Today is September the 11th, that infamous date...........it is my birthday, I am now 70, on this day it is the age when well meaning people tell you ".......you looking good, young man!" and many other such inanities; you smile and thank them all the while refraining from making some obscene… Read full post »

A  headline in the current online issue of Il Corriere della Sera (leading italian newspaper):
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FINANZA SEGRETA E INGIUSTIZIA SOCIALE
 
Il tesoro nascosto nei paradisi fiscali vale quanto il Pil di Usa e Giappo… Read full post »

It may not be kept from the news any longer, despite his wife Mercedes' brave attempts, that the great writer has Alzheimer and can no longer recognize friends and relatives and, even more important for us callous worshippers, might not be able to complete "Vivir para contarla"

I know that… Read full post »

Yesterday saw the passing of one of the masters, if not "the maestro", of car design, Sergio Pininfarina. As with all such passing away of some of our  brilliant designers I am left musing about this, design, as the one unsurpassed mark of excellence of our italian cultural heritage, how and… Read full post »

In the good summer days of June the usual hordes of northern europeans invade the southern belt of Europe in four of its most representative states, the infamous, in monetary/financial terms: Portugal, Italy,Greece,Spain (for the purpose of this brief excursus Ireland is left out). The… Read full post »

A sharp and short note that I read this morning on L'Unità online:

Berlino ha già distrutto due volte se stessa e l’ordine europeo. Sarebbe una tragedia e un’ironia se, pur con le migliori intenzioni, mandasse in rovina l’Europa per la terza volta

Joschka Fische… Read full post »

This morning (italian time) I was perusing  the online edition of La Repubblica, a major italian newspaper, where I came across an article and a video of  an unidentified student by the name of Matt affected by cerebral palsy, who participated in a 400 metre race at the "Colonial… Read full post »

The month started as usual with incredible displays of flowers and greenery all around; the front....

....and the back...

....and across,

( One of these days I shall go and ask the farmer if there is any story (there must be) behind those three solitary cy… Read full post »

As I wrote in a previous post I was a terrible student in high school, so much so that at the age of 18 I was still there (and failed again); one silver lining for me, not for my poor parents, was that that year the prof of italian literature "invited" us… Read full post »

Brassawe’s piece on playing the game of chess against humans and a computer made me think back to when I too  played the game in earlier years; back then I was fascinated not only by the game itself but also by the way it was played in the fair city of/… Read full post »

For some light relief, although it is not foodie Tuesday, today we put together a nice little lunch:

Young asparagus with a sprinkle of extra vergin (what else?) olive oil, grilled in the oven and,

peperonata (ratatouille) courtesy of Andrea:

     - 4 peppers (red, gr… Read full post »

Five reasons are really four too many, but let's give the remnants of the moderate GOP  survivors a bit more to hang on; I would like to remind my american friends that the president of the USA is still the ruler of the world (how much longer is open for debate)… Read full post »

I loved (being italian) the ode to italian coffee, and not only, in the blog about the "Dolce Vita" by Maria Stuart, that I put together a few items about our national (besides wine) liquid vice....

But first a cartoon

Translation: What is that I do that excites you the most ?… Read full post »

After reading Brassawe's piece on this open call I was left thinking about "love" (I still have one going not so physical anymore but still very satisfying)....

...... I have long ago stopped having any interest in boy-girl-man-woman love stories, the last one was the movie "Romeo and Julie… Read full post »

Yesterday on a wet blustery Sunday morning a group of us from the florentine hills braved the weather and crossed the river Arno in Florence (Mark Twain remarked famously that only the florentines could call it a river and build bridges across it)

we were on the way to visit Palazzo… Read full post »

Of all american cartoonists Oliphant is my favourite even if his sarcasm is at times against my political grain (but that's the way it should be). His last vignette on the Sunday's NYT cartoons has me somewhat baffled as to what I think is a juxtaposition of images, chiefly that of an… Read full post »

On Easter Monday, a holiday in Italy called Pasquetta (little Easter), it is a tradition for city dwellers to spend the day in the country, some picnicking, some visiting small country town, others just going to one of those roadside restaurants of which Italy abounds.

We live in the country but… Read full post »

Yesterday, Good Friday, we decided to anticipate the Easter Sunday lunch (escape the crowds!) at our favourite tuscan seaside restaurant south of Livorno, the Sassoscritto right on the Aurelia road, one of the main arteries of the roman empire.....we first went there in 1962 on one of our first dates… Read full post »

It was a beautiful evening in the summer of 1995, I was driving from Heathrow to Bristol on the M5 on my way back from Sardinia....

.....in 1993 my company had started an ambitious pan-european hi-tech project to develop an advanced 64 bit dual microprocessor for the multimedia market; the main… Read full post »

As the plat du jour in the USA is the healthcare debate at the SCOTUS and the bands of pro/against crowds are providing fodder for the newsmedia, I would like to put my two cents in as a frequent visitor to the USA:

. I unfortunately had to visit the ER… Read full post »

My son Giancarlo posted this on FB, a work by Dorian Tireli

Nature is a wonderful reminder of beauty, it helps us to balance somewhat, if not nearly enough, all the ugliness and horror around....and so comes La Primavera

Foreground: a mimosa tree and the ever present rosemary bushes Background: olive and apricot trees (wonderful fruits and jam!)

&… Read full post »

Last night on a spring like evening (balmy days and chilly nights) in the fair city of Genova....

...the  old port....

.....and its most famous symbol La Lanterna (the lighthouse).....

.....when the city was a seafaring power, one of the four most notable maritime republics… Read full post »

It was extremely easy to predict as I did in my post last Sept. 30 "Amanda Knox, italian justice and Donald Trump":

......" The trial has attracted worldwide attention, Perugia is a town under siege from the international media circuits (circus?); Matt Lauer of the Today Show is one of… Read full post »