Hop Hop Hop

What a great weekend. It started with the Acro Yoga workshop which was exactly as I hoped: nurturing, challenging and fun. We chanted, practiced asanas, thai massaged and finally flying. Being lifted is a liberating feeling. Back bends a bit scary until you realise you really have to LET IT GO. Lifting others was more challenging. It takes loads of practice to find the centre and balance for an extended period of time. Vaclav and I have decided to keep practicing it together during our course's lunch breaks. 

Saturday morning we headed to the Hop Farm Festival. Despite the heat during the day and dampness during the night, the queues, the toilets and  , we had a great time. Bob Dylan was legendary. He is so cool at playing his songs differently every time ~ He is such an eclectic artist. I was expecting Devendra wild and naked like in this video. He showed up with short(ish) hair and in British mod look... until he stripped to show his cool tattoos and give full voice to his expressionistic performance. So, so cool! 

We concluded the weekend with our friends from Italy with two aperitifs and a yummy vegetarian meal in Primrose Hill.

Full set of photos HERE.

Roman Visit

Last week I spent a few days in Rome for my cousin's graduation ceremony. She completed a degree course in communication studies in less than three years. 

Admirable.  

We celebrated with a fat dinner, a six course affair, and she received top class presents, including a stylish trolley, a trip to Amsterdam, a posh pen by Campo di Marzio, a Calvin Klein handbag and, last but not least, an engraved Tiffany bracelet by myself {and my mum}. And she is still not happy about her life.

But this is another story.

I spent a whole day with my mum downtown Rome, and we were determined to do serious shopping. But we could find absolutely nothing. Luckily we have a second close chance as she is flying to London in five days time.

The same night {Friday} I met up with my lovely girlfriends: Ari {maid of honour}, Fede {a devoted asthanga yogini who was doing a workshop with yoga celebrity Lino Miele} and Cri {who divides her time between Rome and her Agriturismo in Sabina}. We ate fish in a taverna of San Lorenzo and played catch-up but time flew by and it was definitely not enough.

Saturday was a restful day. My cousin's house is so huge that I could sleep in undisturbed.  My other cousin left in the early morning to go skiing to the Alps with my uncle, but I didn't hear a thing. At lunch time I said goodbye to my mum who was going home that day {she lives on the opposite coast} and we {my cousin, her boyfriend and I} went for lunch in a far-west inspired restaurant where I ate an excellent fillet steak. We then browsed the shops of a brand new shopping centre - who was supposed to be an emulation  of American malls - before I boarded my plane back home. 

The next day I arrived at my yoga training late and wet. I missed the alarm clock and it was pouring down when I left home. I got straight into meditation which helped restore my nerves. The day progressed with a intense class on anatomy and physiology. I felt I learnt a great deal but still need to get my head around the mechanisms of thoracic and cellular breathing... 

Making some Space

I have to stop blogging for a few days. Too much thinking enfeebled me.  My osteopath recommended to use ice packs to ease the tension cluttering the channels to my brain... I have started my yoga training which took over my week. I need some time and space to digest all the information and sensations I have taken in in such a short time. 

Writing will resume at the end of the week, I trust. In the meantime, live well and stay warm...

A birthday, a saturday, some friends

Remember Remember the 5th of November

Hello there, I have been blogging very erratically this week, but I have all the good intentions to keep up the good work. I have tons of draft posts waiting to be finalised. I also have quite ambitious plans to develop the design and look and feel of AmicaC who  has just celebrated her fourth birthday and is finally taking  a more defined shape thanks to all the bloggers out there who keep providing inspiration and ideas.

I am also trying to find a new balance between the various things that are going on in my life: my family, work, yoga, blog and social life. I am particularly enjoying married life in this season as we are spending more time between the domestic walls entertaining each other and venturing ourselves in cooking, baking and redecorating experiments. We also got the entire collection of Hitchcock films (67 or so!) and we have been watching them relentlessly. They are just too good, on so many levels (fashion included!).

And yes, I am still looking for my perfect black cat. It has to be fluffy and with an intelligent face.

Off to watch the 8th episode of Gossip Girls. Let's hope it has resumed some charm as the last three episodes were rather disappointing. xoxo

Photos from We Heart It

Me, back

A brief message to announce my coming-back with a scary backlog of duties, ideas, chores, nuisances. Sardinia was great and will be posting photos soon. Apart from a short absence next weekend when I will be in Paris to intimately celebrate my belated birthday with my husband, I will be resuming my posting as I am in need of retreating into my domestic bliss to gather my thoughts and enjoy some retrospective moments. Thank-you for keeping up with me and my blog...

the many faces of rome

Cultural Rome -- G. and I travelled to La Sapienza University where Mao was graduating in chemistry after 13 years of perseverance. He was smart and radiant in his 70s suit and moustache. His presentation was breathtaking, and he defended his thesis very well from the professors' acid remarks.

Historical Rome -- V. and I visited the Catacomb of San Sebastian on Appia Antica. We had a guided tour and learnt that it is the only complex with both a pagan and Christian backgrounds. The same day, we also visited a war memorial, grim and moving: the apartment-turned-prison in via Tasso where Nazis imprisoned Partisans the year before liberation. There were touching messages engraved on the walls, newspapers' extracts and portraits of the various heroes and victims. We noticed how patriotic people used to be back then –- which is admirable and two-faced at the same time.

Culinary Rome -- For dinner V., A. and I went to a Jewish restaurant in the ghetto. I dared to try carciofi alla giudia (Jew artichokes) and coda alla vaccinara (cow tail)! It was the first time I savoured Roman/Jewish food and found it delicious and extremely delicate, despite the gross idea of eating tail.

Artistic Rome -- I finally enlivened my artistic dream of admiring Apollo & Daphne and The Rape of Proserpina at Galleria Borghese. The white marble of their skin, their deep facial expressions and the care of the details (Pluto’s hand sinking into Proserpine’s tight, Apollo’s defined muscles and veins and Daphne’s drapes) made me blush.

Apollo & Daphne, Bernini

Pluto &Proserpina, Bernini

Convivial Rome -- After a fat lunch based on tonnarelli cacio e pepe (hand-made pasta with Roman pecorino cheese and pepper) and a failed attempt to visit the not-Catholic cemetery (also known as the English cemetery) where Shelley and Keats rest amongst other less romantic characters, A., U., Mao and I explored la Garbatella, historically working class suburb of Rome, which has become today a fashionable spot to live. Its colourful council blocks, built in an elaborated style under Vittorio Emanuele’s directions, were an oasis of peace. At the nearby Teatro Palladio there was an experimental performance festival which I could not miss. Weird and histerical dance movements and moments of meaningful stillness followed one after the other.

Domestic Rome -- Sunday was spent mostly at home with mum, dad, uncle, aunt, cousins... Dad entertained us with his new passion: cinema. He spends a great deal recording and watching films and has also deviced an home-made technique to add extras to DVDs: he downloads film information from the internet (synopsis, cast info, historical background, meaning of the title, etc.) and … here everything becomes weird … he points his camera to the computer and films the screen, then he transfers it onto the tape and finally onto the DVD. He explained this process so proudly that we did not dare to say that there is actually an easier way of doing it...

i am the best cousin in the world

i survived, just about, to another titanic weekend and accomplished my goal of overwhelming my cousins with the choice this city has to offer. i'll try to avoid another long post of "we did... we went... we saw" - sadly, this is how my reports are turning into: boring recollections of my chronological life. so, this time i shall critically contemplate only the highlights of this london weekend, as the rest of the time we trotted around like headless chickens...

notting hill arts club disappointed me and did not impress my guests. music was experimental and intriguing but did not outweight the £8 at the entrance! Thumbs down!

ping pong was yummy head to toe but made me feel unwell - just too greasy. mirko rejoiced at the dim sum and mohito, while monica nourished herself with strawberry martini as she wants to become a model (seriously). thumbs down! : /

dublin castle was surprisingly good. no fuss, safe choice of brit-rock music, a few camden characters, cheap entrance, affordable drinks, and reasonable closing time (2am).
thumbs up! ^ ^

vanity fair portrait exhibit was good. i had already seen some of those portraits in other photographic exhibition, but still enjoyed admiring once again cecil beaton, man ray, annie leiboviz' camera shoots. monica got a vanity fair 30s cover depicting a caricature of greta garbo -- coincidentally she wrote her final thesis on garbo and her underwear (corsettery, etc.). thumbs up! ^ ^

a modern interpretation of the Grand Odalisque by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres attracted my intellectual curiosity. julianne moore stares at the camera with a candid and naive look. she looks more restrained than the original (sign of our recession times?) with drapes covering her hips shifting our attention on her porcelaine legs. this photo hangs in my bedroom...

topshop - i hadn't stepped into mecca of fashion in ages. monica got the cutest starred cropped jacket and i came home with a nautical knitted dress and stripy red cardigan made of organically grown cotton and a pair of bright yellow butterfly earrings...

aurelie's birth-picnic-day was the nicest conclusion to a wonderful, if physically tiring, weekend. monica got completely fascinated by aurelie's french charm and quirky look and so grateful for her efforts to communicate in italian to her; so many people turned up and everybody looked chilled and good spirited. steve and mirco never stopped playing while i never stopped chit-chatting.............

something to remember and something to look forward to

my legs are still hurting from all the walking we did this past weekend. my cousin Valentina was visiting together with her boyfriend and two friends (Luca & Consuelo). no kidding - on saturday we marched from piccadilly to Soho, Covent Garden, Embankment, South Bank and Tate, down to Tower Hill! it was a glorious day and we refused to catch the tube. in the evening, after the most lovely dinner, kindly prepared by steve, he and i dared to go out and come back in the wee hours! Vale & Luca, although being 10 years junior than us, were shattered as they had a v. early start. we arrived at laura's birthday fashionably late and went to bed at 3am. for the following day, we had booked a flight on the London Eye for our guests and we let them go ahead while we stayed in to sort out the house. we then joined them to visit the British Museum, South Kensington and Camden, where we had a dinner sponsored by mr lofty and a couple of drinks at a nearby pub. all in all a great weekend. i was positively surprised by Luca who even tried Thai food and was glad that they enjoyed their stay so much that they labelled it as splendid!

next weekend we have more guests: my nephew Mirco (age 21) and his sister Monica (age 23) are coming to visit us for the first time! we will spend the whole bankholiday weekend together, and I have loads of treats and plans lined up for them. Monica is very into fashion and Mirco into music - so it will be a glam rock weekend!

after that, i will take a little break and fly to Rome to visit my family and friends. my mum will then fly back with me to stay for 10 days. Hurrah!

despite all these nice plans to look forward, my head can't stop longing for summer time! i already have one week in New York and two weeks at my parents' holiday house booked. i also have a week off at the end of august, but i have not yet decided how to occupy it.

then xmas - i know it is a looooong way away, but i had to book my days off now. so, i will stay 10 days in my home village and then.... a week skiing with my relatives in the north of italy!!! they renew their invitation every year, but we had always to refuse for a reason or another. this year there will be no excuses. i can't really wait for that!

between now and then it is work work work.

.... is the exact number of years i have lived in UK, as at today, 16 April 08. i am not sure whether to be happy or sad, especially after the hard day i had, but happy anniversary to me nevertheless!