lunedì 28 febbraio 2011

A visit to the Museo Madre

Its publicity material says of the Museo Madre that it is the only contemporary art museum in the centre of any city. We enjoyed our visit to the museum today. Lively, interesting, especially interesting to need to look at not quite impressive seeming works and put them in the context of being 30 years old and saying "oh yes, how original that was then..."

We were advised that we could take photos of the structure but not of the works. The structure is itself a great work of art. We fudged only slightly. Here is the result in a little film. You may need to turn down the sound on this, still learning how to get sound levels right.. this soundtrack recorded while we lunched in the  cafe of the museum. Contemporary cutlery grunge lyrical?

Reflecting later, we were conscious that there seemed many things missing from the museum, in what might be 'contemporary' beginning not least with the graffiti art with which Naples abounds. We commented on this to someone without connection with the museum; the reply was that this museum project had been pushed and funded by a group of politicians who particularly wanted to favour artists of their own circle. Those politicians were now out of power and this museum thus had had its funds cut. To deal with this cut in funding the museum now opens only in the mornings. Hence the problem also for staff whose hours and shifts have been halved.



Sunday in Naples.. Domenica a Napoli

We have a delightful loft apartment in Naples, contemporary style, like, Helen says, a factory conversion in Sydney. The new top title photo for the blog is a photo from our window.



I went out early, the morning after our Saturday night arrival, to fetch breakfast items. Approaching the major road from narrow via Duomo I heard a sudden gobbet of shouting and the sound of hands hitting car rather than car hitting car. Several others walking my way hastened to have a look. When I got to the corner, there, eight lanes away, were young men with a fancy black car in altercation with young women (Berlusconesche, we could say), dressed in tight pink pants. By the time I got to cross the road a few metres up, the Carabinieri had arrived and were interviewing the men, the women having vanished. Good marks for prompt police intervention. There is a considerable police presence wherever we have been, but it is much less aggressive and confrontational and hard rule driven than it seems in Australia. Results based, rather than pigeon chest puffing power position assertion.

Again yesterday, this sight we have seen before, in Soriano last year, of the parking policeperson standing by the triple parked car, blowing whistle and waiting for the owner to arrive and move car, rather than issue ticket, though ticket pad in hand. A nice scold, not a ticket and sustained road blockage. (We did not have the camera with us either in Siracusa week before last, when we saw a police team and tow truck pick up an illegally parked car, back it (quite some time) down the narrow street and drop it, with some difficult manoeuvring, into a road-centre parking space. Shades of my experience in Paris December 1969, when the charming young policeman at the police station, after I had reported my car stolen, came back to me with some gents in overalls to say "Monsieur, may I introduce you to the gentlemen who stole your car, and may we ask you in future not to park in front of the doctor's garage." "Oh, sorry, where do I go to collect it?" "It is about 100 metres down the street on the other side.") When will we Anglo-Sassoni learn that the more we huff the more people will try to blow our houses down.

I went out again later with Helen and with the iPhone - movie below. (I am using the iPhone rather than the Fuji S3 DSLR first because it is unobtrusive and producing such interesting results and second, alas, because the S3 is producing a spot on every photo (either lens) and I have not yet solved the problem.)

To get to the local market, we first have to descend from our fifth of five floors apartment to the street.

A few metres up the street we dropped into the Museo Madre Contemporary Art Museum and got some good advice on buying an 'ArteCard' with discounts for places and free transport in the region PLUS information and conversation on the industrial relations agitation by museum staff on very familiar grounds: casual employement, low pay, short shifts. And then to the cheerful crowds of the market, to stock up food (except we forgot butter, so that will be another 2 x 131 steps plus the horizontal travel) after having a coffee in a deservedly popular cafe, serving brilliant coffee.

It's still carnevale, as last Sunday in Palermo, so still small children are out in special outfits.

While putting together the movie, we suddenly heard a band somewhere downstairs. I put the iPhone in the window and recorded a soundtrack for this movie, so the commentary is in subtitles.

Best to watch as HD 1080, there's a little thingie down below the picture to click and adjust. You can also watch full screen, another button below: explore, enjoy (I hope!).

sabato 26 febbraio 2011

leaving Sicily

Today we will leave Sicily. A week in Siracusa, two days Modica, a week in Palermo. This week clouded by a quite unpleasant virus for us both. Remarkably fortunate to have been where we were, above the ultimate fresh food market, able to fetch small delights to cook as well as strawberries and blood oranges and bottles of strangely delicious and pale 'Fanta' - not the real thing really, just a pale Italian version authorised by Coca Cola, containing real juice (three oranges to the bottle, lacking colouring agents. No escaping the globalisation though, bring home a bottle of standard local mineral water (fraction of price of such in Australia) and discover it is a Nestle product.

Many writing projects incomplete. But lasting impressions in the mind. We realise that to be in Capo district we are very much at the centre of old Palermo. Which deserves several essays. Yes you do still have to pay mafia protection for a stall downstairs (conversation with someone who has to pay); yes, we do have, for more research and writing perhaps, photos of the names on the memorial to the fallen in the war against the Mafia, 100 metres away, round the corner, other side of the apartment, piazza of the Tribunale of Palermo and the Ministry of Justice. Yesterday we took the town bus to the hill village of Monreale, where the Normans left their greatest buildings. And shared a superb lunch in a small trattoria with charming Korean friend Lee Junyoung (following the rule: walk 100 metres + away from a tourist attraction).

Today we take the 10am train, the west Sicily intercity for Rome, which meets the east Sicily (Siracusa) intercity for Rome at Messina, at the top left corner of Sicily for the train to the mainland, where the two trains are joined to travel onward. Naples by 8pm. To our apartment in the San Lorenzo district, next to the new modern art museum. Having trained in Sicily for an apartment on the fifth of five floors.

While disappointed that we have been frustrated in not seeing more of Palermo, we sense its size and character and we are prepared in a way not possible coming from the north, to arrive at the other historical capital of the kingdom of Sicily or the Two Sicilies — Naples.

We are not unaware (speak to an older local at the bus stop and swiftly be warned of the dangers, a conversation subject that comes promptly after the weather) that there are personal risks in these places; we have prepared variously for that. At the same time, we compare such risk with other modern cities and suburbs of Sydney in particular.  But this is not central to our focus on these remarkable places, full of life now, full of great history. We did not get to the Greek theatre at Siracusa; we did not take the train from Palermo to the Segesta temple (eat your heart out, Athens). Now the whip may come out, to take, from Naples, the train to Pompeii (the Circumvesuviana railway system) and the bus for Amalfi — the Amalfi drive with the Monterey Peninsula drive in California and Reedy Creek Rd, Eurobodalla, the three most spectacular of the world's scenic roads.

While in recovery from the virus, we watched Il Divo and The Leopard, Italian films of importance both in the history of film and for illumination of Italian history... nice to be able to pause the DVD on the computer and fetch historical background. And special to watch them here in Palermo, with a box of tissues not for the film but the virus.

mercoledì 23 febbraio 2011

"Liquid light"

As reported in our previous entry, we met Aldo Palazzolo on Thursday last week.


As you will see from this section of Aldo's web portfolio he has been experimenting with 'liquid light', doing things with his fingers in the chemicals on the paper during late stages of processing of prints. Abbiamo discusso la nostra preferenza per la sua arte ritratto tradizionale. Aldo ha detto che si deve sempre cercare il nuovo, non si puo continuare come sempre. We discussed our preference for his traditional portrait art form. He in reply said that one must always search for the new. You cannot continue doing the same thing.


I found myself in accord with this principle - as also moved by his desire to use fingers in his photography, as I have found myself essential (or rather, unstoppable) in painting. Mi sono trovato in sintonia con questo principio - come anche mosso dal suo desiderio di usare le dita nella sue fotografie, come ho trovato indispensabile - o meglio 'inarrestibile" - mentre lavorando su dipinti.


I don't want to put myself in the same high class as Aldo, but as a small homage I have used my fingers (in Photoshop) to apply liquid light to a little photo I took with the iPhone. The relationship between Aldo and his portfolio is complex and growing - above all under the power of his eyes. The observer who came to eat fish and prawns is being enveloped by the art....
Non voglio mettermi nel campo alto di Aldo ma come uno piccolo omaggio ho usato le mie dite (in Photoshop) applicare 'liquid light' ad una piccolo foto di Aldo dall'iPhone.  Il rapporto tra Aldo e il suo portafoglio è complesso e in crescita - sopprattutto sotto il potere dei suoi occhi. L'osservatore che è venuto a mangiare pesce e gamberetti è stata avvolta da l'arteEccolo:





martedì 22 febbraio 2011

away from the internet for days and days...

We have been through so many sensations over recent days, in Modica and Palermo. Requiring essays rather than blog bits.

The journey from Siracusa to Modica was a display of extraordinary productive countryside. A film of that below.

We planned three days in Modica choosing to be in a place out of town, surrounded by space, distinct from our experiences elsewhere of living in ancient city centres. A spectacular place, though I draw attention to any who might follow our example that there were a thousand and more steps from our place to the main street of Modica. Went down twice on foot, came back once on foot, once in taxi. Very beautiful place. 

See little film of the Modica passeggiata.

Killer chocolate. We had looked forward to the Modica chocolate, close to Aztec in tradition. Two (or four, or so) pieces and we neither needed more chocolate for days nor could we eat dinner that day.

Thursday in Modica was a deliciously warm day. See small movie of that.

Friday the weather was vicious but we were collected by wonderful friend Silvia Corsini (whose apartment we had rented in Siracusa) and swept away to very generous lunch at the country home of Claudine and Gio Barone, Gio a sculptor, with lovely group of people including architect, art historian and photographer... but leave aside the professions — it was a lovely group of thinking and somewhat radical-minded people with imaginations, meeting whom gave our travels new dimension. Silvia had wanted me to meet in particular Aldo Palazzolo, who kindly brought along a great portfolio of his work for us to see and discuss especially his experiments with 'liquid light'. 

Saturday was clearer and we enjoyed the run through central Sicily by 'Pullman' as buses are known here.  A film of that below.

Sunday in Palermo we found weather much as Sydney winter and a little film of our walk shows that. We are dealing with the world through unpleasant viruses but that does not entirely account for the sense of treacly-ness about doing things here. Great beauty. Extraordinary history. Vivacity and diversity. But it seems, more than anywhere else, a reminder of how young the state of Italy is. Many we deal with in simple transactions and attempted conversations are themselves wrestling with Italian as a second language, which means that while we have been doing well in Italian it can be a more irritated exchange with people who do not understand clear Italian and speak something impenetrably else. Monday when we went out we went past people who still come to our Piazza Porta Carini in mid-town to carry water home from a tap in big plastic containers. A few steps down the street through the Mercato del Capo where we had bought fresh things for breakfast earlier. Turn left again and enter the precinct of the Ministry of Justice; stop to pay respect to the impressive long wall of monument to Magistrates assassinated while pursuing the Mafia in recent decades. Along streets increasingly rough (and interesting) of restorers and sellers of antiques real and imagined (much as Rome centre and Trastevere in the 1960s. To the Cathedral with its remaining fragments of the Norman Cathedral noting on the door who from Roger II was crowned there. Roger on Christmas Day 1130. The Norman boys who went to England did OK and got to stay; these boys sent off south, to ease land inheritance issues for these Viking families come ashore in the lower Sienne valley did exceptionally well. But a hell of a lot harder to hang onto Sicily than England, Sicily at the centre of the world, England the strategic door to the Faeroes. Walk back home through more narrow streets, as a pedestrian, living and moving safely and swiftly, after the manner of and between the graces of Palermo car drivers. Sicily is a place that fails to make it, to get out of poverty, to get good politics, to offer work to the young. So many of those with whatever have left here, over and over again for centuries; successions of outside powers have invaded. It remains, the people remain, the centre of the world. Religion is deeply ingrained, Catholic imagery seems more serious (more real than imagery) and central to life than elsewhere except say in central America or rural Philippines. 

The flatness of Palermo has an effect, intensifying the enclosure, mercifully in late winter; it must be so much greater in summer. We may get to see the end of a street, the spire of a church, but intense life is in small places.

So here are films:

TRAIN FROM SIRACUSA TO MODICA



THE PASSEGGIATA AT MODICA



MODICA MORNING



PULLMAN TO PALERMO



PALERMO SUNDAY


mercoledì 16 febbraio 2011

today to Modica/reflections

We leave Siracusa today for Modica. We head southwest into the Iblean mountains to the Val di Noto, which runs down towards Catania. The Val di Noto was hit by an enormous earthquake in 1693, utterly destroying some towns. Reconstruction was well funded by church and state and with something of a fresh start, some of the finest baroque buildings anywhere were built. So the valley, including Modica, today has World Heritage status.

Modica is also a place of traditional (including Aztec traditional) chocolate making, so we will investigate and report.

We reflect on walking around the battlements of the Castello Maniace yesterday. At the entrance to one of the finest harbours of the Mediterranean. But not industrialised inside the harbour. After defeating Athens in this harbour in 419BC, Siracusa found itself in the beginning of what would be a hundred year war with Carthage - Carthage on the site of the modern Tunis. "Out there is Tunisia and Carthage," said one of the custodians of the Castello to me. When you look at the map below, you see that Carthage is in fact to the west, its Phoenicians having come from what is now Lebanon. Look east from here and you could sail straight past the Peloponnese - the southern water washed portions of Greece - and up to Athens. The 100 year war ended when a Siracusan army of 14000 went to Carthage and won on land. Then in the 200s BC it was Rome's time, and the command of the Mediterranean and the achievement of colonies in Africa meant war with Siracusa and Sicily. It began the usual way: Roman settlers in Sicily appealed to both Rome and Carthage for protection against bullying from all these Greeks here. Schoolyards were ever such.

Here is a nice quote from Robert Kaplan's wonderful Mediterranean Winter Vintage Books 2004, pp 40-41

Phoenicians carving out a great sovereign state on Berber soil while fending off desert tribesmen: all so that Phoenician Carthage could be culturally infiltrated by the Greeks, and then obliterated by the Romans, whose own imperial longevity would lead to decline and conquest by Vandals... The beach at Carthage taught a lesson [to Kaplan, visiting in the 1970s] in the impermanence of empires at a time when the Cold War, and the hegemonic struggle it represented, seemed likely to go on forever.... [snip]


Later that afternoon I visited the American War Cemetery in Carthage which holds the remains of 2,841 American soldiers killed in the Allied campaigns in North Africa. In November 1942, American troops landed in Morocco to begin the rollback of the Axis powers in the Mediterranean. The allies retraced the path of the Vandals across north Africa with similar lightning speed...


A long historical perspective and avoidance of chauvinist blindness are relevant. I do not recall to which visitor he was replying, but Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, asked in the early 1970s what he thought of the outcome of the French revolution, reportedly replied: "It's too soon to tell."

Three nights now in Modica and then to Palermo. Click the map to enlarge.

martedì 15 febbraio 2011

the choice to saunter

Ortigia is such a luscious and interesting and small place. Though from across the bridge and off beyond the station, major major walk away, the 15,000 seat Greek theatre beckons. As do so many other things wave and invite. Around the corner, less than 100 metres away, the Palazzo Bellomo invites us in, to see the regional museum of contemporary and medieval art.

But no, we pitched for a saunter and the sun, going 250 metres to the promontory at mouth of the Porto Grande, to visit the Castello Maniace. Photos of geometrical and architectural form, in the main. See how sunny. We had our wonderings about walking in the footsteps of Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery, or...

On the way home for siesta, we chose an extraordinary place to eat, owned by he who turned out to be the sculptor with his studio below us here. Wonderful food in imaginative setting.








This photo below shows very elegant and clever modern drainage - these in terracotta but the same unit construction different scale used for example to carry waste to the ground from multilevel building works


and here to enter the restaurant, carved waiter holding embroidered menus




wattle is in bloom



lunedì 14 febbraio 2011

All about Bronte

When we went on the Circumetnea railway(earlier post) I asked several people about Lord Nelson. They rushed to tell the story warmly. Yes, he became the duke, he had the castle built but he never came here. I offered comment about Nelson's dirty role in the suppression of the liberal revolution in Naples in 1799. My comments puzzled. There was a reluctance or perhaps lack of knowledge of Nelson other than as hero, also a conservatism among ordinary people. In London, Nelson's conduct at Naples in 1799 was severely criticised; he was brought back to command the Channel Fleet.

 I later find this history of some of it.

The cast:
King Ferdinand IV


Queen Carolina perhaps lover of
Sir John Acton, made Prime Minister by Carolina
William Hamilton, British Minister
Lady Hamilton whose oft demanded dance smote...
... the heart of Horatio, Lord Nelson, who became the callous agent of these women
Admiral Caracciolo, different sort of hero chap, done in viciously by the other lovely people here.


In Naples in 1799 the situation was in simple terms this. The king, Frederick IV, was recognised by all who dealt with him as a fool, uninterested in affairs to state, committed to hunting and fun and games with ladies in waiting and military officers. His wife, Maria Carolina, daughter of the former Austrian emperor, brother now of the current emperor Joseph and sister of Marie Antoinette, decapitated Queen of France in the revolution, was the centre of power. Joseph, reflecting on a visit to Naples, provides a dreadful account of daily life at court, concluding, of Frederick the king, that he has
"... so definite an aversion from all innovation, so great an indolence of mind and a distaste for reflection, that I must assure you that the man has never reflected in his life about himself, or his physical or moral existence, his situation, his interests, or his country. He is quite ignorant of the past and the present and never thought about the future..." [cited in Harold Acton, The Bourbons of Naples 1734-1825, London 1956; quoted at page 9, Modern Naples, A Documentary Historuy 1799-1999 John Santore, New York 2001]

Around Maria Carolina was an extraordinary gaggle of English. Upon achieving a place on the Council of State on the birth of her first child, the Queen had ousted a moderate and sensible prime minister replacing him with a hardline (as regards the absolute right of kings and inappropriateness of popular assemblies) prime minister Sir John Acton, of a line of knights and lords Actons of some fame in history. This one was reputedly Maria Carolina's lover, certainly very much her agent. A close friend and influence on the Queen was the young Emma Hamilton, wife of the much older British Minister to Naples, Lord Hamilton. Emma was also rather openly the lover of Nelson.

All shared a detestation of the Napoleonic regime. It was of course central to British policy to sustain Neapolitan hostility to Napoleon and commitment to war against France. With the added value of Maria Carolina's links to Austria. The French had occupied Rome. With some kind of agreement from Austria that Austria would join the party, Ferdinand sent his army north and removed the French from Rome—briefly. No Austrians arrived. The Austrians had massed forces against France in central Europe where they were (along with much of the rest of the old power of Europe) defeated at the battle of Austerlitz on 27 December 1798. Napoleon then ordered his brother Joseph to leave Paris secretly to lead armies he had sent to Italy. On 19 January 1799 he wrote again to say:

"I wish you to enter the Kingdom of Naples in the first days of February, and I wish to hear from you in the course of February that our flag is flying over the walls of the capital. You will make no truce, you will hear no capitulation: my will is that the Bourbons shall have ceased to rule at Naples." [Santore, op.cit, p56]

At news of the French nearing Naples, the two trios (Frederick, Maria Carolina, Acton; Lord and Lady Hamilton and Nelson) scuttled off for Palermo aboard Nelson's flagship, leaving behind an exhortation to the people of Naples to resist, cleverly signed as from Rome a week before. A 'Parthenopean Republic' of prominent largely landowning aristocratic liberals was put in place with the support of the French after the French had suffered unprecedented and ferocious resistance from the masses, the Lazzaroni... who detested the new republic, which itself did nothing much more as a government other than debate theological issues. This was the seat of a court which after 300 years of occupancy by foreign rulers, was full of courtiers and hangers on and diverse leeches who extracted impoverishing taxes from the countryside of southern Italy and Sicily.

From Palermo Frederick despatched a Cardinal to Calabria who led growing peasant forces north, turning out the republic. He granted amnesty to the republicans and embarked on policies of reform. But returning to Naples before the king, Maria Carolina ended the amnesty, re-arrested the republicans and their supporters including the popular naval commander Admiral Caracciolo. She reportedly asked Nelson to treat Naples, the richest and largest city in Europe, as if it were a rebellious Irish town. Nelson participated fully in reprisals and executions. Caracciolo was hung from his flagship's yard arm.
There was never any doubt as to Caracciolo's fate. Queen Caroline had relayed to Nelson her wish that Caracciolo should hang, no matter what. Caracciolo was tried aboard a British ship, Foudroyant, by Neapolitan royalist officers and charged with high treason. He was not permitted to call witnesses in his defence. He was condemned to death by three votes to two. He was not given the customary twenty-four hours for personal matters of the spirit. His request to be shot was denied and he was hanged from the yardarm of the Minerva on the morning of June 30, 1799. His body was weighted and thrown into the sea.  One of the mainstays of modern Neapolitan mythology is that the body refused to sink, floating to the surface and eerily bobbing its way towards shore. Indeed, there is even a painting showing King Ferdinand aboard his ship, aghast at the sight of the admiral's corpse floating alongside. Whatever the case, Caracciolo's body was retrieved from the sea and his remains now rest in the small church of Santa Maria della Catena in the Santa Lucia section of Naples.
© Jeff Matthews 2002-2012 entry May 2003

For Nelson's services to the state, a package of lands way round the back of Mount Etna was turned into a duchy called Bronte and Lord Nelson was made the first Duke of Bronte. He never got there, called back to London, criticised for his role at Naples and  sent off to the Channel fleet. Hamilton too returned to London, having offered resignation years earlier.

After the death of Lord Hamilton and divorce from his wife, Horatio Nelson was able to place Emma Hamilton and their daughter Horatia in a small farm near what is now Charing Cross in London. To which he came for an idyllic leave with them, only to be swiftly called back to the Engish fleet with the French fleet massing. He led the defeat of the French at the Battle of Trafalgar, himself dying from a shot from a French marksman in the close quarters battle. And after all that, famously said "Kiss me Hardy." Two accounts of which, here and here.

This secured an heroic historical place for Nelson. By some theories, a Patrick Brunty who changed his name to Bronte, did so in admiration of the Admiral.  Thus his daughters Emily, Charlotte and Anne's literary works were not published under the name Brunty but Bronte.

Lady Hamilton was now bereft of male supporters in a world where women owned nothing, while her lavish habits of spending persisted. She spent time in debtors prison.

I will leave you, again, at the smudgy station sign at Bronte...

...and this correspondence from Lady Hamilton to husband Sir William Hamilton's nephew before and after Sir William's death:
Letters
FROM
LADY HAMILTON
TO
THE HON. CHARLES GREVILLE,
Nephew of Sir William Hamilton.
I.
25th of February, [1800.]
DEAR SIR,
I received your letter by Mr. Campbell. He is lodged with us. We find him a pleasant man; and shall write fully by him. He will tell you a little how we go on, as to our domestic happiness. We are more united and comfortable than ever, in spite of the infamous Jacobin papers, jealous of Lord Nelson's glory, and Sir William's and mine. But we do not mind them. Lord N. is a truly virtuous and great man; and, because we have been fagging, and ruining our health, and sacrificing every comfort, in the cause of loyalty, our private characters are to be stabbed in the dark. First, it was said, Sir W. and Lord N. fought; then, that we played, and lost. First, Sir W. and Lord N. live like brothers; next, Lord N. never plays: and this I give you my word of honour. So I beg you will contradict any of these vile reports. Not that Sir W. and Lord N. mind it; and I get scolded by the Queen, and all of them, for having suffered one day's uneasiness.
Our fleet is off Malta: Lord Nelson has taken Le Genereux, and was after the frigates; so the attempt to relieve Malta has failed.
I have had a letter from the Emperor of Russia, with the Cross of Malta. Sir William has sent his Imperial Majesty's letter to Lord Grenville, to get me the permission to wear it. I have rendered some services to the poor Maltese. I got them ten thousand pounds, and sent corn when they were in distress. The deputies have been lodged in my house; I have been their Ambassadress, so his [I.]M. has rewarded me. If the King will give me leave to wear it abroad, it is of use to me. The Q——n is having the order set in diamonds for me; but the one the Emperor sent is gold. I tell you this little history of it, that you may be au fait. Ball has it also, but I am the first Englishwoman that ever had it. Sir W. is pleased, so I am happy. We are coming home; and I am miserable, to leave my dearest friend, the Q——. She cannot be consoled. We have sworn to be back in six months; and I will not quit her, till Sir William binds himself to come back. However, I shall have a comfort in seeing some of my old friends; and you, in particular. We have also many things to settle. I think, I can situate the person you mention about the Court, as a Camerist to some of the R. F——y, if her education is good.
It is a comfortable situation for life; so, I will bring her out.
The Q. has promised me. Let this remain entre nous.

II.

[April 1803.]
Lady Hamilton will be glad to know how long Mr. Greville can permit her to remain in the house in Piccadilly, as she must instantly look out for a lodging; and, therefore, it is right for her to know the full extent of time she can remain there. She also begs to know, if he will pay her debts, and what she may depend upon; that she may reduce her expences and establishment immediately.

A film of where we are

Here is a little film made yesterday at lunchtime. My voice and brain creaky with a cold.

Ortigia, we are told, was almost deserted in the end of the 1980s into the 90s, at one time population around 12,000, but in that period reduced to 1-2000 and a dangerous place for being so deserted. The population moved off the island into other areas of Siracusa and beyond in search of work. The island is now well on its way to recovery with investment from abroad, Rome and north Italy.  The relatively empty look of the streets contributed to also by the fact that this is late winter, well away from the tourist season. We had to travel at this time for practical reasons and with a preference for cool weather. So we experience these weeks at 17 to 20 degrees celsius in Sicily, to arrive in Rome in the best of times, March.

Anyway, here below is the movie we made yesterday... click on the little four arrow thing in the bottom right to see it full screen. Let me add these points to the commentary.


Now to watch...

domenica 13 febbraio 2011

The Circumetnea railway

Some pictures in this and other entries are hard to see. Click on any photo to enlarge. Press 'back' to return to the blog.

On Saturday we walked the two kilometres to the station mostly in the dark in pleasant (being rugged up) cool weather, to take the 7.30 Rome express for an hour and a half to Giarre-Riposto, north of Catania.

Our 'train day' was focused on taking the narrow gauge Circumetnea railway, which loops around the Etna volcano from Riposto in the north west then south then east to Catania. For the first part of the trip a 40 seat single carriage train; for the second half of the trip a two carriage train.

Here is a collection of these trains at Randazzo, west of Etna, where we stopped 11.30 to 2.30 for lunch.


The train climbs quite a way up from the coastal plane at Riposto. The line runs through the bottom of gardens.


and then, higher up, Etna begins to dominate the landscape.



The line is running through lava flow, with this view from the right side, looking downhill.


Look at the astounding resource of a quarry of volcanic soil for this farm.


The line runs through intensive agriculture, throughout the trip, except where lava is fresh and dominates the surface. 

Randazzo is the closest established town to the volcano, but it has been spared any lava flow. So it has lots of fine old buildings. This photo shows how the mountain hangs over the town.


Coming east towards Catania in the afternoon, we passed through Bronte. A not very impressive station sign. Also not now a very impressive town, having been rebuilt fairly roughly. But this is the real original Bronte, with a remarkable past. The Bronte story is in a later posting to the blog. 




We end the story of our day out noting that we arrived in Catania on the Circumetnea at 4.40 pm, took the Metro five stops to the central railway station, and came home on the Regionale, an immensely comfortable local train, that had us in Siracusa at 7.45 (delayed by the Roma-Siracusa Intercity running 30 minutes late and having priority on the track. Not only were we very impressed by the Regionale's comfort but also, at Euros 6.10 we saved Euros 2.40 each (which buys 3 x espresso cups) to take it rather than the Intercity train with its bustle, reserved seats and less comfort. Five trains in all! 




venerdì 11 febbraio 2011

Siracusa

Eccoci, a Siracusa, finalemente, recuperandoci dopo uno lungo viaggio. Here we are at last, recovering after a long trip. Il nostro apartamento our apartment a via Roma 152, Ortigia, Siracusa, is a few doors from the sea and the most wonderful 8am sitting place.


Siamo fuori a quest'ora della nostra prima mattina perche il mercato a Ortigia si apri alle 7 ogni giorno.
We are out at this early hour on our first morning because the market in Ortigia opens at 7 every day.
Raggiungere il mercato abbiamo usato il Lungomare. Qui, di sotto - le scale? Archimede le ha usato? 

Here we look back at the peninsula forming the mouth of the harbour on the other side, a small harbour in which 2425 years ago, Siracusa destroyed the armed might of Athens in a battle involving 162 triremes.


There are some modern decorations along the way, variation from the dominant Baroque this quarter of the city.


We were able to buy the utterly fresh at the market.




and have a tableload of food at home

Helen's camera.

Helen is using a Fuji E900, a fairly rare camera, easy to handle, with capacity to be used in automatic or full manual modes. A prosumer of a type now relatively rare, with high quality lens and image. Here are photos from Seattle and travel to Rome, rendered here with almost no manipulation in Photoshop other than resizing for screen and then sharpening with 'unsharp mask'

First some Seattle photos





Views from the Amtrak Cascades, heading north



Crossing the Rocky Mountains shortly after leaving Vancouver



First dawn light, somewhere between Iceland and the Shetlands, in the far north of Scotland.


A view of Germany


and views of the European Alps, looking east through Austria from Switzerland