August 20 "THE WEIRD AND WILDING WAYS OF ROCCA BORROMEO"

Do you have a fear of dolls? No, not the live ones with wiling and beguiling ways, but the plastic ones with strange hair and rolling eyes and dressed in eerie little period costumes. Well, imagine having a castle, or castello as they say in Italy, of dolls from throughout the ages. Well, that's what Julie (aka Downtown Julie Brown) and I encountered when she took me to visit Rocca Borromeo, during my trip to Italy a few weeks ago. Rocca Borromeo is situated off of Lago Maggiore, which is about an hour outside of Milano. We chose a day to escape bellissimo Lago Maggiore that wasn't drenched in sunshine and was rather gray and ominous, not a typical day in this region at that time of year. Suprisingly enough, we coordinated our outfits in complimentary fashion which lent to much more artistic photographs, as if on a reportage fashion shoot for Conde Nast Traveler, Hmmm, what a concept, style and adventure all rolled up into one!

So we hopped in DTJB's, or Julie Schuermann as she is now known nowadays, cute little Mercedes convertible and drove down to encounter what you will later see in all the photos that both Julie and I took with her trusty little camera, which took surprisingly great photos. However, we two were the artistic wunderkinds who took the photos because we didn't have a professional photographer following us around like those nasty paparazzi, who follow anyone with any kind of notoriety....damn it! I guess that goes with the whole "Image Guru" schpeel. As an aesthetic expert, I always view and visualize sites in unconventional ways with humor and style. So I tried to capture what we saw and how I saw it in my mind... in photos. Did you understand that blah,blah,blah, if not... just read again! (chuckle, chuckle)

Well. I have to say that the castello, Rocca Borromeo, was quite neat and well preserved and not unlike a movie site in Hollywood, but the "real deal" from the 16th Century I believe, although I didn't listen to the audio tour. What I saw was a little freaky, even for a seasoned and hardcore New Yorker and world traveler who has"scene" (yes, a shameless play on words) alot! I think dolls are strange and I hate fuckin' clowns too. Any effigy of a human dressed, or should I say enshrined, in period dress to me is weird and eerie and creeps me out BIG TIME! But I didn't want to ruin Julie's good time and she seemed to be enjoying the exhibition of dolls throughout the ages.

But for some strange reason, I think we got some great photos, because my creative juices were tweeked! Could we both have been possessed by the energy of the dolls??? Me thinks so!

Thanks Julie, you're a doll too, but you don't creep me out! Montgomery Frazier "The Image Guru"





5:53 PM | Blog it | Travel
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