February 2020

• Manja Maksimovič

Let me present the last ordinary, maskless, carefree month – let’s say for the time being.

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It started with a most excellent sleepover weekend when Flavia came over and I showed her around my immediate vicinity, including Il giardino dei tarocchi, the Orbetello lagoon, Capalbio on the hill and Porto Santo Stefano.

Two weeks later we went on another of our legendary day trips. We found ourselves walking in the lands of Monterano and it was like a film set. The trip ended with a wonderful lunch in Canale Monterano.

One week later we went to Rome to visit amore’s father and his cat and this was the last time I was there. One year ago, imagine that.

Then came the memorable last ordinary day, February 22nd, when Flavia and I met in Montecalvello, a seemingly abandoned town with nothing but windows for her and doors for me, and the fact that we chose this obscure place to meet made us giggle for half an hour. After that it was Viterbo’s turn to awe and tire us. My aching feet were sighing: Viterbo is large.

But I’d be willing to walk twice as much would I know that this was the last time we could go anywhere together until June. As I came home, I leaned that the Venice Carnival was cancelled that Sunday. It has begun.

I’m not sure that I’ll have twenty photos to show for the next three quarantine months. Frankly, I’m afraid to look. But this was still plentiful February. So much so that I include an extra, #21 photo, taken by Flavia. She also found me this stick. Greetings from your Druid.

Photo: Flavia

Here are the favourite twenty then. The last photo in the gallery is of my oldest friend and me eating grapes on the beach. She hit 50 on the one-to-last February day, three months before I did.

  • Porto Santo Stefano at night.
  • Up in Capalbio.
  • A different kind of bestia. This is a boar product shop.
  • Orbetello as seen from Monte Argentario. It was covered but this ray of light broke through.
  • In the lagoon, sleepy pinkish aviators. That’s some folding!
  • Nutria in there too, orange teeth and all.
  • This beauty greeted us as we were walking to the Monterano ruins.
  • Eccolo, the Cloister of San Bonaventura. I felt I was here before. Must be the films.
  • Right there: the Lion by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
  • This was just the antipasto. Involtini con peperonata at Il Rintocco della Campana.
  • This aqueduct at Tarquinia surprised me.
  • Something growing neatly close to home.
  • Hey there. You’re new.
  • A hop to Rome and its wild inhabitants.
  • This Roman shop was also included in my December 2019 post. It looks different now.
  • Montecalvello and its pretty nothing.
  • In Viterbo we wound the perfect bloggers meet location and then this pandemic.
  • Carnival participants were gathering.
  • Here we go. Fiat 500 in springtime.
  • A rare photo that I took with me to Italy almost eight years ago. It spells carefree days. Which am I?

Previous months of 2020:

February in previous years:

34 thoughts on “February 2020”

  2. March and April were very hard last year. I ran through all the stored doors I had. I worried that I would be stopped while visiting the neighboring town to photograph a historic private school and to take some drive-by photos. I hope we can avoid such restrictions in the future.

    Your photos are always wonderful. I’d love to visit the places you share.

    Take care – stay safe.

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  4. How strange to say “a year ago” now, with all it’s meaning. And “It has begun.” I, too, was working on my next One Year Later post this morning, and it’s an odd mental exercise, to try and place ourselves in the way things felt one year ago. You convey well the wonder of it.

    These photos are Wonderful, wonderful! The folded flamingos (could that be the name of a restaurant? A yoga studio?), the ruins of the aqueduct, the astonishingly bright neon bird, and views of the perfect bloggers meetup location. I remember the invitations! ha ha. I think you are the grape-eater on the left.

    …and most of all the druid Manja, with the gift of Flavia’s stick. That’s a great photo.

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    1. Hey, Crystal! Good to have you here. Folded Flamingos is a great name for anything! Yes, I’m on the left, and yes, that location is waiting… The stick was a gift from Goddess. 😀 I was really struggling and these days my feet are hurting again, due to calcification. Not that I’m walking much, even if I could. One year is a long time and it felt like five in one. Hope you’re happy.

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  7. Partial to the Druid 🙂
    OMG the nutria. Do you remember me being like, “What is that?” — well I don’t know why that caught my attention on your post that particular day, but it turns out we have nutria here, too! Not in Indiana where I live, but in the southern, swampy bits of the US. Further, once I researched it, I heard them referenced several times, and feel like I wasn’t paying attention for the last 47 years or whatever. Just a fun fact.

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