Portugal!

I was fortunate enough to visit my aunt and uncle in Portugal recently...after nearly two years of trying to make it happen!

The visit was unfortunately clouded by the severe illness and eventual death of my Uncle Paul in Australia, though, so I wasn't able to blog immediately; forgive me if this post is a bit sketchy. At least it will give you the flavor of the visit and perhaps a desire to see Portugal yourself if you haven't already been!

On the theory that a picture is worth a thousand words (but that sometimes explanation is required), I'm simply putting up some photos with captions.

A country house

The church just on the other side of Ponte de Lima

For some reason, it made me think of a little Swiss church!

The jail of Ponte de Lima, now the tourist office

Dickie going into the jail!

Check out the thickness of the walls!

Portugal has a huge history of ceramics

A cute little piazza for having coffee...so we did.

View across the river from the piazza

All the buildings had this great tile work. The purple banners were for Lent.

There are some lovely bike paths that follow the course of the river.

A little shrine...just as in Italy, they're everywhere!

The church, seen up close.

Carved and painted entry door

I liked the way the stonework was done to a point from the door of the church

St. Anthony of Padua? Born in Lisbon, as a matter of fact.

View of Ponte de Lima back from the church!

This funny little statue was in the open shrine just next to the river...
a tiny space perfect for outdoor Masses.

Another sweet shrine

I just love the way sand collects on the other side of bridge pilings...

Another day, another town. This one was called...Viana do Castelo

Went into the museum to see the historical costumes. Beautifully worked, amazing detail!

The costume color palettes are highly localized.
A common thread is the use of gold necklaces cascading down.

What I had thought of as embroidery was actually tufted work!

Handknitted socks! Gorgeous!

Some lace detailing at the neck

Traditional raincoat

Technique for gathering the skirt at the waist: smocking!

The shoulder smocking was divine!

Marital status and wealth also figured into the costuming

Another stocking...drool...

View of a shrine at the very top of the hill from a hotel window...dreamy!

View from the hotel balcony

Kitty and Dick's visitors' house

Dickie's new pets. They needed to stay in the shed for a few days to learn that it was "home."

Time for them to leave the shed! Lots of clucking and flapping
...and that was by Dickie!

I loved this vignette at K&D's

Isn't the stonework on this door lovely?

The cathedral

Yup, the Romans built walls here, too!

I just adored all the tilework on the buildings! It was so pretty!

And the amount of detail was outstanding!

Quite a caryatid, I thought. 

Okay, it's seen better days, but it was nifty

The bridge at Oporto. "Oporto" means "The Port."
The city has since been renamed to "Porto," meaning "Port." 

Oporto

Church! Tile!

More tilework in the station. It depicts traditional agriculture, transportation, etc.

View from a train platform

I'm not in a hurry to drink this, but perhaps others are!

We found the most marvelous bookshop,
courtesy of Atlas Obscura
(although Kitty already knew about it)

Skylight!

Stairs seen from above

At this point, my camera had died. However, we continued wandering around Oporto, toured the Palace of Trade (which was truly magnificent...built in the 1800s, it was a tribute to trade and opulence), and the cathedral (also lovely). Had a GREAT dinner of pork and (of all unexpected things!) clams, and then off to the airport!

Love,

Alexandra

A (late) post on interesting recent(ish) events

Last Saturday and Sunday, there was a medieval festival in Todi. On Saturday, there was a market with all the artisans; there were ceramics, jewellery, copper work, basket weavers, wooden inlay, swords, leather and I don't remember what all else.
At 2 o'clock, the archery group was just finishing setting up the targets so I helped with that, as best I could (it's rather amusing how much I'm seen as a girl who can't wield any sort of tool, given how young I was taught to build things- the thought that I must be delicate because I'm a girl is sweet even if it does get a bit irritating). But now I'm off track. At three-ish the shooting started, and I was wearing a most uncomfortable costume- not only was it stiff and heavy, but it had sleeves that were detachable by velcro- poky side in. After a couple of targets, and a few trips home on the part of Daddy and James, we fixed my scratchy sleeves with a couple of strips of fabric.  The weather for shooting on Saturday was awful- on Sunday it was almost perfect; what we called a bit of calm on Saturday, on Sunday they called windy. On some of the targets you could see the arrows veering off course.

 The targets themselves were varied in both type and difficulty (try shooting three arrows in 20 seconds at a target with an ax swinging back and forth in front of it). Some of them were moving and others weren't. We had a boar, rabbits, a jester (you shot at his hands), some of them were just shapes. One of them involved three rows of "cats" (they were called cats, but looked like batman) and you had to knock each one down in order. For one target, you had to shoot while sitting on a "horse" (a metal structure with a horse head and tail and a saddle on top). The entire course wound all around Todi, and I got to see some corners of Todi that you would normally never have access to. I was out until seven!
Sunday, they were shooting at the same targets, but they were different archers. I ended up following around various groups the entire day, mostly hanging out with Matteo and Alessio and their dad. After the archers and the prizegiving and the dismantling of the targets (which they actually let me help with), we had the usual flag group come in. They performed briefly in the piazza and then left after a minor problem with a broken-down bus blocking the exit path.
Enter fire-eaters! I'm not joking. Two of them were on stilts, and there were four on the ground with flaming sword/stick/things. As uncomfortable as my costume was, I would take it over theirs any day: their entire costume consisted of black leggings (or loooooooong pants covering the stilts) and shoes. Bear in mind that this was at dusk, on an almost spring temperature day. I don't care if you are playing with fire- that's cold.
My feet were sore for days from so much standing and walking, but it was worth it!
Ciao
Florence
None of these photos are mine; they're all from Facebook friends' and tourists' pages.

This is a map of the entire course- I started at 13 and ended at 12
For those who are really interested (in other words, me in a couple of years) I'll describe all of the targets in order below the photos.

Targets 12 (where most of the people are), 13, and a few of the people standing near the 15th target 

The timed ax target (16) and can target (15)- you have to knock a tube off of his hand

The horse target (20) 

The other end of the horse target 

A different group at target 20 

Target 5

Target 6

Target 7 and a bit of target 8

The view from target 7/8

The 9th target- this time you had four arrows 

The 10th target- you can't really see this all that well, but it is a wedge set with its pointy end towards the archer 

The 11th target- I actually did pretty well on this one

My "piazzola"
(the group of archers that you actually spend time shooting with)
The guy on the far right is actually part of Arcus Tuder, though I met him for the first time on Saturday. He's really fun to be around.

The 12 and last (for me) target

The market that was there throughout the day 

Some of the merchants 

These were some very patient dogs

Mummy made that dress! 

After we had cleaned up the targets 

Enzo, Franco, Alessio and Matteo after the prize giving 

The flag bearers enter 

This is a great photo, though I'm not entirely sure that it is actually from this year

FIRE!

Sorry there are no pictures of the guys with the flaming swords. They were pretty awesome.

There are five types of targets: normal, 3D, "multiple", "special" and "free". A normal target consists of a drawing on top of a hay thingamabob that stops the arrows, and you can get 2, 5 or 8 points per arrow. A 3D target is an animal or shape, moving or not, set away from the hay thingamabob; you can get 2 or 5 points per arrow. A "multiple" target has three separate pieces, you get an arrow for each piece and each arrow can get 5 or 8 points. A "special" target goes down in points the more you shoot at it- if you hit it with your first arrow it is worth 15 points, second: 10, third: 5. "Free" targets are the hardest ones, because the creator has very few restrictions: you can get up to 30 points with up to 4 arrows. That's it.

So now for the description of the targets blow by blow. I started at target 13, and so will the list.

13: "multiple" target, uphill, small animals. (I didn't hit one of them)

14: 3D target, a boar (I managed to get 2 arrows in the bullseye, despite the fact that it was very windy)

15: "special" target, cans on top of a guy's hands (not even close)

16: 3D target, a foam circle and square stacked on top of each other with an ax swinging in front of them, 20 seconds to shoot 3 arrows (ferro fuori- translated "iron outside," meaning I hit the line, but it was out by a tiny bit)

17: 3D target, jester's hands (I broke an arrow here)

18: 3D target, moving shields; they moved in circles (I did really well on this one)

19: "multiple" target, Batman cats, rather far off (I gave Batman a cigarette with my arrow)

20: 3D target, you had to sit on a horse to shoot (I did decently on this one)

1: normal target, typical bullseye with ring target with rotating hoops through which you had to shoot (I got 2 arrows through)

2: normal target, the target had really fast silk flags spinning in front of it (one guy got his arrow hit up to the ceiling by those flags- it came down without its point)

3: normal target, a falcon (I did okay on this one, and this was where the photo of my piazzola was taken)

4: normal target, celtic-like drawing in green with a bright yellow centre

5: "special" target, hanging apples (I didn't hit it- my foot was in the gutter)

6: 3D target, downhill, rather far off (I got, in order of release, 0, 5, 8- you always call out your points in decreasing order)

7: 3D target, head sized cylinder with an oval bullseye (0, 0, 0)

8: normal target, a knight on his horse; his shield was the bullseye

9: "free" target, 4 coloured tubes on a rotating target- one tube bigger than the rest; the tree smaller tubes are worth 8 points and the big one is worth 6 (Riccardo- the guy with the arrow in his mouth- had some trouble getting my arrows out of the target: he said I have a strong pull. It's true, and very nice to hear from an archery instructor!)

10: 3D target, a wedge with the point towards the archer (we were shooting in a back alley at dusk and the visibility was nil, but I still got 8, 5, 5)

11: normal target, a horse (there was a back door to one of the shops in the piazza, and we had to make sure that nobody came out of the shop)

12: 3D target, rabbits, right in somebody's garden! (I didn't get any points AND I broke an arrow, most spectacularly I might add: when I went to get my arrow, I saw the feathered end poking out of the ground but when I went to pick it up, I was quite surprised to see it broken almost exactly in half; somehow, the rest of arrow was in the hay thingamabob. I still have no idea how it broke.)

Another Meet

Yesterday I had another meet. Much to all of the older teammates' dismay, we had to be there at 8:15; usually we have to be there around 3:00. So, in the early morning (7:00 on a Sunday morning, no less) I left to go to Pantalla, where I hitched a ride with Elena. We then drove to Foligno. The meet was the most poorly organised meet I've seen in a while.
The races themselves were fine (mostly). My races were 50m backstroke, 100m IM and the relay (freestyle). I did well on the backstroke, poorly on the IM (due to a sloppy turn that set me half a lap back), and well on the relay. In fact, better than well on the relay. It was the most incredible thing! I managed to get a full set of medals: third on the IM, second on the backstroke, and first on the relay.
Because of the way they had organised the meet, we had to wait for the little kids to finish their part of the meet before we got medals. Normally, it is done almost as if they were separate meets. We were standing around for three hours after we had done swimming!

this shows Alessandro Amaroso and Elena Calistroni, the first two swimmers- sorry the video is cut into pieces.

this shows me and Samuele Biscotti 

ciao,
Florence

Sewer Rats

There is an annual event in Italy where monuments or other cool things that are normally closed to the public are open for one weekend. And this is the weekend!

Here in Todi, we had three things open: the basement floors of Santa Maria in Camuccia (the cool, multi-level church that we've written about before), the monastery at the now-agricultural school's campus, and the 19th-century drains that were installed as a landslide prevention tactic. Obviously, drain crawling was a good idea, so Leonardo helped us by calling the coordinator to reserve our spots.

They weren't able to accommodate all of us, so the boys and I went for the earlier time slot. Michael will be going later with the girls and the French students (I don't think I've mentioned here that we have 3 boys from France for the week).

We got there (late, unfortunately...it's a good bit further down than I'd realized...so we missed the first part of the explanation). After having been given hardhats with caving lights, we descended about 3 meters by metal latter via a small concrete aperture in the ground.

We found ourselves in a low arched tunnel that had a small channel at waist height (in other locations, the channels were on either side of the walkway at foot level). While nearly the entire corridor was bricked up, the walls had periodic channels (weepholes) through them to allow the water to drain from the soil into the culvert. Since the water here is so hard, a number of them were glossy with calcareous deposits running down ... a type of stalactite formation, if you will. There were also bricks emerging from the wall surface. These were structures that were used to hold the wood forms during construction of the arched ceiling!

Some areas even had little stalactites coming through the arched roof. After 200 years, they are nearly 2 inches long and about a quarter of an inch in diameter.

Around corners, up steps, looking up through wells, ducking here and there...after an hour, we re-emerged into the sunlight feeling damp, dirty, and ready for gelato.

Love,

Alexandra

Let's talk finance

For those who aren't as familiar with exchange rates and what they mean, let me explain why we are seriously happy campers about the euro's recent headline-making decline.

Currencies (dollars, euros, yen, pounds sterling, etc.) are traded via bank and in exchanges and just like stocks, change value not just every day, but every minute. Unless you are traveling, the effect of the exchange rate on your life is not immediately obvious (although present). However, if you are in a situation like ours...where we earn in dollars and spend in euros...we are ALWAYS aware of the exchange rate because it directly affects our daily spending power.

Last summer, the euro was worth about $1.39...I think even $1.40 at certain points. That meant that an item that cost 10 euros translated into $14. Now? The same items that cost 10 euros now translate to $10.50: a savings of $3.50. HUGE impact on our lives, because we have an effective discount of 30% or more on every purchase.

The prediction is that the euro will hit parity this year, meaning 1 euro is the same as 1 dollar...also meaning that now is the perfect time to come visit us!

Meanwhile, I think I'll go out shopping!

Love,

Alexandra