St Valentine's town- Terni

So one sunday afternoon we took a trip out to visit some of Francesco's friends who live in Terni (1.5 hrs from rome). i was convinced we were headed towards a chocolate festival which turned out to be a chocolate lecture on the MOST interesting stuff, well not really, it was rather lengthy and boring and there was very little chocolate to taste but it was an adventure.

each town in italy has a patron saint and a patron saint day. thi town, Terni's patron saint is St valentine so valentines day is i think a big deal here, we were there on the sunday after valentines day on the thursday and all the lights and decorations were still up although we missed the chocolate market that had been up all week.. better that way anyway

i dont quite remember what this was for only that one of its uses was to put the corks on wine bottles... which i cant really believe. i think it was from a steel factory where it bent the metal- please correct me Raphaella

and then, in Terni they have this cool art place where  it is like an art centre which hosts exhibitions and events like the wine tasting event that was on at the time. there was a free exhibition on at the time, someones private collection was on display but the real gems were upstairs in a room tucked away

im not sure why they were here or where they had come from but these were some seriously old and interesting works. it was deserted and you could just wonder around on your own, if we had had some red paint we could have wreaked havoc and escaped without getting caught

the madonna started the fashion of painting on your eyebrows, i never knew. what was really different about these paintings was that it wasnt like a museum or church where the paintings far away on a wall or ceiling or behind an altar, they were all at eye level close enough to scrutinize and see exactly how the painter worked and how good they really were.

this was absolutely great and realistic altarpiece, they looked like real people and were almost lifesize and you could see how the different pigments had aged in different ways

i know it seems like nothing because it is only a photo youre seeing but it was really an experience to see it up close, every brush stroke

best part of this is the angels toupee

no, jou ma se caffe!

and taking the train home. Fraancesco has discovered that he can download and play games on my ipad. there goes my ipad

trainsporter

we had pizzas for dinner in Terni. this guy was serious, you can also buy pizza by the meter!

we are the dancing horses young and filly only seventeen of us da da dum da da dum

could be paris.. but its not its rome

this was one of the last events for the carnevale romana where these guys pranced around on horses

they also found these really tall people with stumpy feet to walk around. those stilts are still a mystery to me, are they strapped on, how do they get on them, do they strap in and then get hoisted up by someone else? the mind boggles! until next time on the life and times of the only south african in rome xxx