Oct 19 Day 15 Citti di Castello

What an amazing eureka morning, when John and I were walking into the Tuesday morning market and ran into one of his Italian friends, a photographer, who offered to walk us to the home of his friend, a 91 year old painter named Mario Baragli.  Mario was formerly a lawyer and town mayor, and he was charming in addition to being extremely talented.   His paintings lined his home, which he showed us from his wheelchair, and while they were mostly watercolors, they were expertly done and quite extraordinary.  Mario gave each of us one of his books that contains photographs of his paintings, which were extremely generous gifts, and he signed it with notes to us that I cannot possibly translate (but hopefully will find someone who can).  I shall always treasure this book and the time that I had with this gentleman.

This round bell tower is a symbol of Citta di Castello, a gorgeous little medieval town.  It was constructed over several centuries... the bottom part is Romanesque (11th to 12th centuries) and the the upper part is Gothic (13th c). 

The signora in the museum gave me 2 keys and pointed towards the bell tower, which was narrow with a wooden spiral staircase.  The walk was a bit spooky, but it paid off because the view was spectacular - to me, much better than St Mark's in Venice (much more touristy, not as sweet a view).  The museum was a true gem, with the usual frescoes and Renaissance paintings, but also beautiful religious vestments, processional regalia, boxes, silver, manuscripts, etc. 

The churches, like all of them around here, are also lovely.

Tomorrow shall be another shopping day, but this time for ceramics, which should be more palatable to me.