Tag: Orta San Giulio

Orta San Giulia – one last look . . . for now

image

It is 5 in the morning and Orta is quiet. Amazing. Somewhere someone is waking up and getting ready for the day but the island, over which I continue to obsess, is dark (Is everyone asleep there?) and there are few sounds in Orta except for birds and air conditioners blowing. Too bad about the air conditioning but this is a tourist town. We had ours on for the night. Julia couldn’t sleep with the din from the piazza and the rolling thunder that presaged a late night storm. That thunder went on for most of the day! The lake is long and narrow and surrounded by hills and mountains and the sound bounces and pings around. That storm tonight has been slowly moving towards us since noon. Continue reading →

Posted on by Suzanne Buchko 0

Orta San Giulio & drawing

image

Julia is sketching about what she sees the last few days and drawing landscapes for the first time.  It is clear she lacks training but as usual her eye for design and placement is right on.  She fumbles when trying to add color but I continue to encourage her.  New learning is exciting.  Besides feeding my wanderlust, I travel to open this incredible world to Julia. Continue reading →

Posted on by Suzanne Buchko 0

Orta San Giulio & Pella & music

image
Pella

A concert tonight (Monday) and even though it begins at 9:15, I don’t manage to get us out for supper in time. We’ve become very lax about supper. Most restaurant don’t begin serving until 7:30 and we tend to wander about looking for something somewhere around 8:30. I should have checked the poster announcing the concert earlier in the day but I didn’t. Instead, I checked at 8:30 and finding out it began at 9:15 made the executive decision that gelato would make the perfect quick supper. Julia didn’t disagree.   Continue reading →

Posted on by Suzanne Buchko 0

Orta San Giulio & sun

image

There is sun this morning and after breakfast we are on the ferry to the Isola di San Giulio which sits in the middle of the lake.

I read that there are two paths around the tiny island, and, in fact the island is not only tiny but so heavily built upon that there is no place to stand to get a perspective on the whole of the island. This island is so crowded with villas, church buildings and the church itself, that we cannot see the church building from the front doors. Inside, it is a tiny church, painted and carved and guilded. Parts of the church were decorated or build at different times. A church was built in the 5th century, then replaced by one in the next hundred years, then added to in the 12th and 19th centuries. It is the metaphor of the island, every inch developed, redeveloped and decorated. There is hardly room for the pews. What is in the church could easily fill a church twice its size.

Continue reading →

Posted on by Suzanne Buchko 2