Starry Wisdom

At the Villa. Yesterday we ended up going to Spoleto instead of Perugia. We walked around a while before deciding to go get food. We wandered down a windy, shoddy stone staircase and found the city wall:

We followed it around a bit until eventually we found Il Tartufo, perhaps the finest restaurant in Spoleto. We had a very impressive truffle based meal, and the wine spider made an appearance in Joan’s glass. What a tricky creature he is!

After lunch we headed back to the car to drive down to the Cascata delle Maremore, a Roman made waterfall that only runs when the power company feels like turning it on. At 165m tall, it is amongst the tallest in Europe.

After viewing the waterfall, we pulled off the road to take some pictures of the urban decay:

We drove back to the Villa, and were unable to buy a newspaper. We decided that there must be a guild that controls the selling of them, and that you need special powers to get one. Or perhaps there just are no Sunday papers in the Catholic country?

When we got back we pretty much crashed. We ate some of the Pecarino we bought in Spoleto (so delicous) and sat in front of the fire, and headed to bed around 10PM. I woke up around 8:00am today.

Galleries:
Spoleto
Cascatta delle Marmore

At the Villa – We spent an hour or so in downtown Perugia wandering around. I took some pics, and saw some great views and the pastry snake:

Then we found our way to the villa a bit before our 4pm check-in time. Miss Teodora, the keyholder, was already there, so we dropped off our deposit, and learned that gas was 4 Euros per m^3 since we were so far out of town. We decided we would try to limit our gas usage, and we got some extra wood for the fireplace.

After we settled in we decided to go grocery shopping, and then we would decide if we would go out to eat or eat in that night. We found a PAM grocery just a few km down the road. We bought some food and such and then went back up the mountain to the Villa.

We bummed around for a bit and then decided to cook in. We had strangozzi with a tomato sauce with some turkey and chicken sausage in it, spinach and some bread. Unfortunately we did not construct a potato robot with the extra selenium potatoes we bought – well maybe some other day. The dinner was simple but quite nice and filling. The 2 Euro wine we had with it was quite nice with it. After we finished we did the dishes and lit a fire, at which point it was 9PM and Fred and I had been up for more than 30 hours. We sat around talking for a while, and at about 10:30PM we decided to call it a night. Under the blankets in my bed it was quite warm!

I woke up at 3AM and layed around before deciding to play DS for a while. I then slept from 5AM to 6:15 or so, waking up hungry. I ate a little banana loaf thing I had gotten on the plane and drank from Aranciata. At 6:45 I decided to shower, which was exciting because the stall was tiny and moving around moved the lever that controlled the pressure and temperature! After I got dressed I went out and took some pictures of the area:

I found Joan’s wallet on the driveway near the car, luckily we were in a remote place, so nothing was missing! Fred made french toast and soon we will head back out to Perugia.

Galleries:
Perugia
San Lorenzo della Rabatta

1050 CET. In the Fiat, heading out of rome – Fred and I landed at 7:20 then were quickly out of passport control, just a quick scan of our passports, a stamp, and we were on our way. Cool. After we got our bags we found the aweosome Leonardo Express to Termini station, where we were to meet Joan and Chris. It took us a few minutes to figure out how to buy the tickets, and soon enough the train arrived, and we piled on and were on our way through the outskirts of Rome, towards the city center.

Once there we found Joan and Chris, after a bit of up and down with our heavy bags. We took a stop at Cafe Moke for coffee and a pastry, and then grabbed a cab to the Hertz location. The cab driver was quite awesome, driving at incredibly fast speeds, weaving and dodging and honking – very exciting! Eventually he put the radio on the local English language station (for our benefit?) but then started singing Italian songs. Soon enough we arrived at the rental location, safely. We rented the car,then went to the hotel where Joan and Chris had stayed the night before to pick up their bags before heading north to Perugia. There were 5 hours before we were supposed to meet the keyholder for the Villa, so we had plenty of time.

Oh, as we were driving along the Roma loop, we saw a FIRT lose its hubcap. So exciting!

1540 EST Dulles – The flight from SFO was perfectly cromulent. The next leg is considerably longer.

Trying the Iphone wordpress app. I’m at SFO on the way to Umbria, Italy:

I made a little house scene with play-doh that I had bought yesterday at Walgreens, while waiting to pick up a prescription for cough syrup. The picture is not awesome, since I don’t currently have a lightbox, and I couldn’t find the RF trigger for my speedlite, so I had to use my Vivitar 285 (not that it is a bad flash).

My friend Erin was really in to making her own cards last year, and hence she accumulated a lot of gear and supplies for making said cards. Lots of punchs, fancy scissors, multiple types of cardstock, stamps, decorations – the list is almost endless. Last year, during Thing A DayI made a couple of cards there one day:

Yesterday I was hanging out with her, and I figured I would make another card as my thing. I actually think I was more advanced and ingenious last year, but here is the resulting card:

I wanted to go out and get coffee today, but I also realized it was a nice day to take a bit of a Walk. I also wanted to take a couple of pictures for my friends photo website, 52Clix, so I brought my camera with me. I was delighted to find some neat things within just a couple of blocks of home!

First of all, here is a typical view (well, it’s often a bit foggier, but Potrero Hill is remarkably clear so this view isn’t completely atypical) down Kansas street from 20th:

I walked down 20th to the park at the end of the street (Well, where it ends on Potrero Hill – 20th Street keeps going on the other side of Potrero Ave, but we’ll get to that soon). I walked around the clearing a bit, and found this nicely framed view of the Mission:

I walked down to the path that is a bit down the hill from the clearing, mostly to take a rather pedestrian photo of Sutro Tower, the big TV antenna that looms upon San Francisco like the Eye of Sauron. I rather like the way this one turned out, though. The street that goes out to the hill in the distances is the other section of 20th Street, which starts up again on the other side of Potrero Ave.

Now, when I was walking down there I noticed a garden area which was connected to the park. I walked to it and it was a community garden – The Potrero Hill Garden, and it is open to the public for viewing and appreciation. There wasn’t all too much growing of interest, but I found a cute statue with sunglasses:

And also, the bees!

And for a bit more context, here is a view looking up (East) from the back of the garden, towards the inhabited part of the hill:

After I was done in the garden, I thought I would walk down San Bruno, I knew had to end by Mariposa, but I figured I would just see what was there going down the street. I was pretty surprised to find a pedestrian overpass, crossing 101, at 18th street – even though I’d driven under it probably hundreds of times, and never thought to look for it. It’s actually a pretty neat bridge:

It’s also a shortcut towards my eventual destination, Coffee Bar. Instead of having to go all the way down to 17th street, and cut back to Mariposa, I can cross the expressway at 18th and not have to double back at all.

I’d never really walked down Potrero Ave before, so I thought I would walk back up to 20th street to see what the view up looked like. It’s actually pretty neat to look back up that way. In the photo below, the structure at the top is the shed at the back of the community garden:

After that, I meanderd over to Coffee Bar, to get my planned coffee and do some reading. I ended up getting some food and a beer after I finished the coffee – having such a choice of beverages handy is quite nice.

After a couple of hours, I headed back, cutting back up the overpass. I decided to walk down 18th Street to Kansas, and just cut up there. I happened to come across an open house at 18th and Rhode Island. I took a picture to remind me to look it up to see how much it was going for. Here is the house, which is pretty cute:

And next, the MLS listing for it. Yes, the house is listed at $725,000! I plan, just for my own amusement, to follow this house and see when it sells, and try to see how much it goes for.

The complete set of photos from my walk can be found here.

Also, when I got home, and looked up community gardens in San Francisco. It turns out there is one not too far from my place that might have open plots. I wonder if I should look in to that – it might be fun! Anyone have any opinions on that?