Welcome to Verona, Italy: My Retreat

I am once again in Verona, Italy. This is my fourth visit to this city. I come here for various reasons. First, and most important, I love the city. It is large enough to have everything you could want on a trip (for me, culture, art, music, fashion, etc.), yet it is small enough that you can learn to get around fairly easily on foot. I also come as a retreat, so that I can focus on work. Lastly, I come here because I have made friends with my landlords, and I enjoy their company at times (and I get to work on my Italian). The last reason? I get to use up more of my United miles that I have accumulated over the years.The image you see here to the right, is the view from the Castile San Pietro, which sits high on a hill above Verona. The park up by the castle is now a regular stopping point for me as I take long walks.

My focus?
Two of my visits here have been to focus on the writing of my two books: Adobe Illustrator for Fashion Design, and Adobe Photoshop for Fashion Design. I am pleased (beyond words) to say that both of these books have now released. My prior trips generally combined writing retreat with attending the Pitti Filati, in Florence (which is a yarn trend show). Last fall, when I came to Verona, I was on sabbatical, and my focus was a study of World (or Folk) Costume (see my blog back in October 2008).

This time? I am focusing on Cochenille product development. I have a long list. This list includes working on Style Sets, the Easy 7 series, rewriting the Stitch Painter manual, working on video development, learning more about Dream Weaver, and other things. I am amazingly focused. Even though there could be distractions here, (which of course there are), I am easily able to balance them with a good day’s work. For example, today, I write all day, but tonight, I get to go to a concert at a church.

I have been studying the fashions here, and will have some reports coming up. There are some very new styles, which I have not seen in the States. I need to get out with my camera at night, so I can get some good shots of the Windows.

Now.. to Verona
I include some images here, so you can see what the city looks like. Verona straddles the Adige River. The layout of the city reminds me or Portland, Oregon, where I used to live. Portland also straddles multiple brideges, and directions given, always include a reference to a bridge (as they do here). The shot you see below shows you the view from the two bridges I walk over to get to the main part of the city. There are churches everywhere, which is no surprise, considering the religious history of Italy. Here are two views. The image on the left shows you the view from Ponte Nuovo, and the image on the right shows you the view from Ponte Pietra . The Roman Theatre (an old stone ampitheatre) lies between these two bridges on my side of the river.


Here also is a image of the interiors of two churches that I happened to walk into. I shall be inside a church similar to these tonight, listening to classical music. How inspiring, and certainly a reward after a day of technical writing.