The "Tivoli" you won't expect

I'm not used to post videos on my blog. This time I'll make an exception.

Via di Pomata

(Made and sent from my mobile.)

Up until a century ago there where two ways to get to the town of Tivoli, coming from Rome. One way was passing the old citadel walls walking along the ancient roman road Tiburtina (which means "leading to Tibur", i.e. Tivoli), the second was entering the south gate after climbing the hill across a true forest of olive trees, along what today is called Via di Pomata.
This narrow county road takes down to the valley below, where the Adrian Emperor's Villa is standing, dribbling through remains of ancient roman villas and pillars of the bridges of the aqueducts that used to bring water from the mountains behind Tivoli to Rome. It was the natural set of past centuries' painters (mainly Grand Touring water-colorists) and poets. Today it's the perfect place where to spend a nice hour, walking or running soaked by sunlight, safe from the blanket of mist and smog that's covering the Italian capital in these days. A place that I never miss to visit every time I go back to my youth's hometown.

This Year' Sunset

We're almost there. Few days to go. A new exciting year is just behind the corner. I'm spending my last hours in a sunny and warm Tivoli, before getting back to the mist and smog of Milan metropolitan area.

I'm not mentioning a cliche. Not this time. There's so much difference between the clear blue sky under which I've been trekking this morning together with my son and the dull grayness that I left few days ago.

This afternoon I took a last walk in the alleys of the old town and visited the new born Civic Museum, where an exhibition about the jubilee has just been opened. The view on Villa d'Este and Saint Peter church at sunset from the museum's windows has been breathtaking.

(Made and sent from my mobile.)

The Allure of Decadence - II

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The Allure of Decadence

What remains of an old (textile?) manufacturing plant along river Olona, in Lonate Ceppino. I would say, made when the architecture was concerned about the places where we used to work. Now there's only a stretch of flat, all alike, mirrored buildings.

(Made and sent from my mobile.)

Merry Christmas

This is not probably the best picture I could post today. I don't have any better at hand, but it's good enough to bring you my Best Wishes for this day and the coming ones.

In Open Fields

A snapshot taken with a mobile is not able to convey all you feel in some situations. This is an example. Last Sunday, early in the morning, in the open field just out of the town.

(Made and sent from my mobile.)

The Trooper

And the boat goes on ...

Milano, Naviglio Grande, one week ago. In a typical misty afternoon of this unusually dry winter half town seems to be converging here. The other half is crammed around Piazza Duomo and La Scala, where the lyrical season opening is in progress.

I can hardly walk inside this endless worm of people moving aimlessly along the channel banks. I think it's simply because they don't have anything else to do and anywhere else to go. What everyone cares is just to be out of home and walk with someone to talk to. So do I.

Looks like that people have less to spend this year. Crowded streets but empty shops. I'm just another one among them but I have other concerns: little time and no idea.

Then a boat takes its load of people and goes on and on, till it disappears in he mist.

Everything under control

(Made and sent from my mobile.)

The way up

The arrival of the winter seasons also means the opening of the indoor tournaments season and I, as a father of a young and sporting volley player, cannot refuse touring around the province of Varese and visiting new villages on almost every Sunday afternoon.
Between two matches, there's always time for a short walk to the local bar, where to sip a cup of - in better times - undrinkable coffee, under the glances of few elderly locals gathered to play cards while listening at the football matches commentary from the always on television in the next room.
Beside the bar on the main street, few of these villages have little more than a small church to be noted and tentatively visited. In the accidental visitor's support, the winter frock helps making them a little bit more interesting. People stay inside their homes or in the bar lounge and walking through the desert streets, where the sounds are dump and the kitchens flavors fall down from the chimneys melted with fog, is always pleasant. It feels like walking alone on a mountain track. And, sometimes, you even find sources of inspiration. Metaphors and epiphanies. Just like the narrow climb below.

I'm going to walk a tortuous path. Next months are going to bring a wealth of new experiences and events in my basket, as well as in those of my family.

(Made and sent from my mobile.)

December Morning

It's nearly a week since we saw the sun last time. Cycling in the countryside in the silence of the morning mist has a special taste. Reminds me the atmosphere of a famous Italian film: Novecento.

(Made and sent from my mobile.)

December is here

The latest news about the air pollution in the area surrounding Milan are somehow scaring. Considering the concentration of well known particulate matter (PM10) the north Italian Pianura Padana, where Milan sits, has recorded the highest values in Europe. And the results are under our eyes. Rime ice (in Italian "galaverna") is thicker and thicker every year. It is nice to see but very few of us know that this ice growth is favored by the air pollution.

(Made and sent from my mobile.)