An American Girl in Italy, by photog Ruth Orkin

In 1952, photographer Ruth Orkin was on her way back to NYC from a photo shoot in Israel. She stopped in Europe and while in Florence, Italy, she met another young American, Jinx, and together they took some random shots around the city. The one above is without question the most famous of the series.

While I adore the picture above, I equally love this one:

As a woman who spent a lot of time looking at and loving the city of Florence in her 20s, I can relate to both of the pictures above.

And then there is this one, which tells the opposite side of the coin:

Boy, can I relate to the exhaustion portrayed. Looking at art and wandering the city produces profound exhaustion! And Stendhal Syndrome as well.

When I first visited Florence in the late 1970s, the beaded curtains still served as “screens” keeping flies and sunlight out of store interiors. The same as above, the shot taken in 1952. You don’t find that anymore.

Below are 2 informative videos that will capture the moment for you.

Scholarly writing??!#%!

I’m enjoying reading this fine book. I can’t get enough of French historical biographies.

Being a trained scholar myself, with a fair lot of published writing under my belt, I had to giggle when I came across the paragraph circled below. I’ve never seen an author p[resent themselves so assertively and almost comically in such a book before.

And, by the way, I share her feelings!

The 1960s! I love and loved the era in fashion!

I didn’t own and wear this Mary Quant combination, but I loved wearing the knock offs that were available to me! I still have some shoes from that era and they still fit. I rock them from time to time in the summertime!

By coincidence, I was in the shoe department at Nordstrom today and look at the boots on offer! See a resemblance!?

It’s the go-go 60’s all over again!