a spring country weekend April 19th-20th,2013

a piece of paradise on a cloudy, somewhat threatening Saturday

walking through a field of cyclamens as we foraged for wild asparagus

some ominous skies on Saturday

olive trees when the weather cleared a bit

our harvest of wild asparagus

a lone tulip we had planted many years ago, as Elizabeth reminded us

such pretty wild flowers everywhere

lovely lilacs

fruit trees in bloom

bumble bee on the apple tree, nature at work

incredible colors on the blossoms- picture perfect

beautiful day Sunday

the sky was incredibly blue at times

field of periwinkles

they covered a huge part of the hillside

apple tree in bloom

a lovely spring weekend with changing weather. Elizabeth and I foraged for wild asparagus while the guys did the heavy work roto-tilling and planting the garden. It looked great when they finished. Perfect  weekend, even if there if this a very tired weekend laborer this morning.

lots of hard weekend work

perfect planting

perfect pasta sauce

Papal Audience, April 17th, 2013

3 friends at the Papal Audience in the "reparto speciale" (special section)

Pope and the famous msgr George known for his good looks  

Papa Francesco during the audience

After audience was over greeting some of the crowd

always reaching out

leaving audience in the open pope mobile

happy nuns at papal audience

after the audience

lots of swiss guards around

Every Wed morning when the Pope is in town he holds a Papal audience. Some friends and I went to see the new Pope. Tickets are normally available and one obtains them beforehand. Getting in that morning is very hectic as the crowds are enormous and you are advised to get there 2 hours early so you can sit in the open sun baking away. Thank goodness we went in April.  The audience was a bit over an hour.  Was a nice, long morning.

Easter weekend in Bari, Italy 3/30-4/1/13

We arrived at lunch time Saturday and had a great fish lunch, including this cooked squid

Sea Urchins

There were tons of other plates of fish before dessert which was a sporca-mousse, delicious, melted in your mouth.

Strada arco basso where lots of Baresi ladies make pasta in their homes and sell it out in front on these tables.

 There were lots of orecchietti on sale

where we bought our pasta for our primo (first course) for easter dinner

street in Bari vecchia

rose window of the cathedral

plastic coverings come out over the laundry when rain threatens

Bari Cathedrale (di San Sabino) with some Saturday sun! Begun in the first half of the 11th century, Apulian Romanesque style

part of the side of the cathedrale. it is very large

inside of San Nicola Church

The lovely catthedra  (chair) from 1098 in San Nicola

lovely crypt of San Nicola

The relics of San Nicola, the patron saint of Bari, the roots for the modern Saint Nick. i.e Santa Claus. Relics were removed by the Baresi from Myra in Turkey, arrived in Bari on May 9th,1087. they wanted their city to become more prestigious after it had lost some of its power.

crypt has gorgeous ancient columns with byzantine sculpted capitals

San Nicola

The Minchilli family relaxing

outside of San Nicola

Side of San Nicola, with view straight to the sea

the travelers

view of Bari port

along the lungomare

getting ready to dye the eggs

our finished products

view from Domenico's mom's window. Great view of port, the cathedral and the petruzzi theatre

view from window

a buona pasqua egg

ruins under the cathedral, recently opened. There are Roman and early Christian mosaics,
ceramics from 14th -16th century, an ancient early middle ages church (9th-11th century) as well as medieval ruins. Great site.

6th century mosaic with a prayer, called mosaic of Timoteo, very large about 90 square meters.

Timoteo's mosaic

remains of a Roman road

Scavi  (ruins) below the church, walls of prior churches and roman road at the end

remains of a fresco

a piece of the byzantine wall

squid, part of timoteo's mosaic which displayed a lot of aquatic animals on the mosaic's border

octopus

our Easter table, set with antipasti

our post Easter dinner passaggiata (walk) along the lungomare

Bari

one of many fascist era buildings on the lungomare

 Bari's castle svevo

one of our many Easter desserts

pane e pomodoro beach where we walked to after Easter dinner

a 1900's copy of a 1500's  "Venetian" palace. The Venetians saved the Barese from the Saracens in 1002 and are important to the city.

view from Domenico's mom's apt at night

old city was very quiet on Pasquetta (day after Easter)

back side of cathedral (ruins are underneath this area)

small cathedral museum. had a wonderful "exultet" dating from the 9th century which was a parchment with prayers and song on it along with wonderful paintings. (no photos allowed)

remains of a fresco in cathedral

inside cathedral on morning after Easter, very quiet

view toward port with cruise ships in port, ruins of the church of San Pietro in front

pretty quiet corner of old Bari

was hard not to take photos of the water!

no sign on this one, just some more lovely old ruins of a church in the old city

center piece