Well, not exactly done

talking about the trip.

I have been going through my photos and there are some things that I really wanted to share. I will try and see if I can organize some of this into coherent bits.
One big category of great stuff I saw was needlework.

The visitor's center in the city of Akko in Israel had an exhibit of these wonderful needle painted works done on old textiles.

The pieces were up on the walls, but with no explanatory notes.

I love how the old linens are transformed by the new embroidery.

I can tell you nothing about the artist who made these wonderful pieces.

In the shuk just a few steps away you could buy these shoes covered with traditional Arab embroidery.

If I had normal feel that could fit into normal shoes I would have bought myself a pair in a heartbeat.

One of my favorite things in Rome were the ecclesiastical supply stores, particularly the ones where it was possible to buy priestly robes.

I noticed that some of the mosaic altarpieces were made to resemble fabric.

There were some wonderful examples of outrageously elaborate handwork in the church collections in both Rome and Florence.

In this piece the individual flowers were first painted and then appliqued onto the base fabric.

You can see all the different kinds of work used to create this piece.

I really fell in love with the painted and appliques flowers.

Italy prides itself on its excellent gloves.

I bought my daughter a pair of beautiful gloves.

We discovered on our last night in Florence that we had stayed around the corner from this excellent atelier