A quick, off-schedule post to let you know that Scribblings received the International Bloggers Association’s Award of Excellence for writing and design. You can see the badge down left, and I’ll say that I’m more than a little proud of it.

Also, the dramatized reading of Virgil’s Will/Of Men and Poets in the Biblioteca Teresiana – Mantua’s magnificent 18th Century library – went like a charm. We’d been sold out for a few days, and still there was a long line of people seeking a seat. In the end I think they let in more people than were planned, because the hall was chock-full, with audience members standing all around – and you know what? They were right to insist. The play – a thing about poetry, and what remains of a poet after his death among other things – fit to perfection among the endless shelves of very, very old tomes. And Nina’s people did a wonderful job: it was a lean, intense, sleek interpretation, and I couldn’t be happier.