Tag Archives: Italia
Confessions of a graphomaniac.
Doctor, dear doctor, help me for I’m a graphomaniac. Yes doctor, I love paper. I adore the smell of the thing, the muffled noise of a pencil running on a smooth sheet. In a nutshell, doctor, I love writing. I … Continue reading
Posted in Odd ones out, Random memories
Tagged Asia, Beirut, Central Asia, Drawing, Graphomania, Graphomaniac, Italia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Mapping, Maps, Memories, Middle East, Mitsubishi, Moleskine, Norris, Note, Pamir, Pen, Sri Lanka, Staedler, Travel, Travel literature, Travelling, Writing
26 Comments
Fireworks, mountains and sleeping elephants. Wrapping up 2017, in pictures.
The last trip of the year has just ended; the rucksack’s been duly unpacked and its contents unceremoniously thrown into the washing-up pile, hoping for some merciful hands to put them into the washing machine without the whites turning pink … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Central Asia, China, Europe, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, London, Overlooked locations, Piemonte, Random memories, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, UK
Tagged 2017, 2017 Fireworks, 2017 in photos, 2017 London Fireworks Photos, Alps, Aqespe, Aral, Aral Sea, Aralsk, Asia, Asian elephant, Bactrian camels, Camel, Central Asia, Colombo Fort, Disappearance of Aral sea, Elephant, Fireworks Pictures, Italia, Italy, Jin Mao Tower, Jing Mao tower, Kyrgyzstan, Land Cruiser, London, London Mayor, Mountains, Murghab, National park, New Year's Eve Fireworks, North Aral Sea, NYE, NYE Fireworks, Pamir, Pamir Gap, Pamir Highway, Shanghai, Shanghai Tower, Shanghai World Financial Center, Sleeping elephant, Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan railways, Tajikistan, Train, Train travel, Udawalawe
20 Comments
The land beneath the mountains.
That’s the name of my region. The land at the feet of the mountains. Click on the photo to open the panorama In my region, topography is binary. Clear cut. It’s either flat, or mountainous. No middle ground, no rolling … Continue reading
Posted in Italy, Piemonte
Tagged Alpi, Alps, Biella, Bird, Bird spotting, Duck, Emigration, Expat, Fara Novarese, Fields, Fourteener, Geese, Glacier, Immigrant, Italia, Italy, Lake, London, Malpensa, Massazza, Masserano, Massif, Monte Rosa, Musings, nature, North West Italy, Novara, Piedicavallo, Piemonte, Reservoir, Snow, Switzerland, Travel, Vercelli, Vineyard, Water, Winter, Woods
13 Comments
Goodbye for now, Italy!
As with most good things (and luckily a fair few bad ones), it all must come to an end. On a nice day in September, the sky akin to Microsoft’s Windows 98 screen saver, we gave the car back to … Continue reading
Posted in Emilia Romagna, Europe, Italy, Toscana, Veneto
Tagged Contrada, Europe, Ferrara, Fleetwood Mac, Grand Tour, Hills, Italia, Italy, Marco Pantani, Middle Age, Milan, Montalcino, Palio, Papa, Pienza, Pope, Popery, San Marco, San Quirico, Siena, Toscana, Tuscany, Val d'Orcia, Veneto, Venezia, Venice
19 Comments
Chaos theory applied to abbeys.
Sometimes you don’t make it, sometimes you break it. Ian Malcom explained it in Jurassic Park, circa 1993. A butterfly can flap its wings in Peking and in Central Park you get rain instead of sunshine. A single valley, two abbeys, … Continue reading
Posted in Europe, Italy, Toscana
Tagged 1348 Plague, Abbey, Black Death, Chaos Theory, Christianity, Cistercian, Faith, Galgano, Italia, Italy, Jurassic Park, Knights, Middle Ages, Monks, Nunnery, San Galgano, Sant'Antimo, Sword in stone, Toscana, Tuscany, Val d'Orcia
14 Comments
Of the intrinsic beauty and harmonious forms of Tuscan hills.
I come from a region where the land is alternatively very flat – filled with rice paddies, corn fields and factories – or very mountainous. There’s really not much of an alternative; it’s either flat as a ruler or climbs … Continue reading
Posted in Europe, Italy, Toscana
Tagged Cappella di Vitaleta, Chapel of vitaleta, Corn, Europa, Europe, Hills, Italia, Italy, San Quirico d'Orcia, September, Siena, Summer, Toscana, Tuscany, Val d'Orcia, Vineyard, Wine
13 Comments
Delirious Venezia.
Thirty-one years, all of which in possess of a passport marked “Repubblica Italiana”, and I had never been to Venezia. I visited Hanoi, Dušanbe and Charlotte, North Carolina, but never made it to the city at the end of the Veneto … Continue reading
Posted in Europe, Italy, Veneto
Tagged America, Boat, Calle, Canal, Canals, Church, Communism, Cruise ship, Dorsoduro, Europe, Ghetto, Ghetto Nuovo, Hammer and sickle, Italia, Italy, Jew, Maserati, No Grandi Navi, Pollution, Religion, Rialto, San Marco, Sant'Elena, Sticker, Street art, Tourism, Venezia, Venice, Vicenza
27 Comments
Modern art
I don’t often go to modern art fairs, mainly because I don’t get it at all, and I have a tendency to express scorn and not-so-educated scathing comments out loud when everyone else is silent (it’s a family gift, Dad … Continue reading
A rowing regatta
The stretch of the Po river that flows past the city of Turin, in Northwest Italy, is normally quiet: a few rowers, two boats doing a sort of public shuttle service, countless ducks and swans. This weekend, though, things were … Continue reading
