Portals, Passages, and Thresholds Now in Print!

Portals, Passa...

A journey through ...

By Photographs by Tom...

Book Preview

This book is a peek into the private doorways, passages, and thresholds of Rome, Pompeii, and Florence. Click directly on the picture of the book to be taken to Blurb.com where you can purchase one for yourself and one for someone you love!

Nourish the Cookbook is now in Print!

You want one, I know you do.
The pictures are luscious, the recipes are divine.
Buy one for someone you love.
Click below for details and to buy online.
Love
Lisa Dowling

nourish

a culinary adventure

By with lisa dowling

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The Graffiti Culture Roma Book is Now in Print!

It's a gorgeous, nearly-200 page book full of images in full color of the graffiti, tagging, scratching, wheat paste, stickers, and pochoir that we photographed while on sabbatical in Rome. It's not so much about the actual scrawl, but about the abstract appeal and design behind the markings.
You've got to have one of these beauties.
Click on the badge below to be taken to the website to purchase your own hard or soft cover version.
p.s. the Hardcover has a few more pix.

Graffiti Cultu...

The Wall Art of T...

By Lisa and Tom Dowling

Book Preview

The Dowling Roman Adventure Now in Print!

We've published the blog with additional pictures and updates on the small typos present in the original blog. It's a lovely book, with a black background and large images of the adventure. Buy it for yourself, buy it for someone you love, but please, buy one!

The Dowling Roman Adventure

By Lisa and Tom Dowling

Una Bambina Neo Realismo

A STAR IS BORN
A Photoplay in the Italian Neorealist Style

INTERIOR
EVENING SCENE AROUND THE DINNER TABLE
A LITTLE BREAD, WINE, CANDLELIT

Ciara
Papa I am so hungry!

Papa
I Know, Ciara, Papa is trying to find a job. I want to bring home the food for us.

Mama
I don’t know what to do ! How can we make do ?
I try
I try to make what we have serve us……I don’t know, I am so tired ……


Papa
I know, I’ll try harder tomorrow, There are so many Art Historians in Rome ! How can I get ahead !!!

Mama
I know, you try, but we must have food ! How can we survive….?
Perhaps I should try to find work ?

Papa
NO NO ! I will save us from that kind of life…I promise !!!!


NEXT DAY
EXTERIOR
San Francesco a Ripa Church

Ciara
Santo Francesco ! Save my family, I beg you !!!!

Director
“Who is that there ?
……..
that is what I’m looking for ! A fresh face, a new generation !
I must get that person into my film ! She is the essence of the new , the bold !!!!

Ciara
If only we could find a home, a place to live …Papa could work, Mama could cook……

CUT TO:
Papa, next to a bicycle

“I must find work today,
what shall I do…?
Classico Roma…..the Colosseo
Renaissance Roma…..Sistina
or
Baroque Roma, Piazza Navona ?”

Mama
From a window
“Buona Fortuna”

Cut To:
Papa
“Grazie ! Mi Amora”

Papa Walks off dejectedly

Cut to:

Ciara , begging before the church

Cut To :
Director, “She is a natural !
This is my new Star !”

Cut to:

Papa Exterior

Walking at the Colloseo





Cut To:
Papa
Walking up to a Baroque Church

Cut to: Papa
Walking at a Garden Villa

Cut to :
Ciara
Looking up into the eyes of the Director


Cut to: the Director, looking down to Ciara

Cut to:
Mama, walking the streets, in a suggestive manner.

Cut to:
The Director
Observing Mama

Cut to: Ciara
Seeing Mama , calling out “ Mama”

Cut to: Director
“This is too good to be true !”

Cut to:
Mama & Ciara embracing

Cut to:
the Director
In exclamation !



Cut to:
Papa
Holding up many Euros !!!!
Embracing his family

Cut to :
Director
Signing “and saying “bellissimo”. Points to his prosperous movie theater.

Cut to:
A poster showing the happy family in a Roman setting
Enjoying the fruits of life.

FINI

We return to the land of good and plenty...

and we love it. Here you can get Thai, Chinese, Peruvian, Mexican, Italian, French, and Fusion whenever your heart pleases. Here you can cross the street without a life insurance policy. Here you can see a movie in four languages and meet people from everywhere that want to talk to you about politics. Here you can get some distance and begin to miss the splendor and glory of an ancient and undeniably irresistable culture such as the one you left in Rome. Here is where you hang your hat, and your heart, and your hose that will water your vegetable garden, unplanted for three months.

We await the next adventure... and give to you as our next installment: Una Bambino Neo Realismo....

Leaving Roma

This is intended to be a juxtaposition of how we feel about leaving Roma: on one hand we happily "headin' out" and on the other we are sad to be leaving the land of deep passion and artistic expression.

(Be sure to check a previous post (Our Daily Route) for a new pic of Clare and Carla from "Good Caffe". They shared many a smile over Clare's ABC's and peach fruit juice.)

p.s. when we get home and have unlimited access to the internet we will be publishing a special feature for those of you who have been following our journey. More to come!!

My parents put me in precarious positions

And I love it.

30th Birthday Feast

For my birthday Tom got me three Italian boys!!!! What a gift! Well, okay, Frank offered to cook me a traditional Roman meal. Alessandro and Piero pitched in too, and it turned into a five course feast with Rigatoni all'amatriciana, spaghetti carbonara, a lovely tossed salad with baby lettuce, a plate of cheese called burratta, and the BEST EVER tiramisu from a very exclusive Roman bakery. We washed it all down with a lovely bottle of red wine and laughed our way through the night. It was a very memorable meal that I intened to share with you, in detail, after I get rid of this carb-induced coma I have fallen into.

Clare and Sunny

Clare has very clear preferences on who she admires and who she doesn't. Luckily, she loves Sunny. He is the one I wrote about below in the restaurant reviews: Cibo (the one in "Jaipur"). We run into him on the street occaisonally, and all Clare will talk about for the rest of the day is Sunny-this and Sunny-that and "Can we eat at Sunny's?" And we always say yes because Sunny is one of the few people in Rome who have made us feel truly welcome with his pleasant smile, firm handshake, and great big heart. It doesn't hurt that his restaurant has some of the best food in Rome.