Senza parole!!! Without words!!

what day is it?

i told you there would be chaos and fun when the gang came to visit. I am going to save the foto for the next posting, but imagine this city boy's surprise when my friend brought us a Pig!!!! as a present... we all know not to bring our nieces and nephews and grandkids a bunny for easter, right. Well now I am the somewhat reluctant father of a suino nero baby, who must be fed baby pig food at present and is expected to eventually weigh around 180-200 kg... that is not pounds, folks that is kilograms, which is 2.2 lbs/kg. i will leave you with your computer's calculator to figure that one out... I am thinking big feast for xmas if anyone of you wants to come to Italy for Natale!
We have had a nice quiet weekend otherwise and the highlight was the outdoor cookout on our built-in bbq grill tonight. Helped unbelievably by the garlic, onions and zucchini provided by our gardener! unbelievable!!!
Good bruschetta must have quality garlic and tomatoes.
We had 28 people tonight for dinner so it can be done, with patience from all involved.
I come back to the US the 5th of July which of course interferes with the pickup of my car from Rotterdam. I asked Delta if I could change my flight originally scheduled from America to Ancona, to a flight from KC to Rotterdam and 1300 dollar tickets are evidently not changeable!!! I then said, well I will just get off in Rome instead of flying to Ancona and take the 1st plane to Rotterdam and the response was" that is not allowed" I then asked what the punishment was and they just kept saying, "we must tell you that is not allowed".. Since I will probably not be put in prison and since Delta needs my business, I will disembark with just hand luggage at Rome and fly on up to Rotterdam. See you there! dds PS, fotos to follow, stay tuned!

20 giugno

Time flies when you are working or having fun. Kim, my sister-in-law, told me to get my butt in gear and post another update, so here goes. My friends, perhaps you wouldn't have recognized me tonight wearing blue jeans , and ORANGE t-shirt (but with a pocket) and eating bologna and cheese on crackers and drinking a 2 euro red wine for my dinner. Granted, our bologna is really mortadella from Bologna where the industrial meatpackers got the idea for US bologna and the cheese was a wonderful Gorganzola, but still the idea is the same.
Today, my photos were finally framed and ready and we hung about half of them in the rooms.. they really did a nice job and I hope you can come visit and enjoy the views, everything from Mill's Lake in RMNP to the Grand Canyon, Venice to Genoa and a few nice cows and flowers and of course grapevines thrown in for good measure.. we also started hanging full length mirrors in each room for the girls and put ecological shampoo and soap in each room. The big shopping day at IKEA left me somewhat poorer and I have been putting together all the furniture ever since. TV table, 2 bookshelves, work table for the kitchen and 2 cushioned seats. Also candles for every room and vases and nice bathroom extras.
This weekend will be a time to relax as many of our classmates and tutors are coming to the Marche to celebrate a kind of grand opening. We will be full! Hopefully not for the last time!
We cooked a dinner as a trial for our guests from South America and will do that now and again for guests who request it. 4 courses , antipasti, pasta, 2ndo and dessert with wine. and a bargain at that!
What pictures should I put today? my classmates, forse! Take a look at these faces and you will understand the havoc and chaos which will ensue this weekend. d

18 giugno

Hello everyone. I hope all is fine in america. An argentinan won the US Open, so maybe indeed Armegeddon is near. Poor Jim Furyk. Here, I have survived a weekend not unlike the call weekends of old. I worked 8 hours Saturday and 16 on Sunday. I am nearing a true farmer's tan even with the 30 sunscreen. The vineyard is now completely finished and having spent 20 hours pruning 1.2 acres, I know either I am too slow, too much of a perfectionist or non so un cazzo come di fare questa cosa, which i won't literally translate, but roughly means I need to learn more. Anyway, the 19 acres won't be planted until winter, so I have plenty of time to learn. The vines are almost as old as me, here, but are more vigorous than me in many cases. Some of the vines are old and withered and not producing any grapes while others have 20 grape bunches, the soil here is perhaps to rich, so we will have to choose rootstock which will slow the graft down a bit and make it less productive.
I am ahead of you several hours of course, so I will let you know the crescent moon and venus make a beautiful couple tonight.
Tomorrow the 2 shopaholics are heading back to Ancona to the IKEA to buy all the things the previous owners moved away today. It should be both fun and impoverishing! Thanks to Larry, my grammatical guru and Lynn, my marketer 101 back home for helping me with my brochure and website ideas... Hopefully all will be completed by next week. This week, a big festa occurs to inaugurate the B&B with many of our classmates from Italy and our tutors coming to spend the weekend. No money, but lots!!! of fun. Today's photo is Nascondiglio from the back from 200 years ago. Scherzo!!! d

World's Best Painter

june 16,2007
Last night I had the pleasure of being in the company of the Universe's best painter and I include realism, abstractionism and all other types! It was truly a joy to watch the sunset here and while normally I can't capture what I see on the camera as well as I like I have included 2 of the 30 pictures I took which were giving me pelle d'oca again this morning.
I haven't started taking my antipsychotic meds yet, but I swear I am a little paranoid about my little car which supposedly took off from Newark yesterday on the boat for Rotterdam. I tried by email and phone for 2 days to contact the shipper and the receiver in Holland and finally reached the shipper yesterday who assured me all was on track for delivery in Europe in 8-10 days! We will see.
We have 4 guests right now and one couple is on a belated honeymoon which is sweet. Today my photos are ready at the enlarger/framer so we have some work to hang 20 photos of sizes ranging from 20X30 on up along with full length mirrors for each room which Raffaele assured me was a female requirement. We have new outdoor furniture both for dining and lounging and have replaced some of the plastic chairs with those in legno o metallo.
My "sold" house was inspected and my wonderful real estate agent informed me at midnight our time last night I need to replace the roof. One little american boy in Italy was extremely displeased and various word in 2 languages came immediately to mind. My only difficulty with this turn of events being the report from my agent's recommended inspector 18 months ago which stated the roof had 6-10 years of good life and was in need in the future of only minor repairs. State Farm subsequently suspended my homeowner's insurance because the house had shingles replaced on top of old shingles which I wasn't told, and so the story now is more serious.
Enough of my bitchin. Enjoy this link after you grab some kleenex (from my friend Susan Moses)
http://mfile.akamai.com/21772/wmv/gannett.download.akamai.com/21772/streaming/wmv/hancockportraits.asx
God bless! Live every day fully and enjoy all the sunsets! Dwight

Tornadoes in Italy?

12 e 13 giugno
I waited until after seeing il Sindaco (the mayor) to make this post but when I returned to Nascondiglio di Bacco, there was no electricity or internet as another powerful thunderstorm had come through disrupting the free flow of electrons to our hill. They are going to think I brought this weather from Kansas soon as evidently, this is pretty unusual. The mayor was a really nice fellow, who promised to look into my options for a permit of stay as the quotas are complete, as I said.
Raffaele and I have started planning how to improve each room a little, new pillows, bed cushions, candles and vases in each room, organic handmade soaps, new lamps and the list goes on and on and IKEA will love us when we do our little shopping trip in Ancona.
We rearranged the kitchen to clear space and get things in shape for our guests as we are planning on serving dinners now and then which will be a change from the previous owners. I walked around the neighborhood yesterday to explore the hill and may repeat that today. It is interesting to see how vineyards are trained in this zone. Hopefully soon we can meet with an agronomist and enologist to plan our vineyard planting which will take place this winter.
The opening party for our old mates at UNISG will be weekend after next which should be a great time for all. I need to find my Aleve and Gatorade!
Here is a picture of The Car! It is perfectly serviceable, and lots of room for carrying stuff, but.... I am a little partial to the car which will hopefully arrive in Holland the 25th of June, giving me a chance to let loose on the Autobahn of Germany.
Finally, for those of you who don't know who my amministratore unico is ( I am just a laborer ) above is a picture of Raffaele Paolini (Raffa) in front of a landmark as famous as any in the US.
Ciao

i'm an alien, i'm an illegal alien

11 giugno 1007
It was an eventful day. I got up at 0630 to get ready for my little trip to Ascoli Piceno, because forewarned about the lines which form at the Prefettura's office, I arrived when they opened at 0815 to grab a number, C08 which was the 3rd number for today, then i went to drink coffee in the Piazza del popolo and waited for 1000 to arrive, whereupon I was told by various people including the boss that unfortunately, Italy's quota for admission of aliens was completely exhausted. By the way, this is for 2006, they haven't opened things up for 2007, and that is for all kinds of permits of stay including lavoro autonomo, which means i am self employed with enough money to survive. Vabbe (slang for OK) I lived for 9 months in Parma illegally, I am an expert. But unfortunately, things get trickier when your car is in the middle of the Atlantic headed for Europe; I need to eventually have it licensed, after all. My house in KC sold today, so I need to ship furniture over here. All these are minor problems, I am sure. Tomorrow I have a visit with the local mayor, who hopefully can give me some good ideas on how to solve this dilemma.
Anyone who saw me in my box of a Fiat called a Doblo' (or something similar Dobro'?) would surely laugh, it reminds me of when I drove the old laundry truck for my Dad! But it uses diesel which is about 1.05 US cheaper per gallon. And today, i found the car's AC which is anywhere but in a logical place!
Raffaele and I are working on marketing ideas , like a brochure and the website improvements and hopefully all will be ready within 2 weeks. I forgot to label yesterday's picture which is Spanish cow with an itch. Today we have a picture of sunset from Nascondiglio di Bacco and above that is my gang, which is ready to cause big trouble if they don't let me stay here.... Giorgio and Fabio are mean dudes!! Actually we were doing a takeoff on American Gothic at the King of Culatello's storage facility. I will be back in KC to pack up some stuff the 1st part of July, so hope to see my US buds then! Ciao from my secret place---Bacchus' hideout. d