Exploring Chamonix & Torino!

Chamonix!

 Ciao tutti!

Finally!  I am succeeding in blogging after a leave of absence from the internet.  I had been doing some WOOFING (farm volunteering) in Tuscany out in the countryside.  I was with my friend Erica that I met earlier this year in Sicilia & it was great fun to spend time with a pal & harvest some olives.  So, these photos are a bit dated at this point.  Better late than never!  Yesterday I transferred to a new spot near Pisa, also in Tuscany.  So far it is great!  I am continuing to harvest olives & eat good food.  Thank goodness I can always count on eating well anywhere I am here in Italy.  It has been getting colder & rainier by the day, the signals of fall.  All of the winter layers are coming back out to play & days of summertime swimming in the sea seem like a dream.  Boo!

I have mixed feelings about this...  I am returning to the USA in just a few short weeks!  I am ready to return & feel more settled & do some career type work but, I am also dreading a return to the "real world"!  There are a lot of things that I am looking forward to but now that it is coming up so soon I have cold feet & find myself thinking... is there really no way I can find some work here in Italy?  And stay forever???  I have been procrastinating on all the planning I had been wanting to do to prepare for my re-entry.  Not a good idea.  Sometimes the reality of life can be harsh.  At least I still have some time here to enjoy speaking Italian, drinking wine, eating pizza, etc.  Speaking of which, I might have to go to Napoli one more time to enjoy the world's most perfect pizza.

I am planning to do a few blogs ASAP to catch up.  Enjoy this one!  We begin with my visit to Chamonix, France.  I had never been to France & really wanted to practice my 5 French phrases so, I took the opportunity to take the 45 min bus ride through the Mont Blanc tunnel to the quaint village of Chamonix.  Home of the first ever winter olympics!  The Mont Blanc tunnel was opened in 1963 after years spent in construction tunneling directly through the base of the tallest mountain in Europe.  Crazy!

some ancient creature of the Alps

it was a rainy but, pretty day

in the church in Chamonix they have normal style stained glass...

and then they have these featuring winter sports (is that god watching bobsledding up there?)

as well as god blessing these mountaineers :)

denti del gigante!

Monte Bianco somewhere up there

in the heavenly pasticceria.  the only french i remember, how to order pastries & to ask where the library is.  :)

oh YUM!  i chose this one, probably the heaviest thing there, an almond chocolate croissant with a thick layer of sweet almond paste.  i really didn't need to eat the whole thing it was so rich but don't worry, i did.

crazy expensive cable car going up to towards Mt. Blanc.  in the summer you can take a series of cable cars  across the glaciers all the way to Courmayeur in Italy!  

snowberry, just like in the US

so quaint right now.

doing a wee hike to burn off some mega croissant calories

and then having a small baguette break to refuel.  this was, without a doubt, the best baguette i have ever eaten.  this is when i made the decision that my favorite food is....  bread.     

and then, of course, it pours rain.  i do a lot of hiking with my umbrella.  can't be stopped :)

and this is back in Courmayeur.  one weekend they had a beer themed race involving drinking beers at various spots along the course.  people were dressed in costumes, seemed like a mini bay to breakers, minus the tortilla throwing.

 And then, I took a trip to Torino!  In particular, there were a couple of "world class" museums that I had been wanting to see.  I am such a sucker for a world class museum.  Torino was nice!  The weather was balmy & I did a lot of walking around.  The architecture is not as ancient or fabulous as some other Italian spots but, still really nice.

main piazza

i am always taking note of older men in italy wearing pastel colored pants.  a unique phenomenon.  here we have a rare treat... apricot!  usually you will see dusty rose, salmon, light red...

in this church we find the mysterious Shroud of Torino!  said to be the burial cloth of Jesus himself!  (actually dating studies have shown that it can't be that old but, people still flock to see it)

here's that shroud.  you can see a body type marking on it, imagine it folded in half  in the middle.  (Elysia!   shroud.  nevada barr :)

the Mole Antonelliana!  now houses the world class cinema museum.

 Being a mega cinema buff, I was excited to see this movie museum in town.  It was awesome!!!!!!  A nice change from all the art & religion I am usually viewing.  The place had everything from the very first movie making equipment to modern stuff.  I especially liked this nerdy sci fi stuff...

these authentic star wars masks!

this real robocop outfit!!!

original superman cape!

orc mask from lord of the rings!!!

and original star wars poster in Italian!  i know you guys, i'm such a dork. :)

here's the cool inner sanctum of the movie museum where you can lounge out & watch clips from classic movies.  they also had a temporary exhibit on the movie Metropolis.  have you ever seen it?  i want to.

there's an elevator inside that shoots you to the top of the tower.

 I also stopped of for a few hours at the fascinating (world class) Egyptian museum.  I forgot how interesting Egyptian religion & culture is.  I'm thinking a back up career plan could be to become an Egyptologist, must be in high demand...

during the mummification process organs are taken out & stored in these jars decorated like the four sons of Horus.  Egyptians believe the heart was were the soul resided.  They discarded the brain, which they didn't understand.  So you were buried with your organs, so you could use them later.

the enbalming tools of Anubis

they have a ton of elaborate coffins here, some containing actual mummies!

egyptian symbology on papyrus is so cool!

you'd also be buried with some little stone or clay shabti figurines of yourself that were meant to perform duties for you in the afterlife if the gods should call on you for something.  sometimes they would bury a little diorama of a farm or garden with you so that you could provide food for yourself in the afterlife.  so interesting!

egyptian yoga!

Sekhmet

ancient egyptian toilet

egyptians slept on their side with their heads propped on these comfy stone headrest.  a good way to keep your spine aligned!

So there you go, Egyptology 101.

Hope you all had a happy halloween!!!  I made some lollipop ghosts with some kids for the occasion.  I've been reading a lot of books, the best of which were Wuthering Heights, The Song of Achilles (sort of a trashy, homo-erotic version of the Iliad) & The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.  Now I am on to Great Expectations, getting into my classics :)

Hoping the best for the eastern seaboard's recovery from Sandy & of course for my pal Barack this upcoming week!

Miss you! xoxo

Val d'Aosta!

Ciao from Courmayeur!!  I hope you are all well & prepping for a fabulous weekend! I am sheltering from the rain in the cozy town library to fill you in on my rural Italian life.  Up here in the alps it is cold & definitely feels like autumn.  Since I have been here I have seen the trees change from green to yellow, orange, red... feels like it's been a while since I have been able to observe the changing palette of fall.  I've been continuing to work in the garden, harvesting veggies to freeze for the winter, chopping wood, reading books, etc.  

I was able to take a trip to Chamonix in France which is a totally cute mountain town.  It's a pity that it's not ski season yet because this area is a winter wonderland!  Also, the other day I went to Torino to see some world class museums.  Yesterday I took a steep hike to catch a sweet view & then killed my poor knees on the way down.  I also read a wonderful book, The Elegance of the Hedgehog.  Have you read it?  It has been out for a while & I heard it has been now made into a movie.  Anyway, it was so good!  I found I could relate to the characters & it was such a touching story.  Enjoy the beautiful moments in life, people!  :)

Here are some maps & photos, I hope you will enjoy them.  Lots of nature pics this time.  

my view of the mountains as I walk up to the chalet & garden where my hosts live.  not bad!!

could the chalet in the woods be any more quaint?  this is the home of my hosts.

and this is the view of Mont Blanc from their balcony.  SWEET!!!  

My hopes of scaling Mt. Blanc (the highest mtn. in Europe!) were dashed when I found out it would cost about E900, because you need to go with a guide to travel over the glaciers.  Also, I have no equipment with me & would have had to rent all this stuff.  I tried to talk to various people who are in the know about outdoor adventure here to see if I could find a group or other guide to go up the mountain but, no one seemed to really take me seriously.  Telling me, you know, you have to train for like A YEAR to climb Mt. Blanc.  I would tell them that I have a good idea of what's involved but, they would point out some other easy hikes that I might be happier with.  Oh well, it was worth a shot.  Really, you don't even have to camp the night on the glacier to ping Mt. Blanc, you stay in a rifugio (where they give you beds & hot food!).  This makes the whole ordeal of having to get up in the dark to start for the summit seem so much more doable.  Anyway.....  another time.  

one of the glaciers of Mt. Blanc.  another time, i said!!! :)

Val d'Aosta is the smallest & least populated region of Italy!  It is very mountainous with many small towns tucked into mountain valleys.  

the tiny brown bit

you can see Courmayeur in the upper left.  just across that pink border is France!

The biggest town in the region is Aosta, I have done some exploring there.  There are a lot of interesting Roman artifacts!  The day I was there museums were free so I was able to see two art exhibits.  One was of Kandinsky, who I absolutely LOVE, it was gorgeous.  The other was of Girgio de Chirico, another guy I like a lot.  He founded the school of metaphysical modern art!  So, I enjoyed the arts of Aosta.  

ancient Roman arch in Aosta

this was COOL!!!  an Aostan inventor, Inocenzo Manzetti, had built, in 1849 this automaton that played the flute.  Crazy!  Did you see that movie Hugo Cabret?  The automaton?  I loved that movie.

an example of Chirico's work.  he is famous for these characters with dressmaker's dummy heads.

Aosta

raining..... in Aosta

arty editing

this was amazing!  the ancient, now underground Roman cryptoporticus

dahlia season!

we take our coffee out on the balcony 

these purple green beans are yummy!!!!!

look at all this stuff i harvested & painstakingly cleaned!

I am also cleaning these dandelion roots!  so healthful!

typical many trail markings on rocks & signs.  the tour du mont blanc, a backpacking trail that circumnavigates the mountain passes right by here.  i was wanting to do that trail....  next time for that one too :)

lots of lovely Larch trees around here, reminds me of the Cascades.

Courmayeur valley

the traditional slate tiled roof

cows, nearly ready to move down to the valley for the winter

mt. blanc cloaked in cloud

more glaciers, more mountains...

so bored right now.    ha ha.

found this place of pagan ritual in the forest.

fall zinnias!

my hosts have some really cute, healthy & well taken care of hens.   one lets me pick her up!  cute!

here is my wood zone where i toil away :)

the garden.  we have covered some stuff in plastic to combat frost.

Aosta again

an ancient chiostro with ancient decoration, different on all the pillar capitals.

And viola, there you have it.  I am having fun.  People have been asking when I am coming "HOME" to the US.  Well folks, I will be back on November 25th.  I will have to take some time to put my life in order & do some planning but, I am feeling ready to settle down again.  There is only so long one can ignore responsibilities of adult life it seems.  It's a pity but, even irresponsible folk like myself have to face the music at some point.  And, I look forward to new challenges :).

Next week I'll travel down to Tuscany to do an olive harvest with my American pal, Erica.  Looking forward to it!

Happy weekending :)

xo