A Wonderful and Unexpected Achievement

Alan's Italy is proud to announce that we have gone over 10,000 views on my Youtube Channel !!! I would never have believed this when we began production in mid December 2011. I am grateful for the support I have received in the town of Woodstock, the neighboring Hudson Valley, and online via Youtube. Youtube itself has been wonderful to me over the months, and I wish to thank them as well. The show is still not for profit, strictly public service in design and execution, and will never deviate from that model that was created at the outset when the idea first began to germinate in my mind during the spring of 2011. I have endeavored, as you are quite aware from reading my blogs, to create an informative, interesting, and quality production for people of all ages who are inquisitive about the wonders of Italy. The attainment of such a considerable number of views is validation that I have succeeded and I am extremely pleased that my efforts are not in vain. I have enjoyed the process very much, although there have been many rocky times, most of which I have written about in these pages. I hope to continue to keep the show going through the years and to provide the same quality production despite the time constraints I now have, and the really considerable work that is entailed to be imaginative, productive, and interesting for my audience. In the meantime, I wish to thank you who read this blog regularly from the bottom of my heart !!! You are part of my audience that means the most to me personally and professionally, and I will always be very grateful to you.

A Wonderful Experience Becomes a Reality, Finally

I began to realize this show, # 81: Citta della Pieve, was going to be a little weak on significant images, historical background, and material in general to sustain a 50 minute show, as the week progressed. I added a segment on News From Italy, an idea I had actually begun to include into the show a while back not only to create some "filler," but also as an interesting way to focus on the current situation in various parts of Italy. My friend Luca always sends me the Florentine Newspaper which has a lot of current events in that great city. I liked the idea of finding an extension for the show in this manner, so added four segments in that regard, one on the recent eruption of Mt Etna, two on Venice, and one on the trial of the captain of the Costa Concordia, the cruise ship that ran aground off the coast of Western Tuscany. I then began to embellish the show with as much historical background as I could considering Citta della Pieve was not one of the most famous Italian Hill Towns. I also intended to give my usual background of why we visited this town. The latter was one of my favorite stories, and I made the most of that throughout the show.

When I arrived at the studio and saw the empty parking lot, I was cheered by the fact that obviously there would be no major events at the Woodstock Community Center that evening. Whew ! I immediately settled down, because sometimes the noise is really annoying. Well, just as the show was about to begin we heard the occasional sounds of castanets and the tap-tap-tap of that Flamenco dancer who sometimes practices in the empty community center. Throughout the show I was constantly having a difficult time concentrating with that horrid noise. Of course, as I have explained many times, being in such close proximity to the community center, we,  the Woodstock Public Access Television Producers, must always know that we may be sharing the whole space with people who have an equal right to the facilities, so I just gritted my teeth and bore the burden. Throughout the show I felt very distracted and had a very, very hard time concentrating. I just knew my discomfort would come through on the video.

When I came home Laura told me it was a good show, but I felt that it was probably going to be disappointing. I just viewed the first half hour, and was pleasantly surprised at how professional I sounded. It is obvious that after almost two years of broadcasting, perhaps I have come to deal with small annoyances with a certain level of acceptance and aplomb. That was great to see. Meanwhile the experience of having first "discovered" Citta della Pieve seven years ago, always vowing to return and finally doing so came across very well. I looked forward to including a whole show on that amazing small town in north central Umbria, just east of the Tuscan border for a long time. Ellen loved the "News From Italy," the general tour of this charming town, and the restaurant scenes. I liked the show and now have finished the three-part series on the towns of Central Italy we visited during our most recent visit. I now turn to my next show, which remember, will not be the usual next week, but two weeks hence. I am now on an every other week schedule. The show will be very different, a number of videos one after the other taking the viewer on a rather stunning series of water rides down the "Main Street" of Venice, the Grand Canal. Although the viewer will also hear the sounds of the great pathway from the train station to the lagoon, I will also be narrating as we go along. In addition to seeing the sights and hearing the commentary, the audience will also see how the experience of taking a vaporetto ride by a passenger occurs. Some great scenes, and the pure excitement of Venice punctuate this very unique broadcast in two weeks.

I also will be honing several of the upcoming shows namely the Ric Hirst narration of the incredible Orvieto Cathedral and my three shows on the 19th century photos of Italy broken down into three parts, Florence, Part 2, Tuscany, and Italy in general. Then Ric is back with his take on the Doors of the Florence Baptistery, and his extremely amazing photos of the former Roman town of Carsulae, rarely visited and hardly known. I will also try once again to create the show about the Venice Biennale which occurred at Giardini and Arsenale. The problem here is that I have so much material and very little knowledge of contemporary art that I may not be able to do this. I keep trying. Stay tuned !

Laura's Idea Turns Into a Show

Usually I plan trips we take to Italy, and then speak with Laura to refine the idea, choose hotels, and destinations. It is really very much a joint project, and then I go about the nitty gritty work of obtaining flights, hotels, rental cars, and other reservations. This time Laura made friends with an Italian artist, Matteo Cocci, and that relationship which had been nurtured over the internet eventually became a visit to one of the great Tuscan Hill Towns, Colle di Val d'Elsa, which is south southwest of Florence. Show # 80 tells this story complete with an extraordinary video interview with Matteo and the owner of the gallery Arte A Colori, Francesca Sensi, which was exhibiting his work at the time of our visit in May. We designed this show before we even left the United States with a visit to the town itself and taking what I projected would be some extraordinary photos, going to the gallery in which Matteo was exhibiting, trying to do an interview on video, and then having lunch with him and his wife (which turned out to be his whole family). What had been planned at home became almost the replica of the eventual show. Although not an unusual occurrence based on my penchant for heavy planning, it was almost to the T the exact design. Even the part where my friend Luca would drive us to the town and do the translating had been factored into the concept. Actually the only part about which we were unsure was the inclusion in this excursion of our two traveling companions, Barbara, Laura's cousin and Barbara, our friend from Woodstock. The absence of Luca's partner, Mary, permitted the extra room.

The show came off without a hitch, among the very few perfect shows, and except for an inadvertent grammatical error I made that few would even pick up, my performance was very pleasing to me. Ellen did a perfect job as well, as I just viewed it at first totally and then skipping around. I believe my fans will find it very pleasing as well. I would really like to thank Luca for driving us to a gallery which even he had trouble finding in not remote Tuscany, but certainly an area much less traveled by most Tuscan tourists. Also my appreciation goes to Matteo and Francesca for their kindness to us. Colle is in an area in which I have visited many times making stops at nearby Siena, Monteriggioni, and San Gimignano, and even Volterra a bit further west and perhaps north. I loved the way the town looked in photos I had studied. There are two sections, a lower part where the scalo district is located where the industrial areas usually are located and an upper area, Colle Alta, where the medieval castle and buildings make this one of the most picturesque towns in Central Italy. The streets, buildings, and well preserved walls are absolutely charming and beautiful, and I believe all of that is captured in tonight's show.

Meanwhile this was show # 80, an amazing milestone considering I originally rejected the idea of a tv show when first presented to me many years ago. However, tonight Ellen and I spoke of a major modification in the weekly format. Because I am too busy to spend a lot of time planning new shows, and the fact that really there may be a limit to my ability to formulate newer and near ones, we decided that after next week we will do a once every two weeks original show and intersperse reruns throughout. This will give me the ability to sustain a continuous show until after Laura and I return from the projected trip in very late May, early June 2014. During that trip will once again endeavor to discover new and unique shows by visiting a plethora of small Tuscan and Ligurian towns, and also Lake Como. Since after we return I am able to put together enough shows for about 25 new shows, a once a week format makes sense. I will will still try to give my viewers quality, fun, and picturesque presentations, however, and it should be the same wonderful experience for me and for them.

Back on the Air

After a three week hiatus it was good to be back on the air doing my weekly show. It has been a wonderful respite, however, thinking about just how important this show is not only to me, but to my audience, which appears to be growing. I also had the chance, of course, to really get into my return to mathematics teaching realizing how much I loved my life's work, and realizing that I probably will noit wish to ever leave again except for illness, serious or otherwise.

Tonight's show was the opening episode of a three-part tour of Central Tuscan Towns near Florence beginning with Pistoia, a lovely town about 25 miles west of Florence, and the home of my dear friend, Lidia's sister and brother. In her brother Mario's house were we treated to a fine lunch cooked by Anna Lisa, Mario's wife and Lidia's sister, Chiara, both are outstanding Italian chefs. The lasagne they cooked was unreal, but just about everything was also. What a wonderful family she has. I just viewed the show and it was flawless except for a minor flub which everyone will realize was just a transposition of words. Instead of using the word "hospital", I said, "church" because I had churches on my mind. Except for that slight flub, I was completely pleased. The production by Ellen was absolutely her at her best. Also when I got home and downloaded it to my computer I noticed that the latest version of Handbrake, the software I use for such a process, gave me a better copy of the show off the DVD. When my computer tech, Dan, gave me the software after I switched computers, he had changed the settings, not because he thought these were better, but because he couldn't recall which settings he used two years ago. The result was that it now takes longer to download from DVD to computer, 20 minutes instead of 10 minutes, but the finished quality is definitely much better. So that is quite a bit serendipity for me. Now in the process of uploading to Youtube.

The evening was not without its problems. First there was a theatrical group rehearsing a play next door in the community center which caused some noise, but before we actually started. Then later there was a loud noise of dancing and screaming right in the middle of the show. And still later Ellen heard something like people on the roof of the center which, of course, houses the TV studio. Maybe Halloween is arriving earlier than expected. In the past I might have stopped to explain the noise to the audience, but this time I just trudged on, sighing within, but not skipping a beat nonetheless.

Next week we continue with the current series with our visit to Colle di Val d'Elsa and our visit and lunch with Laura's friend Matteo Cocci. He was appearing at a gallery there, Arte a Colori, and we have a wonderful interview with him and the gallery owner. Laura met Matteo on Facebook ! Imagine that. It started as a search for new artists, and ended with a visit to one of the really unique Tuscan towns. The town lies in the Central Tuscany area not far from San Gimignano, Monteriggioni, and the bus center town of Poggibonsi. I came across this town when I was researching San Gimignano many years ago and vowed to pay it a visit someday. Thanks to Laura that became a reaility. Had it not been for her meeting Matteo on Facebook, that would never have taken place. Colle has a lower town (ugly) and an upper town (stunningly beautiful). We, of course, toured the upper one. Tune in.

Interim Report: Fun teaching, hiatus in broadcasting, and recalling a mistake

Although I am having a great time returning to teaching, I still think about future and past shows, mostly past ones. I was watching the show on La Grotta di Leo last night before I went to sleep, and noticed that I had referred to the restaurant as a Rosticceria. Since I have been dining there for 18 years, and surely know that it is not that at all, my preoccupation was, "why would I say that?" I came to the conclusion as I watched the show that throughout that experience I kept thinking that I was actually doing a show on La Spada, which IS a Rosticceria. A Rosticceria incidentally is a part restaurant, part take out with a lot of the food under glass at the counter so people can choose what they want. La Grotta di Leo has no counter as La Spada does, and as I watched the show, I kept saying, "where is the counter ?" These are my two restaurants of choice in Florence, so I sometimes in my mind mix them up, especially on the air with the thousands of things going through my mind as they always do. Although I look very relaxed, my mind is constantly going trying very hard to be what I am never, perfect. Doing a live show, as I have said, has many pitfalls. The fun of spontaneity and whatever happens is there, but feeling is somehow mitigated by the fear that anything can go wrong anytime, and I can say the wrong thing at times. Fortunately it is cable access, not commercial TV so in all likelihood nobody was watching anyway. Most people wouldn't even notice, except perhaps when I put it on Youtube, the restaurant people would notice and be bewildered. I don't know if that happened, but the fact that in two weeks over 50 people have seen the show on Youtube, in all probability some of those people are the workers and owner of La Grotta di Leo and perhaps friends of theirs. I e mailed them the link, but have heard nothing back. I feel like telling them not to worry about my inadvertent misrepresentation of their eating establishment, but who knows if they would ever see the subsequent show when that would be done, or even if they would read my next e mail to them. I will try to e mail them and see what happens and report back.

In the meantime I am working on future shows. In fact I came to the conclusion that if I keep going at the rate of three shows a month, I will run out by February. Egads !!!! I may have to cut back even further. Ric and I have some lined up, but I have stopped soliciting guests who might want to be on, because 99 % of them never get around to that for whatever reason. My next three shows are being honed, that is Pistoia, Colle di Val d'Elsa, and Citta della Pieve. All three will focus on Central Italy's splendid smaller towns, and places which hold a special place in my travels. Of course, they will be from my point of view, Pistoia concentrating on our visit to Lidia's family's house for lunch with ample photos of them having a great time, Colle with our videoing Laura's friend, Matteo Cocci and his gallery show at Arte a Colori, and Citta della Pieve with its great restaurant, Taverna Perugino, and Laura and my experience with that wonderful Umbrian hill town since our first accidental visit in 2006. Then I return to the Venice Biennale, Ric's talk on the Orvieto Cathedral, and now we are into early December.

Meanwhile I love teaching college students mathematics and now think my taking a three-year break was one of the worst decisions of my life !!! How ridiculous I was. I could have been appropriately challenged and inspired and making some money to boot. Why did I think I needed a three year break ? One year perhaps, but not three. Also, I am not independently wealthy. I am a middle class guy who likes to live the good life, so isn't money needed for that ? Duh !!!! Thank God I am back, however, and hope to never quit again. I love the students and they really need some good math teaching as I can provide without much problem. They are now starting to achieve at a higher level and as the semester progresses, you can see them mature mathematically and gain confidence. It is really quite a sight to see, a wonderful experience. How I ever thought to end that is really beyond my ken !!!

A Turning Point for Alan's Italy: Albeit Minor

When we returned from the trip last June, we came home with about 40 video interviews including those from the Venice Biennale, Ristorante La Grotta di Leo, the merchant friends in Orvieto of Franco Sala among others. We are now down to final few, and the nature of the shows will change from shows with a predominance of video interviews to the regular shows of places to which people are more accustomed. Also, I have decided to cut down on the quantity of broadcasts to perhaps 2 or 3 a month. This to allow me to spend time preparing in my "new" job of college professor, and not be so pressured to compose new shows. Therefore I now take a three week break to regroup, prepare new shows, and just take a breather. Other than vacation time, this will be the first hiatus of such length in almost two years of producing Alan's Italy.

That being said I do have some great ideas, excellent photos, a few more videos, and the time now to develop good stuff. In that regard I will now turn to exploring the Tuscan hill towns of Pistoia, Colle di val d'Elsa, and Citta della Pieve. This will not be easy, because I have very little knowledge of these places. I do have quite a few photos, and, of course, some stories of the reason why we chose these places. As you know, when I choose a place to visit, there is always quite a bit of background. That story needs to be told in order to place everything in perspective, not only for my audience, but for me as well to get into the right frame of mind. I have a show yet to be properly developed concerning the Venice Biennale at the Arsenale and Giardini areas that I have yet to do. Plus I have the two books with the 19th century photos of Italy by the Alinari Brothers, who pioneered photograph in Italy in the 1800's. I also have a few shows that I had created back several months ago such as the Streets of Florence focussing on my favorite places to stroll and why. Also, I have many shows, as yet undeveloped which will require help from my friend Ric Hirst to narrate. In that regard there are endless numbers, but certainly at least ten I have written down. All of these should bring me up to next May when again we travel to Italy. For that trip I have a rough idea of what we want to do, but there are many loose ends. When a decision is reached, which may not be for a while, I will discuss it in this blog.

Meanwhile last night's show has been uploaded to Youtube, but alas, I forgot to edit out the first period of 43 seconds which is devoid of sound. Now, why is there always a period of time without sound, you might ask. Picture this scene. Ellen turns on the tape machine, whispers, "quiet on the set," and then takes anywhere from 25 - 45 seconds to give me the signal to begin the opening slideshow. This, of course, must be edited out, the only editing process I have mastered. After that is accomplished, the two videos I uploaded last night, shows 77 and 78, will be history, and I can turn to my other projects for the future. Last night I tried something unusual for me, broadcasting without a sport jacket. I had no reason for this change. My original shows had a lot of no jacket sessions, but my daughter told me she liked me better with a jacket, so I changed, but now I wanted to see how it looked. Frankly now that I saw that, I decided I also liked the jacket better, so that may change next time around back to the jacket.

There are times when I get tired of the routine. Yet when I see the numbers of people continuing to go to the Youtube channel and the numbers increasing (now approaching 10,000 views !), I get reinvigorated. I believe that the Alan's Italy project is really quite amazing, and I would be unhappy to leave it. I will, however, as I have said, cut back somewhat. Meanwhile I am fully involved in my second go around for college teaching, and now will continue with my 32 year at the college and 42nd of teaching generally, still a great privilege to help young people reach their goals.

Great Food, Great Restaurant, and Some Wonderful Interviews

Last May we convinced several of the people at our favorite informal restaurant, La Grotta di Leo on via della Scala, to let us interview them to use as a basis for a future show. Those interviews along with photos and recollections of 18 years of great experiences comprise Alan's Italy Show # 77 which has finally been posted to Youtube after some fancy editing by Ellen, my Engineer. The show features interviews with the owner, the pizza chief, and the oldest waiter and one of the newest. The interviews are fascinating give the viewers a clear picture of a fabulous pizzeria/ristorante in the heart of Florence.

Of course we have had to wait an extra week posting, because somehow a period of one minute of blackness encompassed the screen, for which Ellen had no explanation, but was happy to bring it home and edit. That is one thing I have been unwilling to learn, how to edit, and much to my disadvantage, have had to either let an imperfect show stay that way or allow Ellen to do it for me. Of course, I could have learned how to execute an edit the same way I learned just about every other aspect of cable TV production, but just felt that considering the whole affair was informal and a "hobby" that I didn't want to spend hours a week producing the show. Nonetheless, Ellen did a perfect job being an expert and very experienced videographer.

So taking its place alongside my other restaurant show, La Spada, this show probably exceeds that one in that these interviews are sweet, informal representations of who works at this marvelous place where I have been dining for parts of three decades going back to before the current crew were there in the mid '90's. Located down the block from my hotel Croce di Malta and Lidia's store, Gioia Chiara, I happened upon it one day and have been dining at all hours since then. It main qualities are fabulous pizza, excellent pasta, an extensive menu, an outdoor section, clean and appealing dining, and I think best of all hours that extend well beyond the usual restaurant/pizzeria in Italy beginning to serve in the late morning and extending all the way into the wee hours of the next morning. Personally I have eaten there over 50 times at most hours of the day. When I was single and hated dining alone, I would get there around 5 PM before most larger groups arrived and have a fine meal, usually alone in the restaurant. It was one of the few places open at that early hour of the evening. I also to this day love their pizza, which affords over 30 varieties not even counting odd concoctions that the diner can come up with combining any of the ingredients listed and some not.

he next blog will focus on the show I did this evening, so stay tuned.