Sightseeing with Mamma Paula

John's mom came to visit us in Italy last November. John was busy student teaching, so I got Paula all to myself for most of the week. We had so much fun exploring, and made some unforgettable memories. Here are some of the photos we took during the first half of our sightseeing adventures. Enjoy!

The Best Clothes in Bracciano are Free

As I was preparing and packing for our trip to Italy, I made a foolish assumption. For some reason or another (perhaps wishful thinking) I was under the impression that the weather would seldom get cold and that it would never rain during our three-month visit... and then I packed accordingly. As you may have guessed already, this was an incorrect supposition. November arrived, and so did a week and a half of unrelenting rain. And then came the thunder storms. And then came the very cold weather. I was not prepared. Since John and I were on a restricted budget, purchasing more weather-appropriate clothing was not an option, which meant it was time to get creative. We went "dumpster diving", and ended up with some pretty great loot! Here are three examples of what we found.  

  

Exhibit 1: We pulled this gray sweater from a pile of abandoned items alongside the road near our apartment.

Exhibit 2: We picked this sweatshirt out from a bag of deserted clothes at the park.

Exhibit 3: And we spotted this wonderful red jacket in a pile of “give-aways” we found behind a dumpster. 


Just three more reasons to be thankful for the continual provision in our lives, if you ask me. What are you thankful for this week? 

Walk in Bracciano

Here are some photos from one of my favorite autumn walks through the olive groves with John. We fed hay to a friendly horse, ate grapes from the vine, and tried our first olives straight from the tree - which turned out to be a bad idea, since they taste yucky before they are cured! 

 

Food Photography

I love food. I appreciate artfully prepared meals, enjoy trying new recipes, and delight in looking at food photography. I even like reading about food. One of my favorite authors, Michael Pollan, writes about the intersection of food with health, history, politics, ethics, and economics. 

That said, you may not be surprised to hear that one of my favorite parts of being in Italy was the food. While we were there, John and I were able to eat non-GMO food that was local, in season, and free of high fructose corn syrup and other yucky additives. 

These are some photos I took while making a skewered vegetable dish at our apartment in Italy. It didn't turn out to be as flavorful as I had hoped, so I won't share the recipe with you, but it sure was colorful and fun to photograph! One of my goals for our trip was to learn how to use the manual mode on my digital camera. It's nothing special, just a Canon PowerShot A650 IS, but it's what I have, and I am determined to make the most of it until we can afford a better one.