My latest art card (#16) features bricks! Of course it does! I have a thing for drawing and painting bricks, if you haven’t noticed. But painting all those bricks was significantly eased by the memories attached to this scene from a 2011 trip – recollections of cookies and kindness!

16 – Behind a Sarnano Door – sold

Coming upon unexpected pleasure is one of the joys of travel, and the town of Sarnano near the Sibillini Mountains in Le Marche, Italy was one of those pleasures. Besides being in a gorgeous green setting with mountains in the background, Sarnano held other treats. Like this flower-filled courtyard behind an elaborate door we chanced upon during our town walkabout. Like the woman in the linen shop who spoke no English but gladly engaged in a pantomime conversation with my husband over finding a beach towel (too funny to watch!). Like the open bakery door we wandered into, only to find out the shop was actually closed to catch up on its baking, but the owners, upon hearing we were visitors from Canada on our anniversary, pulled together a bag of  freshly baked cookies for us. We chatted about Canada, again in our pantomime Italian and English. After shaking hands with Marie-Therese and Mario, we happily munched these delicious cookies on our way back to the car park.

During the creation of this card, I did honour these memories with a few cookies and a good strong espresso!