Russell says that I had a slip today with my "book addiction". Me? I prefer to look at the positive side. This is the longest period of time in many a year that I've gone without purchasing a book. So there you have it, same situation -- different perspectives.
It was nice of him to take the time to go to this bookstore with me. Also I don't think I would have found it without his help. We saw this place, the Almost Corner Bookstore, during our food tour and when the tour was over I wanted to go back but it was closed for "siesta". Don't even get me started on the whole siesta thing! Anyhow that's the way it has been with me and bookstores lately. There was an English language bookstore on Santorini. Looked really cute too but it was closed (with no explanation even though according to the posted hours it should have been open). Then there was the bookstore at the Coloseum. It was closed because the cash register was not working. I've tried to console myself by saying that I don't have room in my luggage for books.
No need for consolation today though. On my way to the Almost Corner Bookstore we happened upon the Open Door Bookstore which also offers books in English. And, joy of joys, it was open. R agreed to stop and I found some good stuff. Titles that I might not find readily at home (or at least so I told myself) -- such as Stendhal's The Charterhouse of Parma, Pasters & Masters by Ivy Compton-Burnett and Walter Scott's Ivanhoe). Eclectic I know. So that was good. Then we went to the second shop and I found some books on Rome (one by Robert Hughes and another by Elizabeth Bowen) and one on Byzantine history that looked interesting.
Now all I have to do is get these books to Switzerland and then I can ship them home (oh and I suppose I have to read them as well). I don't dare ship them from Italy because I am told that they would never make it.
After the bookstores R and I went to the porchetta place, bought some and sat in the park in the shade and ate bread with roast pork. For dessert I had strawberry gelato with white wine (don't tell anyone) and lemon. That's the flavor -- strawberry with white wine and lemon. I did not have white wine and lemon with my strawberry gelato!
Post-pork A quick stop at the cookie store and then back over the bridge to the apartment. It was comfortable today but when I got back to the apartment The first thing I did was strip off my shirt and undershirt and hung em out to dry. Honestly I wonder how I would survive if the heat was really brutal which it hasn't been at all.
I read some in the afternoon in a book I have on St. Peter's Basilica in preparation for our visit to the Vatican tomorrow. Also needlepointed. Unfortunately, the Lilliputian chairs are not getting any more comfortable.
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