The last show in the "Tuscany Series" was more or less successfully recorded yesterday evening. I use the word recorded as opposed to broadcasted because apparently Ellen forgot to flick the switch which would have made the show live! I didn't realize this until I got home and Laura wanted to know if we did a show. I told her we did and I have a supposed DVD of the effort. I had a feeling something might have been up when I looked at one of the monitors and noticed the WPAT Channel 23 Logo was on the screen. Then I simply forgot to say something because generally I don't have much of an idea what goes on behind the console. Fortunately I did have the DVD. We went out for the evening and didn't get back into the house until after 11, but then I broke down and watched the show which was recorded well enough even though the volume was too low and the photos appeared to be not quite the usual standard. I went to sleep annoyed, once again (or I should say "yet again") determined to end the whole project. As usually occurs for me, after a good night's sleep (actually "good" might be stretching the point), I changed my mind and downloaded to my computer, uploaded to Youtube, and made copies for Woodstock Public Access and Panda TV (Tivoli, Red Hook, Rhinebeck, and Rhinecliff). Now I am putting the punctuation mark on show # 119 with the blog post!!
The experience of traveling around Tuscany with both Lidia and Luca has evolved to the point where that in itself is worth the trip to Italy. In this case last time we were in Italy we simply told both of them to take somewhere amazing. We were not disappointed. So for shows 117 and 118 Lidia was the hostess and architect of a wonderful afternoon, and for show 119 Luca planned the trip. As I indicated on the show last night, we had made an almost circular journey around the town of Volpaia when we were in Chianti in 2009 and again in 2010, but this time visited this almost perfectly charming town. The video of the show clearly shows our fascination with small, quaint Tuscan villages. All the towns came into existence as outposts during the various wars between rivals Florence and Siena during the Middle Ages and transitioned to vacation destinations in the late 20th century. Both Lidia and Luca chose extraordinary lunch locations, Lidia in Rignana and Luca in Volpaia. I described the later in great detail, even asking Luca in an email to indicate the various bruschette (plural for bruschetta). He and Mary, as Laura later reminded me, ordered appetizers only while I (for some reason) ordered a lasagne. Next time I will probably go along with whatever my friends choose. For our upcoming trip in late May/early June I have chosen Siena and again asked Lidia and Luca to take us to places that actually I have chosen. Maybe THAT is a mistake. We shall see.
I now pivot back to Lake Como doing the next two shows related to the town of Varenna, the first, # 120 related to day trips while staying in Varenna that were easy and very rewarding and # 121 yet another in the long line of "Then and Now" type presentations. I am excited although both are in moderate to severe states of incompleteness. I have my work ahead of me. Those last two will complete the material obtained from the trip we took in May and June of 2015.
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