THE WAY IS LOVE
A blog about wondrous things!
Bronze Ambition – Sculptor Timothy Schmalz
I love stories like the one I am about to tell you. It is incredible how life unfolds when Christ was involved. The introduction to Timothy Schmalz, a talented sculptor came through a priest, Fr. Antoine Emmanuel Prior at the Badia Fiorentina. He mentioned Timothy...
val delle corti – A Chianti wine Experience
VAL DELLE CORTI - A Chianti wine Experience Just outside Radda in Chianti, award winning wine from a small producer. In in the Catholic mass bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. This happens in every mass during the consecration....
Badia a Coltibuono
BADIA A COLTIBUONO In the heart of Chianti – spirit, wine, olive oil and stunning gardens IN tuscan, between Montevarchi and Radda in Chianti rests a jewel of a place where centuries of tradition come together with modern, laid-back flair. The Badia a Coltibuono was...
Santuario Madonna delle Grazie al Sasso
Santuario Madonna delle Grazie al Sasso The Mother of Grace is the perfect name for this place What a treasure I found! It's not far at all from Florence and the road to arrive there is a lovely, winding way through lush greenery beyond the hill town of Fiesole....
Badia Fiorentina
Badia Fiorentina - It begins here Have you ever had a "change of direction moment"? I'll describe one for you. You think your life is clipping along perfectly, that you are doing everything right, that you are in control. It's a feeling of, "Hey, I got this!" and then...
Welcome 2021 – new roads
When I was riding in North America I always rode alone and told everyone how long I would be gone but that I did not know where I would be going. “See you in a month” would be what I would say to people and then I usually set out south from Canada into the US. My...
Christmas 2020
Christmas 2020 At the heart of the Christmas story is a child born into poverty, in an unconsidered place, to ordinary people who made extraordinary choices. This is the origin of the story, the essence of the season. How can you hate that? I can understand not liking...
In Times of Crisis – Italian Lifestyle Matters
In January of 2011, I planned to stay in Italy for four months, do a bit of research and head back to North America to resume my life. That changed about three months in for several reasons, but a major one was the food, or more precisely Italian attitude to food. Yes...
Embrace the silence – It is Healing Energy
A great Silence has been thrust upon us and many perhaps are not prepared. There may be loud voices going off in your head right now as you listen to news media and try to “make sense” of things. A wave of precaution and fear, information and disinformation,...
Stop Trying to Make Sense of it All
This time in our history has been trying. The information that is inundating us about one subject that has overtaken every aspect of our lives is placing untold amounts of stress on everyone. A problem arises out of this. Wanting to be right. I am not talking about...
MY NONNA’S ADVICE — Worthwhile wisdom
I didn’t meet my Nonna many times in my life. As the child of Italian immigrants, trips back to the homeland were rare and many years passed in between. The telephone calls were expensive and we were not pen pals either. My Nonna Anna, my mother’s mother, was a slight...
And Now for the Bad News
You have not been on vacation. Vacation looks like this. You work really hard, you tie up every loose end, you gas up the convertible, flip the top down and drive like Marcello and Sophia through some curvy roads to a secluded and beautiful place where you have a...