Blog

My family and I travelled to Italy in May this year to celebrate some milestones in each of our lives. First, we flew into Rome and spent three days there seeing well-known sights such as the Vatican Museums, Saint Peter’s Basilica, the Roman Coliseum and Forum, the Pantheon, the Castle S. Angelo, Trevi Fountain, and the Borghese Gallery. Surprisingly, it wasn’t these renowned sights that captured my heart, but rather the more ordinary sights, such as a crumbling statue and pink roses against an ancient brick wall, an old colorful door surrounded by well-tended flowers, or the way the light reflected off of the jasper in the Basilicas. One of my favorite ways to spend time on the trip was sitting in the sidewalk cafés and creating quick sketches of these small, enchanting vignettes. Later, I would add a little watercolor and journaling to the sketch which allowed me to re-live not only the extraordinary, but also the ordinary moments of our trip.

After Rome, we travelled by train to Florence where we saw IL Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio, Monastero di San Miniato, the Boboli Gardens,  and spectacular views of the city by sunset. Next up, was Tuscany which included travels to the cities of Siena, San Gimignano, Monteriggioni, Montecito, and Pienza where I was enchanted by Tuscan pots filled with white blossoms, planters on stone walls filled with pink carnations, red chairs with pots of multi-colored flowers, old blue bikes leaning against stone buildings, colorful laundry hanging out of shuttered windows, and of course yellow and green fields with red poppies in the foreground.  I was sure after the beauty of all these inspiring sights that anything afterwards would have to be a bit disappointing.

Was I ever wrong! From Florence we travelled to Venice where the sea water provided reflections of all of the Venetian beauty. Gondolas set against colorful, old buildings were reflected in the small canals surrounding the city; multi-colored flowers in window boxes were reflected in the lagoons, and nighttime reflections of the Doge’s palace were created by the high tides at St. Mark’s Square.  All of this loveliness certainly made my heart beat a little faster and obviously I wasn’t the only artist inspired by the beautiful sights. At most of the places we visited we saw lone artists or groups of artists painting the ancient Roman sights, or the reflections in the canals in Venice, or the vibrant red poppies offset by fields of greens and yellows. The best part was that there were many opportunities to purchase the artwork of these local artists and we took advantage of that as well! So if you visit Italy be prepared to be inspired, I sure was. Buongiorno!!