Those baby pigeons are growing like crazy. Now they're sitting on top of each other. For the first time yesterday I saw the door to that balcony open. There's a cat! He was sitting by the railing, looking for action on the rooftops below, completely oblivious to the baby birds five feet over his head. As long as they don't try to fly for the first time when he's out there, which he almost never is, they'll be fine.

Meanwhile, two nights ago our digs here, the Hotel Giotto, put on a benefit concert for UNICEF. A pair of dazzling young Swiss twins who are a violin-piano duo, and a soprano with piano accompaniment. In the newish town museum, which occupies a giant palazzo on one of the three main streets. Tutti Assisi was there, dressed to the nine and a halfs. Except we from Art Workshop International, who were all at sixes and sevens. Okay, enough of that. Point is, AWI were "honored guests" at the event, so we were all there, but luckily none of us knew about it in advance of coming here because we probably couldn't have packed anything that would have come near the easy glamour of the natives. When Italians dress, they dress. Never ever overdone, even when what they're wearing includes feather boas, as it did. Just elegant as all hell.

The music was sweet; the setting -- repaired and restored frescoes from the various churches and ancient buildings around town, now installed as museum exhibits on the palazzo walls, with a trompe l'oeil ceiling in the music room -- was lovely; and the food was fabulous. FABULOUS. The management of the hotel took the evening as a marketing opportunity, and did salads, breads, cheeses, cold meats, as well as wine and more complicated nibbles, calculated to impress the multitudes. And they sure did. Food both delicious and abundant; and the art, and the building, and the music... A magical night.