Well, I have shingles. Herpes zoster. No fun, and painful. I like the Italian name for it better – more poetical. Fire of Saint Anthony. Depictions of Saint Anthony in Tuscany and Umbria often have a small belted pig at the friar’s feet. They were permitted to raise pigs since the fat was used for medicinal purposes. You’ll often find one of these small belted pigs in paintings and frescoes. For instance in Lorenzetti’s Effects of Good Government in Siena, a pig is shown led by a peasant walking along in the countryside. The belted pigs are smaller than the normal pigs and litters can be quite large. A few people still raise them in Orvieto and they are left free to forage on things like chestnuts and hazelnuts.
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Erika Bizzarri 
Oh no, Erika. Shingles is dreadful. I will keep you in my prayers, knowing you will bounce back and knowing that anyone who can battle shingles and still write about the little pigs in the background of a religious painting is as heroic as they come. All our love, Steve and Marilyn
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So sorry about your shingles! My sister had it and said it was awful. I remember the belted pig sausages at the Girarrosto. And then they stopped offering them as I recall. I hope you get over it soon. Here in Asheville we are having marvelously mild weather, while so many other areas are having wildfires, floods and so many disasters. I wish you well! Much love from James Varah detto il secondo.
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Cara, che peccato! I have also been afflicted with shingles -right side of my head and neck. Luckily Kay noticed it and we went to the Doctor straight away who prescribed an appropriate cream – the name of which I have forgotten.
IMPORTANT NOT TO SCRATCH which one is tempted to do due to the itch.
The critical condition was, it had to be applied within 24 hours of first noting the symptom..
Sperò tutto va bene. @@@@
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Hi Erika;
Just read this as I am catching up on email-= So sorry again- about the herpes. Can we bring you anything? And, Is it contagious, so we CAN visit? I do have a very rollicking book I think you would like- short, Scottish, and highly irreverent historic novel about Mary Queen of Scotts written by a murder mystery writer.
We got back a few hours ago after two days of pretty relentless travel- easier to do when we are in our 20s. We are glazed and looking through mostly empty cupboards but no energy to shop until tomorrow.
Andrew and I are both fried, but the animals are alive and well., the garden needs weeding, and the yard needs a bit of mowing—— it is terribly humid – I am looking around and seeing everything we need to do before returning to California in 10 days.
The German house sitter did ok (everything is very tidy and mostly very clean), but she did manage to drink a few of our bottles of wine without replacing them (hmmmm)- I think she was just a bit basic- a rather enterprising girl from a northern German industrial city, partner in an architecture firm.
More in person on the Logan party- it went better than could be expected, but as normal, there is lots of aftermath.
hugs from Torre (I think that is where we are)
A
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