Serge in Italy

My protégé Serge Kakudji came to Turin to visit for a week at the end of the summer. He was lucky enough to be here on my husband's birthday, which we celebrated at a park and then at some friends' house. I put him to work in the new house, and he helped us move a ton of our things from the garage into the house. He was able to coach with a wonderful coach here, and we were able to have some quality time together. While I worked at the new house, he was also able to finally get to see a bit of Turin. 

 

When my husband had to take a business trip to the Veneto Region, we met up with him there, and took the train in the evening to Venice. Serge had no idea what he was in for - - he hadn't really studied that in history in school, nor had he heard that much about the city. We told him it was on canals, but I think he was imagining another Amsterdam, a city he knows. So when we arrived, it was amazing to see the city through his wonder-filled eyes, and appreciate what beauty we could behold in one evening. We walked around a bunch, saw the major places, giving Serge a taste of the city, and then took the last train back to where my husband was staying. We must return! 

 

The next day, we took the early train to Milan, as I needed to get my Swiss work visa done for Geneva. So, off we trundled, and played tourist until that evening when Tullio was able to join us. We saw the Duomo, La Scala (and the Scala Museum), had a posh lunch, saw an exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci's notes (amazing!) and the church which houses the Last Supper. Since it's in renovation (seems to be a theme here...), you can only view it certain days, and it was unfortunately Monday when there were no visits. Again, next time! Afterwards, we joined friends at our favorite Japanese restaurant and pigged out on sushi. A pretty great few days. It was all over too soon.

second short trip - Lake Worth (Austria!)

Next, we headed off for a short bit in Austria, on the shores of the Wörthersee, a beautiful lake right on the other side of the border of Italy. We enjoyed a bit of lake, a bit of mountain, a LOT of fresh air, and some more gorgeous views!

We also were happy to catch a concert of Chanticleer in a gorgeous old church up on the side of a mountain.  We thought it would be a short walk, which turned into a 15-minute straight-uphill trek.  Oh well, we seemed to be doing that a lot.  It was our exercise for the day!  The concert was SUBLIME, and I was able to catch up with Christine Bullin, their general director, who has been one of my mentors since the beginning of my career.  What a night!

Afterwards, we visited Maria Wörth, a town on the edge of the lake, and its gorgeous church.  It sits up at the top of the hill, and the grounds are surrounded by a graveyard.  Talk about resting in peace and having a great view for all of eternity! 

That day, we got caught in the most amazing storm - you could see the clouds arriving over the lake, and all of a sudden the cloud was over us and POURING down.  I don't usually like storms, but this was spectacular and so refreshing.  A good excuse to hang out with some hot chocolate in a bar!  

We were also able to go to the house where Mahler spent his summers composing.  It was a trek to get up to the TINY cabin in the woods, up above the lake, but it was worth it.  Now I know where he found that heavenly music.  I still can't believe they lived there the whole summer with two little kids, though...  Must've sent them hiking during the day??

From the sublime to the inane...  We also hit the Reptile and Spiders Zoo, which was cool to see but a bit sad, as the poor little animals don't have much quality of life.  I suppose it's good for the kids to see the beauty of these "scary" animals, which are exquisite instead of "icky." 

Sardegna

Since we were so preoccupied with getting our apartment in order so we could move in for the fall, we only took short little trips this summer. That way, we could stay in touch with all the works going on back in Turin. First trip of order was to Sardegna, to meet up with my husband's family. Since we normally go down south to spend time with them during the summer, this was our way to make up for not going there this summer!

 

We had a wonderful time, lazing on different beaches every day with the whole family, and hamming it up for our cameras, even if I had to hide from the sun like a vampire! The vistas were gorgeous, the food great, and the company, fantastic!!

Almost forgot - - on the way down to Sardegna, we flew out of PISA airport, so we passed the Leaning Tower - quite impressive!!

Frescos in the house...

So, you say, what the heck has that girl been doing all summer since we last left her on tour with SFSO?

WORKING! I've had a lot on my plate with our apartment renovations... teaching... and travelling for so-called "vacation" (ha ha)... and of course working on a ton of music...

So, here's the main reason I have been hibernating in "house" mode: our ceilings, which everyone assured me had NOTHING under them, no siree, you are crazy to think there might be something under the plaster there, etc... after putting up plaster, deciding we wanted special sound-absorbing plaster and creating holes in the ceiling to make it easier to attach this OTHER plaster on top, a whole corner came crashing down, and underneath it was... a fresco. Of course.

So we decided to get the two ceilings (living room and kitchen) redone. Here is the kitchen ceiling, as it was:

Then, after the plaster and pink paint had come down:

Then, as they had traced the outline of the designs, they then filled in the background in quicklime paint...

And here's the finished ceiling!

Then, on to what the living room looked like, with the big chunk of plaster that had alerted us to the presence of the frescos in the first place.

After removing all the plaster and old cement on the living room ceiling:

And here's the finished product!  Tada!!

Another view of the beautiful 1900 designs - very Art Nouveau.  The house was built by Pietro Fenoglio in 1900, one of the most famous of Torinese "Liberty" (Art Nouveau) architects, so we are happy that we had excellent restorers, Debora and Maurizio at Ocra Rossa, doing the job.  BRAVI!!