Back on the Grid

Hello dear readers. I apologize for my nearly month-long absence, but I have been on vacation for the past two weeks! More specifically, I have been on vacation in Italy! More more specifically, my vacation in Italy was largely spent on a farm in the middle of the Apennine Mountains in the Marche region.

Let me tell you, it was glorious and provided a great deal of inspirational fodder that I do not doubt will work its way into my creative endeavors. From the characters I met to the tourist maps I collected in the cities I explored with the fiancee... all gold.

Some of the cooler things I learned include:

Old Italian farmhouses were built with a specific heating plan in mind. The ground floor housed the animals, whose body heat rose to the first floor providing a little extra heat for the farmhands. The body heat from the farmhands then rose to the top floor where the land owners lived. Their body heat helped supplement the heat from the fireplaces, which were set into the walls of the top floor.

Italian hunters have a phrase equivalent to the declaration "break a leg" used to wish actors good luck. If you meet an Italian hunter, be sure to say: "In bocca al lupo!" which translates to "In the mouth of the wolf". The hunter will likely respond by throwing the metal horns and saying "crepi il lupo" "Death to the wolf!"

The equivalent statement for fishermen is "In culo alla belena!" or "Into the ass of the whale!" to which the response would be "Fammi luce!" or "Give me light!"

Just exploring some 1000 year-old ruins with my sweetie.

Anyway, I just got back last night and am in the process of uploading photos. This album should work, if you want to check it out... if it doesn't, it's probably my FB security settings.