What you can't see is my not so happy wife dangling and swaying off the branch, eight feet up in the air right behind me, to help bring the greenery down into play at the top of this image. Between her upstretched arms, her eyes conveyed to me an ominous stare of increasing alarm. A moment later and the branches suddenly disappeared with a swish as my wife dropped unceremoniously to the ground again. I didn't dare laugh.
As for Cortona, we were very fortunate to find ourselves there at all, as we were on a lightening three day visit of the Uffizi quarter in Florence and a beautiful little hilltop town in Tuscany
I was quite over awed by my all too brief experience of Tuscany Pisa to catch a plane to Barcelona Catalonia , I remember shaking my head and saying to my wife “Why on earth are we leaving this beautiful place to fly to a city in Spain
That said, we had a wonderful time in Barca’s exciting urban buzz and have since returned many times to soak up the unique vibrance and flavours that make Barcelona so special.
I plan to do a post later concerning some cloak and dagger WW2 tales surrounding the Uffizi district adjacent to the north side of the historic Ponte Vecchio in Florence
E non un giorno troppo presto!
E non un giorno troppo presto!
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| The above picture is courtesy of http://www.cortonacenter.com/ The Cortona Center of Photography - Workshops. |
Depending on which article you read, Cortona sits on its hillside at an altitude of between 1200 and 1900 feet. It has been stated that a chap called Crano - a descendant of Noah himself - came to this hillside around 273 years after the Great Flood and built the town of Cortona, which is officially older than Rome itself. It is also alleged that Noah spent some thirty years here roughly 165 years before Crano arrived. So the question is....In what year (B.C.) did Noah float off again?
More recently though, Cortona was the location for the film 'Under the Tuscan Sun' and is a highly recommended must see destination when travelling through Tuscany and Umbria, preferably well out of season due to the considerable summer crowds. Magnificent.
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Staying in Italy but musically
Peter Gabriel and his band demonstrating why he is still regarded as one of the all time giant performing acts of the ‘live concert gig’. You’re always guaranteed a lot of entertainment ‘buck’ for your online ticket purchase to a Gabriel concert.
One of the original founder members and lead vocalist of the progressive rock group Genesis in 1967, Gabriel’s flamboyant costumes and dynamic lighting sets quickly secured him a devoted global fan base and a singing – song writing career, spanning five decades and a pocket full of Grammy’s.
Both artist and architect of groundbreaking, visually breathtaking, music, light and stunning special effects concerts, who will ever forget his appearance wearing the electric light bulb jacket while performing “Sledgehammer” in 1986. Sensational stuff.
Filmed live for the “Growing Up” music DVD, here he is more recently, performing the track “Digging in the dirt” accompanied by his daughter Melanie Gabriel on vocals – on the spectacular revolving stage of Milan’s Fila Forum in 2003.
If you want to catch up with Peter Gabriel, pay a visit to his website and monthly video blog at: www.petergabriel.com
