The first white lilies have begun to open at home… Ok, summer his started.

"The Apennine Colossus (Italian: Gigante dell'Appennino) is a stone statue, approximately 11 m high, in the estate of the Villa Demidoff in Vaglia, Tuscany in Italy. Giambologna (Flemish sculptor Jean de Boulogne) created the colossal figure, a personification of the Apennine mountains, in the late 1580s. It was constructed on the grounds of the Villa di Pratolino, a Renaissance villa that fell into disrepair and was replaced by the Villa Demidoff in the 1800s."

And the park of Villa Demidoff, a few kilometers from Florence, is the perfect place for a day of walks in the countryside and a quiet picnic in a wonderful place. Hi Giant, I missed you!

Lazy Sunday...not so hot, a sweet sun, nothing to do...

Ok, Molly, let me learn the best way to forget all problems!

Happy Pride Month!

The Death Angel - l'Angelo della Morte

Marble work by the Italian sculptor Giulio Monteverde, commissioned in 1882 by Francesco Oneto, a wealthy Genoese and president of the General Bank, to be placed in the family tomb in the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno, in Genoa.

couple of preparatory drawings for the "Ghost" themed comic that is taking shape… By Alice

Losing your mind Ancient history is full of beheadings…it was easy to lose your mind. Among the biblical beheadings that have most inspired artists over the centuries, that of Judith and Holofernes is often reported as an example of female power (although I don't understand what power comes from killing someone completely drunk, but I don't pretend to understand the Bible …)

In the biblical story, Judith is a widow who lives in the city of Bethulia, besieged by the Assyrian general Holofernes: to save the city, she decides to go to the enemy camp, enter the general's tent and pretend to be a traitor. Holofernes falls in love with her and, eager to possess her, invites her to a banquet during which he gets drunk with her: Judith will behead him and then put his head in a basket or on a plate For many artists and scholars, Judith's sexualized femininity combined in interesting and sometimes contradictory ways with her masculine aggression. Judith is one of the virtuous female figures that Johan van Beverwijck mentioned in his defense for the superiority of women over men in 1639. In the Northern Renaissance this was an example of the iconographic theme of "women's power" (German: Weibermacht).

Judith and Holofernes Michelangelo Merisi known as Caravaggio – 1597-1599 Painting

Palazzo Barberini - Rome - Italy

Judith and Holofernes

Donatello - 1455–1460

bronze sculpture located in the Hall of Lilies, in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy. A copy stands in one of the sculpture's original positions on the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio

June is for Pride!

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual Pride Month (LGBTQIA+ Pride Month) is celebrated annually in June to honor the 1969 Stonewall riots, and works to achieve equal justice and equal opportunity for LGBTQIA+ people.

(Yes, I know today is May 26th. But I've just found this delicious draw in a forgotten folder of my PC: I don't remember where I found it, I don't know about the author...if someone knows, please, share with me...)

In some places Prides start in May.

So, I decided today is a good day for Pride!

.

tonight, Mugello potato tortelli. Mugello is the area between Florence and Emilia, a hilly and mountain area, land of chestnuts and potatoes. A very fertile area, cultivated since time immemorial, it has proven to be very suitable for the cultivation of that blessed tuber that arrived from the Americas. The tomatoes also grew well there, and the corn too. Unfortunately, the chocolate plant has not taken root, and it is a terrible shame, because among the riches that we have stolen from the Native Americans, chocolate is truly the drink of the Gods. It's not for nothing that they called it "Theobroma Cacao"… and no, it doesn't grow in Italy. But potatoes and tomatoes do, so why not use them for a nice stuffed pasta, a fantastic Italian-American combination? (to be honest: tomatoes are so deeply involved in Italian kitchen than we can consider home based, but just to remember we are all immigrants, also traditional things) So a pasta filled with a robust mixture of potatoes and ricotta (that soft cheese derived from whey) and some spices (obligatory pepper and nutmeg), and a nice thick ragù of tomato and wild boar (Wild boars are so common in Tuscany, and are really tasty…) Strictly with a nice strong red, Sangiovese, Chianti or Morellino. If they turned out really well, even a Rosso di Montalcino. The diet starts on Monday anyway, today is Saturday… what do you want?

nothing more to add: in my hometown, if you want to see some very good looking men, you only need to go to the municipality to request a document. Everything is beautiful, really. Piazza Signoria is one of the most important and famous squares in the world. And then there are them…listen, a beautiful sculptural naked male body is always nice. Even these that are now of a certain age, but are maintained well.

Finally!

Rite here, Rite now also in my country...and very near my home.

Ok, great, now let's wait 20 and 22 June...

Playing with AI

It's a big problem when you imagine stories and see them already drawn, you've already written the plot and the screenplay but, really, you really don't know how to draw. Resorting to these new technological means that promise to create a drawing from your descriptions, I fear that for a poor boomer like me it is really too difficult: it already seems incredibly complicated to have opened this little blog, a FB and Instagram profile (no, I refuse to use TikTok: there is a limit to everything…)…I think AI is truly beyond my reach. Which doesn't stop me from trying… in the end, what can happen other than producing some boring drawing? So, here they are: a few pathetic attempts at the new generation of Satanic Popes: the young people of the Emeritus family. On the other hand, I mean… we don't want to interrupt the bloodline, right? "My father was pope, and his father, and his father's father…" (continues for 5 minutes). Mothers, as always, are not important (let's talk about chauvinism and paternalism). But I exclude that the popes were born from the foam of the sea like Aphrodite, so I tried to draw all women and some teenagers. Well, the results aren't much, but that's what I managed to do…

[Restored and colourized] photo of the Italian partisans of The Garibaldi Brigades, gathered in front of the Cuneo railway station, May 6th 1945.

The Garibaldi Brigades were an armed communist resistance, part of the Italian Communist Party, that fought against the Italian and German forces in WWII.