June 29 Tucson

 Jerry & Del took us to see the gallery of a local artist, De Grazie, who worked in Tucson and  Mexico in the second half of the 20th century focusing on local indigenous people. He was a multi-talented artist, working in paint, textile, wood, metal, enamel, along with architecture. The gallery we visited was designed and built by himself over a number of years. 

Here is a selection of the works we saw there:

He was particularly interested in horses and would go to a local rodeo on a native reservation near Tucson.to draw the horses and riders.

Bronze roadrunner

Mariachi player

  

Tabletop

Silver horse sculpture

He designed and built this chapel with the help of people from the tribe he was living near

Inside the chapel and its side room.

June 27, 28 Tucson, Arizona

 A full day of flying from Rome to Los Angeles, then to Tucson on Friday to stay with Del, Di's best friend from school - some 65 years of friendship - and her husband Jerry.  Then today we had a slow start.  Di, Del & Jerry went for a morning walk before the temperature went to 40 odd degrees, while I stayed behind to enjoy their swimming pool. 

This afternoon we visited the Tucson Museum of Art which was marvellous. 

Tucson Airport

 

Di & Del,        Jerry & Del.

The Sculpture Garden

Peruvian pottery, dating from around 100 to 1000 AD including the jaguars below

 

                                                   Kachina dolls carved from Cottonwood roots in the area around Tucson, representing various Hopi spirit figures. 

Mexican masks 

 

More recent basketwork and a bronze sculpture of a Hopi warrior

June 24-25 Last days in Italy

 We decided to break our trip back to Rome where we'll begin our flight to the US. We stopped in Follonica for lunch by the sea and had our first pizza since Italy coming to Italy.  Very Good! We them drove on to Marina di Grosseto, a beach resort town lije Follonica, as shown by the hundreds of umbrellas covering the beach. The next day, today, we continued to Civitavecchia, the Port city of Rome, stopping at a large seaside town for lunch again. Huge cruise ships in the Port here and lots of tourists enjoying the sunny weather. 

Follonica beaches, one with umbrellas andsun lounges for hire,  the other BYO.

Marina di Groseto. A small strip of public beach, the rest reserved for paying customers.

Orbetello city gates 

 

... and inside the city. 

Tomorrow is a long day with flights from Rome to Los Angeles via Helsinki so no post tomorrow. 

June 23 Siena

 We drove south to Siena today.  You can't drive into the city so we parked in the first available spot we could find then set out to find our way into the city.  We thought we found the city walls so started to walk around it to find an entrance only to discover we were back where we started.  It turned out we were walking around the Fortress just outside the old city. We finally got to the city and walked down a steep street only to find a had to walk up another equally steep street before we came to the beautiful Duomo.  Then it was of to the large Piazza del Campo which was quite disappointing, full of restaurant umbrellas and fencing to separate the centre of the piazza. 

Siena Duomo 

 

Basilica Cateriniana di San Domenico

 

Palazzo Chigi Saracini 16th century 

Piazza del Campo 

Fortrezza Medicea

June 20 San Gimigniano

 San Gimigniano is an amazingly well  preserved mediaeval city with several towers and a good sized church.  It also boasts the best gelato in the world,  which we were happy to accept as true.

 

The Great Tower

One of the city gates and the Watchtower.

 plop