We have returned triumphantly from our Italy trip. Much of it was spent hiking up and down the Ligurian coast. The villages of the Cinque Terre region are known for their local wines and a dessert wine, called sciacchetra’, which is derived from raisins. They farm the grapes (and other fruits, vegetables, herbs) from rolling hillsides beyond the ones pictured below, which are small family operations. Baines, true to form, completely fumbled our hostel reservations in Verona, so we tacked on several extra days in this region…

Manarola, on the trail from Corniglia

Manarola

The wedding in Florence was a blast. In hindsight, we allocated too much time to the city-center — after the first day, the density of the tourist population (to which, we realize, we added) was just too much. One night and two days would have been more like it — or however long you might feel comfortable in a tourist swarm that rivals SoHo on a Saturday afternoon. At seven o’clock in the morning, however, we had the city to ourselves…

Fiume Arno at sunrise

Outside the Uffizi, before the crowds

Finally, the great surprise of the trip was the Basilica of San Miniato, south of the city and walking distance from our accommodations. The marble façade depicts the symbols of the zodiac — a medieval mix of pagan and Catholic symbology. The rough sketch below, never finished, was made in preparation for the panels in the nave. How common was this? Did painters transfer the same techniques to oils on canvas? If not, why not? One rarely gets a before-and-after exhibit; it is good to come home with some questions; we are promoting David Hockney’s book to the top of our reading list, even if it doesn’t cover mosaics that, as in this case, were started 750 years ago.

The Church of St. Miniato

From sketches to panels

Secret Knowledge

Having been kind enough to suffer silently through our vacation pictures, and given that this is still a site about global asset allocation, you deserve a reward.

It’s been a while since we updated the optimal allocations by asset class (see exhibit below). Stocks have recently been downgraded significantly, to within points of the minimum, 30% constraint. The reduction began in mid-January (when it was 47%) — well ahead of Friday’s sell-off.

Click here for information about receiving frequent updates to the Stracia™ GOCMX™, for a small fee. ♦