Future Shows

My loyal viewers and readers deserve a lot of credit for keeping me going. I would like to thank all of you for your support. Although I only sometimes receive e-mails from my fans, I can see how many people read the blogs and watch the shows. I am very gratified, and it provides the added motivation I need to sustain the project.

As you all know my wife, Laura and I returned from Italy this past June with over two thousand photos, most of which are stunning! It has been our pleasure subsequently to fashion them into future broadcasts. How is this accomplished you might ask? Laura begins the process by editing all of the photos and placing them on a hard drive for me to transfer to my computer. This took a couple of weeks. Then my first step is to create large albums (perhaps 600 or more photos) of the four places we visited, so that I started with albums representing Cinque Terre, Western Tuscany, Florence, and Lake Como. The second step is to go through every photo once just to become acquainted once again with the places we visited thinking ahead to future broadcasts. The third step is to create smaller albums representing the intended shows I wish to create. The fourth step is to hone those albums into what will eventually become a future broadcast. The fifth and final step, which will not occur until a week or two before a scheduled broadcast is to hone once again to create the actual show. While I am performing this final step, in all probability I am doing research for some of the places with which I am not well acquainted. At this time I begin to take notes which I will use on the actual show. It is then possible for me to tweak further a few times during the final hours, just to make certain everything is the way I want it to be. When I am confident, comfortable, and somewhat relaxed (not totally as you well know), then I set everything aside and hope for the best!

The past week I worked towards step four, and although not quite ready, I have arrived at a tentative schedule for the next year. I say tentative because I can never be sure who may want to be a guest on the show or what sudden idea I may have. For example, when I found out that Professor Eve D'Ambra was willing to do a show on Pompeii, which as you know is scheduled for August 8, I set aside everything to accommodate her. Nonetheless, it behooves me to now list the upcoming shows until and through most of the spring.

Show # 97: Pompeii with Professor Eve D'Ambra (Friday, August 8)
# 98: Varenna on Lake Como
# 99:  Divine Life on Lake Como: Bar il Molo
#100: Special 100 Anniversary Special: A Evening to Remember - Dinner with Simone and Silvia at Sala Comacina
# 101: Villa Melzi on Lake Como

I chose the Lake Como material first deviating from my usual chronological approach to our trips, since it is possible Simone may come to the United States to be on a show live and I wanted to set the stage for that event.

# 102: Return to Cinque Terre: Boating Along the Coast
# 103: Monterosso al Mare, Part 1 - The Old Town
# 104: Monterosso al Mare, Part 2 - The New Town
# 105: Boat Trip and Afternoon at The Beautiful Town of Portovenere
# 106: Return to Western Tuscany: Lucca
# 107: Return to the Alpi Apuane, Part 1: Castelnuovo di Garfagnana
# 108: Return to the Alpi Apuane, Part 2: The Castelnuovo Fortezza and Eglio-Sassi
# 109: Tuscany with Lidia Part 1: Montecarlo
# 110: Tuscany with Lidia Part 2: Serravalle
# 111: Tuscany with Lidia Part 3: San Miniato
# 112: Tuscany with Lidia Part 4: The Town of Vinci and a Look at It's Native Son
# 113: The Streets of Rome
# 114: Selected Renaissance Art at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC
# 115: My Favorite Sculpture Museum in Florence: The Bargello
# 116: Shopping in Florence

At two shows a month, this should bring us into the month of May, ready for the next trip which is too tentative to discuss now.

I hope you enjoy the coming year complete with my best attempt at quality shows and very readable blogs about my experiences broadcasting Alan's Italy. I have now exceeded 15,400 views on Youtube, and 6,100 reads of this blog. I have planned about a half dozen trips for people, and have advised countless others on smaller segments. Although I have cut back on my lectures, library forums, and courses on Italy, as you know, I am now also heavily involved in my life's career of college teaching in mathematics which begins again, I hope, soon.

Thanks for everything!!

Warmest wishes,

Alan