LIFE’S POSTCARDS

a wonderful combination of purples and greens

the softest pinks

*

Now and again a building captures the imagination, this is one of those times! The Palazzo Orsini in Rome is for sale, truly stunning….read more here

image ~ Alamy

*

our little boy Luca has an amazing eye for detail especially if it involves animals xx

image ~ renovating italy

*

the memory of this walk at dusk with my husband, his patience getting just the image he wanted, the spectacular light

image ~ salvatore chiodo

*

Ronald Dallas Percival ~ today is my father’s memorial he died suddenly aged 39 ~love you xx At photography college I was asked to take a portrait showing who I’d like to be for a day….this is me as my Dad who died when I was little. How wonderful it would be to chat with him for a day!

image ~ personal album

*

Charlie and Jane sharing some warmth, the two kittens moved quickly into our house while the windows were missing down stairs. We soon had a menagerie of local strays who knew we were a soft touch.

image ~ renovating italy

*

Who wouldn’t want to live in this little candy colored home, walking through the streets of Salina where my Mother in Law was born we came across this happy little house. It was love at first sight!

image ~ renovating italy

*

Italian doors are solid, timeless, and still bear the marks of their makers…

image ~renovating italy

 *

friends think I’m a little weird…I love old building more that shoes!!!

image ~ renovating italy

 *

even the bikes in Italy have style….this one is from Saluzzo

image ~ renovating italy

 *

Italian’s will build anywhere….even under a rock ledge! It was so cold the washing had frozen solid.

Memories of Cinque Terre now devastated by floods…

image ~ renovating italy

*

The kitchen of my mother in laws house in Salina, Sicily. She left Italy for Australia when she was only seven years old, this was the first time she had returned some sixty years later.

image ~ Renovating Italy

*

When speaking of living a rustic life I really mean a life with all the modern luxuries…like electricity and running water! This is part of Borga Nari and belonged to our dear friends who now live part way down the mountain. This was part of the family home and she left for her Wedding from this house….no running water and no electricity only one generation ago. A fascinating life….

image  ~ Renovating Italy

*

One thing I love to do is give the camera to our children and see what they come up with. Our then four year old daughter took this somewhere in Florence and I love the texture, detail and pattern… I think she has her Mother’s eye.

image  ~ Carina Chiodo

*

This is the beautiful town of Saluzzo, which is about 12kms from our first house in Gambasca. A place to fall in love with, a day at the market, a quiet coffee watching the glamorous old ladies gather for some gossip, a fantastic bookshop, cobbled streets, our home away from home… and all under the watchful eye of Mount Viso

image found at ~ Itali Anna

*

We climbed the mountain….seems like forever until we came to the tiny village of Pra. Incredibly beautiful, if we just reached up we could touch the clouds with our fingertips.

image ~ renovating italy

*

every home should have such a key…

image ~ pinterest

*

The village was silent, nobody was stirring…the only sign of life were the cats drinking milk left out by some kind soul.

image ~ renovating italy

*

dreaming of Cinque Terre cats…

image ~ renovating italy

*

dreaming of our Italian bedroom…

image ~ Je Suis Mignonne

*

Welcome Beyond pick the 10 best Rustic retreats in Europe. Total luxury…sigh

Casa Talia, Sicily Italy

image ~ long travel

*

Michelangelo is quoted to say “I just chipped away everything that did not look like David.”

As a teenager I read Irving Stones “The Agony and the Ecstacy” but nothing prepared me for my first meeting with David.

image ~ unknown

*

The very first time we “wild camped” in the Alps I was terrified something bad was going to happen through the night. The next morning waking up at dawn to the rushing stream and wildflowers on the tip top of the mountain was just exhilarating. Our dear friends are at this moment experiencing this for the first time, and I send them our love.

image ~renovating italy

*

Dream Italian weddings, how many movies have I sighed over…  imagine a wedding here, it just seems like a fairy tale…

image ~ weddings in italy

*

So many times I have heard the stories from my Father in Law about how he would ride the donkey alone through the mountains at a young age. In his home town in Calabria his father was known as ticci ticci which was the sound the donkey would make on the cobblestones. He has no images of his childhood but I imagine they would look something like this…

image ~ Italy Revisited

*

The iconic 1951 image “American Girl in Italy” turns 60 on Monday. As its anniversary approaches, the stunning woman in the photo — Ninalee Craig, now 83 — is speaking up about it. She wants to explain what the photo represents, and what it doesn’t. You can read the story here

image ~ ruth orkin

*

getting a tattoo is on my ‘to do list’ and I like this one…. although I think mine will be something with a heart, butterfly and star…. one for each of my children.

image ~ hiking in stilettos

*

I think this quote could best be seen in the book “Eat Pray Love” which was a wonderful read but an excruciating movie.

image ~ unknown

*

just love collecting postcards

image ~ liivia

*

our daughter heading off to scoula  early one misty morning. This is one of my favorite photos of her, heading off into the world with such trust and innocence, every day a big adventure.  I love you so so much sweetheart ….

image ~ renovating italy

*

there is something totally and utterly fascinated about old images of rural life in Italy.

image ~ unknown

*

Once we had been in the house in Gambasca a while we were delighted to adopt the local feral cats and dogs. The little dog is Lu Lu who gave birth to a tiny black puppy we called Smarties. The cat is Charlie and his yowl was so raucous he could wake the dead. As soon as Winter came around the menagerie would disappear.

When we asked we found out that the five dogs and numerous cats would move down the mountain to their Winter homes. As soon as Spring arrived back they would come as if they had never left….

image ~ renovating italy

*

when we first lived in Italy we had no access to a phone, or the internet. The only way to communicate with family was by snail mail. Thus the maps I drew of our house in Gambasca for my Mum. The thing she missed was being able to “place” us somewhere… to have a sense of where we all were in the world.

This time we have internet, blogging, skype, and phones with nifty little cameras so we can be in touch each day. The kids will be able to chat live, and Italy will come to Australia like never before. Luckily because I can’t imagine starting to draw a map of the Veravo house….

image ~ renovating italy

*

the red couch

image ~ renovating italy

*

photographs and memories

I lost my dad when I was four and as he was the family photographer there are perhaps half a dozen photos of us together… now I am the one missing from the album as I try to constantly capture what I lost. We now have hundreds of photos of Daddy with the kids, time for some of Mummy…

image ~ renovating italy

*

a fragment of florence…

image ~ renovating italy

*

the Italians are serious about their woodpiles…

image ~ renovating italy