Tag Archives: Italy

Palermo Street Art.

Posted on 20/10/2020 by awtytravels

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.

Posted on 01/10/2020 by awtytravels

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.

Posted on 29/09/2020 by awtytravels

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.

Posted on 07/09/2020 by awtytravels

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.

Posted on 01/07/2020 by awtytravels

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.

Posted on 22/03/2020 by awtytravels

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

Travels in Italy’s 11th most-visited region.

Posted on 06/10/2019 by awtytravels

There are twenty regions in Italy (or perhaps it’s only 19; Molise’s existence, much like dark matter, is still a matter for debate); together in 2018 they hosted a whopping 429 million tourists, half of them foreigners (of whom at … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, Italy, Piemonte | Tagged Alba, Alps, Art, Asti, Autumn, Barbaresco, Barbera, Barolo, Belvedere, Beppe Fenoglio, Biella, Cattle, Cuneo, DOC, DOCG, Dogliani, Europe, Granda, Hills, Horse, horses, Italia, Italy, La Morra, Langhe, Llama, Mare, Modern Art, Monforte d'Alba, Montezemolo, Mountains, Occitania, Piedmont, Piemont, Piemonte, Prealps, Roero, Stallion, Torino, Tourism, Turin, Wine, Winery | 17 Comments

There were…

Posted on 02/10/2019 by awtytravels

…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.

Posted in Italy, Piemonte | Tagged Biella, Europe, Italy, La Morra, Langhe, Mountains, Photography, Piedmont, Piemont, Piemonte, Tourism, Travel | 9 Comments

A story of emigration.

Posted on 08/01/2019 by awtytravels

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 →