Sketching in Italy | Carol Case Siracuse

Let me begin with apology to my blog. I haven’t posted since October of 2017, and so much has happened in the last 15 months! We travelled to Viet Nam in late fall of 2017, and to Piemonte and Lake Como in September 2018. We’ve spent two weeks of February every year in Key West, and will be leaving for this year’s Key West adventure in a week!

Back to September of 2016, we left San Marino, and drove through Urbino, to Ascoli Piceno; day trips around Abruzzo, on to Sulmona, more day trips, and then on to the coast to Termoli and to our first stop in Puglia – Vieste.”’

On the road

Urbino’s magnificent walls

Coffee break sketch in Urbino

Arriving in Ascoli Piceno at night

Piazza del Popolo, Ascoli Piceno

Tempio di S. Francesco

Leaving Ascoli Piceno after a relaxed morning and lunch in the Cafe Meletti on the Piazza del Popolo, we set out on a long drive to Sulmona, our home base for our explorations in Abruzzo. Our first day began with a walk through the weekly market in Piazza Garibaldi. Very cool. Tom and I are huge fans of public markets. We left mid morning for adventures in Cascio, Castel del Monte, Villa Lago, Scanno, and Introdaqua.

One of the many friendly vendors at the Sulmona market

Ilio DiPaolo’s hometown – Introdacqua!

The man-made lake at Scanno

Villa Lago, L’Aquila

A road trip of beautiful views

View from Via del Municipo, Castel del Monte

The next leg of our trip will begin with Part 4 of Sketching in Italy, Fall 2016.

After a relatively relaxing week in Venice we took the train to Bologna and enjoyed five pretty full days. I did have time for one painting while Tom took his cooking class. I have learned, I should say continue to learn, that if I get to paint, that’s cool, if not, that’s ok too. Keeping my expectations manageable, and happily subject to change is the best way for me to have a good time, one that I can enjoy looking back.

This is the plein air painting, ink and watercolor, that I did in Bologna in the busy square near the University.

A lovely couple from Germany took some photos of me painting. We had a great conversation about Bologna and traveling (no talk about politics!) I am certainly concentrating!

What I really love to do is sketch and fill up my sketchbook with all types of memorabilia to go back to and relive our days. Today, October 6th, I can go back to September 22, 2016 and remember so much about our visit.

Here are two pages, September 25 and 22, and a sketch of via Augusto Righi from Bologna. Fun.

From Bologna we rented a car, and drove to the Adriatic coast and back up into the mountains for a short star in the Repubblica di San Marino. What a treat, just enough out of the tourist season to be able to wander without bumping. Great views from our hotel room complete with a very large patio up in the air above the valley below.

It was a beautiful 2 days of wandering though the streets and around the wall and up and down b between the towers

It was just right for us, a comfortable stay in a pretty cool hotel, resting up for the rest of our very full month in Italy.

I am making a promise to myself to post more often as a bit of time has passed, and I haven’t been completely inactive. So, I will finish our 2016 Italy trip, and fill you in on what the last 12 months have been like for me. Til the next post.