Waiting for the ferry

A daily trip to Laveno, on the west east coast of Lago Maggiore. Be it by train, motorbike or car, a stop in the small harbour on the longest lake of Italy and a visit to the islands Borromee by these old fashioned ferry is a recommended alternative to the most frequented Como Lake, once you are in Lombardy. If it happens to be on a windy and sunny day soon after a snow blizzard then you can't ask for more. The sight on the Alps (Monte Rosa) is breathtaking.

Last Days of Sales

 Everyone has to get back home with something in his own paper shopping bag.

A stop to the Modern Art Gallery (Milan)

  

For those coming to Milan in the following months (The Expo 2015 is just behind the corner), be aware that on the first Sunday of each month many National museums, including the Modern Art Gallery) will be offer free admittance. Good to know.

Pompeo Marchesi

Venere, 1855

A Forbidden Seat

This is not for you! 

Each one take his own place!

Time Out!

I could write about "team working" and the importance of good leading and coaching teams for days. That's my job. And I could also write about the importance of holding unplanned stops when necessary, as well as running frequent analysis of activity progress and joint reviews: feedback sessions, brainstorms or retrospectives, as they say.

I started touring around my province on "any given Sunday" a couple of months ago, following my son volley team on their first year of tournaments. And I started appreciating the effort of few good trainers, comparing their ways of interacting with kids to what I see (and do) on my job place. There's a lot to learn, indeed.

A last glance at the waterfront, before dinner

Don't say I'm missing the "Good Season". I rather miss the Sea.

Last Summer's best day

Photographically speaking, I mean.

I don't know ...

Libero

After the rain

There's nothing better than a short walk in the countyside.

  

The last of the "Peppers"

This poor lad has been the last of this year's crop. It will never be ready to eat. Winter has come all at once and the stalk where it's hanging from is now naked. This habanero is destined to keep the yellowish tan till it falls down on the ground. Paradoxically, chances are that it will be the parent of next season's seeds.

The Agave

Weirdness of the "Tall Town". The agave is missing on the walls of the Reinassance masterpiece, where millions of people come every year to visit its garden and fountains but it's thriving on the walls of the old "Osteria", where no has walked in for years.

Good ol' Times

The first quarter of year after the R&D site where I work passed in the hands of another company has gone. After the Christmas break people are quickly getting back to work and with them many news and voices. Months ago, soon after the official "announcement", I though that nothing would have changed in the short term. I regret to admit that this is not true. There's been a time, a couple of years ago, when we used to sit all together, late in the afternoon, after a long day of whiteboard planning, technical discussions and coding and stare at the simulation waveforms projected on a monitor as it was our fireplace. It's no longer like that. We look at our waveforms on our own, no one sitting at our side.

Looking for Ettore

Ettore Roesler Franz (see also the reacher Italian Wikipedia page) was an Italian watercolors painter of German origin, who lived in Rome in the second half of the XIX century. He had a special relation with Tivoli, both the town (and its people) and the breathtaking surrounding countryside. His works (Wiki Gallery) are among the most impressive realist watercolors ever made, depicting Italy on the verge of the second industrial revolution, just after the unification years. Having in mind his works, a walk in the citadel is like a walk back in time on the same places were he used to sit, stare at the people and paint. People are much different today. Streets are only used for moving from one place to another. I can consider myself lucky: this year no cars nor scooters were on the way, between myself and the ghost of Ettore.

Life in the Dried Up Reef

This year the "tall town", on my canonical Christmas Eve walk, was looking more like a coral bank, with strange floaters everywhere inviting people to raise their sight to the sky.

An upside down living guardian of the alley

A welcoming Medusa

A patrolling expert inspectioning every passer-by