Italy opened my heart…

ROME

Oct 4, In Leipzig, I brought canvas, stretchers and paint, then dropped Graeme’s flat keys to his friends work. Then later that day flew to Rome! I was heading to Italy to do an arts residency. I cried on the plane, as the airline took the acrylic varnish paint, as it is liquid, and I had to pay extra baggage too, because of the canvas stretchers. That’s the way travel goes, but I was very tired, so a bit emotional already. When the plane landed, I felt I knew this place, even though it was my first time in Italy. It felt familiar, I knew the earth, I wanted to kiss it like I was the Pope or someone returning home. Emotions heightened, I had never had a feeling quite like this in my travels. That night I had booked to stay at M & J’s hostel in Rome.

The next day I went into town, to purchase more acrylic varnish. The art shop I was heading to, just happened to be right beside this amazing structure called the Pantheon. I didn’t know anything about it, and it caught me by surprise. An accidental tourist. It was incredible to be there, to look up through the circle roof, and see the sky, and see the circle of light from the sun moving slowly through the building.

TOFFIA

Then I caught a train to Fara Sabina, after nearly taking a few wrong turns. Toffia is 60km NE of Rome. I was heading to an arts residency at 33 Officianada – Toffia. One of the residency people picked me at Farra Sabina train station to take me to Toffia. I was holding on for dear life in this speedy journey, it seems that the notorious Italian drivers you see in the movies really are the real thing.

33OC Artist Residency is hosted in a converted 13th Century church, at Piazza Lauretana 3, Toffia. 33 Officina Creativa (33OC)

I banged my head walking up the stairs to the loft area where we were staying. I don’t know whether it was this that was the cause of the next part of the story. As on the 10th I got sick, and was in bed for over a week. Something happened, I don’t know what, like nothing I have ever had before and I hope I never have again. I could not sit up, could only lie down/intense pain in the middle of my head/stabbing. I didn’t want to eat.

Joy Phoenix helped me through this, we talked on Facebook. I had met her in Sedona, she is a fellow kiwi and a Shaman. She tapped in and said it was unlike anything she had seen before. And she said that she was given that all that week I was to practice this… I was not to give, but only receive. Anytime I felt like I should be giving, she said no not to, but to practice receiving and all that it is. It was one of the hardest experiences of my life. But I learnt a lot about the art of receiving.

I drunk a lots amounts of good water (walked up the road to get really good spring water, which was a bit of a mission). The village had a place you could collect it from, which I loved.

Oct 14, We all did Artist Talks, to describe what we do and what we would be doing in Toffia. I was still not feeling well, and it was difficult, but I did it! To a lovely, small audience. What we were saying was translated into Italian by Christine, for the locals there.

In the last week I was finally feeling better and produced the four paintings, I stretched the canvasses first. These four were a set that worked together. I painted these outside on the terrace and in the bedroom, as the lighting was good there.

Oct 28, was an open night, where we displayed the works, my four ‘Multi – Dimensional’ (1 to 4). In this series, the first painting is all black and white, and second painting is one third colour. The third painting is two thirds colour and forth painting is all colour. There are many layers of meaning in these paintings, as well as layers of paint, (ideas on moving through duality). I donated two paintings to the staff at the residency. And brought one home with me, taken off the stretcher, and the other I gifted to the man whom had helped me with Cranial Sacral therapy when I was sick.

I loved walking around the town of Toffia, and twice a week or so, a man would come through the village in his van filled with fruit and vegetables. Locals would buy from him straight from the van. There was three other woman doing the arts residency at the time, a printmaker, a sculpture, and a multi media artist. I shared a room with one. A few of the other artists got bored in the small town and went to Rome to explore. I enjoyed spending time in the countryside, which wasn’t far to walk down to, and the foot of the town. There was one road going up in Toffia town and the same road back down, it is very picturesque, and movie scenic.

The food I made for myself was kind of a hodge podge, kiwi styles d.i.y. I remember an Italian eyes wide wondering what it was I was eating! As to Italians, there is certain ways to work with food. But I was still eating well, just kind of innovatively with what I had to work with.

SANTA CITTARAMA

Oct 31, the residency in Toffia finished, and I went to Santa Cittarama which is a Buddhist monastery for two nights. I bussed there, and left some belongings in Toffia. I was still feeling a bit wrecked, and the Buddhist monks give you a wee chore too, so this was a push, but I did it. Me and this other lady had the random job of sweeping the outside, places that really didn’t need sweeping. At other times we would also meditate with the monks in the meditation room. Before I left, I went on a wee tour around the environs with some Italians there, it is so old, and there are ruins where people had been buried in the rocky walls. We saw a human skeleton in one part, something I had not seen before. It was quite eerie. There was a cave there where the monks in times gone by use to meditate.

Nov 2, G and his sister, kindly picked me up from Monastery, went to Toffia for Christine’s Christmas party. I gave him his painting, as he helped me with a Cranial Sacral treatment. I stayed the night at the 33 Officianada lodgings again, and met the next batch of artists whom were there.

ASSISI

Nov 3, Got a bus to Farra Sabina then trains to Assisi, stayed at a hotel place, that I had previously booked. The next day I walked around Assisi. Photos to come.

This about Assisi ley lines, from https://www.shelegends.com/post/ley-lines-in-italy

‘Assisi also sits at the intersection of two powerful energetic pathways that are believed to form a powerful vortex of healing energy at their intersection. Since pre-Etruscan times, the area where Assisi lies has been revered as a significant spiritual site. Consequently, it is home to several ancient temples and shrines dating back thousands of years.

Founded on the site of an ancient spring, Assisi has been a place of healing and purification since the pre-Etruscan period. After the Etruscans left, a temple to the goddess Minerva was erected by the Ancient Romans who sought to protect the ancestral power that permeated the sacred waters.

When the Christian church arrived in Assisi in the 4th century, the cave and spring were dedicated to St. Francis. The spring then became one of Italy’s most important pilgrimage sites and eventually was encompassed as part of the Basilica di San Francesco, which was built around the grotto in the 13th century.

Many miracles and supernatural events have taken place at the Basilica complex over the last centuries, and it is said that St. Francis himself performed miracles at this sacred water source, whose waters are said to heal the sick and bring good fortune.‘

BACK TO ROME

Nov 4, Getting on the 6pm train back to Rome, it seems the same new friend that I had met on the train to Assisi, was on the train again back again. She was from Iraq, and her sister, so that was good, as it was a joy talking to her. Stayed at M and Js Hostal again in Rome. It was lovely to roam around Rome, it was lightly raining, so I was under umbrella. People rushing past on their phones talking loudly and passionately. Food, was hard to find something that wasn’t Pasta or Pizza, as Italians like their Wheat, but when I found something it was worth it and delicious. 

The next day I walked to the Colosseum as it wasn’t too far from the Hostel. And then I went to find the pyramid! Someone had told me about it before I got to Rome, and I knew I had to go to it. I spent lots of time around the Pyramid of Cestius. This is intriguing as part of it sits in a busy passage of roads and cars. Placed in stillness and these cars in constant movement. And had an easy day, in preparation for the next day. As on Nov 6, went ‘in’ to the Vatican, did what needed to be done, as had been guided to go there, to help with shifting energy. Mission complete. I didn’t want to go to the Vatican really. But of course \, the Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo is breath-taking and beautiful. 

Italy opened my heart. It wasn’t a person, it was the place. Parts of me that I didn’t realize were closed, doors of my heart seemed to rip open.

Nov 6, I caught a plane that night from Rome, arriving back to Leipzig.