I'm sitting in a café in Piazza Cavour, Rome, with my laptop and a spritz—a great light refreshing drink. Perfectly named. Fred’s walking back from the Colosseum, which he sketched today. Owen’s in our B&B, having spent the day on the train to Rome, eating lunch (pasta carbonara in 100° weather!), and walking around the National Museum with his class. I’ll write more about Rome, but first, a mention of last night’s annual Procession by our apartment.
Every July 16 there is a parade—Processione Della Madonna del Carmelo a Viterbo—which goes right by the apartment we’re in this year (and have been two other years). This year we had a little cocktail party, but sadly, the procession was about a quarter of the length it usually is. I spent the day doing a logo for my father (the Seacoast Jazz Society), then cleaned the apartment top to bottom. When I finished, I heard the church bells ringing and said, “Owen, what time is it? Four?” It was FIVE. Guests were due to arrive at six. I was unshowered, and we needed cheese, crackers, beer and wine. I showered and ran downstairs to our wine guy and asked him to pour me a 1.5 liter of white from the vat and told him I’d be back in 15 minutes. I then ran to the shop at the end of the street, only to find her closed! Had to go several more blocks to the store that is always open. Got everything I needed and it all turned out fine, but it was too bad the parade was so tiny. My photos from previous years show it in its glory, but here are a few from this year.
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| Classes got out early so the students could watch. Here they turn the corner onto our street. |
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| Our neighbors taking it in. |
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| Every year someone looks straight up into my camera. |
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| The townspeople follow along at the end. |
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| This smiling townsperson is not a townsperson at all. It's Maura, Montserrat's visiting artist in Viterbo, on her way to our party. |
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| Our guest looks for his dad on our balcony. |
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| Kids love Fred. Kids and cats. |
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| Some shots of our youngest guests. |
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| Oops, we're not the youngest guests, but we learned you can take a selfie with a 35 mm camera! |