Mezzotints, Monasteries and Nutella Pizza

An all day field trip to Todi a charming town in Umbria - so high on the hill that one has to take a tram to get to the city center. Of course, few cars, but lots of spectacular vistas. We needed to select something for our mezzotint prints ( a process involving 1-4 hours in preparing our copper plates to have them ready for burning then printing an image in every known shade of white-white to a rich, blacker-than-black velvet). Carrie Ann and Macy demonstrated how it is done and so we have our inspiration (along with Carol Wax)..

In Todi, we began our day at one of the fourteen churches ( five nunneries and six monasteries - I think they have salvation and righteous behavior covered in this town). Cryptic tombs ( no pun intended) and any little figures cavorted around the bases of the pillars around the front entrance - little four inch men relieving themselves and "ed ellli avea del cul fatto trombetta." the main sactuary was without pilgrims or visitors, filled with a subtle gregorian chanteause made the atmosphere all the more powerful.

Then, how about this experience followed by the notion of Pizza Nutella?? Too much juxtapostion in this country for me today.

I highly recommend reading The Italians by Luigi Barzzoni published some 40 years ago. I'm enjoying it thoroughly and seeing how he astutely observed it all - especially our love affair with everything italians all viewed through the veil of "charm." I am sure hid observations were before the days of Francis Mayes and Slow Food gatherings in Todi.