Bailey Alexander

oh the things our feet have seen

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 17:32:14 +0200

April 17th, Amsterdam

In this wicked, wicked world

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:18:54 +0200

Traveling to Piemonte just might restore the faith.

Life on an Italian street

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 17:44:11 +0200

Maybe the buds are coming out earlier on the tigli trees - cannot wait for the sun to warm up - everything

Gastone mid April in ‘22 and Gigi, today

The value of friendship

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 17:15:40 +0200

Especially when your friend knows everything you need to know about herbs. If you find yourself in Piemonte in spring or summer, look up Anna Fila Robattino; it just may change your life.

Anna Fila Robattino says "Herbs are Superheroes!"

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 17:06:22 +0200

“Anna’s passion is contagious, and we meander for hours. But she knows when the exploration is over and it’s time to sample our rewards. Anna will disappear as we linger on the large patio below her library, patiently awaiting a sumptuous lunch full of herbal concoctions. Carafes full of tisanas containing various herbal teas, soups full of vegetables, and breads flavored by homemade oils and vinegars are laid out on the long wooden table. We can then relive our walk and discuss items picked up and studied along the way. One time I ate a small pink rose on the table. It filled my mouth and made me laugh. It was light and delightful and made me feel like a kid again."

Excerpt From Personal Legends of Piemonte

Grissini in goblets

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 17:29:13 +0200

Dinner @Chez Bay

Pasta on napkin

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 17:27:48 +0200

Cuisine in Piemonte, Italy

Godot and Swan

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 17:26:53 +0200

Life on Lake Garda

Pasta + Piemonte = Joy

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 17:16:48 +0200

Cooking northern Italian style

The Roma in Romania

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 16:45:20 +0200

Many theories about their history; some homes look like could exist in India.

Homes found on the outskirts of Bucharest are educational in a cultural way. They were built with ‘dirty money’ as it was called. These homes, or structures were illustrative of the origin of the Roma gypsies. I encountered them en route to Austria or on my way to tour the Carpathian Mountains by car.

March has its own magic

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 18:06:12 +0200

allowing me to wait for spring

on the lookout

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 18:03:34 +0200

is that spring I see

Floating goddesses

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 18:24:46 +0200

“I just let the interior of the city give me clues to a personality as I walked along her long, broad, inviting boulevards, cutting through vast parks and statues floating everywhere, like goddesses protecting their city, applying a sympathetic vibe.”

Excerpt From A European Odyssey: How A Boxer’s Daughter Found Grace

Statue of Eliška Krásnohorská a Czech feminist author. 1847-1926

Sculpture created by Karla Vobišová-Žáková:Czechia’s first female professional sculptor in 1931.

foto taken 3.3.12

cycles of life

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 18:08:47 +0200

“If I wanted to be closer to the cycles of life and death and learn how to listen to the trees I found my nirvana. I grew my own herbs and created my own elixir from the ground. I helped to eliminate the space between my vegetables and my dinner table. My new address provided me with a new frontier and kept me completely engaged.”

Excerpt From A European Odyssey: How A Boxer’s Daughter Found Grace

Feeling late February

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 17:26:37 +0200

Finally some sun while cycling around the lake, doing errands.

Letters of Oscar Wilde

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 18:26:18 +0200

Here’s a piece from De Profundis - written right before leaving prison:

To me one of the things in history the most to be regretted is that the Christ’s own renaissance which had produced the Cathedral of Chartres, the Arthurian cycle of legends, the life of St. Francis of Assisi, the art of Giotto, and Dante’s Divine Comedy, was not allowed to develop on its own lines but was interrupted and spoiled by the dreary classical Renaissance that gave us Petrarch, and Raphael’s frescoes, and Palladian architecture, and formal French tragedy, and St. Paul’s Cathedral, and Pope’s poetry, and and everything this is made from without and by dead rules….

Oscar….blissfully opinionated, gorgeous reference points from long ago, they still linger and live in our imagination

Photo, Assisi, 2012

Writer and Maestro

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 19:32:22 +0200

Oscar Wilde - devoted to beauty, famously ruined by his homosexuality, writing that extraordinary letter in prison - a meditation, re-imagining Christ as an artist to express his suffering in De Profundis

Sergei Diaghilev not only thrived despite, in the early 20th century, he leveraged it - introducing Russian and modern ballet to the west, the father of modern art - everyone followed him

including Stravinsky, Nijinsky, Massine and Matisse, Balanchine, Bakst, Benois and Braque, Coco Chanel, Cocteau, and de Chirico, Dali, even Brecht, and of course Picasso…once upon a time

Smallest DOC in all of Italy

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 17:08:23 +0200

In the autumn I began using our fireplace and by early winter I kept the fire going all day long. It was an elaborate stone structure with a large glass door and air valves funneling warm air throughout the lower story. This was clever because our home wasn’t built in classic Piemontese style with multiple rooms. The lower story was one, long, spacious room with windows extending across the front of the house to optimize the view.

It must have been the view that made us fall in love with our new home. The lawn extended out to a border full of heather and below the heather a large vineyard cascaded down the hill full of Moscato and Dolcetto grapes. Beyond our lawn, beyond the heather, and into the distance sat the Ligurian alps to one side and Savona on the other. The mountain view dropped in the middle creating a V-shape, the effect making it appear as if this was the chalice I had been looking for all along. The neighbors owned the vineyard and beyond the vines sat our tiny hamlet called Loazzolo.

It was over 1500 years old and boasted the smallest DOC in all of Italy. The wine was fantastic and our tiny town might as well have been New York because that was all the company I craved.”

Excerpt From A European Odyssey: How A Boxer’s Daughter Found Grace

Finding Piemonte at 50

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 18:33:26 +0200

“In the autumn I began using our fireplace and by early winter I kept the fire going all day long. It was an elaborate stone structure with a large glass door and air valves funneling warm air throughout the lower story. This was clever because our home wasn’t built in classic Piemontese style with multiple rooms. The lower story was one, long, spacious room with windows extending across the front of the house to optimize the view.

  It must have been the view that made us fall in love with our new home. The lawn extended out to a border full of heather and below the heather a large vineyard cascaded down the hill full of Moscato and Dolcetto grapes. Beyond our lawn, beyond the heather, and into the distance sat the Ligurian alps to one side and Savona on the other. The mountain view dropped in the middle creating a V-shape, the effect making it appear as if this was the chalice I had been looking for all along. The neighbors owned the vineyard and beyond the vines sat our tiny hamlet called Loazzolo. It was over 1500 years old and boasted the smallest DOC in all of Italy. The wine was fantastic and our tiny town might as well have been New York because that was all the company I craved.”

Excerpt From A European Odyssey: How A Boxer’s Daughter Found Grace Bailey Alexander

Life as a liveaboard

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:18:50 +0200

When life becomes a struggle, emotions move at their own pace. I was grateful to live aboard our sailboat MADI back in 2010; it changed my life.

Excerpt from “A European Odyssey”

“As far as I was concerned there were two projects to complete. The first was to get our boat into ship shape and the second was to make sure I followed her lead. From the moment I moved aboard Madi there was the promise of transformation. I wanted to like myself again, and find some inner peace. This was of vital importance, and like my attitude, Madi’s bright work was in desperate need of attention. Most days were spent sanding, scrubbing, and varnishing her railings. The cockpit required a lot of work and eventually she received an entire new coat on her teak deck. Madi got the full treatment and I even had her hauled her out of the water so she could receive a proper scrub underneath.

I moved from winter in Geneva to spring in Lignano and the weather was only going to get better. I began to feel rejuvenated for two reasons; I had serious work and it felt like I was making progress. After a full day’s work I sat aft deck with Colette and Godot at my feet and began the exercise of repairing myself. As she had in the past, Italy acted as a balm, and she was ready to do it once again. There was no reason to compete with her because she was more of a hedonist than I could ever be and the world often looks most attractive when viewing her from a boat. Especially when it’s stationary.”

Bohemian and its ideals, including truth, love and beauty

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 17:51:59 +0200

Pic from Prague, a place that really allowed me to open up my mind and spirit.

Headless statues or women in repose

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 18:17:00 +0200

“On a regular basis Colette and Godot were taken past the American Academy where I fantasized Gore Vidal was studying at the library doing research for Julien. This weekly sojourn took us to the seventeenth century Villa Pamphili located in the quarter of Monteverde. This is where Via Aurelia begins with her dramatically high, dark grey walls stretching up to the sky until a tiny world opened up for us alone. We’d enter the gardens and stroll by the pitch where Italians kicked a soccer ball around with their kids or Indians played cricket.

Villa Pamphili is one of Rome’s largest landscaped parks but I felt destined to roam far beyond the manicured bits, below the glamorous gardens and gazeboes. Once we reached the shady area where dozens of giant pine trees with extra long trunks provided shelter from the heat, I let Colette and Godot off their leads. There were numerous paths and I took a less traveled one to our secret garden. I never saw anyone here. We were surrounded by headless statues, or women in repose on low beds of ancient marble, forgotten long ago. It was so quiet. Everyone appeared to have gone to sleep leaving the air clean and serene.”

Excerpt From A European Odyssey: How A Boxer’s Daughter Found Grace Bailey Alexander

With Gigi and Gastone in France

Sun, 11 Jan 2026 20:55:57 +0200

In Mandelieu-La Napoule, Nice, France

Restaurant with a view

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 17:37:27 +0200

In Agliano, Piemonte, located in northern Italy you can enjoy the spa - and the view isn’t too bad either.

Peasant Recipes

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 17:36:09 +0200

Peasant recipes from Piemonte are world famous - they also do fancy just fine