Hidden Romagna, a day with FAI!
Italy, a secret place to discover! It’s not the claim of the next promotional Italian Tourist Board campaign, but a real deal! Some of the most enchanting monuments and places in Italy cannot be visited. They are closed to public eyes. But every year and only for a couple of days, they live again thanks to FAI, a no profit association that cares about natural, artistic and historic Italian heritage. Classe Ancient PineWood Last Sunday, defying a foggy and rainy day, I went to visit an ancient Pinewood, a natural frame to the Adriatic Sea that once went from Reno River to Cervia, the town of the very famous sweet salt. It’s origin is lost in times. Centennial oak lived there, like the one I met here. One of the giants you can still see walking in the deep of the...
What’s behind the corner? Living near the Forest
Snow keeps on falling down; it always amazes me, like a little child who first sees this white fluffy stuff covering and purifying everything around. I had quite a busy working morning, but decided to go out, take my car and drive some kilometers up, towards Tuscany border and visit some places I knew, just to see them in a different way. It was the mountain’s voice calling me! “Only few steps to have all this beauty”, I thought! I live here! But not so far from me, there’s one of the biggest European wild parks: Parco delle Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona e Campigna. It’s a long name for a huge, deep and enchanting ancient forest, between Romagna and Tuscany. And, as all the forests, she has her secrets, her stories to tell, and also a very strong spiritual...
21Grammy in Berlin: a travel history
Woke up at 2 pm, this morning, slept only a couple of hours but I was to anxious for this trip that I was not able to really close my eyes. Outside it’s dark and cold. My flight leaves from Bergamo ( a very little town in the North of Italy), but I decided to take the train instead of driving, avoiding a long journey in the fog of the morning. Bologna railway station is crowded as during the day, probably most of the people slept here. But there’s no time to observe this colourful society, it’s time to take my train. Thank God, everything is ok and at 7am I am in Milan. Yesterday I’ve found a very useful service offered by Terravision: a comfortable bus takes you from Milan Central Railway Station to Bergamo Airport in just one hour! A...
Strolling around South Italy: from Puglia to Rome #Bit2013
Preparing my visit to Bit 2013 I was really excited: which new places would I discover, strolling around? Hidden stories to tell about always come from talking directly with local people and you know for sure this is not what you can find in a Fair. But this time I had to change my mind. Some years ago I visited a couple of international Expos, Sevilla and Lisbon. I still have in my eyes the images and visions of the countries present there with their own pavillions. Some of them recreated a natural habit with plants, trees, animals, sounds of the forest, some other built a typical village, but each of them gave a strong impression of their land to the millions of people gathered to taste, live and imagine a real holiday experience. So what about tourism fairs:...
Ferrara: The Renaissance lives with the Carnival
The sound of silence: this is what I heard arriving in Ferrara. Slowly walking down one of the main avenues from the railway station to Piazza Castello, last saturday, I had the clear impression this was a suspended town. And actually, it is, just take a look at the plan, and you will see from one side the Renaissance with its marvellous noble palaces, and from the other side the fortress and the medieval quarter, with its narrow street, quiet similar to venetian Calles or Genoa’s Carruggis. Let the town take you by the hand and discover the nice secret places, through the signs scattered across the town: marble plaques, statues, signboards, flags will tell you the unconventional histories of Ferrara, the bikes town. Bikes are everywhere and in silence,...
Romagna is beautiful with ciaspole!
Well, to be honest: I’m not a sportive person. I do not run, I do not do gym or zumba, nor I can ski. But when I read the ciaspolada program in the Emilia Romagna Tourism website I decided to take the chance and defy my phisique. Actually, when I went to visit the Parco delle Foreste Casentinesi last november I thought how charming would it be with the snow and kept the idea in the back of my mind. So done: I wrote to Leo of www.fumaiolosentieri.it and planned my Sunday Ciaspolada ! It’s not easy to translate ciaspole in english (I’m not sure snowshoes is the right word) so I will show you how I was wearing them! And please, don’t laugh! This photo was taken by my friend Silvia! Walking with ciaspole is like having a pair of rackets at...
Obladi Oblada’: the good music of Sogliano!
Can you imagine to enter a little museum, in a little town and hear the beautiful music of Miles Davis, see the guitar of Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, admire the golden record of Michael Jackson? Well, I was really surprised by that too! My visit in Sogliano had a very different aim as I told in another post, but, as usual while I’m travelling up and down Romagna, I discovered lots of hidden histories and places to tell. This charming museum came out by Mr Roberto Parenti, who decided, as a young boy, to collect music, records, opera booklets and all the stuff he was able to find. This museum is almost unique in Italy and Europe since it collects memorabilia, records and documents of 120 years music history: about 45.000 records, hundreds...
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