When I was riding the Vespa through Tuscany, en route back from Siena to San Gimignano and night was quickly falling, I knew I had to get back to the guest quarters of the Convent near San Gimignano before curfew. Another confessional /beseeching -pleading for mercy due to tardiness and a necessity for entrance after curfew with the multilingual- though non English speaking Sisters was too wretched to contemplate, especially on an empty stomach. Darkness was closing in as I puttered along from Siena, wishing the wind was at my back pushing me faster on my way to make up for time lost in the maze of Sienese culture. All the roads seemed circular between Cole de Val d'Elsa and Volterra, and I kept missing the right turn to take for San Gimignano because all roads seemed circular between Cole de Val d'Elsa and Volterra. Suddenly, real panic started to take hold, as I considered the possibility of sleeping outside near the Etruscan dig site at Volterra rather than in a warm bed that night, the familiar Hilltown loomed beneath the midnight blue sky. I spied my favorite grove of marching cypress and olive trees and vineyards, flanking the foothills to San Gimignano like signs pointing This Way Back. Zigzagging across the terrain, I made it minutes before being locked out for the night. The image of San Gimignano in the evening light guiding me back stayed emblazoned in my mind since 1998 until the spring of 2004 when I painted this particular image.
Original Available - 24 x 30 Oil and Acrylic on Canvas
