Getting Back to Italy and Blogging

After a five-week pause, spent in England and Bulgaria, I am now back to Italy and re-starting blogging right where I left it off in May.

It sounds a bit weird to say that upon our return to Vicenza I had a case of the holiday blues (what with living in Italy – everyone’s dream destination), but we had such a great time both in my husband’s motherland, England, and my own – Bulgaria, that getting back to normality (albeit an Italian one) took a whole day of settling into.

Yes, I was irritable and difficult to be around for a day, but after taking a four-hour riposo on a week day (the luxury of it, I know!), I quickly re-discovered my love for (almost) all things Italian. Plus, I am currently planning some day trips to give me back that feeling of being on holiday while actually living here.

We are, by the way, right in the midst of Ferragosto – or, in other words, yet another hot and stuffy month of August when all Italians cleverly enjoy their holidays in the mountains and on the seaside, while leaving their gorgeous cities and towns unoccupied for the hordes of tourists to explore and sweat in. So, yes, Vicenza feels and looks pretty empty at the moment with life, seemingly, just about filling up its historical streets and squares in the evening hours when the handful of people still in town surface from their airconned abodes for a stroll and a traditional aperitif with family and friends.

This answers the first half of my title – I am back to Italy and back to my day-to-day life here.

Now, in case you are wondering why I suddenly stopped posting in my blog for a while, the reason is that back in May, I became aware of a large scale theft of the photos from my blog.

First dozens and then hundreds of my photos started popping up on all sorts of websites. It would seem that in spite of my very clear and very stern Copyright Notice on each page of my blog (yes, there is one, scroll down to the end of the page and you will see it!), people and businesses were helping themselves with wild abandon to my photos in order to sell their services and what-not without having the common business courtesy of asking if they can do it and pay me for using what, actually, is my copyright.

To say that I was shell-shocked would be the understatement of the year. I went from a state of ‘I can’t believe it!’ to utter despair. For quite some time I, honestly, lost not only the impetus to write and photograph, but started doubting the purpose of blogging at all. Why, I was asking myself, should I be putting all this information, photos and personal thoughts on the internet (albeit with a clear Copyright Notice), only to have them stolen by people who couldn’t give two hoots about me as a person and as a creator?

I just couldn’t take it in.

It was a long and dark period for me. I felt really used and really, really sad.

And then, I got mad about it and did something about it. It is not the time yet to go into too many details, but it suffices to say that I now have legal representation and if you are using my photos on your site without my permission, rather sooner than later you will be contacted with regards to it.

So, yes, after a long holiday and after finding someone to look after my copyright interests, I am now ready to go back to blogging.

It is an activity I enjoy. There is nothing like the rush I get when I sit in front of an empty page and fill it up with words and thoughts, which sometimes come tumbling out of my mind so quickly that my fingers can’t quite keep up on my laptop’s keyboard.

I have some new ideas for the blog. I am hoping to be able to update it much more regularly and share with you many more spontaneous observations and useful information about living in Italy and travelling in Europe. Let’s see how it goes.

In the meantime, I am hoping that you are having a great summer and that you will stick with me on this blogging and photographing journey that I have been following for the past almost three years.

Ah, yes! The photo is of the Adriatic coast of Italy seen from above. This is the first piece of the beautiful Italian land we glimpsed from the plane on our return from Bulgaria this summer.

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