Alafaire made it to Italy and was put into the hands of her new owner, Walter Alvarez, at his 70th birthday celebration in Coldigioco, a little contrada in the hills above Ancona, Italy.

First look!

Walter and Sandro after the first tune was played! Many tunes followed.

Yesterday I dropped off these two  instruments at the L&R shop

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This is Ela, a Strad model.                           This is Novinha, a DelGesu model.

Alafaire is a Strad model. Completed on September 23, 2010, she is traveling east to her new home. These are the custom fittings of fruitwood and a chinrest of olive.

New fittings for Alafaire. The chinrest is olive.

To illustrate how quickly clutter expands to fill the space it can occupy, this is after being in the new shop for about four weeks.

This is the newest iteration of the violinisto tag. It was made for me by Susanna Prince.

Well, at least close. RedDog arrived in NYC beginning on the 17th and ending on the 18th (Tom was the last). Cremona was  very intense; standing in the still, humid air of a small room filled with nine or ten Italian violins from the 16th and 17th centuries (mostly) ignoring the discomfort while trying to see everything for as long as possible. A really charming Guarnarius filius Andreae caught my eye. Dan said he wants a copy of it for his next fiddle and I concur. We walked through the narrow streets of the old city, ate memorable food and took a picture on Via Del Gesu. I will put up some pictures when I find them.