Ciao to my many followers, probably just Pierce, I love you! I have been in Cortona now for almost 2 months. It began very warm, the days were long and hot, perfect for evening runs or jaunts through the forest with the many wild boar friends of mine. Many adventures I have had here. But alas, now the weather is changing, cloudy days melt into cold, dark lightness as the sun departs across the vista. Somehow each day woodchips, bronze dust, and plaster find their way into my hair, burrowing like lice or those lovely little aphids on plants or chiggers that dig their way into your skin. Meanwhile my palms and the soft under part of my arms are permanently coated with charcoal and dark-room chemicals, so I become an inverse black person that smells like a bad case of formaldehyde. Apart from all of this, Italy retains its charm and beauty, not phased a bit from the grunge and dirt that inhabit its lovely spaces. Even rats here seem elegant and medieval, like they just ran out of the pages of a story book and if you look close enough, they are actually made of water and pigment, kind of like the frescoes on every wall in every church here. Buona notte tutti. Arrivaderci.
