sunset on air

Yesterday there was a spectacular sunset on air over my house.

Such sunsets are possible only uphill like where I live. The sun sets much sooner than at sea which means the colours are more gold like. At sea the sunset would be red and on fire instead.
I’m trying to set something up in order to make the silhouette more interesting: if you have anything to suggest I would love to try it because I get such sunsets at least once every week during fall season.
Thanks!

Snail festival at La Serra (SP) – sagra delle lumaghe a La Serra

For some this is probably revolting but I must say they are not bad at all. I’m talking about snails of course.
I gotta say: eating them is much easier when you are surrounded by a couple of thousand people all claiming this is the best meal ever. They appear disgusting and while eating them you cannot help but thinking of the little trail they use to leave behind, but they taste all right. If you get a chance I recommend trying.

La Serra si trova sopra Lerici (SP) e andando là si gode di un fantastico tramonto sul golfo dei poeti.

Day at Cinque terre and love path

This time I went to Cinque Terre with my girlfriend and since she is not lazy at all we made the whole path from Monterosso to Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. For the last time I was in Riomaggiore follow this link: –> link
Here is the first glimpse of the sea out of Monterosso train station.

Sight of Monterosso from the love path

This was not a cloudless day. I liked a lot the shadow of clouds over the sea

Vernazza from the love path

A very hot girl fighting the waves in Vernazza

Another maybe even hotter girl

Seagull over Vernazza’s clouds

The path

I have also a very special video here. The small rocks make a particular sound in Manarola/Corniglia and the only way to make it audible to you was a video:

NOTE: I’ve just updated the video! Apparently I forgot to put the audio there during the processing

A picture from Corniglia

A picture from Manarola

A butterfly

Some idiots thought this funny

Coppa del mondo Germania 2006 a La Spezia

Da qualche giorno nella Palazzina delle Arti della Spezia è in esposizione la Coppa del mondo di calcio vinta dall’Italia al Mondiale di Germania 2006. Non che mi interessi il calcio, ma ci ho fatto un salto ugualmente con un amico

Nicolò’s house – goodbye party

A friend of mine is moving out from his house. Some of the alcohol was going to get wasted and he decided for some reason to give a party in honour of his house. I got there 10 minutes after the party was started and here is what I’ve found:

Shortly later, someone (Paolo) decided to take off his bell…

War is raging between Paolo and Davide

The war left some marks in the and of the night

What better way for ending a peaceful alchool night then a swim with pattino?

e pioggia fu’

Finally the sunny hell has been broken by a true summer lightning storm. Yesterday night I was kinda hysteric without any plausible explanation, so this morning I discovered a new mighty power on me: when rain is coming I can tell, just like animals can. Ain’t that cool?
If you fear some kind of nature calamity is approaching and you’d happen to see me migrating… well… I told you!
I took the chance to shoot some artistic photos (right before migrating)!

Finalmente è tornata la pioggia dopo quasi un mese di secco potente. Ieri sera ero praticamente isterico senza riuscire a comprenderne il motivo, quindi questa matina ho scoperto di avere un potere speciale: avverto l’arrivo della pioggia esattamente come gli animali. Incredibile, vero?
Se aveste il sospetto di una qualche calamità naturale e per caso mi vedeste migrare… beh… vi ho avvisato!
Ho colto l’occasione per scattare un paio di foto artistiche!

Personally I do love rain, so much that fall is my favourite season. When the storm is on I like to watch it with the same hypnotic fervour people have when around a fire. I like walking in the rain (and singing sometimes) without umbrella; I have a special taste for rain wet hair (mostly in girls’ hair though). I like the smell of air when it’s raining (although I learned it’s not precisely healthy being mostly composed by Ozone), and I like to think of nature placating its thirst.

What’s more important I love the fact that when the storm breaks the sun gives back its bless.

Personalmente adoro la pioggia, tanto che l’autunno è la mia stagione preferita dell’anno. Mi piace starla a guardare con lo stesso ipnotismo con cui guardo il fuoco. Mi piace camminare nella pioggia senza ombrello e lasciare che mi bagni i capelli. Mi piace perché l’aria è più pulita quando piove, la natura si disseta e soprattutto, dopo la pioggia spunta sempre il sole.

beach party on Vecchiano (Marina di Pisa)

How lovely is that? 18 people, most of them with a scientific degree joined in purpose to produce the most perfect night on the beach ever done.
I’ve rarely seen such efficiency in Italy, really nicely done fellas!

I announce (and with a fair share of pride) that I was the fire maker. I just love taking care of fires and their hypnotic light, especially when the sight is enhanced by gnammy sausages. Before filling bread with those they were put in a pot with lemon and spices: never tasted anything so nice and filling. Good job girls!

Naturally I couldn’t help myself from taking a shot to the moon, but this time I think I did a fair good job…

As usual the pictures are geo-tagged, in case you want to give it a try.

Italian news making spoilers of HP7 to help share

Tonight I’m in turmoil.
This is probably a very common Italian custom, something usually shown on the American movies: italians watching Telly at dinner time.
I don’t usually watch TV; it has something to do with it being controlled (partially or totally, who cares any more) by the most shameful citizen of Italy (you know who) and, in general, being one of the worst televisions in EU. The only exception are the news which are interesting because in a few minutes you can get a glimpse of what’s going on in Italy and some tiny little shy uncomplete infos about the rest of the world. I could easily get my live feeds from the net (I like BBC the most) but I’ve had some bandwidth issues of late which made it impossible to watch live streams from the internet. Thankfully today my DSL connection is back on shape!
This dinner time TV watching is a habit I don’t resent giving up, not at all, not after tonight.

At 7.57 PM of 07/18/2007 the RAI most important channel, RAI1, started as usual its TG1 to update all the paying costumers on the main news of the day.
I got to be clear on that: italians don’t like paying for TV, no more then the next man at the very least, but as far as they own a TV they are obliged to pay this absolutely unfair tax of TV-ownership to RAI. Not so long ago this entitled them to three channels without ads and some quality shows. Nowadays RAI is full of trash TV, no-stop ads and a full dose of tits every day, enough to disgust even a young watcher like me. You may start wondering what the money is all for since they do have ads. The answer is quite simple: money is necessary to pay people like Bruno Vespa, Santoro, half naked girls, some 100% idiot italian tv series with mediocre actors, Bonolis, american movies with italian dubs, the so called journalist blabbering about sexual adventures of football players and so on; in synthesis people that never performed a honest day of work in they wasteful lives or never did anything useful for society.
Since you have no choice on the matter most italians pay for the service and appear quite proud of doing so, like it was something honest people have to do. God protect them!

What enraged me tonight was the news about the coming last book of Harry Potter. As most of the World I’m a huge HP fan. I love it. I loved it since I started reading the first book. I learned written english on JK books and started learning spoken english on WB movies. I’ve been waiting for eons to read the final battle between the little wizard and Lord Voldemort. With every new book I’ve felt elated, jubilant and enthusiastic. Out of the bookstore with a shiny new book in my hands I’ve always felt a need of closure, isolation for the rest of the world to the sole purpose of reading the book. No lunch, no dinner and no sleep so far as the book had something to reveal in the next page. You understand what I mean, don’t you?
Well, tonight I started watching the news a little later then usual, so I didn’t get the synthesis of the news, and imagine my surprise when this “human” made a spoiler about the catharsis of the book, days before the official book selling start! Imagine my shock when I frantically tried to grab the remote and power off this stupid object. Imagine my sorrow while, pushing the freaking red button, I couldn’t help but listen to what TG1 was spoiling.
I hate them. I totally hate them. They ruined the sore pleasure of a passionate reader. They ruined the waiting. They spoiled my trepidation.
I’m in distraught.

I’m sorry: I just cannot go on! I’ll edit this post tomorrow when my bitterness has sobered down a little, else I say something I may come to regret.

A day on Riomaggiore (cinqueterre)

CinqueTerre (= “five lands“) are five fishing villages in the middle of Cinqueterre National Park, a few kilometers north-west of Golfo della Spezia; this park has recently received a prestigious acknowledgment by UNESCO, which has defined this territory as a “humanity’s world heritage“. Every year millions of tourists from all over the world visit this site thanks to the beauty of the national park, the crystal clear waters and mostly for the most charming path of the world: the love path (via dell’amore).

I didn’t walk the love path, not this time, because I was with lazy friends; for a native the love path is something done many times each year, so I’ll surely get my chance of shooting some pictures from there before long.
Today we went to Riomaggiore (SP), the first of the 5 Terre (at least for those coming from La Spezia). There is a selection of ways to reach this place and all the others. My ultra rated suggestion is a motorbike, followed by boat and train. There are different pros and cons with each solution.
Coming by motorbike means a wonderful asphalt with impossible grip and constant fight between speed and the urge to stop the bike and shoot pictures. The road you’d take is at almost 200 meters o.s.l. which means a 270° sea sight. A very good tele is totally advised. The cons are that you must park the bike somewhere and that means going UP to the bike after a long hot day of sea. I won’t go into details: you’ll see…
Coming by boat is fascinating, I never actually tried it because, as native, I have some haste for invasive boats… but you can actually take the ferry from a lot of cities (Lerici, Fiumaretta, Portovenere etc.) or use your own (at least I believe so…).
By train you have top commodity. You can buy a full inclusive ticket (5 Terre-card) in La Spezia station (or any other), which gives you unlimited access to the trains to and from 5 Terre, and naturally you won’t pay for the love path (yeah: you pay to access the love path but it’s totally worth it). Try to picture it: you wake up in a camping site in Levanto, take the first train to Monterosso, stay there the time to shoot some pictures, take another train to Riomaggiore, come back to Vernazza, some love path and back to Levanto: all with the same cheap ticket! Another advantage is that the train stations are quite close to the sea: not so much to walk. Here is a little sample of Riomaggiore’s

Usually trains are so long (and full) that top and bottom are still well inside the tunnel and many tourists mistake the station for a train traffic-light or something.

The village is suspended into time. I’ve been there in every season and with every possible weather condition for many years and they still look the same.

Ok, there are some ATMs, and a little bit too many tourists to consider it pure, but the core of the fishing village is preserved. Go to Monterosso at 5 o’clock in the morning and you’ll see the fishers’ boats coming back loaded with fish (acciughe in particular).

Let’s take a look at the sea now, shall we? You can’t see it but there is a cave in Riomaggiore you can explore (about 30 meters deep). Go to the beach in the afternoon then swim close to the coast for about 200 meters on the south side.

Most people can retaliate a place all by themselves.

Finally the love path. This time there was no way I could go, but I climbed up to shoot the starting point of via dell’amore.

A note about my Canon Powershot G7. The camera shot a total of 170 photos: 700MB in the SD card with an average of 4.5MB per photo. 2/3 of them where discarded but after just 1 week of use I’m totally in awe for this amazing gadget. The colors are amazingly true and I played a lot with the manual settings. Indeed: almost all the pictures were shot with manual settings but surely image stabilization and auto-focus helped a lot. I never used the tripod: there was absolutely no need. The battery gave no sign of giving away: I believe 100 more shot were available!
This place looks spectacular also below water: pity I can’t afford the water cover.

My friends trying to locate an empty spot

Antonio: beginning of Via dell’amore

Lina (from Sweden) in the tunnel connecting the train station of Riomaggiore with the beach

Christine (from France) smiling!!! First and only time in the whole day

Davide and Lina

Lina having a taste of pizza with Nutella

Antonio

Me without a tan

Lina taking a shot with her cameraphone

Lina

Me with the tan and the beginning of Via dell’Amore

This pic was taken because my friend wanted to test the zooming of the G7

This one too

SanTerenzo & Lerici [edited]

Got back from 5 Terre: awesome day! Can’t wait to post all the pics I’ve shot, but got to wait till tomorrow (well… few hours considering it’s over midnight here). Adapting, cropping and resizing took a huge amount of time.
Here are some postcards from two of my fav places in Liguria.

SanTerenzo by night

Lerici by night

(this last needs to be re-shot. I can do loads better with a tripod and a better positioning. Also the white castle must stay on the right side of the photo)

Ok. Here is the latest shot from Lerici (SP). I think this time I did a fair good job, both shooting and post-processing. The picture was a little overexposed because I needed to compensate the noise correction.