mercoledì 24 novembre 2010

Research reading

Yes, we are organised, all proceeding to plan. The time for planning has allowed me time to do a lot of reading (Helen is jealous: fiendishly preoccupied with office work, lobbying for things, in advance of ten weeks long service leave. But much focused on learning Italian.)

For this entry, not in Italian, breaking my principle announced with last entry...   But this is reflective and full of ideas, which you need real skill to translate.

My favourite bookstore, www.betterworldbooks.com, as usual delivers the goods. (No profit for me in saying so, no clink of money on using that link, c.f. Amazon links.) It has been great this year for sending modest-priced second hand text books to friends in Uganda, now has sent me a variety of books on Sicilian and Neapolitan history. Turning my perspective around in several directions.

At light level, to discover that Archimedes came from Siracusa. Archimedes killed by the Romans after they broke into Siracusa on a dirty ruse, after months of siege in the wars with Carthage. Archimedes had been the director-general of defence science, his devices punishingly keeping the Romans out.

Two hundred years before, they had kept out the Athenians out (I have to read Thucydides next) when the Athenians were jealous of Siracusa, a Greek city, having the reputation of largest and most impressive city of the (European) world 4-500BC.  Sadly, Dennis (Dionysius) of Siracusa became the exemplar of tyranny, breaking away from Greek manners of democracy. He asked for body guards, they gave him 500, he doubled that, game end.

I have read again of the Normans in Sicily, briefly possessing, from Palermo, the most fabled multicultural state in much of European history in the 1200s, swiftly undone, a little more swiftly perhaps, than the United States in the 1900s and 2000s... but largely by the same process, overextension and preoccupation with guns.

And then there is the history of Naples, fabulous among European capitals for several hundred years, then berefted with the unification of Italy and thus loss of taxes and service industry employment - which had supported an indolent court-based, not industry-based, capital to which those of manners flocked.

...Perhaps good for comparative reading in Australian educational programs pondering the (no, no, impossible, impossible, farfetched, as Naples advisors also found) end of the flood of money to government from the resource sector. We are somewhat more progressive to be sure, but there are lessons to be seen. In other current language, Naples was steamrollered by a level playing field.

Noting also that the present scourge of the Camorra arose from the 1300s on, with unemployment and dispossession in a society where divisions between rich and poor. And that pattern also, of course, relates to the rise of so-called terrorism, dependent on dispossession as it is. The ordinariness of violence in these earlier historical periods contributes also long term attitudes. Liddell Hart attributed the violence of the Spanish Civil War to the violence of the Peninsular War against Napoleon (wherein the term guerrilla began), as he also attributed the rise of middle east terrorism (B L H died in 1970) to the good work of Lawrence of Arabia... which latter in particular points to the core principle in modern warfare, seldom seen by statesmen, that it is not your motives and objectives but your manners that impact on the host country (and I add, flood back into your own)... We still struggle with domestic violence (the arrogation of righteousness and application of it by rough means) when we cannot see that this is what our self-righteous goverments do routinely in the use of violence. Sigh...

I much prefer travel with wider insight to travel with gawk, but enough for now...

martedì 28 settembre 2010

THE PLAN!

We plan to go to Italy from Australia, via Vancouver and Seattle, a natural thing to plan when you have family in Seattle. And surprisingly the flights to and from  Rome via Vancouver are only marginally longer  in total than more conventional routes via Asia and perhaps London. The stop in north America will break travel all into comfortable legs. From Vancouver to Seattle we use ferry or train or Amtrak coach (three or four hours). The customs and immigration processes are said to be considerably less hectic than travelling via LA.

We will be away from home 3 February to 16 April 2011.

Arriving Rome 8 February, we depart next day by train (all day, the train crosses the straits of Messina at lunchtime) for Siracusa in Sicily. Go south for warmth in February, be back in Rome for spring! Two week-long bookings are in place in Sicily, another three day booking to come. Then by ferry overnight from Palermo to Naples. After a week in Naples (who was it who said "see Naples and die"..? Aha, here is the interesting answer) we take the short train trip to Rome where we will be based from 6 March to 7 April. Some lovely places to stay at quite reasonable prices for holiday rentals... four and a half weeks in a romantic hideaway right in the centre of Rome, tre passi dalla Piazza Navona  ---- around $2000 Australian. Suddenly, writing 'tre passi" [three steps] I am reminded of my stunned youthfulness, or youthful stunnedness, 42 years ago, first weeks in Rome, going to see Tre Passi Nel Delirio with very little Italian.

After this first entry we will try to write in Italian first...
Andiamo in Italia provenienti dall Australia, passando Vancouver e Seattle, e be - una cosa naturale  quando si ha famiglia a Seattle. E scopriamo che i voli da e per Roma via Vancouver sono solo marginalmente pui lunghi delle rotte convenzionali attraverso l'Asia. Fermarci in Nord America e confortevole. Da Vancouver a Seattle usiamo traghetto o in treno o in pullman Amtrak (tre o quattro ore). I processi di immigrazione e doganali sono detto di essere molto meno frenetico rispetto al viaggio via Los Angeles.
Saremo fuori da casa 3 febbraio - 16 Aprile 2011.
Arriviamo a Roma 8 febbraio. Il giorno dopo partiamo con il treno (tutto il giorno, il treno attraversa lo stretto di Messina a mezzogiorno) per Siracusa in Sicilia. Andiama al sud per il calore nel mese di febbraio, torniamo a Roma per la primavera! Abbiamo due prenotazioni di una settimana in atto in Sicilia, cerciamo un posto per un altro tre giorni. Poi un notte in traghetto da Palermo a Napoli. Dopo una settimana a Napoli (chi ha detto "vedi Napoli e muori "..?  Aou, ecco l'informazione - interressante) prendiamo il breve viaggio in treno a Roma, dove saremo dal 6 marzo al 7 aprile. Bel posti a prezzi abbastanza ragionevoli per affitti vacanze ... quattro settimane e mezzo in un rifugio romantico proprio nel centro di Roma, tre passi dalla Piazza Navona ---- circa 2.000 dollari australiani. Improvvisamente, la scrittura 'tre passi' mi viene in mente la mia gioventù della stordito, o 'sturditamente' giovane, 42 anni fa, settimane prima a Roma, andare a vedere Tre Passi nel Delirio con molto poco italiano.
...E dopo questo primo post di blog, proveremo scrivere per prima in Italiano.