November 20
What a day! What a day! I went to Termini to catch a train to meet some of the quilt girls. The board said Track 20, so I went to Track 20 and got on the train. One of the nicest ones I’ve been on…even had an upstairs! I got all settled, got out my sewing and an announcement was made that I didn’t understand a single word of. I did notice everyone was getting off the train and walking further down the track. So, I gathered my stuff to get off also, and the door wouldn’t open. I’m pushing the button and the. Banging on the window and no one seems to know what to do. Everyone pushes the button outside to open the door, but nothing happens…and I’m in a panic. Francesca is picking me up at the other end…and I need to be there. Finally two policemen come and they have a master key and get the door open for me. The lady conductor is standing outside the OTHER train on track 20 and she waves…she is aware I’ve been trapped…so I go to the second train and get on…this is a whistle stop deal and nowhere near as nice as the first…wrong train. But we leave on time, with me on board.

Get to my destination and Francesca is there and we drive to Maria’s house. She has been a quilting teacher for 20 years and does amazing work. Another friend joins us, Carla, and we have something to eat and coffee. Then we go to Maria’s studio. I think it could have once been two bedrooms with a wall removed between the two. Not only is it a studio for teaching but a quilt store…floor to ceiling bolts of fabric and patterns and everything else.  

First, Carla pulls out two beautiful quilts in progress and asked me which one I would like to have as a gift from her. One is in Orangy batiks and the other is a flowered pieced small quilt. At first I decide on the Orangy one…being my favorite color, but then change my mind and decide on the other. Then she says she wants me to have both! later we go into the ‘shop’ and we are all picking out fabric to buy, and I have a small pile and Maria picks some more fabric and a pattern and adds it to the stack, sacks it up and says ‘Merry Christmas’! I guess I’m just the luckiest girl in Rome to have found these wonderful women to be my dearest friends over here. They are not happy about me leaving either. But I have promised to return and write and send pictures. Francesca and I went to eat lunch and I caught the train back to Rome. We have a Quilters Luncheon planned for the 30th…so will look forward to seeing them again then.  

For the last two days, I have been helping in our Quilt Italia booth at Abilmente.  This is a huge four day crafts fair that happens once a year with different venues all over Italy.  Think of a craft, and there is a vendor here with classes provided.  Sort of like a giant Michael’s Craft store.  It is held in a place called Fiera di Roma.  I leave my house, walk to the hospital where I catch a bus.  Get off and walk several blocks to a train station where I catch a train going to the airport…two stops before the airport, I get off.  There is a huge long walk from the train station, flights of stairs and escalators and more stairs and moving sidewalks…after one finally gets in the building…or building complex, I should say.  There are at least 10 giant rooms to this complex and our Abilmente Venue has two.  Booths are set up in both rooms and Craftsy women are swarming to buy what they need for their latest hobby.  Knitting, crocheting, beading, felting, quilting, baking, cake decorating, candy making, doll making, purse making, miniatures and scrap booking, etc. There are also three small quilt exhibits.  Quilt Italia has about 20 small quilts displayed, each with the theme of food.  My favorite is of a giant sliced open Orange with all the sections looking so real and juicy.   There is an exhibit of quilts from the U.S.  They are also small and beautifully made.  Then there are full sized quilts from Patchwork France.  These are amazing quilts, some with thousands of tiny pieces quilted together.  Today, one of the ladies from my group and I went to see the French quilts.  Francesca was talking…in French….to one of the two ladies at their table and I was listening and paying attention to the lady she was speaking with, when the second lady said, ‘I know you.’  She remembered me from last year at the Houston Quilt Show when I visited with her at her booth!!!   I vaguely remember speaking to the French booth lady in Houston, but never would have recognized her here in Rome.  So, once again…another small world story!  I’m going back again tomorrow and Sunday.  It’s been fun just sitting and sewing with my quilt sisters and seeing all the stuff people are doing.

October 20lost first post, so will start over…

We took a taxi to the Villa Decugnano do Barbi for our cooking lesson. Decugnano is an ancient word that might mean villa, or farm or vineyard, but no one is sure. Dei Barbi means of the Barbi family who have owned the Villa since 1973. There are several buildings on the property, the villa where the family lives, a smaller structure available to rent, a swimming pool, the wine production and storage buildings and a former chapel with kitchen attached. We were given a walking tour of the vineyards, olive grove and the caves where wine is stored at a constant 51 degrees year round. We could see Orvieto 15 mines in the distance.  

We started our cooking class with Anna Rita and Rosanna by donning our aprons (which we got to keep) and chopping and slicing and making pizza and pasta douh. After kneading, we set the pizza dough in the sun to rise and started kneading and rolling out the pasta dough, made with flour, water and eggs. When it was ready, we sliced it about 3/4 inch wide and set it on a board to dry. I stuffed zucchini flowers with. Slice of mozzarella and would have added the traditional anchovy if it had been available. Dipped them in a batter, put them in an oiled pan and baked. Meanwhile, we sliced potatoes, zucchini, onions, tomatoes, chard and leeks, and carrots. Sausage meat, hamburger, egg, garlic, salt & pepper were mashed together and wrapped into a slice of thinly sliced veal, rolled up and secured with a toothpick. Put into a frying pan, two cups of white wine and cooked over a low heat for 15-20 minutes. This was our entree. Meanwhile, we spread the rolled out pizza dough into greased pans. One one we put zucchini slices, salt & pepper and Rosemary. Another potato slices, salt, pepper and Rosemary. One had tomatoes and garlic and the last one had tomatoes, basil and mozzarella added after the crust was done, just to melt the cheese. That was the only pizza with cheese. They were delicious. One pan was foccacia bread with salt and Rosemary. The pasta sauce was crumbled sausage, garlic, tomatoes, onion and carrots. The food was wonderful and simple to make. I will be making pasta at home…without a pasta machine. My pasta making machines are at the end of my arms! We also made cookies for our dessert. They were made with ground almonds, sugar, baking powder and egg whites and put into balls and baked 15-20 minutes. Each course was paired with a wine from the winery. We ate in the former chapel at a table for 10. There are three of those tables in the chapel with plenty of space. There is a huge window at one end where the altar once stood and it is framed with parts of the wooden altar. Pictures around the walls of religious cardinals and such and probably ancestors of the villa. The room looks huge in part to the high restored wooden roof. There are two bell pulls by the front doors. Now the front doors are all glass, which allows the diners to see Orvieto framed in them and the spectacular sunset! Just a beautiful vista! We returned to the convent, full of delicious food and having had a fabulous cooking experience. Would certainly recommend it to anyone going to Orvieto.  

sorry!

I have just had the best four days. There is a big Crafts Fair here called Abilmente and our Quilt Italia group had a booth for four days. I helped each day, and it has been so much fun. Wasn’t sure how much help I would be not really being able to explain or teach quilting in Italian. As it turned out, I was quite helpful. There were three tables set up for people to learn to quilt that had cutting mats, rulers, cutters and sewing machines. I sat at a table and handed out our magazines and information cards, and as I was sewing my bunnies and as I had started making Grandmother’s Flower Garden flowers, people were asking me about hand sewing. I could show a picture of what my finished bunny quilt would look like and what a Grandmothers Flower Garden quilt looks like. I also showed them how to cover the paper hexagons with fabric and how the 7 hexies make a ‘flower’. I gave everyone a Hexie as a starter and told them I wanted to see their finished quilt in a year! If they got too technical with their questions, I would get one of the Italian ladies to answer. They were pleased to be able to offer machine quilting and hand sewing as well. This once a year Crafts Fair is held all over Italy on different weeks. It features every type of craft you can imagine: knitting, quilting, crochet, papier-mâché, ornament making, doll making, cake decorating, marzipan, scrap booking, miniatures, weaving, felting, beading, candy making, toy making and on and on. Sort of like a giant Michael’s with classes. It is held in a huge complex near the airport and out of 12 huge rooms, the Abilmente took up only two. There were three quilt exhibits at this show. Quilt Italia had an exhibit of about 20 quilts that were all based on a food theme. Then there was an exhibit of quilts from the U.S. The most amazing, however, was from France. About 20 quilts, all large, and almost all completely hand done. And some with literally over one thousand little pieces. Absolutely amazing work. My friend, Francesca went over to talk to the two ladies who were there representing the French quilters. She was speaking to one lady and I glanced at the second lady and she said, ‘I know you!’ She remembered me stopping by their booth at the Houston Quilt Show last year. I remembered stopping by, but didn’t remember the lady…but will certainly see her in Houston next year. Her name is Aline Joulin and her specialty is making copies of antique quilts from the 1800’s. All with tiny pieces and all by hand.  

I have had a nice time the last two days, just wandering and relaxing.  Yesterday, I went along Via Corso that I’ve traveled many times by bus, but decided to do it on foot yesterday.  I stopped by to see Wanda…pronounced Vanda…the French bulldog I love…but was told she is on vacation.  From what???  Earlier in the week her dad said she was staying home because it was rainy and too dangerous on his motorcycle, but she was going to the gym.  I am sure that is what he said.  Maybe she is.  I do have a picture of her in a bikini from her summer vacation.  Well, I went to an art show first on Via Corso.  It was by Kokocinski.  Google him…he had a very interesting life and I presume he still does as he is not dead.  He worked in a circus I think in Argentina and that is probably where he got a lot of his ideas about clowns and the Italian clown Pucinella.  His art is three dimensional done in paint, papier-mâché, fabric, metal etc.  I really enjoyed the exhibit and his art.  Glad I went as the show closed today.  The. I went to the Doria Pamphilli Palace.  The original family still inhabits the palace and one can tour their apartments, altho they were closed yesterday.  I did tour the palace.  An old Pope gave the palace to his nephew, a Cardinal.  The Italian word for nephew is nepoti and from that word and the family connection we get our word…nepotism.  The Cardinal liked to collect art and the. He left the church and married a very wealthy woman who also liked art and she had a huge collection.  They combined the collections and the family kept collecting.  There are several Carravaggio’s here.  I had just had the Courtesans tour last week and learned that Carravaggio used town folk and prostitutes as his models.  Well one picture in this palace is of a red haired prostitute and in the picture next to it is one of the Holy Family on a rest going to Egypt…and the Virgin Mary is the exact same woman.  Not much wonder that Carravaggio had a rough time of it.  He just wasn’t as reverent as people thought he should be.  This palace is huge and beautiful and has a lovely central garden with a fountain.  You would just never guess what is behind walls as you go down the streets of Rome.  Had lunch and wandered toward the Pantheon and saw several children in Haloween costumes.  They seem to favor witches over here.

Today, I needed to check out a train station that Imwill be using on Thirsday morning.  The bus took me to the Pyramid I have spoken of before, so after finishing the correct station, I went to spend the afternoon at the Protestant Cemetery right by the Pyramid of Cestus (I think that is his name).  The cemetery is where Shelly and Keats are buried.  To me it is one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the world …at least that I’ve seen.  It is small and with rather dense forestation with beautiful old tombstones.  Today, being All Saints Day, the graves had lovely flowers and there was a huge arrangement at the front with wonderful smelling lilies.  Many of the graves had royal purple cyclamen planted around them and they were quite stunning. Several graves are planted with small pomegranate trees and the blooms have mostly developed small pomegranates.  Many graves also had crysanthemums (learned to spell that in Mr. Stewart’s class) as they are considered the ‘death flower’ in Italy.  Don’t take crysanthemums to living people.  Not proper flower etiquette.  There was one large tomb, with a young man carved on top, open book and a little dog.  The man’s name was Devereaux Plantagenet Cockburn…late of the Royal Scots Greys…2nd Dragoons, of deep and unpretending piety, of rare mental and corporeal endowments, and was beloved by all who knew him.  He died in May of 1850 at the age of 21.    I enjoyed sitting on benches in the sunshine today, reading and sewing and listening to the birds and just contemplating how great it is to be alive and living in Rome for this year.