A House by the Marina

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Francis

Marina di Pisa has long been known to us. My post at https://longoio3.com/2018/10/18/fishing-for-compliments-at-marina-di-pia/ tells something about the strange fascination of this place.

While spending a very pleasant afternoon at Marina di Pisa a couple of days ago and revisiting our favourite fish restaurant ‘Il Pescotto’ followed by a delicious ice at the bar across from the restaurant

I came across this house. It looked particularly picturesque with its angled approach to the coast.

I also noticed there was a plaque on the house’s façade. Who once lived there I wondered?

It turned out to be Giuseppe Viviani, someone I had known nothing about.

Giuseppe Viviani (San Giuliano Terme 1898 – Pisa 1965) was an Italian painter and engraver who ranks among the greatest of twentieth century Italian artists (along with Giorgio Morandi and Luigi Bartolini). He had a particular predilection for life on the Pisan coast which he knew and described well as these works show:

On Viviani’s death, following his last wishes, the original plates of his engravings works were thrown into the sea at Marina di Pisa. (I wonder if there are scuba divers who have managed to find any of these plates.).

Giuseppe Viviani achieved fame only after World War II when he was appointed to the chair of engraving at Florence’s Academy of Fine Arts, a position once held by that superb impressionist painter Giovanni Fattori.

A period of great success began for Viviani and in 1960 the city of Pisa dedicated a major exhibition to him.

Viviani’s life was not easy: in fact, he lost his father at the age of two and had to move with his mother to live with his grandfather, a manufacturer of artificial limbs, objects that must have been imprinted in the memory of the child artist, so much so that he included them in several of his works.

With the Florence appointment Viviani, now fifty, finally received the success he deserved: his engravings reached high prices, giving him an economic foundation that allowed him at last to devote himself completely to his art and to his second great passion, hunting. It is not by chance that hounds are portrayed in many of Viviani’s works.

Upon his death the artist asked to be buried with his favourite shotgun…

Giuseppe Viviani’s art is marked by a melancholy and decaying vision of life and, at the same time, by a great love for life itself. With refined technical expertise, the artist moved between naive popular imagery and the search for references of memory, recreating a world of deep emotional content, rich in allusions, hints and meanings.

I am so glad I came across that house in Marina di Pisa and my discovery of Giuseppe Viviani’s work. My friend Giovanni Fascetti is president of the Viviani association at his birthplace at San Giuliano Terme. Indeed, Giovanni’s father, Antonio, a fine artist specializing in commemorative medallions who sadly died last year, knew Viviani.

Incidentally, Marina di Pisa is full of extraordinarily luscious fin-de-siècle mansions. Here are a few I spotted during my visit:

I just wonder who stayed in them?

Le Isole al Confine del Mondo

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Francis

L’obbligo di stare in casa durante questa pandemia, che, per la sua rivoluzione sulla nostra vita, si socia con la peste bubbonica del trecento e la grande peste del 1630, tolgano la mente dalla consueta routine giornaliera e dona più tempo libero; tempo da ricordare delle bellissime memorie. Infatti, le pagine dei social sono sempre più colme di questi ricordi di vacanze deliziose, di una gioventù incantevole e di luoghi ameni.

Delle nostre vacanze una delle più eccezionali fu quella che ci portò alle isole sul bordo del mondo: St Kilda, un arcipelago isolato situato a sessanta quattro kilometri a ovest-nord-ovest di North Uist nell’oceano Atlantico settentrionale. Contiene le isole più occidentali delle Ebridi Esterne della Scozia. L’isola più grande è Hirta, le cui scogliere sono le più alte del Regno Unito.

Altre tre isole (Dùn, Soay e Boreray) furono utilizzate anche per il pascolo e la caccia agli uccelli marini da un popolo ormai scomparso nella storia.

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(Fotografia di Sandra Cipriani Pettitt – le altre sono mie)

Perché abbiamo scelto queste isole cosi desolate e lontane poste in un oceano soventemente spaventoso? Perché siamo soci a vita del National Trust (la FAO inglese) ed esisteva la possibilità di raggiungere St Kilda facendo il volontariato, questa volta per indagini archeologiche. Esistono, altrimenti, pochissimi modi per raggiungerle.

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Il patrimonio umano delle isole comprende numerose caratteristiche architettoniche uniche risalenti al periodo storico e preistorico, sebbene i primi documenti scritti sulla vita dell’isola risalgano al tardo Medioevo, ma la scomparsa della gran parte degli abitanti attraverso l’emigrazione contribuì all’evacuazione degli ultimi abitanti dell’isola nel 1930 (Infatti, l’ultima nata nell’isola, Rachel Johnson morì solo nel 2016).

Le nostre indagini si sono concentrate sulla storia del villaggio di Hirta.

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Le isole ospitano una forma unica di struttura in pietra nota come cleit. E’ una capanna di pietra usata per conservazione di cibo. È noto che ci siano 1,260 cleit su Hirta e altre 170 sulle altre isole del gruppo.

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Su queste isole remote sono sopravvissuti due diversi tipi di pecore: il Soay, uno neolitico, e il Boreray, un tipo dell’Età del Ferro. Le isole sono un terreno fertile per molte importanti specie di uccelli marini, tra cui sule settentrionali, pulcinelle di mare e fulmari settentrionali. Lo scricciolo di St Kilda e il topo di campo di St Kilda sono sottospecie endemiche. Le acque attorno le isole sono piene di delfini.

Il National Trust for Scotland possiede l’intero arcipelago. È diventato uno dei sei siti del patrimonio mondiale della Scozia nel 1986 ed è uno dei pochi al mondo ad avere uno status misto per le sue qualità naturali e culturali.

(Foto del tramonto di Alexandra Cipriani Pettitt)

Inoltre a scavare il sito archeologico abbiamo fissato una placca per conto dell’UNESCO che proclama St Kilda come patrimonio del mondo.

Queste isole all’orlo del mondo mi sono rimaste sempre nella memoria come un’esperienza unica. Circondate da un mare alquanto pacifico che mostruoso, da scogliere selvagge, da una flora e fauna pristina, ho avuto visioni di un mondo preistorico, incontaminato e vergine.

Già in queste giornate dove la terra sembra che guarisca dalle ferite inflitte dall’uomo, mi ritorna in mente e tramite queste fotografie un’estate assolutamente incancellabile.

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PENSIERI DI ST KILDA

Nido d’isola, mezza terra e mezzo mare, trafigge

la memoria come un’eretta pietra cosmica

dividendo la nostra giovinezza dalla terza età: come creazioni

di fuoco le rocce esaltano un lamento senza limiti.

Si rivela un dominio estremo

di scogliere verticali in un mare vizioso

e petali gialli in un campo leggermente inclinato –

che tali elementi contrastanti possono essere.

I giocattoli dei giganti gettati in mari abbandonati,

mescolano chimere e realtà

in uno spettro che non placa

le nostre paure più intime e non ammette pietà.

Sule e gabbiani rumorosi, procellarie e fulmari

assumono la definizione della vita

mentre il regno della notte riflette stelle infinite

e le foche si tuffano nel conflitto primordiale.

Le pecore senza pastore sono padrone qui: conducano

alle pulcinelle marine, alle grotte di smeraldo

e la testa crescente, perduta nell’amore, del promontorio,

ai getti del vento, alle pareti dei ciclopi e alle tombe decantate.

La triste storia, la cappella intimidatoria;

le case sono legate come carcasse navali abbandonate

intorno alla baia a forma di ventaglio mentre dico addio

e tutt’intorno broncia il cupo mare.

Italy’s Maritime Pompeii

Posted on December 23, 2019 by Francis

An Italian archaeological find of immense importance, something dubbed a maritime Pompeii, occurred in 1998 when, while digging the foundations for a new railway control centre in Pisa’s San Rossore area, the unbelievably unspoiled remains of over thirty ancient Roman ships and boats were uncovered. Miraculously preserved by the oxygen-lacking peaty soil of what was in olden times the Pisan shoreline (the sea has since receded a good ten miles) it’s taken twenty years of painstaking research and restoration to conclusively display to the public these glorious witnesses of the Roman Empire’s vast maritime trading empire.

The Museo delle Navy Antiche di Pisa opened earlier this year and is stunningly laid out in the city’s old naval arsenal. Divided into two sections, the museum makes excellent use of such features as the old cavalry stalls and the superb interior arcades.

The first section contains Pisa’s archaeological museum. Here one can wander from early Etruscan settlements, to the glory that was Rome’s major port, to the arrival of the Goths. Note the precursor to the surveyor’s theodolite and the Mithraic reference in the Phrygian cap wearing bas-relief…

The second section houses some of the most spectacular finds of everyday ancient Roman life since the uncovering of Pompeii in the eighteenth century. The ships hidden under the natural protection of the Pisan marshes reveal an all-encompassing typology of classical vessels from fluvial boats, precursors of the Venetian gondola, the canal long-boat and the Cambridge punt, to river cable-hauled ferries and sea-going cargo boats which sailed as far as Colchester, the Black Sea and the straits of Gibraltar. Never before has a glossary of floating craft been revealed in such detail and completeness before. I’m truly glad to be alive to admire this parade of maritime craft dating back to over two thousand years ago.

The museum’s ships display such features as interior handrails, cargo storage methods, double-skin hull construction, gang-planks, massive anchors, variety of sheet (sail) arrangements, seating arrangements (especially for passenger ships), oar propulsion and much, much more.

What are even more fascinating are the intimate insights into the lives of the average Roman sailor and his crew:

On-board games:

Fishing tackle:

Clothes (leather water-proof greased jackets) and footwear:

Maritime navigation aids and the mariner’s personal on-board possessions box (with lock):

Astonishingly well-preserved basketware:

There is even evidence of a ship’s cat!

There’s a wall chart showing the typology of amphorae storage pots extending over four hundred years showing the increase and decrease of trade and reflecting the rise and fall of the Roman empire…so insightful of other empires including the British whose trade is now in danger of emasculation thanks to the cancer of brexitisis.

For me there was a particularly poignant exhibit: the recovery of the skeletons of a sailor and his dog (a beagle) crushed when a ship’s mast fell on them.

Our vibrant journey through Roman port life was accompanied by one of the archaeologists who assisted in the recovery of this astounding discovery: his knowledge and enthusiasm was clearly conveyed to us and our little group of five who had booked a guided tour.

We emerged from past centuries into the present times which themselves are redolent of a birth which occurred when many of these sailors plied their wares between peoples of different shores but united in a common pursuit of commercial and cultural exchange: a European Union two thousand years before its time, a union whose collapse under barbarian forces took years to rebuild into the present coming together of twenty seven nations once, alas, twenty eight…

Do visit the museum’s web site at https://www.navidipisa.it/en/ì for further information including opening times.

Fishing for Compliments at Marina di Pisa

Posted on October 18, 2018 by Francis

We have known Marina di Pisa for a long time. During our summer holidays we would take the train with our cycles on board to Pisa Centrale station and then pedal the 13-odd kilometres to Marina di Pisa. Age has increased our affection for this place, redolent of history and inspiration, which, after some terrible years of decadence and neglect (like several English seaside resorts I know) is being revalued for the amiable resort it is.

One of Italy’s greatest poets, Gabriele D’Annunzio, wrote his finest poetry here, collected in ‘Alcyone’. My post at https://longoio.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/superman-or-satanist/ describes this astounding person and includes my translation of his beautiful poem on the rain falling on the pine forests that form the background to Marina di Pisa.

D’Annunzio had an overwhelming love for Marina di Pisa. Equally in love with the town and its coastline were Eleonora Duse (who spent her holidays with D’Annunzio here in a villa by the sea), another great poet, Dino Campana, Sergei Rachmaninov, the painter Giuseppe Viviani and the nuclear physicist Bruno Pontecorvo .

At that time, wild dunes of grey and brackish sand joined the pine forest. Then in the fifties and sixties of the twentieth century disaster struck. Poor management and corruption increased erosion to the extent that, like a sea vampire, waves eventually devoured the lovely sandy beach, today largely replaced by pebbles deposited on the sea front to avoid further destruction.

(Marina di Pisa’s beach as it used to be)

Furthermore, the railway which used to run between Pisa and Marina di Pisa (it continued to Tirrenia and Livorno) was closed down in 1960.

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Marina’s railway station is still there…

However, all is not lost. Thanks to a 6.5 million euro funding from the region, province and the municipality, work is underway to restore the formerly sandy beach. It’s a sophisticated project and undersea barriers will be used to prevent the sea from consuming the once-praised beach yet again.

Marina di Pisa’s sandy beach restoration project is part of its revitalization as is the new marina at the ‘Bocca D’Arno’ (mouth of the river Arno).

This new marina has, however, caused some distress among those persons used to a more traditional town. With affection I remember the delightful times I spent with friends at the ‘retoni’ (big nets) fishing for whitebait. We used to have marvellous fry-ups and watch the sun go down on the Tyrhennian Sea by the Arno. To see those happy times read my post at:

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/05/28/a-big-network-at-marina-di-pisa/

Houses and churches which were once neglected are now being restored and there are some spectacular examples of fin-de-siècle architecture equal to anything in Viareggio.

There are several excellent sea-food restaurants and if many of them are now closed at the end of the sea-bathing season there is one that always seems to be open: the ‘Pescotto’. We enjoyed an excellent fritto-misto there:

Afterwards we took a walk around the resort.

Returning home we couldn’t resist taking another look at that miraculous church marking the spot where Saint Peter landed to proselytise Italy and eventually be martyred, crucified upside down in Rome.

I have written extensively about this exquisite building at:

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/saint-peters-landing-place-in-italy/

and

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/07/08/a-more-interesting-way-of-getting-to-pisa-airport/

For those of you familiar with the beautiful Italian language I cannot resist including a poem on Marina di Pisa by Gabriele D’Annunzio:

O Marina di Pisa, quando folgora
il solleone!
Le lodolette cantan su le pratora
di San Rossore
e le cicale cantano su i platani
d’Arno a tenzone.

Come l’Estate porta l’oro in bocca,
l’Arno porta il silenzio alla sua foce.
Tutto il mattino per la dolce landa
quinci è un cantare e quindi altro cantare;
tace l’acqua tra l’una e l’altra voce.

E l’Estate or si china da una banda
or dall’altra si piega ad ascoltare.
È lento il fiume, il naviglio è veloce.
La riva è pura come una ghirlanda.
Tu ridi tuttavia co’ raggi in bocca,
come l’Estate a me, come l’Estate!
Sopra di noi sono le vele bianche
sopra di noi le vele immacolate.
Il vento che le tocca
tocca anche le tue pàlpebre un po’ stanche,
tocca anche le tue vene delicate;
e un divino sopor ti persuade,
fresco ne’ cigli tuoi come rugiade
in erbe all’albeggiare.
S’inazzurra il tuo sangue come il mare.
L’anima tua di pace s’inghirlanda.
L’Arno porta il silenzio alla sua foce
come l’Estate porta l’oro in bocca.
Stormi d’augelli varcano la foce,
poi tutte l’ali bagnano nel mare!
Ogni passato mal nell’oblìo cade.
S’estingue ogni desìo vano e feroce.
Quel che ieri mi nocque, or non mi nuoce;
quello che mi toccò, più non mi tocca.
È paga nel mio cuore ogni dimanda,
come l’acqua tra l’una e l’altra voce.
Così discendo al mare;
così veleggio. E per la dolce landa
quinci è un cantare e quindi altro cantare.
Le lodolette cantan su le pratora
di San Rossore
e le cicale cantano su i platani
d’Arno a tenzone.

(Gabriele D’Annunzio, “La Tenzone” da Alcyone – Marina di Pisa 5 luglio 1899)

Autumnal Seaside

Posted on September 28, 2018 by Francis

It’s officially autumn in Italy and the seaside is more glorious than ever.

Baba Cesare remains near us at Guzzano which means he still finds the weather warm enough to delay any return to his ashram in Hampi, India.

Last Friday we had our own ‘fish Friday’, Italian style, by lunching off the catch from the little fishing boats in the port of Viareggio.

We finished our lunch with a delicious ice cream on the spacious seaside promenade.

For swimming we chose our favourite ‘secret’ spot near Migliarino which was wonderfully sparsely peopled.

I enjoy the start of the Italian sea bathing season and its end (which this year is lusciously prolonged). I’d happily give a miss for the ‘high season’ here and head for some secluded spot in the southern part of the peninsula.

Last Friday we had the best of everything at the seaside, fried fish, ice-cream, clean, almost empty beaches, a gentle sea and a splendid sunset.

affaccio-sulla-spiaggia

We took Sandra’s mum with us. This year was her 97th birthday.

Le Ostriche di Whitstable

Posted on August 12, 2018 by Francis

Situata sulla costiera nord della contea di Kent, Whitstable è un ridente centro le cui fondazioni risalgono all’era romana. Cresciuto da un villaggio di pescatori è poi diventato una meta per le scampagnate dei Londinesi che la raggiungevano per vaporetto lungo l’estuario del Tamigi.

Ci siamo stati per la prima volta nel 1983 e poi nel 1985.

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Ultimamente eravamo li nel 1998.

Ora, dopo un periodo di decadenza nelle sorti della cittadina, quando gli inglesi l’abbandonarono per le vacanze attorno il Mediterraneo, Whitstable è ritornata di moda ed è frequentatissima – affatto com’era quando siamo prima stati lì molti anni fa’. Questo cambiamento si riflette nel prezzo delle case e nell’offerta più vasta dei negozi. (Speranza per Bagni di Lucca?)

Il mare di Whitstable non è per niente profondo ed è idoneo per la raccolta di crostacei, ostriche e vongole. Il porto fu ideato da Thomas Telford, il grande ingeniere del secolo diciannovesimo che ispirò Nottolini, l’architetto del ponte delle catene a Fornoli. Attorno il porto ci sono le caratteristiche capanne dei pescatori, un mercato del pesce e dei gustosi ristoranti ittici.

Sebbene non abbia edifici di altissimo interesse storico, Whitstable contiene un suggestivo insieme di caratteristiche case ‘clapperboard’, cioè rivestite di assicelle di legno e degli edifici dell’era Giorgiana che ne fanno della sua high Street un attraente insieme pieno di varietà.

La spiaggia non è un gran che, composta dalla più parte di ciottoli. Ha, però, la sua atmosfera nordica con il miagolare dei gabbiani e le famiglie che vanno in cerca di granchi. Ho notato pochi nuotatori….

La galleria d’arte merita una visita.

Come lo merita anche il museo, che contiene un’antica locomotiva a vapore del 1830, Invicta, costruita da Stephenson figlio, e che operò nel primo servizio regolare di treni per passeggeri sulla linea conducente a Canterbury.

Come consueto, abbiamo concluso la nostra giornata a Whitstable in un pub. Ci è particolarmente piaciuto questo di epoca vittoriana. Evidentemente il landlord era appassionato di vecchie radio….

Ciao Whitstable e….alla prossima!

Anni passati,

il volo dei gabbiani:

maree nel tempo.

The Sea-Bathing Season Opens at Viareggio

Posted on May 22, 2018 by Francis

The majority of Italian beaches at seaside resorts are leased out to bathing establishment companies for the summer season and entry is only by payment. There are, of course, free beaches but at places like Viareggio and Lido di Camaiore they are abysmally narrow.

On Saturday 19^th May the bathing season opened at Viareggio and the Versilia coastline. We visited the seaside the preceding day when the leasers of one particular resort were busy laying out deckchairs, sunbeds, parasols and all the other paraphernalia of holidays by the sea. Lines were pegged out to assure perfect geometric alignment of the beach furniture. The operatives were also cleaning the sands by carefully sifting out any rubbish.

They still left plenty of seashells, however, to the joy of collectors.

As the season was opening the following day we had the whole beach to ourselves including the deckchairs and all for free. Luckily the bar next door was open so we were able to treat ourselves to ice-cream.

Although the seawater felt warmer than that at most British seaside resorts at the height of summer there was only a mere handful of swimmers.

Behind us the Apuan Alps (which we see from the other side from where we are in Longoio) protected the area from any strong Easterly wind. Recognize the Procinto, that panettone-shaped mountain?

The flag colours indicate the following:

Red: dangerous to swim because of bad weather or absence of lifeguard.

Yellow: Reduced lifeguard in operation between 1.30 pm and 3.30 pm.

Red and yellow: No lifeguard in operation.

No flags. Safe to swim and lifeguard service in operation.

Do note, however, that this flag system is particular to Italy. In Australia, for example, red and yellow together means that that there is a lifeguard operating while no flags at all mean that there is no lifeguard to save one. Most confusing!

Perhaps the most important flag is the blue flag, meaning that the sea and adjoining beach have passed stringent environmental standards as monitored by the partnership between the FEE (Foundation for Environmental Education) and the EU.

(This is, incidentally, another issue which the Brexit idiocy has failed to address – will blue flag beaches in the UK still have the same standards if Brexit goes ahead? The residents in UKIP voting Clacton-on-Sea are very proud of their clean beaches. But would Clactonians have still voted to quit the EU if they knew the clean beaches and sea are thanks to EU membership?)

We passed a lovely afternoon at the still empty bathing establishments of Viareggio knowing full well that the following day hordes of holiday-makers would start to come to one of Italy’s most pleasant beaches and knowing that for yet another year it has won a blue flag award.

Viareggio’s Bubbleman

Posted on January 30, 2018 by Francis

He was born in the centre of Moscow in 1956. Not wanting to do military service he opted out for the best alternative, which was to become a student in a medical school. Graduating as a doctor he found employment in a pulmonary unit (but he still smokes). He did that job close on twenty years but when ‘perestroika’ occurred things changed drastically. Money was not forthcoming for his work-place and so he found himself out of a job. He decided to travel in Europe instead. In Venice in 1996, he found he had no money. He had to survive somehow and so picked up various jobs around the place, Sometimes he was a plumber or a builder, sometimes he collected snails and found mushrooms. Eventually he took the job he still holds now: Viareggio’s bubbleman. “It’s not really a job”, he declared. “I don’t know who’s having more fun, me or the kids.”

Then one day, just over a year ago, something happened which, as the phrase goes, went viral, He was creating bubbles, as was his wont, in the passage to the Neptune bathing establishment and next to the shop with the big art nouveau number 48. Suddenly the shop owner came out and started hosing down the pavement surrounding the building. “Out of here” he shouted to bubbleman. “Why?” asked the Russian. “Get out of here you scum or else I’ll smash your head. Who are you anyway?” “I am a human. You are a fascist” replied Boris, for that was the bubbleman’s name. Then the shop owner turned his hose onto Boris, soaking him. By this time a small crowd had gathered. They liked bringing their children to watch the bubbleman. Boris has a way with them. “What’s going on?” one of the audience asked. “It’s him; I want him away from my shop-front. He lowers the tone of this neighbourhood,” said the shop-keeper.

One person was recording the incident on his mobile. A hand covered his phone lens. “Stop it” said a voice.. But it was too late. The event had been filmed and then posted on Facebook. It became viral. Eventually, Viareggio’s mayor came to know of it. He arranged a meeting between himself, Boris and the shop owner. The latter was forced to apologise. “It became a little out of hand” he admitted.

Boris told me he does many other things apart from amusing children. “I can heal people from their back pain with my massage. I also have a technique to help those who are suffering from worsening sight. My method does work. Look at me. I once had to wear two different types of glasses – now I need none.”

“And what about the shopkeeper?” I asked. “It’s water under the bridge. Who has had to pay has paid”, he replied .

Meanwhile a child came up to Boris. “I want to make bubbles myself”. “Do you really? I’ll show you how then”, said Viareggio’s bubbleman.

And so Boris took the child under his wing and showed him how to blow bubbles. The child was so happy to see the great suds soaring up in the light evening wind. The child’s parents proudly watched.

Meanwhile the great carnival procession of the fantasia-town was taking shape. “After all,” said Boris to me as I bid goodbye , “life’s just like a bubble. Sooner or later it will pop into nothingness.”

Viareggio in Winter

Posted on January 12, 2018 by Francis

Viareggio in winter is a different ‘kettle of fish’ (‘kettle’ here doesn’t mean the one for boiling water in tea-making but, instead, a special kind of saucepan for fish).

fish-kettle

Unlike many English seaside resorts, where summer days can often be as cold as warm winter ones, Viareggio has a quite different atmosphere in winter. All the bathing establishments are closed and the beaches and promenades are empty. I love Viareggio in January and this week we decided to pay a visit to this favourite place of ours.

Where to start but at the caffè Margherita, the stile-liberty concoction so beloved by Puccini and his cronies and where plans for three of his operas were laid.

They make an excellent cioccolato con panna here!

And, next to the caffè, the Mondadori bookshop will keep one browsing for ages…

One can then stroll down to the port and meet the statue of Ettore, the cat who, for nineteen years, would greet fishermen returning with their catch.

Ettore was a starving kitten when found in a cardboard box in 1997 but he soon became a mascot for all frequenters of Viareggio’s port.

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(Ettore in 2014)

It was truly a sad time, therefore, when Ettore died in 2016. Funds were raised to erect a statue to his memory and this was inaugurated in November last year. (I thought to myself that I could start making a post about Italian cat statues much in the same way as I had done one on London cats – see my post at https://longoio3.com/2017/12/21/i-gatti-di-londra/ )

We bought some fresh fish and very fresh prawns (they were still moving around) from the harbour area.

We also treated ourselves to a delicious fresh fish fry-up served from one of the fishermen’s boats.

A poster reminded me that Viareggio’s fabulous carnival is now with us.

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We then moved on to Lido di Camaiore which Sandra remembers well since she spent her holidays there as a little girl.

I loved the bleak expansiveness of the beach, the changing clouds and the lapping waves.

I really do love to be beside the seaside, even in the middle of winter!

Italy on Fire

Posted on July 20, 2017 by Francis

Italy is on fire. This year has been particularly bad for forest fires and the sad thing is that most of them have been started deliberately. Why should anyone want to destroy the wonderful arboreal heritage of Italy? There are various reasons related to illegal land use. Many of the reasons are just to get rid of illegal fly-tipping.

The vilest methods have been used by mafia-inspired pyromaniacs to spread fires. Perhaps the most shocking is the finding by the forestry guards of cat carcasses burnt by the flames on Mount Vesuvius. Here’s a typical headline which doesn’t need much knowledge of Italian to translate.

ORRORE SUL VESUVIO: ANIMALI VIVI USATI PER ESTENDERE LE FIAMME

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Our area is certainly not exempt from forest fires. Luckily although there are traces everywhere of fires they have so far been extinguished before they spread too far. Often it’s the lazy smoker-motorist who throws his/her cigarette out of the car window. Why else do so many of these fires start by the road side?

(A local fire at Balbano put out in time)

In spite of all this we enjoyed our time at the seaside yesterday in temperatures above thirty centigrade by the Tyrhennian Sea.

Let’s hope that some rain falls soon because this dryness not only encourages forest fires: it destroys crops, to say nothing of wildlife and air pollution.

From London to La Costa (and Lucca and Beyond) Part Three

Category Archives: Seaside