Snacking in San Gemini - October 2022

A typical hill town visit includes a visit to a shop that might have a bathroom.  That means buying a small caffe or cappuccino.  Maybe a little bite to eat as well, like a crostata.  

 

So it seemed reasonable to sketch my little jam tart (the crostata), as well as my cappuccino.  And of course the Italian modern spoon, as well as the cup and fun plate.

That little sketch, my little morning slice of Italian life, turned into a full painting in the afternoon.

Aquarelle pencil sketch, watercolor painting.

 

Stroncone, Italia - October 2022

 

We had a half-day visit to Stroncone, a tiny hill town not far from La Romita.  We seemed to be the only non-residents in town that day, it isn't one of the well known places in Umbria.

This is the entrance to the town, a small gate within a huge imposing gate, in the huge stone walls surrounding the city and keeping it safe from invaders.  

Aquarelle pencil, and watercolor for the ubiquitous flags.

 

San Gemini's Sbandieratori - October 2022

 

Our class went back to San Gemini for the night-time event featuring the flag twirlers and various parades, all part of the Medieval festival.

 

We in North America tend to think of flag twirling as being rather tame - but this was Medieval flag twirling, at the Giostre dell'Armes.  Think of battle reenactments, but Medieval and Renaissance battles.  These flag twirlers looked as if they were fighting with their flags, intimidating their opponents, twirling and whirling their flags in each others' faces, a war with flying fabric as their weapons.

Not that they hit each other, but it really did look like battles with flags.  They were AMAZING!  Eight men in Medieval dress, tossing flags around and across a circle, everyone catching the flags tossed at them, no flags colliding.  Men sitting on others' shoulders, catching multiple flags.  Flags whirling so fast, they became blurs of color!

It really was incredible, watching this!  The parades following this show were also wonderful, but the award-winning flag twirlers really were the highlight!!!

Sbandieratori means people who handle the flags - bandiera meaning flag.  Pronunciation is "sban-dee-ehr-ah-TORE-ee."  Roll those Rs!

I painted this in the studio, there was no way to sketch anything, the action was lightning fast!  Somehow, the sbandieratoro (singular form) to the left looks like Chekhov from the original Star Trek, and the middle guy looks like Jean-Luc Picard.

Il Monasterio del Orvieto - October 2022

Nancie's class spent a day in Orvieto, and we all wandered around, ate, sketched and painted.  Nancie found this wonderful old monastery set among vineyards below the city walls.

 

So of course I had to sketch the monastery, the cypress trees, the vineyards.  I love drawing with aquarelle pencil, just a basic grey, then adding washes of green to hint at the hills and fields seen at a distance.  

 

Spoleto Clock - October 2022

 

I know, most urban sketchers draw urban scenes.  I tend to focus on small details, like this gorgeous clock.  Italian towns competed with each other for who had the tallest towers, or the most towers.  Also the biggest fountain, or the most fountains.   

I think this clock is one of the prettiest clocks in a tower in Italy, although the clock tower in Venice might rival this one.

But when did you last see the clock hands looking like squiggly rays of sunlight, emanating from the center and radiating across a sky blue circle?  Just gorgeous.

Yes, I messed up on the numbers.  Another student just came back from the gelato shop, and was waxing eloquent about the dark chocolate with orange peel gelato.  I was understandably distracted.  Yes, that was my afternoon snack, and it was amazing, especially with half a scoop of caffe gelato.  OMG.  Heaven, to go with the celestial clock!

 

Villa Lante, Italia - October 2022

 

Our second class also visited Villa Lante, and I sketched the Fountain of the Air, La Fontana del Aria.  This fountain is in a huge rectangular garden with sculptured hedges forming various arabesque patterns, very Renaissance, with pedestals and stone urns at regular intervals.

This garden is at the lower level of the Villa Lante gardens, which are terraced on a hill overlooking the town of Bagnaia - and I'm not sure how one pronounces that in Italian, it's sort of "Ban-YA-ya" but the first YA has more of a nga sound to it, like lasagna.  Anyway, the town of Bagnaia can be seen below the garden of air, with this lovely fountain.

The youths seem to be holding up a globe, and are surrounded by four lion heads gushing water, which trickles down into a reflecting pool.  Really a gorgeous fountain.

 

San Gemini weekend - September-October 2022

I had two days between workshops, and spent the weekend in San Gemini, watching the town set up special events for their festival.  My afternoon was attending all sorts of interactive little vignettes of Medieval Italian life, or at least what people have handed down as traditions from that time period.

I learned to roll the traditional pasta (like a thick spaghetti), listened to music played on the drum and recorder, wasted time with three witches (part of the legend), and watched horse riders practicing the jousting.  (Really just getting their lances to hit a target, not each other.)

The old palazzo turned hotel where I stayed had an upstairs patio, so I sketched the view across to the northern end of the town, with cliffside houses flying their flags, and bunting hanging down the sides of the cliff.