For the Love of Textiles

3.30 hrs. Wake up. Shower. Coffee. 4.00 hrs. Left the hotel. Minibus. 4.45 hrs. Arrival Venice Airport. 6.00 hrs. Cappucino & Fagotto. 6.20 hrs. Airplane KLM.                 Windowseat 17F. 6.45 hrs. Departure Venice.                 Plane fully booked.                 It gets light outside.                 Arrivederci Italia. 7.05 hrs. The Alps in the morningsun.                 Sleepy. 7.20 hrs. Sandwich, juice and tea                 served by friendly gay                 stewards.                 Dalida sings her                 sentimental songs in my ear. 7.45 hrs. More tea. Calm flight.                 Dalida sings: Mama. 8.15 hrs. Flying over Ijsselmeer 8.18 hrs. Marken & Monnickendam.                 Landing starts. 8.27 hrs. Landed at Schiphol Airport.                 Welcome to Amsterdam. 10.12 hrs. Changed in Amersfoort. 2 stops and I am home. Dalida still sings in my ear. Suddenly unexpected tears. It was a great experience to be in Ita

20.10 hrs. We just left Milan Railwaystation. Little less than 2 hours to go back to Vicenza. Last day, last evening. Great Memories. Just some pictures...from the Pret a Porter Fashion Fair..Chocolat cake with crema con fragole....and the Duomo... More to come soon..Via della Spiga...Wait till you see the pictures from the 3 days ago opened Pirelli shop. Absolutely Amazing!!! Lots of fun and laughter during the trip back to Vicenza in a very comfortable train. We arrived in Vicenza round 22.50 hrs. Taxi to the hotel... In the hotel we said goodbye to translator Manuel who was a great help during the week. We all got a little book from the region and a little bag with hazelnuts from the familytree in his garden. Might bake a plumcake sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts. A last Spritz, a last talk.... and off to bed for a very short night sleep...

20.40 hrs. Venice, Railwaystation. We just caught the train back to Vicenza. Venice, Venezia, Bella... We arrived by train round 11 this morning. The last time I was in Venice was about 15 years ago. First we had a meeting at the Ministerio. Very formal and probably not very usefull, but...typical the Italian way... Round 13 hrs...lunch with a foccacia. A small group of 5 (included me) stayed in Venice. We took the vaporetto to San Marco Square. The Canal Grande..The Palazzo's..the colours..all kind of boats...Breathtaking.. All we did was..walk and enjoy..bought a beautiful wool tricot jacket....terrace...walk more..took pictures...more pictures....a Spritz...dinner at a little square where only locals came.... And than...we left with beautiful memories.. Some pictures here...much more on my camera....

Marzotto is a big textilefirm in Valdagno. The produce mostly fabrics for men suits. Big brands as Valentino & Armani buy the fabrics at Marzotto and the fabric usually is woven esspecially for them. Arriving at the firm I got the feeling as arriving in a small city. Not a strange idea, because the Marzotto family did build houses where the workers could live. It is a huge firm, established 175 years ago. We got a tour around the factory to see the whole proces from building up the warp and weft till the final product. Very interesting was to feel the woven fabric before and after finishing. Soft and Delicate, Light and Airy in typical colours men like. Dyes in bottles computerized mixed together to get the right colour. Mixtures from silk and wool, 100% merino etc. After the tour -which took hours - we had lunch outside. Spaghetti and a good cappucino afterwards. It was warm, which is strange for this time of year as we were told. After lunch we visited the Marzotto textile s

14.45 hrs. In the bus from Padova to Vicenza. Sunny with a nice temperature. Just had a nice lunch in the Italian way. An interesting day sofar. We left the hotel at 8, to visit a fashionschool in Padova named E.U. Ruzza Pendola. I have done a project with this school about 15 years ago. It was nice to be back, and even met up with 2 colleagues from the past. The teacher design showed some denim bleached jackets. A new Director introduced herself. Nice atmosphere. The building hadn't changed and the vieuw on the church with "cuppola's' of Saint Antonio hadn't changed either. I am going to invite them to join a new project about the future of patternmaking. 23.30 hrs. Next was a visit to Scuola Italiana Design.  A really inspirational visit thanks to the inspirational talk about creativity and design done by Strategic Design teacher Andrea Busato. And I liked his glasses very much with the little red part in it. We don't design, we satify needs. A good des

It is late in the evening now..or better said: early in the morning when I am writing this little post. Today was a very busy Day. During a meeting in the morning we got loads of information. It became clear to me that the Italian schoolsystem  at the moment is changing into another way of thinking. The future will tell if this is positive or negative. There are private and state-schools steeped in long traditions. A kind of class-system.  Ofcourse there are also similarities in topics as drop-outs and how to get those youngsters back to school. Being a member from the European Union also means that we all move more or less into the same direction. But how to get the systems compatible is the big problem which needs to be solved in the future. I know from experiences in the past that Italian teachers sometimes have the idea that they are better than teachers from other countries. But today I got an opposite impression. Right, wrong??????? But, overall very interesting to hear and it

I am at Schiphol Airport now. Traveling by plane to Venice and after arriving there traveling to Vicenza. The trip is organized for teachers who's task is to organize International projects or trainings. Flying out today and returning the coming saturday. The days will be filled with visits to schools, firms, fashion-fair in Milan and a cultural day in Venice. It will be busy, but also very interesting. So, this morning we said goodbye at the railwaystation. A little mixed feelings. Very looking forward to go, but also worries how things will go at home. Bram's health isn't good (first research nothing found, another research coming soon), but he promised me that nothing would happen. This morning he said that he could't bear the idea that I would have stayed home for him. So I will call everyday and I know that he is taken good care off by friends and neighbours. Just bougt a book situated partly in Venice (I always buy a book at the airport when I go somewhere) and

I am now in my 2nd week back in school and all goes well sofar. My new class seems a nice one and this week I had to teach lessons to all classes. The routine of waking up early is not a problem, but the first time it was strange to find out that it is dark at 5.45 when my alarmclock went off. The meeting up with my fellowtravelers (my four TrainGirls) on the first day was good as always. Plenty to talk about the past holidays and lots of fun and laughter. So, back to normal....Daily Rhytm and Routine is good for my mind and soul with at some point a little step into another world.. I didn't go back to my choir last year. To emotional to sing, but last week I went back and had my first rehearsal which was a real joy for me. I sing now in a choir for almost 10 years which is a good thing for me to do. My choir members greeted me with such an enthusiasm that I felt at ease immediately. Nothing on my mind when I sing. No worries or thoughts..just attention for the song and my choir m