Pandemic Diaries - Italian Interlude #1 - 26 September 2022

 26 September 2022

 

Here I am in Italy!!!!  Back in December 2021, I somehow (magically) won the first prize in a raffle held by La Romita, a wonderful privately-owned art school in Terni, Umbria (central Italy).  The trip included the class of my choice at La Romita, as well as round-trip airfare.  Amazing, right?

I opted to take a one week watercolor class, and then signed up for a second class but paid for that one.  There was some question for a while if that first class would happen, since attendance was low.  But fortunately it worked out, even though it was a really small group.  But that made it even more special.

 

When we were told that the class was a go, I booked my flight, opting for “premium economy,” that oxymoron of the airline world.  The seats were a bit roomier, the amenities a bit nicer, and the flight attendants more numerous than regular coach.  Or, as one of the directors of La Romita said, better than the class where they hand you goggles, strap you on the roof, and tell you to hang on tight.

 

My flight plan took me from Philadelphia to Raleigh-Durham to JFK in New York, then to Rome.  Circuitous, but I was upgraded to first class for the RD to JFK leg, so there was that.  Plus the extra miles bumped me up to gold status until March 2024, so I try to think that makes the crazy route worthwhile.  

 

Anyway, I arrived in Rome, and followed the very easy directions to our meeting place.  I’m notoriously bad at following directions and getting to where I’m supposed to be, so when I receive easy directions I’m always appreciative.  (We literally were told to follow a yellow line on the floor – who doesn’t know to follow the yellow brick road?  Easy peasy!)

 

I waited a bit, and thought I recognized one person who was waiting, the man who is the assistant to the on-site program director at La Romita.  I had seen him on some of our Zoom calls, but people look slightly different in person so I wasn’t sure.  I finally approached him and yes, he was Valerio, the person who was meeting us and getting us to the school.

 

Turned out there were only two of us who were students, and the one instructor!!!  There were supposed to be a few more students, but two didn’t fully read the email that went out and signed up for a program elsewhere.  So, odd as it is to have a class for two students, that’s what we did.  It really turned out to be wonderful, though – private lessons from a watercolor master!

Just a bit about the school, La Romita – their website is https://laromita.org. The site was originally a Capuchin monastery in the mid 1500s. Monks came and went, but the place was an active monastery until the early to mid 1800s. The Quargnali family purchased the property and used it as a summer home and farm. (Olive trees and olive oil production – La Romita still grows olives and produces oil, which they use in their cooking! Imagine 300 to 400 year old olive trees!)

 

The great granddaughters, Enza and Paulo, decided to open an art school in 1966, something along the lines of the Grand Tour that British aristocratic men took in the 1700 and 1800s. This was the new grand tour, providing women and non-aristocrats the opportunity to travel in central Italy, see the gorgeous hill towns and Roman ruins, while creating art of their own.

 

I attended La Romita in 2007, so I was familiar with their routine, and even where the various buildings were located.

 

Edmund showed us to our rooms (definitely a step up from the monks’ quarters), as well as the art studio, the former church complete with frescoes behind the altar.  We had lunch, explored a bit, and then our instructor, Keiko, gave us a demonstration of how she works.  Wow, she really is a master at watercolor painting – she’s fast and confident, and seems to know exactly when to paint one color next to another to get just the right amount of blurring and merging, without the two colors combining as they would on a palette.  Really, most of us do this when the paint is too wet, so our colors blend and don’t just merge at the edges; or we do this when the paint is too dry, and the colors stay separate.  But Keiko has this controlled blur that is just amazing!

 

You can see some of her work here, so you can see what I’m talking about: www.ktanabefineart.com

 

We had some time to draw or paint – me being me, I went off and sketched the Italian cypress trees towering over the dining hall.  Fun, but not a great sketch, more of a warm up.

 

Anyway, that was our first day, along with unpacking and settling in.

 

Note - the angel fresco is by Edmund's partner, and I'm sorry, I don't remember her name nor the artist whose style was used.  But it's such a gorgeous fresco, I had to include her! 

And yes, I'm still having photo problems, even on the laptop.  I think the iPad and Blogger are fighting with each other, so please just ignore the inconsistent spacing.

The routine at La Romita is breakfast begins at 7 AM, though is served until about 8.  People are ready for the bus or car that will take them to a hill town (or bigger town) for a half or full day of exploring and drawing/painting.  These field trips include a map of the town and some history, as well as notations on where to find specific pieces of art in churches, interesting sites, and of course where to find bathrooms.

 

Our first day took us to San Gemini – and with only three of us, we had a mini bus and driver, Luciano.  San Gemini as a site of human civilization goes back to Roman times, but the current town of San Gemini dates back at least to the 9^th century.  Or so the local lore goes, but it does match the archaeological evidence.

 

So, Saint Yemen, from Syria, came through and settle for a while in this walled hilltop town – and the local people considered him their town’s patron saint, but changed his Syrian name Yemen to the Italian equivalent, Gemini.  No twins involved.

 

The town is along the Roman Via Flaminia, now the modern town’s main street, the Via Casventino.  There are various piazzas along the way, all kinds of little side streets, which are all contained within the old city walls.  (I’m not sure how old the city walls might be, but supposedly the street through the main gate we walk through shows wear from the Roman chariots passing through.)

 

We walked all over the old part of the city, dating from the Medieval period.  There were flags all over, in red and blue, with white castles or towers!!!  I love flags, they’re always so interesting and add color to grey/beige/taupe stone buildings!  In our blogs, I try to include the flag of each country we visit, so this was a great opportunity to photograph more flags!

 

Turns out the section of town uphill from the central square, Piazza di San Francesco, is the Rione Rocca.  Rione is the local word for neighborhood or section.  In Siena the word is contrada (plural contrade) – here it’s rione.  (I think that’s pronounced ree-OH-nay but I don’t know for certain.)  The new part of town, slightly downhill from Piazza di San Francesco, is Rione Piazza (the green and white flags), and only dates from the Renaissance period. 

 

We finally worked our way back to the center, and found a great little park at the top of long stairs to the piazza, giving us a great view of the valley and part of the city.  Though I preferred the view in back of us, part of the old city wall with plants growing in the cracks, and four flags in the center.  The flags were attached to sort of a shield-shaped metal plate painted with the Rocca (tower, or castle) emblems, in more red and blue, with some white for contrast.  Bright and colorful against the ancient wall.

 

Keiko and Anne, the other student, set up their easels, put out their panels of paper, set up their paint palettes, and began work.  I personally don’t want to travel with all that gear, so my materials for drawing/painting en plein air are a sketchbook, pencils, and a small portable set of watercolors, with a travel brush or two.

As we’re working, a man comes by and stops to look.  He admires Keiko’s work, and begins to tell us about a theatrical performance he and his group are putting on as part of San Gemini’s upcoming annual event, the Giostra dell’Arme (joust of arms, as far as I can tell).  We tell him we’re at an art school in Terni, and he asks if we know Edmund!  Si, si, we reply!  So he whips out his mobile phone (telefonino) and begins chatting with Edmund!  We go back to working, he eventually ends his call, thanks us, and walks away.

 

I had to buy a bottle of water for my painting, and found a vending machine with San Gemini mineral water, which is supposed to have curative powers.  I’m hoping it can improve my watercolor painting skills.  

 

A group of students, maybe in grade 6 or 7 or so, comes by with their teacher, on their own field trip around town.  There are maybe twenty or so kids, who all look at our artwork and begin chatting with us.  They want to know where we’re from, so Keiko replies she was born in Japan; Anne says she’s from Australia; and they point to me and say I’m from the US.  Suddenly all the kids surround me, telling me how much they love the US (which of course comes to them via TV, movies, and music).  

 

Two of the girls have the same large expressive eyes, even though their faces are different, so I ask them (in Italian) if they are sisters.  They say yes, they are.  Their friend pipes up that they are twins, and yesterday was their birthday.  So of course I wish them happy birthday, again in Italian.  We are now pushing the limits of my ability to converse, so it was a good thing their teacher was ready to move them along!

 

We all finished our paintings, though I made a larger version of my painting in the afternoon during studio time.  I think my little plein air sketch is better, actually – the suggestion of trees works better than my full trees, which are a bit too solid and not very realistic.  But the final painting of the flags works better.

 

Anyway, that was the excitement of our first full day at La Romita, even though it really was Day 2.   (And of course, way too many photos!)