Antonio Basilo

Who? One of the amazing thing about travel is that one gets to know about obscure artists. He was an artist, painter and journal writer. I love to see people's journals, their quick sketching and their thoughts. These are pictures from 3 years ago when I took my 2 neices to Italy. This was at an exhibition in a museum in Bologna. There were stacks and stacks of this man's journals, his paintings and all his work. He was so prolific in his work. I loved it. I only wished I could have spent more time there. This was also the trip when I saw Paul Morandi's work. He was another incredibly prolific painter. This was another very informative and inspiring trip.

Colorful dirt, Roussillon, France

When I travel, I love to see a riot of colors, I love loud noises, I love quirky, I love wild, the wilder the better. So a few years ago we made this special trip to Provence, France just to see the colorful dirt of Roussillon. They used to mine the dirt to make pigments, they don't anymore, now it's just a tourist attraction. Most artists know about this place and have made the pilgrimage here to paint and to draw. It's really pretty. I'm amazed that at home I hate color, color reminds me of clamoring, of strife. The palette at home is white or very muted where color is concerned. At home I want to be left alone, no noise, no color. Home is my refuge from the clamoring of the work place. I'm a pharmacist working in mental health and sometimes at work I wonder when I'm going to seek mental health for myself.
I'm going to Morocco, it's going to be noisy, colorful and wild, my criteria for a great place to visit. Right now, just leave me alone. My bank called, I'm rude,' what do you want? I'm already paid up my mortgage a few years ahead, I don't need more services, I don't need to buy anything, the last thing I need is to spend money. I just finished doing my taxes for 2009, the amount I pay in taxes, a lot of people don't even make that much. Thoreau said, '...we plow ourselves into the dirt....' It's ok if its colorful dirt! I work hard so I can pay for trips to places with colorful dirt.

Packing

I know some people like to put pompoms on their luggage or other distinguishing marks in order to easily identify them as they come out of the luggage chutes at airports. I like those pretty ribbons that are given out with expensive chocolates or expensive toiletries. These are prettier and serve the same purpose of easy identification. I'm packing another memory card to add on to the two 8 gb that I already have. I went to Best Buy, our local electronic store this morning and came back with an expensive one. 8 gb is not a whole lot of space. I prefer to use a few in case one is damaged or lost, I wouldn't lose all the pictures of that trip that I would if I used a 16gb to hold everything. I asked the salesperson the difference between a class 6 that I have and the class 4 that they sell. He said, faster download or upload. He sold me a class 10 that cost twice as much as the class 4. Who would have thought there is technology involved in memory cards. So now I have three, a class 2, a class 6 and my new class 10. A few years ago, a camera to me is just a camera, a 35mm piece of gadget. Today it is something much more. Tomorrow? Who Knows.

Do you get homesick?

Sophie said, she misses home after a few days into each trip. Do I get homesick? No, because I know however long the trip maybe, it will end and I'll be heading home. I've been doing this for over ten years making 2 trips abroad every year. So no, I don't get homesick. Home is wherever I am, here or abroad. One thing I do is to bring a favorite object from home with me, something small. This way, in a way, I always have home with me. A few of my books to read, my journal, a plastic bag from the drugstore (I bring my work with me) or a favorite magazine to thumb through during the trip. Most if not all the time I'm too occupied with details of the trip that I have no time to feel homesick. I have to locate the hotel, I have to get train tickets or bus tickets to get to the next destination. I plan the trip and the details and it's always up to me to stay on track. So I'm much too occupied most of the time.I do intend to take longer trips in future, I don't know if then I'll get homesick. Maybe.

Matera

These were taken years ago, four to be exact, in the days when my skills as a photogragher was a little lacking. It has improved somewhat over the last 2 years. The third picture was taken outside the hotel room. This was the 'Sassi' community of Matera. They are a cave dwelling community, the houses are made into the ravine and for years were abandoned. They have experienced a rennaisance, city folks have come back to rehab these old caves into homes, hotels and restaurants. It's become a Unesco World Heritage site. It is an awe inspiring place. When we arrived by train from Bari, we arrived at the new town. We went to the tourist office and was pointed the way to the 'Sassi' which was below the new town in the ravine. It was so amazing and we had to haul our luggage down lots of rugged steps to our 'Sassi' hotel which is a collection of caves that has been refurbished and was absolutely beautiful, modern and comfortable. This is still one of the most amazing places we've visited, after having been to so many more fascinating places. The only reason I even know about this place was after viewing the movie, 'The passion of the Christ'. It was filmed on location here and I thought the location was so hauntingly beautiful and decided I have to visit. So the following year we found our way to Naples and then on a train to Bari in Southern Italy. From Bari there is a small train company that runs regular services between Bari and Matera.
It was on this same trip that we visited Alberobello and Leece. Leece is another fascinating place with gorgeous baroque buildings. It was in Leece that I fell in love with baroque architecture and it led to two trips to Sicily for its baroque churches. This is leading me onward farther and farther away......talk about the power of contagion!
If you haven't seen the movie 'The passion of the Christ'. See it just for the location if not for the message. You'll find yourself on your way to Matera too.

Alberobello

Southern Italy holds treasures that very few has seen. It's always those who are intrepid that has experiences different from the rest. For some reason tropical beaches hold no sway with me. I was chatting with my neighbors a few days ago about their vacation. All they could say was they were robbed in Hawaii and Cancun, 'ah, its OK'. The only way to have experiences like this is to venture outside what the travel channels on cable television shows you. They get their revenue from advertisements and most if not all their featured pieces are actual paid advertisements. Years ago we were in Southern Italy and went to Alberobello to see the 'trulli' village. It was a fascinating sight, to think people lived in houses like that and still do after hundreds of years. The reason was to avoid the tax man. When the taxman cometh, they would dismantle the houses, it's just a bunch of slabs stacked on top of each other and after he leaves, put them back again to live in. This way they don't get taxed because what the taxman saw was not a house. It still seemed unreal looking at these pictures again but we were there, taking these pictures. I took them.

A Farmers' market, Yunnan, China

That's a whole lot of chilli peppers. Food in Southern China is hotter than in the North. After a breakfast of soupy noodles, chicken feet and tripe, I hopped into a taxi and asked to be driven to outside of town to a farmers' market. I was staying in a fancy hotel in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province. Breakfast was included and there was a section where they served Western food, cereal, toast, eggs and the whole nine yards. There was another section hat served Chinese food, congee, noodles, dumplings, steamed chicken feet (yum) and tripe (yum). I had my fill of soupy noodles, tripe and chicken feet. The Chinese who drove the taxi and I agreed on a price and off we went. I looked at the licence on top of the dashboard, the picture was not of him. I questioned him about it, he reached over, turned it around and his picture was on the other side. The taxi is being driven by him and his uncle, they drive a 12 hour shiff each. When I go abroad I'm always impressed by how hard people work. It pushes me to work hard. We need to travel, not just to see the sights but also to see how hard life is, to see the struggles of people and be impressed and come back with lessons learned.

Catania, Sicily

Three years ago we made two trips to Sicily. We went in March and loved it so much, we returned in October that same year. This is a record of our second trip. We stayed with the same hostel people on both trips except this trip the main hostel was full. It's always full because it is so cheap, 46 euros for 2 people. It's run by a Dutchman and his Sicilian family and it is close to the train station. They own another apartment 50 meters away and that was where we stayed. Not much of luxury but look at the view. The main hostel has no view but this annex had this view of the sea and the train tracks. This time we felt like locals, we knew where everything was. It was raining that first morning when we went in search of breakfast. Arancino, that was what we were looking for, the Sicilian specialty of rice balls filled with ham or mince beef. We first tasted Arancino in Naples, the year before this trip. We took bites out of the Arancini and realised we should have taken a picture first, we put them down, took the picture, that's why you see that they have biten into. An hour and a half away from Catania, on the bus is Piazza Amerina, a little nondescript hilltown with no claim to fortune except a few miles away they found a Roman villa. It was covered in mud and restoration has been going on ever since. Villa Casale Romana, as it is called. It is a huge complex and restoration work on the tiled floors is going on.
The amazing seafood and the bread should be plenty reason to visit Sicily. I'm glad we stayed here because this area is not touristy, it caters only to the working locals and next to the hostel is this great restaurant. I never found out why Sicilians bake their bread in the afternoon, so when you go out to dinner, there's freshly baked bread at every corner and they make the most delicious bread. I simply adore Sicily.
While there is an airport in Palermo and there's another one in Trapani on the west coast, the main airport in and out of Sicily is in Catania.