To Market ... Acqui Terme, Piedmont

Acqui Terme has been a revelation to me.  I  had imagined a small Italian village that serviced the farming community. 

I am now so ashamed of my extreme ignorance.  I should have searched Diana's name with 'Acqui Terme'.  She wrote a lovely piece over on Slow Travel Italy, with the title: So, Ok, But, Well, Why Acqui Terme?

I need to go back and photograph it all but imagine, I dipped my hand into this fountain ... La Bollente, a fountain built in 1879 by Giovanni Ceruti that is arguably Acqui Terme's most famous landmark. At all hours of the day and late into the night men, women and children can be seen visiting La Bollente (literally "the boiling source"), filling jugs and buckets with the curative waters that rise to the earth's surface here at 75 degrees celsius.

Today it is a thriving town surrounded by vineyards that produce some of the most remarkable wines I've ever tasted.  But more on the wines another time, although this wine was indescribably delicious.

We were there for the market and I managed to replace that hat I lost in Genova too. 

Diana bought a chicken from a man who grows the tastiest chickens (I imagine I might be getting boring with all this 'exquisite' and 'best ever' stuff, I know.  It will pass.  Forgive me.)  And she selected some cheeses and some gloriously sweet juicy tomatoes. 

Diana roasted the chicken until it was golden on the outside, some potatoes, and whipped up a tomato salad too.  Micha opened another delicious Piedmont red wine and voila ... dinner was truly divine.

The Rainbow Seat, Piedmont

Diana and Micha have created an extraordinary space here at their B&B in Piedmont.

It's a photographer's delight really.  Everywhere you look, there is some exquisite detail.  Yesterday, swimming in their pool, I would stop sometimes, lean on the side and just concentrate on how much beauty there was there in front of me.

And perhaps it seems like I'm exaggerating, or that I don't get out much, or I'm easily impressed but really, I'm almost sure that it's just about the fact that B&B Baur is beautiful.

To Step Out of the World ...

To step out of the world, to stop for a little bit ...  I discover that I am tired.

I discover so many ideas clamouring to be explored. 

I see a need to change how I live.

Here in my exquisite room, going over workshop notes, I need to lie on my bed periodically ... to rest, just for a couple of days.  And there's time, we don't begin until Sunday.

My mind was still racing and so I began with one of those meditative visualisations ...imagine you are lying on a beach in a beautiful place, then smiled, as I understood my reality.  I am here in a beautiful place, lying on a comfortable bed in a exquisitely decorated bedroom, in Italy.

Viktoria Mullova is playing Bach on my laptop, quietly, without destroying the peace of the Piedmont countryside. 

Sitting outside earlier, just before Diana and I set out to the market in Acqui Terme, I looked up ... of course there are grapes growing overhead here.

France ...

You must learn one thing.

The world was made to be free in.
Give up all the other worlds
Except the one in which you belong.

David Whyte, extract from Traveling With Pomegrantes.

I was in France these last 5 days, near Lyon, for a beautiful wedding and was startled to realise that not every hotel offers good internet connections.  The one I was on was pre-Flintstones and I was unable to reach the back-end of my website.

It was disappointing because I use my blog like a journal on occasion.  I was reading a superb book full of ideas that I would love to have noted and there were photographs like the one below, taken that first evening.

And now, two full days to process a few hundred wedding photographs before flying out unbelievably early on Thursday.

Tot straks.

Why I Won't Buy An Electronic Reader ...

A poignant and compelling book about feminine thresholds, spiritual growth, and the relationship between mothers and daughters, Traveling with Pomegranates is both a revealing self-portrait by a beloved author and her daughter, a strong new voice, and a momentous story that will resonate with women everywhere.

One of the things that stops me from falling for an electronic reading device is my huge love of secondhand books.

My lifestyle demands the light and easy convenience of an electronic reader but I remain completely unable to commit to one.  Everyone talks of 'how many' books they can load and read.  And I admit, I end up traveling with as many as 5 books if I'm away 2-3 weeks, muttering about the weight of my luggage but still I just can't commit to 'electronic'.  I came close recently but I felt grey inside when I imagined it all.

Yesterday I walked into my favourite secondhand bookshop here in the city and discovered Traveling with Pomegranates, by Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor. 

So many of my books have been serendipitous finds and there are bookshops, dotted around the world, described by me as those places where treasures are found.

Shift this hunger for paper and serendipity to Genova, in Italy, and I have La Feltrinelli's.  Their English selection isn't huge and yet I always come away with something superb.  A book that allows me to leave feeling as a good Catholic might feel just after the Pope has touched their hand. 

You know ... ?

Or in Istanbul, where time spent in the Robinson Crusoe bookshop was time I considered most delicously spent.

I can't comprehend the notion of not spending hours exploring bookshelves nor do I want to miss the pleasure of opening a new book ... or a new 'old' book.  I love looking to my left, here at my desk, and seeing the 3 red bookshelves loaded up with books I have loved and read ...and those books still to waiting to be read.

It's like that for me. 

Below, a completely unrelated image that I rather liked ... titled, Chris's science experiment in London, Clare will remember.

The Poppy

My way of seeing involves using my 70-200mm lens in ways that most people wouldn't.

The bulk of my portraiture work is done with that telephoto lens.  The bulk of my photography actually ... I'm always a little bit sad when I have to change to a wider or more 'appropriate' lens.  I do it but only if I must.

I keep finding folders full of work I haven't really explored.  This was taken back in 2009, stored away, and not examined again until now.

A poppy in a garden in the city of Mesen, Belgium.