Fun blog to remember today- heavy metal museum day. I'll explain later. The power Trio plus Will meet for breakfast at the corner near Clementine's hotel; same for all, Jake's "english" breakfast with eggs and bacon, still a modest portion by American standards but just perfect for him, eggs as orange as eggs can be while we gals, and Will, sipped and nibbled croissants. The Loyola gang will be ready to leave at 9:30 and, as usual since we've met up with our Daughter we are anticipating another "Catholic School" day as we head this time to the Capuchin museum. Rome is, obviously, perfect for a syllabus hearty in holiness and we're on that. Among other things! The Capuchin's were monks and the reason we care about them is that they saved one another's bones ultimately resulting in the weirdest display I've probably ever seen, of various tableaux such as one featuring "whole bodies" (aka skeletons)in poses and some holding stuff (why can't I remember what right now?) or another utilizing only the femur bones of about a zillion men arranging them in decorative wall patterns or hanging candle holders!!?? What is this and what does it mean! LOL. I have to go right now and find a picture on line to add here. We weren't allowed to shoot, poor Will.
Pictures of the museum interior displays
After this we, as a group (we are with the Loyola contingent for the very last day) walk to Palazzo Berberini, a large, once private home, estate, now museum. The Snow Doctors and the kids, including Clementine enter for the last museum tour of this trip and you can feel the anticipation of the end as they stagger toward the massive entrance. Jake, Will and I wander the grounds, Will is always taking pictures, a Jimmy Stewart-ish looking young man, tall and toting a big camera; I end up with my shoes off, discreetly, in the sun near the fountain. I believe my feet were in pain to my defense. Jake is off somewhere. Finally free of the Loyola yoke (as much as we've really enjoyed getting to know and hang out with them) we head with a new swagger for, what else, a large, longish Roman lunch.
The rest of the day is anticlimactic: work for me and also some for Will back at the condo; Jake did his solo exploring and Clementine had a date to meet up with a dear friend living nearby. Kate is here, also from Loyola Baltimore, for semester abroad, but Rome is Kate's 4 month base while Clementine's been spending her entire junior year in Belgium so Rome this week is "just" a field trip. It's exciting to meet your girlfriend, casually almost, at the Trevi Fountain. And be able to walk there, easily, alone. Next time you see her it'll be on your beautiful Maryland campus, at home. That's cool.
Later Cynthia fusses, but loves it you can tell, making us burritos for dinner. Clementine's in heaven, how did C know it's her favorite stuff? The last night of a now familiar routine of walking Clementine back to her hotel, she'll check out in the a.m. and returning to our room at Cynthia's central Rome condo.
Oh yes - heavy metal museum day: Jake's inside joke resulting from a conversation with a friend who tried describing the Capuchin museum saying it's something like the artwork on a heavy metal album!! Yes, it is.
Night Darling.
Sunday, September 27, 2015
Thursday, September 24, 2015
The Elmwood Experience. Introducing: "Little Parisian Home on the Prairie"
What do you get when you fall back into a gorgeous pillow sky of blue and mature trees deep into the heart of Elmwood? A second chance to develop your cocoon, and your aesthetic, to embrace and nurture your loves. We know and are charmed by every inch of this property. The gardens and the yard, the exterior living areas - the quiet privacy of the back, the dark, cool north side and the sunny hot lawn reaching down front to the western road.
The house. Wood when you enter. It envelopes you. The floors are oak, immense long streams shored up by an elegant fireplace and white painted woodwork, quiet walls.Large old barn shutters cover most of one wall, blue flecked green and worn, they open to the sunny front. Almost directly opposite in this T shaped expanse, are double white French doors that open to the wood deck. The floors - the wood - are our first question: to sand, sure. But to stain dark walnut? Important - - remember the wood is what it's all about here. Changing the base, working from the bottom up, setting the foundation. I feel it'll be more elegant, more mature and help us frame and redefine and push forward on the changes that we want to make, easiest to do now while she's empty.
A small but totally useable kitchen. Returning to the large gas (!) range is thrilling - the temperatures I know and can trust - the gassy interior capable of crisping my Pugliese perfectly! We have decided to replace the original cabinets, install new countertops and flooring. Perhaps new appliances.
She needs 5 replacement windows that we never got around to replacing last time we lived here.
The bottom line, right now. is that: flooring, kitchen, front garden, windows and interior layout need to be devised and implemented so we can return to our dream home. This time we're making it even better.
Introducing a new feature on this blog: Little Parisian Home on the Prairie. We here at Paris on the Cuyahoga are restyling our darling manor and it's taking on the importance of a lifestyle change. After a hiatus of almost 2 years we've been fortunate to be able to return to our home, Elmwood, soon. We have the opportunity to create, decorate and delight in designing our old home, one we already know and love very well, into an even more inviting space in which to develop our lives. We intend a space of simple luxury with areas for all of our interests. It's beyond exciting.
I will keep plugging away at the Europe 2015 series as well as I must finish altho I can tell you now it does have a happy ending :)
blowing kisses, La
A small but totally useable kitchen. Returning to the large gas (!) range is thrilling - the temperatures I know and can trust - the gassy interior capable of crisping my Pugliese perfectly! We have decided to replace the original cabinets, install new countertops and flooring. Perhaps new appliances.
She needs 5 replacement windows that we never got around to replacing last time we lived here.
The bottom line, right now. is that: flooring, kitchen, front garden, windows and interior layout need to be devised and implemented so we can return to our dream home. This time we're making it even better.
Introducing a new feature on this blog: Little Parisian Home on the Prairie. We here at Paris on the Cuyahoga are restyling our darling manor and it's taking on the importance of a lifestyle change. After a hiatus of almost 2 years we've been fortunate to be able to return to our home, Elmwood, soon. We have the opportunity to create, decorate and delight in designing our old home, one we already know and love very well, into an even more inviting space in which to develop our lives. We intend a space of simple luxury with areas for all of our interests. It's beyond exciting.
I will keep plugging away at the Europe 2015 series as well as I must finish altho I can tell you now it does have a happy ending :)
blowing kisses, La
Saturday, September 19, 2015
ROME DAY 4
This day, Monday April 13, 2015, is sunny and warm in Rome. We are walking with a group of 10 toward St Peters to tour the Necropolis of St Peter. Heavy stuff. We (our immediate trio Jake, Clementine and I) have prepared with our italian staple breakfast at the cafe on the corner from her hotel in Campo Di Fiori. 3 small tables and spare chairs attached to an equally small interior cafe by an awning at the very corner of the square, the cafe delights with small, delicious milky coffee. Croissant with butter and jelly. Jake with some eggs and juice. Both the color of an orange sunrise. Sitting, sipping, observing the life on the square; sharing glances and ideas, food, sometimes. Now, sated, we can attempt this exclusive tour and in retrospect its a good thing we charged up for the adventures ahead.
Walking in shade and sun, over and along the Tiber, thru some piazzas, we morph along as largish groups do. We get to know the professors Snow - the Snow Doctors - better on the walk. He's heavily inked, she's very intellectual and as a married couple they teach/head things up at the at the International House at Katholic University in Leuven Belgium where our daughter is taking her Junior year (home base: Loyola Maryland). This is a mandatory class trip for the group that we are now walking with: Jim and Dale Snow and 8 students including our daughter.
At 200 participants a day the tour we are heading to take is difficult to book in the theater of the Vatican box office (!) but Jake and I are in the right place at the right time to understudy - going on for 2 girls from Loyola who did not make this class trip. In other words, we're using their tickets, bought well over a year ago, for entry.The entry we seek is at a quieter side station, we pass through large crowds to get there even at this early-ish time of day, and fill up a small room to be instructed on what we are about to experience. Turns out to be very highly regarded artifacts of the Roman catholic variety that are buried under the current St Peters Bascilica in an archeological-horizontal pattern that, viewed up close can be somewhat disconcerting and nauseating. As thousands of "regular" tourists stream overhead, we follow a very tightly controlled Italian woman with good English but a heavy accent and a regimented script, through this ancient, weird, underworld. I have a good "ear" but still have to pay close attention to understand Maria; the stilted rhythms of her descriptions makes her spiel even denser. We are going down thick uneven stone steps and the air is changing and Maria sounds just a bit too regulated. Tombs, colors on remenents of wood or fabric that still sizzle; smooth small crypts, babies, sigh; the grand finale is the tomb of St Peter - his actual bones!! which are taken on faith here, cause I really saw nothing - they point several meters away, in a darkish corner - thru a small window!! - with a red laser light and say : there are the relics, the bones of St Peter. It's a good half hour too long for me but fascinating in its claustraphobic way. I could totally skip the whole upstairs tour that followed - the inside of St Peters - but went along with the group. So crowded - so totally the opposite of what we had just seen - that it felt more like a decompress zone than a graceful tour of a peaceful place of worship. Frankly, with the selfie sticks and video taking tourists of all races; the trinkets for sale and the general lack of any air of gentility - I hated it.
Our power trio departs from the general group as we head back across the river to the neighborhoods of Rome where we are staying. Its late afternoon, lunchtime by now, so we gather up Will from Cynthia's condo - he's an 18 year old, she's his mother, our friend and mentor on this trip! - and the 4 of us - Jake, Clementine, Will and I - enjoy a long, civilized lunch. We top lunch with a visit to Zara which by now Jake has not only discovered but fallen for. We siesta at Cynthia's condo. This is my type of afternoon, and needless to point out - I enjoyed it much more than our morning mission.
After siesta we pick back up with a run, via taxi, to a chic secondhand store. Now our lunch crowd has increased with Mama (Cynthia) and she and I try on some things but we are too amazon built for some vintage and nothing wowed us anyway. Time for cocktails so we walk to the lobby of the hotel Cynthia lived in at first in Rome. Glam. A few rounds later we gailey make our way thru the streets, finally splitting up: Will and Cynthia to the condo, we 3 returning Clementine to Campo di Fiore to bunk with her student group for the night. On the way we buy her pizza and walk and eat and talk. Finally turning into the Campo is fantastic: gas heaters warming, framing and lighting up the night, a band playing House of the Rising Sun, a lovely life - this is where we had our cafe this morning, how different it is right now!! We take a turn through the square, drop Clementine at the hotel and stroll the now getting familiar 15 minutes back to the heavy green doors of Piazza dei SS Apostoli, number 49 and the slightly lumpy beds at Cynthia's!!
Walking in shade and sun, over and along the Tiber, thru some piazzas, we morph along as largish groups do. We get to know the professors Snow - the Snow Doctors - better on the walk. He's heavily inked, she's very intellectual and as a married couple they teach/head things up at the at the International House at Katholic University in Leuven Belgium where our daughter is taking her Junior year (home base: Loyola Maryland). This is a mandatory class trip for the group that we are now walking with: Jim and Dale Snow and 8 students including our daughter.
At 200 participants a day the tour we are heading to take is difficult to book in the theater of the Vatican box office (!) but Jake and I are in the right place at the right time to understudy - going on for 2 girls from Loyola who did not make this class trip. In other words, we're using their tickets, bought well over a year ago, for entry.The entry we seek is at a quieter side station, we pass through large crowds to get there even at this early-ish time of day, and fill up a small room to be instructed on what we are about to experience. Turns out to be very highly regarded artifacts of the Roman catholic variety that are buried under the current St Peters Bascilica in an archeological-horizontal pattern that, viewed up close can be somewhat disconcerting and nauseating. As thousands of "regular" tourists stream overhead, we follow a very tightly controlled Italian woman with good English but a heavy accent and a regimented script, through this ancient, weird, underworld. I have a good "ear" but still have to pay close attention to understand Maria; the stilted rhythms of her descriptions makes her spiel even denser. We are going down thick uneven stone steps and the air is changing and Maria sounds just a bit too regulated. Tombs, colors on remenents of wood or fabric that still sizzle; smooth small crypts, babies, sigh; the grand finale is the tomb of St Peter - his actual bones!! which are taken on faith here, cause I really saw nothing - they point several meters away, in a darkish corner - thru a small window!! - with a red laser light and say : there are the relics, the bones of St Peter. It's a good half hour too long for me but fascinating in its claustraphobic way. I could totally skip the whole upstairs tour that followed - the inside of St Peters - but went along with the group. So crowded - so totally the opposite of what we had just seen - that it felt more like a decompress zone than a graceful tour of a peaceful place of worship. Frankly, with the selfie sticks and video taking tourists of all races; the trinkets for sale and the general lack of any air of gentility - I hated it.
Our power trio departs from the general group as we head back across the river to the neighborhoods of Rome where we are staying. Its late afternoon, lunchtime by now, so we gather up Will from Cynthia's condo - he's an 18 year old, she's his mother, our friend and mentor on this trip! - and the 4 of us - Jake, Clementine, Will and I - enjoy a long, civilized lunch. We top lunch with a visit to Zara which by now Jake has not only discovered but fallen for. We siesta at Cynthia's condo. This is my type of afternoon, and needless to point out - I enjoyed it much more than our morning mission.
After siesta we pick back up with a run, via taxi, to a chic secondhand store. Now our lunch crowd has increased with Mama (Cynthia) and she and I try on some things but we are too amazon built for some vintage and nothing wowed us anyway. Time for cocktails so we walk to the lobby of the hotel Cynthia lived in at first in Rome. Glam. A few rounds later we gailey make our way thru the streets, finally splitting up: Will and Cynthia to the condo, we 3 returning Clementine to Campo di Fiore to bunk with her student group for the night. On the way we buy her pizza and walk and eat and talk. Finally turning into the Campo is fantastic: gas heaters warming, framing and lighting up the night, a band playing House of the Rising Sun, a lovely life - this is where we had our cafe this morning, how different it is right now!! We take a turn through the square, drop Clementine at the hotel and stroll the now getting familiar 15 minutes back to the heavy green doors of Piazza dei SS Apostoli, number 49 and the slightly lumpy beds at Cynthia's!!
Friday, September 4, 2015
SUNDAY IN ROME - DAY 3
Cynthia is off today and suggests a leisurely shopping visit to the other side of the Tiber river to Trastevere. Rome is bisected by the Tiber and this neighborhood is less frequented by tourists and C is a regular at the flea market - the linen lady yells "Mama" to her as we approach. I love feeling less a tourist and hanging with C certainly helps! Cynthia and I start to dig thru the linens: jackets, table runners, nightgowns and more (rugs, not linen of course) - we fill a trash bag each - I got a sleeveless top that I've worn constantly this summer, some linen jackets and old pinafore-looking aprons to use as night gowns; the proprietress even throws in some small table runners gratis. At the next stall I find a huge green stoned ring - quite the statement piece - and I get complements on it always. It never turned my finger green (my jeweler says its aluminum) and it's just the best souvenir ever - 20 euros and I love it! I'm posting a picture of it on my hand for this post.
We head to a neighborhood resto for lunch: caprese salad, artichokes and vegetable pizza. Wine, of course and we take our delicious time - the resto even closed for a few hours - fiesta- but they told us to take our time and finish at our leisure. So civilized.
Back at Cynthia's condo Clementine and Will are waiting for us. We hang out and talk about the day and drink lemoncello and pick at small appetizers (mostly so the kids can eat!). Jake and I walk Clementine back to her hotel then stroll back to C's condo for a sound night's sleep.
Arrivederci Baby!
We head to a neighborhood resto for lunch: caprese salad, artichokes and vegetable pizza. Wine, of course and we take our delicious time - the resto even closed for a few hours - fiesta- but they told us to take our time and finish at our leisure. So civilized.
Back at Cynthia's condo Clementine and Will are waiting for us. We hang out and talk about the day and drink lemoncello and pick at small appetizers (mostly so the kids can eat!). Jake and I walk Clementine back to her hotel then stroll back to C's condo for a sound night's sleep.
Arrivederci Baby!
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Interesting Women with Jobs I'd Love!!
Taking (another) break from my European vacation series to post about 2 articles from this past Sunday's New York Times (08/30/2015). We get the Sunday Times delivered and it's a wonderful pleasure that lasts all week - we keep in in the kitchen and read it with our breakfast; just today (Wednesday) over my cafe au lait I finally got to the Business section and, as usual, found several articles of interest to me.
First there is an interview with Michelle DeFeo, president of Laurent-Perrier U.S. She's a francophile born in Pennsylvania (just like me!) who now heads the champagne house. The U.S. branch recently moved from California to Queens, NY and is housed in an old, renovated loft style space. Charming!
Second is an article about a former model, Frederique van der Wal, who started a flower delivery company in Europe in 2008, lives in Manhattan and the Hudson Valley and is introducing her business to the U.S. I share many of her interests and aesthetics as well and found this quick read to be a nice breakfast companion.
Flowers and champagne - everyday!! Live it up.
xxoo,
La
First there is an interview with Michelle DeFeo, president of Laurent-Perrier U.S. She's a francophile born in Pennsylvania (just like me!) who now heads the champagne house. The U.S. branch recently moved from California to Queens, NY and is housed in an old, renovated loft style space. Charming!
Second is an article about a former model, Frederique van der Wal, who started a flower delivery company in Europe in 2008, lives in Manhattan and the Hudson Valley and is introducing her business to the U.S. I share many of her interests and aesthetics as well and found this quick read to be a nice breakfast companion.
Flowers and champagne - everyday!! Live it up.
xxoo,
La
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