidance and knew that he had something planned for me, in Italy or in Norway.

 

All of a sudden the man in front of me, in the church, started to laught. He pointed down to the floor where a long, colourful row of sweets were laying, probably a leftover from a child the Sunday before. It might have been, a child's leftovers I mean, but for me it was something completely different as well, it was God telling me that he has a chain of sweets waiting for me to gather and eat.......in Italy, or in Norway. I wanted to believe that it was in Italy though :-)

I have been collecting sweets these days, God is spreading them freely. The first one was actually the delay of my suitcase. I had several hours in Firenze before going up to the mountains and Santa Maria, now I could walk freely without my heavy suitcase. Well, the sweet became a little sour when the mountain air became terrible cold at nights and I had only the thin clothes I had been travelling in, but I couldn't complain, could I :-)

There have been alot more sweets, none to be told here though, the blog is for sharing parts of my life, not all........

But then, last night, the most surprising lollipop fell down before me when Jane suddenly came over to ask her words: Are you Britt?

Jane has been reading my blog on and off for several years. last night she read that I was going to Firenze, and since she is here for holiday right now she sent me an email and we decided to meet for dinner. The appointment I have with Jane and her husband is for tonight, so it was totally my chance that we met yesterday.

Tonight I will have dinner with Jane and her husband. I am looking forward to it :-)

Are you Britt?

I am back in Florence after 3 days of solitude and silence up in the Tuscan hills. Thomas, the proprietor of Santa Maria in Ferrano, drives me to the train station in Florence, and from there I walk to hotel Scoti. This time is different from Thursday, I walked to the hotel then as well, to be sure to find it, but then without my missing suitcase. Now I am happy, filled with thanks for the heavy load I am dragging - in it I have light summer clothes (and tons of books). The air up in the mountains was cold, I was freezing before my suitcase finally arrived on Saturday around noon and now, walking through the narrow streets of Firenze, I am dressed in jeans and a warm jacket. Oh my, Firenze is hot. It feels like a Norwegian sunmmer.

In the hotel (hotel Scoti is worth its own blogpost......later) I take a shower and dress in some light clothes, I pack a shoulder bag and I am ready for the city.

Hours, many hours later, with a basket full of stories to tell, I realize I haven't eaten in ages. My feet are hurting, and though it is a bit early for dinner, I decide to find a place to sit down for a pizza or something, and then make it an early night.

I look into several, actually quite alot of restaurants, but none of them feels right. Eventually I find myself at Piazza della Repubblica. The restaurants on one side of the pizza are extremely expensive, but before giving up I walk over to the other side. There are several restaurants there as well, much cheaper. I decide on the one I find most charming and head for a table close to the piazza.

Even before I sit down, a beautiful woman is coming over from the neighbour yable. "Are you Britt? I am Jane, a reader of your blog!"

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Oh yes, Italy never stops to surprise me.......

......to be continued

Firenze, with suitcase, without internet

My days at Santa Maria are over, I am back in Firenze, I have my suitcase but no internet. Blogging has to wait, but I can tell you that I have loads of stories to tell when I am back online :-)

I have arrived, my suitcase has not

Hello from Firenze. I am at the train station waiting for a train to take me out to Santa Maria. I have not managed to get online on my own computer today, and do not know how much I will be on internet the coming days. So since I had a few spare minutes here I bought an internet card at a cafe to give you a short update.

The two flights went well. I had only a few minutes to reach the plane to Bologna from Copenhagen after arriving there from Trondheim early this morning. I made it, the suitcase did not. So far I have no idea when I will get it, but actually it has been a blessing today, while walking in Firenze, not to have a heavy 15 kilos suitcase to drag :-)

I hope to blog again tomorrow, but if not........see you later.

On my way!

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And while I travel south - why don't you come up to Trondheim (and leave a comment in the Europe a la Carte blog)