16 August 2012

buon ferragosto

It's been a memorable day :-)  both personally and project-wise.

Today my inbox had several different links to the increased circulation of an article about my exhibition . This is important as it was generated by the cultural assessore for the entire province and circulated widely both in print and via internet newspapers (so I'll forgive whoever got my nationality wrong in the newsroom press conference and I'll be Australian for a while).  His kind words have been well received, have appeared in at least four publications and are now spinning around facebook.  My exhibition hosts are absolutely delighted too.

My two articles for YAP have been published in an English edition of Cittadini Globale Global Citizen now (they originally went out in translation in Italian) and one made the front page of the paper.

Another article that I have been researching (helped by my awesome PA) and writing to meet a tight deadline also went online while I was at the airport last night. I will reprint it here some time in the future.

Then it was on with my day... blogs checked, emails read, breakfast eaten...

After a leisurely start it was up to the abbey and this time a trip through the museum too, down to Piazza Green for gelato for lunch, afternoon shopping in a shopping mall to escape the heat, a sound late afternoon sleep, dinner outdoors overlooking the valley with friends, a concert at Pontecorvo with everything that is wonderful about summer festivities in this part of Italy, then back home to candle light and limoncello under the olive and mandarine trees (with Pickle and Zacchi claiming their share of affection and attention too).

But a pair of anxious eyes has just asked me "Mum, are you sure it's ok to drive us tomorrow, you are not too tired?"  Yes, it will be, but I had better get some sleep.

So here, (instead of photos and more description from me), from the excellent About.com Italian Language site, is the story of Ferragosto.

Ferragosto is an Italian holiday celebrated on August 15, traditionally marked by an exodus of Italians to beaches and mountains attempting to escape the summer heat. The holiday coincides with the Roman Catholic feast day known as the Assunzione di Maria in Cielo (theAssumption of Mary into Heaven).

On a linguistic sidenote, the term Ferragosto is derived from the Latin feriae Augusti, literally "Augustus's holiday." By proclamation of Roman Emperor Augustus, the feriae Augusti were originally a full month of festivals and celebrations.

Today I am grateful for my beautiful guests.  

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