The Glassblower of Murano

Some time ago I got an sms from a friend - "I am enjoying my days on Jersey with The Glassblower of Murano. This is a book I know you will love."
As soon as she came home from vacation she brought me the book, and last week I started to read it. And was immediately transformed back to Venezia and Murano and the art of glassblowing.

You never know when a friendship is due to develop, and I had no idea the day Terje, Marta and I zigzagged through the calles of Venezia suddenly ending up outside a tiny little glassblower workshop, that the opening of the door to the studio was the start of a wonderful friendship. Follow the links and you will be able to visit Mauro, my Glassblower of Murano, who takes the vaporetto from Murano every morning to work in his studio in Venezia
Some of you might already know Mauro, as he started a blog some time ago and has been my Blog of the Week since then.
A couple of days ago I got an email from Mauro - "If you want, read my new post. Awaits you in Venezia" Of course I wanted, and learned that I have got a rival. Mauro is now not only waiting for the Norwegian blog lady to open his door, another grand lady has stolen a piece of his heart. You can read the story on Mauro's blog, and if you don't read Italian there is a translation possibility on the right hand bar.

Some of you have seen a couple of these photos before. They are taken in front of the mirror in "my Venezian flat", trying to capture the red glass heart Mauro has made. Compare my photos, which was taken a year ago, to the front cover of The Glassblower of Murano, which I got in my hands two weeks ago. Cool, isn't it :-)

Italian Journey

We are leaving to Italy tomorrow morning. I will be away for two weeks and are busy packing now. Packing clothes is easy, packing books is always a challenge. I have made piles for several days - guidebooks, travel books, novels, notebooks, moleskins, maps, books with background information for the book I am writing right now.......there are always so many books I want to bring with me. I put away a few, make new piles, then find new books I know I will be wanting while I am in Italy.

There is one book which is on top of my piles though, Italian Journey by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. I haev had this book for some time and knew that now it is time to take it with me to Italy. And from the map on one of the front pages I see that Goethe visited both Roma and Terracina during his journey. So I will be walking The Appian Way following his footsteps.

Eat, Pray, Love

Several friends have mentioned this book for a long time, telling me that this is a book I would love. Somehow their words didn't reach me, and I never came around looking for, or buying the book.....untill I saw it at an airport bookstore a few weeks ago and knew at once: Yes, this must be a book for me. Now the book is read and I can agree, both with my friends and with my own knowledge - Yes, this was a book for me.

Eat, Pray, Love, is, just like the title tells, a book in three parts, every part about a new country and the author's experiences there. Italy, India and Indonesia. With several travels already planned this year to Italy, and a three week's travel to India coming up in October/November, my interest was of course fully awaken already when I read the back cover of the book.

The author, Elizabeth Gilbert, has been through a hard divorce and a rather sad love story, and set out for a year in the world to find her inner self again. In Italy she eats, in India she prays and meditates and in Indonesia she finds love. Her months in Italy and Indonesia was qujite interesting reading, the middle part about her long months in India was just a long, boring interlude. Gilbert's writing is easy to follow though, with alot of funny thouches, so all in all I find this a vert good book, easy to recommend.......................and the first part when she lived in Roma for a few months..........In four weeks I'll be back in Roma! I can't wait!

Not Another Book About Italy

I finished an article about Venezia today. I've been working on it for quite some time, not knowing exactly how I wanted it to turn out. A secret dream is to write a book about Venezia some day, but there are already too many books about the city around, I don't know if there is room for any more........at least I need a very good idea if I want to make one, and I am not sure of the perfect idea is here yet.

Ann Richard had the same idea about all of Italy, she wanted to write a book about her favorite country, but would people want to read any more....... Her solution is perfect, she simply names her book Not Another Book About Italy.