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Tag Archives: Italy
Palermo Street Art.
I don’t know when humanity built the first wall; what I’m certain of, however, is that it mustn’t have been long before somebody drew on it. Street art has been found everywhere, from Aya Sofia in Istanbul to Pompeii: it’s … Continue reading
Posted in Italy, Sicilia
Tagged After Life, Art, Bacchus, Borsellino, Corleone, Cosa nostra, death, environment, Falcone, Greta, Hippo, Italia, Italy, Jesus, Kalsa, Lampedusa, Leopard, Murales, Nanni Moretti, Palermo, Racism, Reinassance, Rosk&Loste, Sicilia, Sicily, Spray art, Stickers, Street art, Thunberg, Tomasi
19 Comments
Ashes and blue skies: a Palermo travelogue.
Warm air rushes in to fill the plane. We disembark by row, adhering scrupulously to the new socially-distant orthodoxy, ditching jumpers and jackets as we do: summer might be a distant memory where we left off, washed away in the … Continue reading
Posted in Europe, Italy, Sicilia
Tagged Bangla, Borgo Antico, Bread, Cathedral, Church, Duomo, Europe, Granita, Immigration, India, Italia, Italy, Kalsa, Koran, Maqueda, Market, Med, Mediterranean, Mosque, Old town, Palermo, Pane, Panelle, People, People watching, Qoran, Rubbish, Sea, Sicilia, Sicily, Ucciardone
30 Comments
Saving a corner of wilderness.
Regulars of this blog will know that I originally hail from NW Italy. I was born in Piedmont but spent a lot of time in neighbouring Val d’Aosta (also known as Almost Switzerland). A region of glaciers, woods, gurgling streams, … Continue reading
Posted in Europe, Italy, Uncategorized, Val d'Aosta
Tagged Alps, Annamaria Gremmo, Aosta, Cime Bianche, Climate change, Conservation, Francesco Sisti, Italy, Last wild valley, Marco Soggetto, Mountains, Ski, Skiing, Val d'Aosta, Vallee d'Aoste, Vallone selvaggio, Wild, Wildlife
22 Comments
The ultimate StairMaster.
From the comfortable flatness of London, Alpine trekking evokes images of paths meandering towards isolated peaks and a soft mattress of pine needles covering a path running through the woods. Not in the mountains surrounding my hometown, though. Boulders make … Continue reading
Posted in Italy, Piemonte
Tagged Alps, Animals, Bee, Black, Bovine, Buddhism, Cable car, Clouds, Cow, Dublin, Dubliners, Flat, Flower, Hiking, Insect, Italy, Madonna, Mary, Matterhorn, Monte Rosa, Oropa, Paddy, Piedmont, Piemonte, Prealpi, Rice, Rock, Rocky road, Ropeway, Sanctuary, Shepherd, Summer, Trekking, Yellow
28 Comments
About home.
Slowly, with a lot of very British dithering and even-more-British bursts of anti-social behaviour, our society is opening up. A few days ago, I went on the Tube: my first public transport ride since mid-March. Pubs are rumoured to be … Continue reading
Posted in Italy, Piemonte
Tagged Alpi, cafetiere, Carabinieri, Cat, Coronavirus, Covid, Italia, Italy, Local news, Lockdown, Mountains, Piedmont, Piemont, Piemonte, Rutger Hauer, Snow, Tractor, Trivero, Valle Cervo
22 Comments
Decameron.
Dico adunque che già erano gli anni della fruttifera incarnazione del Figliuolo di Dio al numero pervenuti di milletrecentoquarantotto, quando nella egregia città di Fiorenza, oltre a ogn’altra italica bellissima, pervenne la mortifera pestilenza: la quale, per operazion de’ corpi … Continue reading
Posted in Day 0, Decameron, Odd ones out
Tagged 11th novella, 1348, Black Death, Boccaccio, Buen Retiro, Covid, Covid-19, Decameron, Fiammetta, Florence, Isolation, Italy, Literature, Lockdown, Novel coronavirus, Novella, Novellas, Pandemic, Plague, Santa Maria Novella, Self isolation, Story, Storytelling, Ten days, Toscana, Tuscany, Writing
18 Comments
There were…
…a rhino, a wedding, a few horses and a running llama. They all were here, in the same region. It’ll all make sense. Hopefully.
A story of emigration.
It is estimated that up to 25 million Argentinians have a full or partial Italian heritage. This is approximately 50% of the country’s population. The converse is also true: having an Argentine correlation is, in Italy, as widespread as hosting … Continue reading
Posted in Americas, Argentina
Tagged Argentina, Bogianen, Bouge pas, Buenos Aires, Ellis Island, Emigration, Europe, Italian emigration, Italy, Migraciones, Migration, Moròn, New World, New York, Piedmont, Transatlantic, Travel
21 Comments
Trans-Europa Express.
Italy >>>> >>>> Slovenia >>>> >>>> >>>> Hungary Doing it all tomorrow again. Can’t wait. Honest.