An Unexpected Boat Ride Becomes a Show

Being the type of person who likes to plan ahead, once we embarked upon the boat trip to Portovenere from where we were staying in Monterosso al Mare last May, I was delighted to find that we could most likely develop this into a broadcast. My intent, as I indicated on last evening's show, was to take the train to Levanto which would have been perhaps a twenty minute trip by train. This would doubtless have been a show anyway, but when the train strike derailed (pardon the pun) that attempt, I realized that we had something even better. Most people get to see the amazing villages that make up Cinque Terre from the land, mainly because the boats do not run for most of the year. However, in nice weather, we lucked out and had a fabulous view of the Ligurian Coast, completely unexpected. Also at the end of the ride was our main destination, Portovenere, also a future show. But how can we simply show the coast for a entire broadcast? I decided that we needed another show about Cinque Terre. After all the last one had been over 2 1/2 years ago, # 10, and this would be more complete with the view from the sea, and adding the previously unvisited town of Corniglia which we skipped the last time we were there back in 2009. Actually I was going to develop the photos of Corniglia into a separate show, but then thought better of it and decided to weave those pictures in a larger show about the entire region. Thus what was presented was a really wonderful travel summary of one of the great areas in Italy, Cinque Terre, which in English means Five Lands. So I combined land and sea photos, threw in a couple of fun videos from the boat, gave a more detailed description of where this area was in relation to the entire country, and created a really fine broadcast, and very helpful to anyone about to visit the region, complete with advice on how to travel to this remote location and once there how to get around.

The main problem I encountered was what to do about the two shows I have planned which will focus strictly on the town in which we stayed in May 2014, Monterosso al Mare, one of the five villages. In those shows I am using videos as a main basis for the broadcast, but also had a lot of newer photos of this wonderful place to stay. I decided that I would give a brief glimpse of that town, much shorter than the views I gave of the other four, especially Corniglia, and then do the more detailed analysis of Monterosso later. This we get to see the New Town and Old Town only for a short time. I will talk more about how I developed that concept in the blogs which focus on shows # 103 and # 104. In that creation I will do one show on the Old Town and one on the New Town, mainly because the two videos are so wonderful as I interview two really amazing people, the owner of the hotel in which we stayed Hotel Villa Steno, Matteo Pasini and the owner of the bar, Colpi di Timone, along the beach where we met that owner, Giancarlo Basso. As luck would have it the hotel is located in the Old Town and the bar in the New Town, thus perfectly placed for those two shows.

Meanwhile when I pulled up to the studio, there was a huge trailer that was parked right where we usually put our cars while we are inside the studio. I knew this meant that the studio renovation was nearing its commencement. So first all the studio equipment will be squeezed into the new location, then they will start the renovation. Ellen indicates that we will not be able to broadcast for a while as the inside of the trailer becomes the new, albeit temporary home of Woodstock Public Access Television. I told her a smaller studio does not bother me at all, since after all, what do I need, just a table, a camera, and some controls. Who cares how much space there is. The problem will be that the tech people will have to get the work done to move everything over. So there could be a hiatus when there is no Alan's Italy and no subsequent blog that usually accompanies that. I am a prisoner of whatever is going to occur!!!! I will keep you posted.

A New Blog

If you like the Alan's Italy Blog and my writing and the former TV show the West Wing, then please check out my new blog, Alan's West Wing Reflections at alanswestwing.blogspot.com.

Reasons for Cancellation

My apologies to my many readers of this blog for canceling Alan's Italy this week, and therefore forestalling the writing of the blog regarding the show. My engineer, Ellen, and I have come down with fierce colds that prevented us from going forward. I probably could have performed last evening, just as I actually went to work in the city the day before (a horrible experience under the circumstances), however, it may have been madness, so, what the heck, we just postponed a week. Therefore, those of you who either enjoy reading the blog or watching the show will have to wait until Friday, October 24 for Alan's Italy Show # 102, Cinque Terre Revisited. In fact I couldn't even do my usual last minute modifications in the presentation, because I was literally in bed yesterday all day. After setting up the album I was to use for the broadcast, I decided to add some things and change the presentation, which I couldn't do. Now I will have the time to work on honing the final product which could make for a better show overall. I hope you tune in.

Finally a Show About Bellagio

After two weeks of stewing in my juices about the major mistake I made on show # 100, I finally got a chance to correct the error. As you may remember, I indicated that the "eastern fork of Lake Como" was really the Western Fork. I was happy that is out of the way.

Meanwhile, I focused on Bellagio after three straight shows related to Varenna. I realized that I had hundreds of photos of Bellagio, but never really spent much air time showing too many and discussing my many visits. I actually had decided to break the idea into two parts, a show about Bellagio and then another just about the Villa Melzi which we just recently visited back in June. When Laura saw the breakdown, she indicated that I needed to combine the two. I also then came to the conclusion that I could not have sustained two 50 minutes shows, added the Villa Melzi photos to the Bellagio show which made more sense anyway, and off I went.

The show was perfectly engineered by Ellen, and after seeing the show myself realized that it was almost perfect on my end as well except for indicating that the sculpture at the Villa Melzi was neoclassical when in reality it could have been originals from ancient times. I should have looked that up.  A small error, but otherwise a nice smooth broadcast. I am now for the most part finished with Lake Como, four shows in total.

I now turn to Cinque Terre for what may turn out to be probably four shows, the coastal boat ride which will give me a chance to review the entire Cinque Terre experience, which I had produced early in 2012 as one of the first shows, two shows on Monterosso al Mare, and another on the stunning town of Portovenere which is just south of Cinque Terre. I have a lot of photos of the only town we did not visit in 2009 Corniglia, but not yet sure if that will be a separate show or rolled into the Cinque Terre Boat Ride Show.