I have been unable to finalise my move (some problems still) and therefore have not met up with Bill. If all is going according to his plan he'll be home in a few days and I guess everyone will be as anxious to hear about his trip as I am. If I don't get there by next month I will leave it until September because I don't want to be in Italy in summer again.
So, the Abruzzo stuff is still on my agenda for when I am able to get there.
We had a phone message from Bill while we were away....I hope he made it to San Venanzo...today is the 23rd, so I guess he's only here for 2 more days...
Wow. Well, I'm back in Chicago, no harm done, although I'm still trailing the congestive sequels of the Umbrian flu (Judith, you're in for a coupla months of not breathing your best, if you're like me and the others who've had it); and not only I didn't lose any weight, I gained four pounds. From the waist down, athlete; from the waist up, white slug-like thing you find under a rock; topped off with a dark brown Tunisian-looking face. The last two weeks were sunny, and I had another stretch of about 5-6 days of sun, but otherwise that brown is not tan, but rust.
By far my most social stay in Italy yet; in addition to Italian and other friends not on this board, thanks for hospitality and then some, to Dean and Judith and Karen and Carol (and John) M in I think chronological order.
I am very sorry though to have missed Maria-Cristina -- one very busy woman, we had actual appointments for two successive weekends, but each time Work (hers and her husband's, not mine) interfered, and we finally threw in the towel.
Ditto Barb & Art: no, I wasn't aware of your April departure for the States, at least not at the time, but figured as much -- saved my visit to S. Venanzo for your return but then found out you'd be back May 23, which was so close to my departure date, that I couldn't risk not seeing S. Venanzo: unexpectedly -- since so close to Umbertide by train -- Marsciano and S. Venanzo became the very last 2 comuni I saw. Fittingly, in S. Venanzo, I finally became an adopted Umbrian: the old folks who sit on the bench near S. Maria Liberatrice invited me to sit with them a bit, which in all these years had never actually happened.
This was a very, very busy trip: it was with great difficulty that I managed to keep my diary, wrote far fewer letters (only one to Ann and three to James) than I should have, and it would have been quite impossible for me to get on the Net had I planned to do so, so it was wise of me not to have. For information, the former Internet place just off the piazza Matteotti in Umbertide has been closed for some while, and is set to reopen as a just plain restaurant; indeed, it is set to open "before [last] Easter" -- but it's still not open now.
I'll start putting my diary up today or tomorrow, but it won't be fully online until maybe mid-June; and even then, the photographs well after that, probably ship-shape only by the end of summer. Today is mostly writing thank-you notes, off to write which --
A warm welcome back! You've been missed. We're all eager to read of your travels and see your photos. Take care of yourself - the "cold" I came home from Rome with lasted for three months!
Janet my camera (a Canon 300D "Digital Rebel", for those who weren't in on the discussions before I bought it) was a joy: the only thing that worked flawlessly thruout my 3 months. The only problems I experienced had to do with the photographer behind the eyepiece. It shoots nearly in the dark, and yields raw pictures 2000 x 3000 pixels far larger than anything I'd use on my website; a pal in Italy with the same camera told me that prints are good up to 70 x 100 cm (2'4" by 3'4"). . . .
Transfers to my portable, every evening I was home, were fast and efficient.
This is a sample — almost at random, since not yet organized here; it's the Piazza 7 Aprile in Leonessa (Rieti province, Lazio) at around 9 am:
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bill Thayer,
quote:Originally posted by Bill Thayer: Fittingly, in S. Venanzo, I finally became an adopted Umbrian: the old folks who sit on the bench near S. Maria Liberatrice invited me to sit with them a bit, which in all these years had never actually happened.
I apologize for not calling you, Bill. I knew you were sick, and kept hoping you would get better and call before we left. Later we were so busy getting ready to go...I just plain forgot about it! But I am so glad that S Venanzo adopted you! But now, in addition to being depressed about missing you, we're now depressed because you know more about S Venanzo than we do....Where (what) is S Mario Liberatrice? Is that the name of our church? And if there's gobbledygook in your quote, I don't know what happened...I just appeared that way when I hit the "reply with quotes" icon.
And while I'm here, could you answer another question concerning the digital camera....how do you get a picture that has been shot in the "best" mode (more pixels) to reduce enough to post? Do I just re-size the picture in Photoshop? I'm alwas torn when taking pictures...do I take them at the "worst" setting, which makes it easy to email/post, or at the "best" setting in case I want to make an enlargement?
Welcome back...can't wait to read all about it! Maybe we'll meet next time!
And while I'm here, could you answer another question concerning the digital camera....how do you get a picture that has been shot in the "best" mode (more pixels) to reduce enough to post? Do I just re-size the picture in Photoshop? I'm alwas torn when taking pictures...do I take them at the "worst" setting, which makes it easy to email/post, or at the "best" setting in case I want to make an enlargement?
Barb, don't ever, ever, ever take a photo on the "worst" setting if you have any intention of making prints or if you even have an intention of an intention You should always use the best possible setting, and then resize as needed for various purposes. Remember that you can always reduce pixels, but you can't get back pixels that were never there. Its very easy to resize in Photoshop or whatever image editor you use....takes all of a few seconds, and there are ways to batch process a whole bunch at a time so you don't even need to do them one by one.
Gosh, my camera now has a name: Janet it is. For years my computer was Alice, after all. I'm really a dreadful writer; in this case, a missed comma in my post: "Janet my camera" should have been "Janet, my camera".
Barb, yes, next time. I saw very little of S. Venanzo, not that there's that much to see, although it's a very pleasant place, nicer than I thought it would be, and not quite as remote either. S. Maria Liberatrice (or Madonna Liberatrice) is this one:
For non-Venanzites, the parish church, a much larger building, is S. Venanzo; although I noticed that the feast day is of the more strictly correct S. Venanzio with an I (Latin: St. Venantius).
Anyway, yes, always, always, take your picture at the best level you think you'll need. It's like salt in cooking: if you've added too much salt (taken the photo in "worst" mode) you can't subtract it later. I cook as unsalted as possible and add salt if needed at the table: and I take pix at the best possible resolution, and reduce them when needed.
B
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bill Thayer,
quote:Originally posted by Bill Thayer: Janet, it's only appropriate to name a camera for you! (Anyone who hasn't seen http://www.jczinn.com is missing something.)
Bill, I had never seen Janet's photos and yes, I was missing something! I can only say "Wow". Janet, I loved all the photos. A couple of them that struck me are the butterfly with sunlight on its transparent wings and the black dragonfly that appeared to have flown in a fairy land. Someday you should write a note on this board on traveling photography. I, for one, would like to learn how to shoot in indoor light with a film SLR and no tripod.
Thank you Bill and Janet! I know that when I re-size a picture taken at the best quality, they always look teeny tiny (in PhotoShop), and I'm never sure how they will look when I post them...is there any way to control the size of the posted picture?
Janet...what magnificent fotos! GREAT color saturation, beautiful subjects! Bravo!
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