BPM 2024 – One Step Beyond

BPM2024Eccoci qua, on stage again, to tell you about our trip to the Czech Republic and the quilt that we saw there.
Reading the title you may have noticed that the acronym of the Czech exhibition is now BPM, ovvero Brno Patchwork Meeting, and no more PPM. Let's say I miss Prague a bit, and not just because I find it fascinating and complicated, but also because there I discovered many years ago some artists who were looking for their own expressive way to break away from the Anglo-Saxon and French schools. Today I can say that I have seen a long view, and I admire with satisfaction the works that quilter Czechs can boast of exhibiting their works all over the world.
As always the journey to Brno was slow and complicated, and therefore pleasant. Set off with the sun, and already in Celje the bus proceeded among the snowflakes that were falling copiously, but luckily the experience had prepared us for everything. The first stage included a stop in Vienna for a day shopping. Badate bene, I'm not talking about clothes, footwear and accessories, but of materials and equipment for copperplate printing and painting. Mission accomplished. I found everything, e anche di più, and now I know where to go when I need something that they don't even know exists here. While we were there we visited the Wien Museum on Karlsplatz, just reopened a few months ago, where on the top floor the walls were covered with admirable engravings of 17th century Vienna and beyond.
After saying goodbye to Vienna we took a bus headed to Moravia, and we found the same Brno as last year, with its strengths and weaknesses. This time though, our reporting duties finished, we decided to rent a car to take a few trips out of the city. You can find some images of this little trip to Moravia in postNot just Brno”, dal blog ultimalune.it of mine webmaster / photographer / tourist agency / sherpa / ecc.
But I guess you're here for the patchwork, and that all this travel drama leaves you quite indifferent, so here I am ready to satisfy your curiosity. Continua a leggere

Treviso 2023

Treviso2023.
Wednesday, 1st November, the only day of the week that promised not to rain, so we trusted the weather forecast and took the train to Treviso. We got lucky three times, the first because Jupiter Pluvius actually didn't show up for the whole day, the second because with Trenitaglia you know when you leave but you don't know when you arrive, the third because the exhibition has returned to the prestigious venue of Ca’ of Noal, and finally the works could be admired in the right spaces.
I would then say that it is time to take a look at some of the works on display, at least to those that particularly struck me. Continua a leggere

PPM 2023

341512459_1455918538278149_9185444930607691383_nWorse than a Renfe train, this time we have truly accumulated an unforgivable delay, and precisely for an article that I wanted to publish quickly.
It happens that the deities of information technology are not benevolent, and indeed, as I reported in post previous, a serious problem with the computer motherboard had left us stranded. Unfortunately the replacement could not be found, and after some failed attempts to repair it we decided to carry out a revamping of the car, an update of thehardware essentially, replacing the card, processor and memories. Certo, we would have done it sooner by buying a new PC, but our nature always pushes us towards recovery, and this computer is also a kind of patchwork electronic, without forgetting the advantage of having spent less than a third of what we would have had to leave at the checkout of a computer store.
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Bene, let's move on to the narrative of our expedition to Moravia.
Actually no, we stop first in Vienna. Continua a leggere

Val d’Argent 2022

P1140639And this time too we did it!
To do… what?
Not to catch Covid, and what else. We have been to France and Switzerland, countries where masks are not mandatory, and therefore their use is very limited and absolutely discretionary. Not to mention Turkey, especially in Istanbul, where the famous lady "There is none Coviddi" should be conferred honorary citizenship.
About our organized trip to the Erdoğan Sultanate, of its lights and shadows maybe we will write about it in the future since this post is dedicated to the expedition exhibition in Alsace, cleanse, as always, from my personal tour guide.
Just to get off to a flying start, I want to put a full stop right away, or that this trip was the last nail planted in the coffin of my train journeys for which a connection is scheduled in Milan. NO MORE.
Not to compete with his Frecciarossa for Paris, Trenitaglia has decided well to let Thello die, the night train on the Venice Santa Lucia - Paris Gare de Lyon route. Too convenient for us to get off in Dijon in the morning and from there get on a TGV to Strasbourg, really too comfortable. So we were forced to take an arrow to Milano Porta Garibaldi, arrow so to speak since it arrived late, and then scramble to figure out where the train for Basel would soon be leaving from. In fact, the station is very lacking in information on the platforms, situation made even more complicated by the fact that to move from the passing tracks to the leading ones, you have to undertake a labyrinthine and poorly marked path. Just so as not to be proven wrong, on the way back, the train platform for Venice was specified only a few minutes before departure. Already us with two children trolley we struggled hurrying up and down corridors and stairs to the platform, so I wonder if those warmers hired for competition realize how complicated it can be to move there with a baggage that is only slightly more bulky and perhaps with some mobility difficulties.
When I happen to return to Alsace, I will leave Austria, from Villach via Mannheim or with the beautiful nightjet Wien - Strasbourg, or again, extreme reason, with Flixbus from Venice (plane also no, thank you), and the same anathema also applies to all the other trips that I will have the good fortune to make in Europe.
Bene, now that I have taken this pointed pebble out of my shoe I can move on to more pleasant things, ovvero il European Patchwork Crossroads 2022.

Continua a leggere

One More Time

LogoViennaPragaBrno

Via, via, via!

Vienna, Prague, Brno, three experiences, three sensations, three characters, and three times three is nine, nine days during which we hiked, watched, discovery, encountered, traveled, eaten and, ça va sans dire, bevuto, nine days in search of memories and hopes, nine days that broke that cage of sadness that had imprisoned me for a couple of years.
Rossana who left at dawn on a gray Tuesday, she returned after a week and a half with a considerable store of memories but lighter in spirit.
At this point one of the gianographies written by mine is good sherpa / tourist agency / pusher / photographer / ecc., and it's called "GOODBYE".
The traveler knows no return. Starting is one, another person returns. If the same one returns, it is as if he had never left. Continua a leggere

Good News

logo_BVV_Quilt_ShowAnd yet it moves, something moves, moves towards Moravia.
For twelve years I have not missed the appointment with Prague, obviously for the patchwork exhibition, and for everything there is to visit in Bohemia. Then in the 2020 the Wuhan plague came to upset our lives, and so for two years I had to give up that brief escape into an ancient and renewed world, far and very close, foreign and familiar. It still went well for me since I'm still here to write this post…
Today I found out that the Prague Patchwork Meeting is back, ma non solo, it finally does so in a venue worthy of a major international exhibition: il BVV, Trade fairs Brno.
This is the link of the PPM QUILT SHOW BRNO.
Although I may be missing some aspects of Prague, of the corners that I know too well, I could take advantage of the opportunity to visit Moravia, its castles, and Brno, with the Spielberg, la Villa Tugendhat, the Villa Löw-Beer and more. I have to study it a little’ his.
Meanwhile, I told you, that then getting Brno by public transport is not too difficult, just go through Vienna, and from there there are enough buses and trains to reach your destination in a couple of hours.

Ahoj.

 

Treviso Liberty

TrevisoLibertyPosterFor December the morning was exceptionally mild, that is, the temperature had not dropped below freezing as it would be normal in my part, and the Sun has given us the energy to face the boredom of one hundred and fifty kilometers of motorway up to Treviso.
I confess that this excursion was not planned, I considered the risks associated with the unstable health situation to be excessive, especially if you plan to find yourself indoors with too many people, and don't tell me that a vaccination certificate is a sufficient preventative measure, maybe it was. In this regard, I would gladly refer you to a post written nearly five months ago from mine sherpa/photographer / guide / driver /webmaster/ecc. , entitled "A piece of paper”.
Let c
as it is, it didn't seem nice to miss the appointment with the exhibition patchwork di Treviso, also in consideration of the many difficulties that the association Patchwork Idea he had certainly had to overcome to be able to organize an exhibition in this extremely complicated period, and so I took courage and we left. Continua a leggere