Wittenberg in 60 Seconds

Wittenberg in 60 Seconds, UNESCO World Heritage on Deutsche Welle.

Wittenberg is Luther's town: Luther lived as a monk and later as a professor in the former Augustan monastery, he used to preach at the town church, and in 1517 he nailed his famous 95 theses to the door of the All Saints' church. These have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.

Necessità Lunatica - Marco Carta

Necessità Lunatica - Marco Carta

On Leaving Sicily

'Under the lid of the half-cloudy night sky, far away at the rim of the Ionian sea, the first light, like metal fusing. So swallow the cup of tea and the bit of toast. Hastily wash up, so that we can find the house decent when we come back. Shut the door-windows of the upper terrace, and go down. Lock the door: the upper half of the house made fast.

The sky and sea are parting like an oyster shell, with a low red gape. Looking across from the verandah at it, one shivers. Not that it is cold. The morning is not at all cold. But the ominousness of it: that long red slit between a dark sky and a dark Ionian sea, terrible old bivalve which has held life between its lips so long. And here, at this house, we are ledged so awfully above the dawn, naked to it.

Fasten the door-windows of the lower verandah. One won't fasten at all. The summer heat warped it one way, the masses of autumn rain warped it another. Put a chair against it. Lock the last door, and hide the key. Sling the knapsack on one's back, take the kitchenino [canteen] in one's hand, and look around. The dawn-red widening, between the purpling sea and the troubled sky. A light in the capucin convent across there. Cocks crowing, and the long, howling, hiccuping, melancholy bray of an ass. 'All females are dead, all females - och! och! och! - hoooo! Ahaa! - there's one left.' So he ends on a moaning grunt of consolation. - This is what the Arabs tell us an ass is howling when he brays.

Very dark under the great carob tree as we go down the steps. Dark still the garden. Scent of mimosa, and then of jasmine. The lovely mimosa tree invisible. Dark the stony path. The goat whinnies out of her shed. The broken Roman tomb which lolls right over the garden track does not fall on me as I slip under its massive tilt. Ah dark garden, dark garden, with your olives and your wine, your medlars and mulberries and many almond trees, your steep terraces ledged high up above the sea, I am leaving you, slinking out. Out between the rosemary hedges, out of the tall gate on to the cruel steep stony road. So under the dark, big eucalyptus trees, over the stream, and up towards the village. There, I have got so far.'

from D.H. Lawrence and Italy - D.H. Lawrence on leaving Sicily

Gelati

Carpigiani van at a fairground in Bologna, Italy, 1958

There is a new museum just out of the city of Bologna, Italy, in Anzola dell'Emilia, dedicated to gelati, the Italian ice cream. The museum is at the headquarters of Carpigiani, the world-popular gelato machine which was founded in Bologna in 1946. The origin of gelati as we know it today, is said to be traced back to the Medici; Cosimo Ruggieri, and alchemist and astrologer to Caterina de' Medici in the 16th Century. The free museum features and tells the tale of many histories and stories of the delicious dessert. One day I will visit!

A gelatiere hands a cone to a child in Cannes, France, 1926

Carpigiani promotional campaign, 1960s, Italy

Children waiting at an ice-cream van in 1960s England

A woman serving ice-cream in 1950s Germany

A 1960s Italian gelateria with Carpigiani Singola soft serve machine

Gelato artisans stand next to a large batch freezer in their shop in Vienna, Austria, in 1906

Today

What a great day! In the morning I was in a photoshoot held in the library with some friends held, where we set it up like a Danish still-life crossed with a contemporary picnic - so much fun! And then this afternoon, someone walked into the gallery while we were having a casual artists' discussion and asked to buy one of my etchings from the exhibition! Pretty excited. Also, NINE whole months since we were on a boat dolphin watching in the South Island for my friend's 21st. How time has flown.

Pulcino Pio - Morgana Giovannetti/Radio Globo

Il Pulcino Pio - Morgana Giovannetti/Radio Globo

I cannot believe that this is the song that currently holds the top spot in the Italian music charts! I love how ridiculous it is, and admittedly, have been listening to it on repeat for at least ten times, but I'm so glad they don't play it in New Zealand.

Il Pulcino Pio is an Italian version of the Brazilian song O Pintinho a song written in the 80's by Erisvaldo Da Silva. It is sung in Italian by Morganna Giovannetti and broadcast by Radio Globo. Radio Globo has released another version in which the chick defeats the tractor that crushed it in this first version.

Awaken

'The need to travel is a mysterious force. A desire to go runs through me equally with an intense desire to stay at home. An equal and opposite thermodynamic principle. When I travel, I think of home and what it means. At home I'm dreaming of catching trains at night in the gray light of old Europe, or pushing open shutters to see Florence awaken. The balance just slightly tips in the direction of the airport.'

from A Year in the World - Frances Mayes

Linearità

Tonight was the opening preview of my first proper art exhibition, held at the George Fraser Gallery in Auckland. Such an amazing night with wonderful friends and family, it was lots of fun and well worth the stresses and anxieties that come with any exhibition. Even tried spritzers of white wine with lemonade and then red wine with lemonade. Delicious and perfect for summer! Going to miss Elam so much next year.

Aphrodisias

Aphrodisias

Martin Gray

National Geographic

'When archaeologist Kenan Erim first saw the site in Turkey where the classical city of Aphrodisias once stood, it was a tumbled ruin, weed-choked and overgrown. But over the next two decades (1966-1988), his painstaking excavations revealed an astonishingly complete city—a "miracle in marble" with plazas, public baths, and a Temple of Aphrodite (above)—that flourished for seven centuries before wars and earthquakes forced its abandonment.'

Piazza Navona

'Our windows looked out upon the square, which circumstance is a source of infinite enjoyment to me. Directly in front, with its fantastic belfries and swelling dome, rises the church of St. Agnes; and sitting by the open window, I note the busy scene below, enjoy the cool air of morning and evening, and even feel the freshness of the fountain, as its waters leap in mimic cascades down the side of the rock.'

from Outre-Mer - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Non vivo più senza te - Biagio Antonacci

Non vivo più senza te - Biagio Antonacci

I can't wait for summer.

Ponte di Marisa

La Domenica del Corriere

2 February 1958

Un'insolita richiesta esaudita: Come in una fiaba. Nella letterina scritta alla Befana ai primi dello scorso gennaio, la piccola Marisa Leonzio, figlia di un agricoltore di Gorgo, frazione di Rosignano Solvay (Livorno), chiedeva che le regalassero un ponte, ma un ponte vero da gettare sul torrente Chioma che lei doveva attraversare ogni mattina per andare a scuola. Una casa cinematografica, venuta al corrente di questo, ha esaudito il suo desiderio e ha fatto costruire il ponte. E lei, gentile scolaretta, c'è passata per prima il giorno in cui, alla presenza delle autorità, lo si è inaugurato.

Life Magazine

3 February 1958

In Nibbiaia, Italy, Marisa Leonzio, 8, stood on a new bridge and waved as schoolmates clustered behind her. Marisa had to ford the stream every day on foot or oxcart to get to school. She wrote a fourth-grade composition about it which was printed in the papers. When he read it, an Italian film distributor had the bridge built, named Ponte di Marisa after her.

British Guiana

'That ride remains one of the most vivid memories of the cattle trail. Checked and annoyed as I was, the splendour of the evening compensated for everything. Out on the savannah there is no twilight; the sun goes down blazing on the horizon, affording five or ten minutes of gold and crimson glory; then darkness. In the forest night opens slowly like a yawn. The colours gradually deepened, the greens pure and intense to the point of saturation, the tree trunks and the bare earth glowing brown; the half shades, the broken and refracted fragments of light all disappeared and left only fathomless depths of pure colour. Then dusk spread; distances became incalculable and obstacles detached themselves unexpectedly and came suddenly near; and while it was almost night in the trail the tops of the trees were still ablaze with sunlight, till eventually they too darkened and their flowers were lost. And all the pattering and whistling and chattering of the bush at night broke out loudly on all sides, and the tired little horse - who was doing a double journey and, being always on the move - suddenly pricked his ears and raised his head and stepped out fresh as though his day were only just beginning.'

from Ninety-Two Days - Evelyn Waugh

The Italian

I watched this Russian film, The Italian, back in November 2010. Directed by Andrei Kravchuk, it stars Kolya Spiridonov as Vanya Solntsev. Based on the true story of a small boy, it tells the tale of his life in an orphanage and his mission to find his birth mother. Heart-wrenchingly sad in some parts and beautifully hopeful in others, The Italian is a wonderful film.

‘The film opens in a Dickensian orphanage in Russia, a fascinating miniature world presided over by a hierarchy of orphans. The daily routine is broken when “Madam” arrives to introduce a loving Italian couple hoping to adopt a child. The object of their interest is six year old Vanya, a handsome, bright-eyed little boy to whom the couple takes an instant liking. Everyone is envious of Vanya, for the adoption by the Italians will take him away from the harsh conditions of the orphanage and into a serene life under the Mediterranean sun. But when the mother of another orphan comes to reclaim her son, Vanya starts to have doubts and becomes determined to learn whether or not his own birth mother is out there. Willing to do whatever it takes to find her, he embarks on a heroic and dangerous quest that will take him into the heart of the country.’

100% Middle-Earth 100% Pure New Zealand

100% Middle-Earth 100% Pure New Zealand

'Hi everyone. The folks at Tourism New Zealand have launched a new promotional campaign with a distinct Hobbit flavour. It's called "100% Middle-earth" and it's tied to the release of our film in December. This is New Zealand inviting you all to come and visit, and if you haven't been before you'll have no more excuse after seeing this! Take a look at the video and listen carefully for a very familiar voice. See you here soon… we'll have a beer or two at the Green Dragon!' - Peter Jackson

Sometimes I still can't quite believe that this is really home.

Blessed

In the midst of organising an overly chaotic schedule of an upcoming exhibition, a dissertation essay, an entire year’s worth of art due, sorting out everything for an overseas exchange next year, and juggling work three evenings a week; I have been blessed with THE most amazing and incredible friends and family who I am so, so thankful for. Gotta remember how to breathe.

Munich: Summer in the Bavarian City

Munich: Summer in the Bavarian City on Discover Germany, Deutsche Welle

First Ever Etruscan Pyramids Found in Italy

I just read this intriguing article on Discovery News, about Etruscan pyramids discovered in Italy.

FIRST EVER ETRUSCAN PYRAMIDS FOUND IN ITALY

The pyramids were spotted by a series of ancient stairs that had been carved into the wall of what is now a wine cellar.

Rossella Lorenzi

Discovery News

18 September 2012

The subterranean pyramids found in Orvieto, Italy could offer a unique insight into the mysterious Etruscan culture. Stairs carved into the wall can be seen at left.

The first ever Etruscan pyramids have been located underneath a wine cellar in the city of Orvieto in central Italy, according to a team of U.S. and Italian archaeologists.

Carved into the rock of the tufa plateau --a sedimentary area that is a result of volcanic activity -- on which the city stands, the subterranean structures were largely filled. Only the top-most modern layer was visible.

"Within this upper section, which had been modified in modern times and was used as a wine cellar, we noticed a series of ancient stairs carved into the wall. They were clearly of Etruscan construction," David B. George of the Department of Classics at Saint Anselm, told Discovery News.

As they started digging, George and co-director of the excavation Claudio Bizzarri of the Parco Archeologico Ambientale dell'Orvietano noted that the cave's walls were tapered up in a pyramidal fashion. Intriguingly, a series of tunnels, again of Etruscan construction, ran underneath the wine cellar hinting to the possibility of deeper undiscovered structures below.

After going through a mid-20th century floor, George and Bizzarri reached a medieval floor. Immediately beneath this floor, they found a layer of fill that contained various artifacts such as Attic red figure pottery from the middle of the 5th Century B.C., 6th and 5th century B.C. Etruscan pottery with inscriptions as well as various objects that dated to before 1000 B.C.

Digging through this layer, the archaeologists found 5 feet of gray sterile fill, which was intentionally deposited from a hole in the top of the structure.

"Below that material there was a brown layer that we are currently excavating. Intriguingly, the stone carved stairs run down the wall as we continue digging. We still don't know where they are going to take us," Bizzarri told Discovery News.

The material from the deepest level reached so far (the archaeologists have pushed down about 10 feet) dates to around the middle of the fifth century B.C.

"At this level we found a tunnel running to another pyramidal structure and dating from before the 5th century B.C. which adds to the mystery," George said.

Indeed, the Etruscans have long been considered one of antiquity's greatest enigmas.

A fun-loving and eclectic people who among other things taught the French how to make wine, the Romans how to build roads, and introduced the art of writing to Europe, the Etruscans began to flourish in Etruria (an area in central Italy area that covered now are Tuscany, Latium, Emilia-Romagna and Umbria) around 900 B.C., and then dominated much of the country for five centuries.

Known for their art, agriculture, fine metalworking and commerce, they started to decline during the fifth century B.C., as the Romans grew in power. By 300-100 B.C., they eventually became absorbed into the Roman empire.

Their puzzling, non-Indo-European language was virtually extinguished and they left no literature to document their society. Indeed, much of what we know about them comes from their cemeteries: only the richly decorated tombs they left behind have provided clues to fully reconstruct their history.

The subterranean pyramids in Orvieto could offer a unique insight into this civilization as the structures appear to be unique.

"The caves have indeed a shape unknown elsewhere in Etruria," Larissa Bonfante, professor emerita of classics at New York University and a leading expert on the ancient Etruscans, told Discovery News.

According to Bizzarri, there are at least five Etruscan pyramids under the city. Three of these structures have yet to be excavated.

"Clearly, they are not quarries or cisterns. I would say that there is nothing like these structures on record anywhere in Italy," Bizzarri said.

According to George, the underground pyramids could represent some sort of a religious structure or a tomb. In both cases, it would be a discovery without precedent.

"Most likely, the answer waits at the bottom. The problem is we don't really know how much we have to dig to get down there," Bizzarri said.

Capri

'Next day we went to Capri. This place has something Eastern in its aspect, with the glowing heat reflected from its rocky white walls, its palm trees, and the round domes of the churches that look like mosques. The sirocco was burning, and rendered me quite unfit to enjoy anything; for really climbing up five hundred and thirty-seven steps to Anacapri in this frightful heat, and then coming down again, is toil only fit for a horse. True, the sea is wondrously lovely, looking down on it from the summit of the bleak rock, and through the singular fissures of the jagged peaks...

But above all, I must tell you of the blue grotto... The colour is the most dazzling blue I ever saw, without shadow or cloud, like a pane of opal glass; and as the sun shines down, you can plainly discern all that is going on under the water, while the whole depths of the sea, with its living creatures are disclosed. You can see the coral insects and polypuses clinging to the rocks, and far below, fishes of different species meeting and swimming past each other... Every stroke of the oars echoes strangely under the vault, and as you row round the walls, new objects come to light. I do wish you could see it, for the effect is singularly magical. On turning towards the opening by which you entered, the daylight seen through it seems bright orange, and by moving even a few paces, you are entirely isolated under the rock, in the sea, with its own peculiar sunlight: it is as if you were actually living under the water for a time.'

from Letters from Italy and Switzerland - Felix Mendelssohn in a letter to his sisters

Timgad

Timgad, Algeria

George Steinmetz

National Geographic

'This triumphal arch awed visitors to the city of Thamugadi, founded by the emperor Trajan around A.D. 100 as a civilian settlement near the fort of Lambaesis. The grooves left by wagon and chariot wheels can still be seen in the stone road.'

Fabio Novembre

This video on Euromaxx, Deutsche Welle, features Italian architect and designer Fabio Novembre who has converted an old building in eastern Milano, Italy, into a space that allows him to combine his professional and personal life.

UCSB

This afternoon I received my acceptance letter from the University of California, Santa Barbara for an exchange for the 2013 Winter and Spring quarters! Extremely excited but nervous for the adventure; have spent hours making pro/con lists about each of the halls. Leaning towards either Manzanita or San Rafael because there will be less freshmen, but still unsure. Any recommendations?

Abruzzo, fiori freschi e messe in suffragio per l'anonimo che nessuno volle riconoscere

Corriere della Sera published this heartwarming article the other day, about a young man who was killed by a train fifteen years ago on the Ancona-Pescara line, near Roseto degli Abruzzi. No one knew who he was, and his identity has remained unknown. He was about thirty-five, of medium height, and with black curly hair. Wearing a green plaid jacket sized 48 and shoes size 42, he had no money or identification documents with him; his wallet held only a small comb and a prayer card of Our Lady of Loreto. He was completely disfigured by the train and it remains unknown as to whether the death was an accident or a suicide. However, there is a person, Ciro Fattore, who has made a headstone for the young man's grave, bringing fresh flowers each year.

Ciro Fattore, a Neopolitan, has lived in Roseto degli Abruzzi for a long time. Struck by the history of the anonymous man, and believing that he should also have his life commemorated, Fattore had a marble and brass plaque made for the grave at the municipal cemetery, which read, 'There is always a benefactor who is thinking of you.' Together with the collaboration of florist Gaetano Cinelli, also from Naples, the unknown man is brought fresh flowers almost every day. This year, Fattore and Cinelli, with the generosity of a local company and other citizens, are celebrating the anniversary of the young man's death with a memorial mass in the Church of the Sacred Heart. 'It was our way of remembering, and to make him feel less alone,' said Fattore.

Abruzzo, fiori freschi e messe in suffragio per l'anonimo che nessuno volle riconoscere

La singolare vicenda di un ragazzo scomparso 15 anni fa e mai identificato: è stato "adottato" da una comunità intera

Nicola Catenaro

15 September 2012

ROSETO DEGLI ABRUZZI (TERAMO) – Era un giovane di circa trentacinque anni, statura media, capelli ricci e neri. Indossava una giacca verde a quadri taglia 48 e portava scarpe numero 42. Non aveva soldi né documenti addosso. Nel portafogli, solo un piccolo pettine e un santino della Madonna di Loreto. La sua vita è finita sotto le ruote di un treno una domenica pomeriggio di quindici anni fa, intorno alle 14, sulla linea ferroviaria Ancona-Pescara, nei pressi di Roseto degli Abruzzi. Pioveva a dirotto e il recupero della salma fu piuttosto complesso. Disgrazia o suicidio? L’interrogativo è ancora aperto. Certo è che la sua identità (il viso era completamente sfigurato) è rimasta ignota e nessuno ha mai reclamato il suo corpo. C’è tuttavia chi, pur non avendolo mai conosciuto, ha fatto apporre una lapide sulla sua tomba e da quindici anni gli porta fiori freschi e fa dire messe in sua memoria.

«C'È SEMPRE UN BENEFATTORE CHE TI PENSA»- «A dimostrare tanta generosità è un ex dipendente della società Autogrill ora in pensione, Ciro Fattore, originario di Napoli ma residente da tempo a Roseto degli Abruzzi. Rimase colpito dalla storia di questo ragazzo senza nome, sepolto nel cimitero comunale che lui frequentava, e pensò che fosse giusto riservargli un trattamento uguale a quello degli altri estinti. Così fece sistemare prima le luci e poi la lapide in marmo con una targa in ottone che recita: «C’è sempre un benefattore che ti pensa». Ciro, ancora oggi, non sembra darsi pace per la sorte dello sconosciuto: «è mai possibile che non possa ricongiungersi con la propria famiglia?».

I TENTATIVI DELLA POLFER - I tentativi a suo tempo furono fatti. Dopo il suo ritrovamento, la Polfer provò in ogni modo a identificarlo. Cercò tra le persone scomparse e diramò segnalazioni a tutte le stazioni d’Italia. Inizialmente si pensò a un uomo di Pescara, di cui si erano perse le tracce. Ma i familiari, giunti a Roseto, non riconobbero la salma. Così il corpo rimase per tre lunghi mesi nell'obitorio del cimitero in attesa che qualche parente si presentasse e effettuasse il riconoscimento. «Ma nessuno si fece vivo – conferma a Corriere.it Giuseppe Neri, custode del cimitero da venti anni –, quindi il Comune mise un loculo a disposizione, nella parte vecchia, proprio qui vicino, e provvedemmo alla sepoltura».

SEMPRE FIORI FRESCHI SULLA TOMBA - Grazie alla generosità di Ciro e alla collaborazione dell’amico fioraio Gaetano Cinelli, anche lui napoletano, l'anonimo ha avuto l’attenzione che gli mancava e fiori freschi sulla tomba quasi tutti i giorni. La sensibilità di Ciro diventò anche un piccolo caso in Abruzzo, dopo un servizio del Tg3. Quest’anno Ciro e Gaetano, insieme ad altri concittadini, hanno deciso di celebrare l’anniversario della morte del giovane con una messa in suffragio nella chiesa del Sacro Cuore. In tanti hanno risposto all'invito contenuto nei manifesti funebri che il pensionato, con l’aiuto disinteressato di un’impresa locale, ha fatto affiggere in tutta la città. «È stato il nostro modo di ricordarlo – spiega Ciro - e di farlo sentire meno solo» .

I sovrani

La Domenica del Corriere

13 May 1900

I sovrani visitano gli scavi del foro Romano nella ricorrenza del 2653° natalizio di Roma

The King and Queen visit the excavations of the Roman Forum on the occasion of Christmas 2653° Rome

Seven Months

Seven months.

Where to go in Berlin

Where to go in Berlin on Arts.21, Deutsche Welle

Beauty

On the way home this evening I stopped by the beach near my house; the air was ice cold and the wind created bigger waves than I have seen before at this normally calm beach. It was beautiful and so calming.

Pisa

'Pisa is a blend of big city and small town, of urban and rural folk - a mixture so romantic that I have never seen anything like it.'

- Giacomo Leopardi (1827)

Sophie Scholl: Die letzten Tage

Sophie Scholl: Die letzten Tage (The Final Days) directed by Marc Rothemund, features Julia Jentsch as Sophie Scholl, Fabian Hinrichs as Hans Scholl, and Florian Stetter as Christoph Probst. I watched this film last year, and just found the post I made on my other blog. I hadn't written much about it, but Sophie Scholl: Die letzten Tage is definitely worth watching. There are some truly inspirational people in this world.

Winning the Silver Bear Awards for Best Director and Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival of 2005, and nominated for Best Foreign Film for the 2005 Academy Awards, this film tells the incredible true story of Germany’s most famous anti-Nazi heroine, Sophie Scholl, a twenty-one year old member of Weiße Rose (White Rose), a non-violent student resistance group.

‘Armed with long-buried historical records of her incarceration, director Marc Rothemund expertly re-creates the last six days of Sophie Scholl’s life: a heart-stopping journey from arrest to interrogation, trial and sentence.’

Following in Picasso's Footsteps: Aix-en-Provence

Following in Picasso's Footsteps: Aix-en-Provence on Euromaxx, Deutsche Welle

Giuseppe Impastato

A young Giuseppe with his father Luigi Impastato and mother Felicia Bartolotta

Giuseppe Impastato, also known as Peppino, was born on the 5th of January 1948 in Cinisi, Palermo, Italy. Impastato was famous for his opposition to the Mafia, and his political activism led to his murder on the 9th of May 1978.

Impastato was born into a Mafia family. His father Luigi had been sent into internal exile during the reign of Fascism, and was close friends with Gaetano Badalamenti, a Mafia boss. His uncle, Cesare Manzella, a high-profile Mafia boss, was killed in a car bomb attack in 1963. Later, Giuseppe's brother Giovanni, made comment that this tragedy struck a chord with the fifteen-year-old Peppino. Pieces of Manzella were found hung on lemon trees hundreds of meters from the crater where the car had been. Giuseppe remembers his brother as having said, 'Ma questa è veramente mafia? Se questa è mafia io per tutta la vita mi batterò contro queste cose.' (Is this really Mafia? If this is Mafia I will fight it for the rest of my life.' As a youth, Giuseppe disassociated himself from his father, was kicked out of his home, and began his anti-Mafia activism.

In 1965, Peppino began the newsletter named L'idea socialista, and joined the left-wing PSIUP party (Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity). From 1968 he played a major part in the revolutionary activities that were emerging; fighting for the rights of peasants, building workers, and the unemployed. In 1975, with other youths of Cinisi, Music and Culture was set up; a group which organised debates, film, theatre, and music shows, as well as beginning a self-funded radio station Radio Aut. Peppino's weapon against the mafia was his use of satire; which he used abundantly to mock both politicians and mafiosi on his daily radio programme Onda pazza (Crazy Wave). 'Its highlight  was an evening show of music and satire directed at 'Mafiopolis' and its 'Mafia-cipality' - in other words Cinisi and its DC-dominated town council. The show's sketches lampooned the local Family and its shady affairs by setting them in grotesque versions of Dante's Divine Comedy or the Wild West; ruling boss Tano Badalamenti was transparently mocked as 'Tano Seduto' (Sitting Bully). Through the medium of the radio he would announce stories of crime, heavily implicating and implying the involvement of the local mafia. Although the radio show was popular with people, Impastato and his friends who were disliked by the authorities; revealing perhaps, just how deeply the influence of the mafia ran.

Impastato recognised the danger that mafia leader Tano Badalamenti posed, and vice versa. Badalamenti did not like Impastato's public activism. It is believed that Peppino's father tried to protect his son, but after his own death by a car in September 1977, a suspected but never proven murder, Badalamenti gave the order for Peppino's murder.

Peppino Impastato was killed on the night of his election campaign, as he was running for the Cinisi council elections for the Proletarian Democracy.

'On the night of 8-9 May 1978, Peppino was kidnapped on his way back from Radio Aut and taken in his own car to a tumbledown stone shack a few yards from the Palermo-Trapani railway line near the boundary fence of the airport. There he was beaten and tortured before being dumped on the track with several sticks of dynamite strapped to his torso.

Early the following morning railway workers reported that a fifty-centimetre section of track had been damaged. When the caravinieri arrived at the scene, they found Peppino's car, his white Scholl clogs and his glasses near the hole blown by the explosion. Fragments of his body and clothes were scattered over a 300 metre radius around it; only his legs, parts of his face, and a few fingers were recognisable. Peppino's death was a horrific echo of the way his uncle the mafiosi had died back in 1963 - the very murder that had provoked him to ask, 'What must he have felt?' and begin his rebellion against the mafia.'

At first, the press, police, and the investigation authorities believed Giuseppe Impastato had been a terrorist who had attempted to bomb the railway, but had accidentally killed himself. A letter that he had written months before his death was found, and there was now speculations of suicide. But it was his brother Giovanni and his mother Felicia Bartolotta, who separated themselves from their mafia family, together with Giuseppe's activist friends, and the Centro siciliano di documentazione, that fought for the recognition of the mafia as being responsible for the murder.

Salavatore Palazzolo spoke out against the Cinisi Mafia, of which he had once been a member, and named Badalamenti as the one who had ordered the killing of Impastato. In June 1996, the case was reopened, and in Novemeber 1997, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Badalamenti. It wasn't until 2002 that he was given a life sentence. Felicia Bartolotta made a dignified statement after the verdict was announced, 'I never had any feelings of vendetta. All I have done is call for justice for my son's death. I have to confess that, after so many years of waiting, I had lost faith - I never thought we would reach this point. Now I feel a great deal of  contentment, of satisfaction. I always knew what happened. Badalamenti used to call my husband Luigi to complain about Peppino, and my husband begged him not to kill the boy.'

Quotations taken from 'Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia' by John Dickie

Following in Picasso's Footsteps: Vallauris

Following in Picasso's Footsteps: Vallauris on Euromaxx, Deutsche Welle

Ventures

I have spent the most part of this year being stressed and unsure about my diversion from etching and my new venture into video installation art. But, after a positive and extremely helpful half hour discussion with Alex Monteith about my work today, I am feeling more excited and hopeful about its resolution than ever. She is the best lecturer ever.

Pinguini

Ralph Lee Hopkins

National Geographic

'A group of chinstrap penguins lines the edge of an iceberg adrift in Antarctic waters. Chinstraps are among the most abundant penguins, and some colonies live on floating icebergs.'

Roman Roads in Germany

Journeys in Europe: Germany - Roman Roads on European Journal, Deutsche Welle.

9/11

It's hard to believe that the devastating September 11 attacks happened eleven years ago, it still seems like just yesterday. We were talking today at uni about where we were at the time when it happened. Here in New Zealand, it was the early hours of the morning before school; Dad was leaving town for a work conference, so we were awake earlier than usual. I think my parents had heard something on the radio and I remember them calling me out of my room to watch the news. Everything was chaotic and no one could really tell what was happening on the screen; it seemed so surreal and so awful, and as a child I could barely register the reality of it. We went to school like normal, but unlike every other day, we all spent the day in the school Church; everyone was praying and just in complete shock. The teachers were crying and all of us students were in a daze, because even though we were in a country so far away, the fact that this horrifying attack happened to every day people had such a massive impact on the way we began to view ourselves in this world. We lost our childhood naivete as we realised that the politics of larger nations had such an affect on us, but more awfully, we realised that people could be this violent and hateful to one another. What a terrible, terrible day.

Italian Dish: Pappa al Pomodoro

Italian Dish: Pappa al Pomodoro on Euromaxx, Deutsche Welle

'Chef Giovanna Iorio of the Alle Murate restaurant in Florence shows us how she prepares a very simple but nutritious dish called "Pappa al pomodoro", the ingredients of which are mainly tomatoes, stale bread and vegetables.'

Viaggio

'Amatevi come compagni di viaggio, con questo pensiero d'avere a lasciarvi, e con la speranza di ritrovarvi per sempre.'

'Love each other as companions on a journey, with the thought that you will have to part from one another, and with the hope of being united forever.'

from I promessi sposi by Alessandro Manzoni

Following in Picasso's Footsteps: Avignon

Following in Picasso's Footsteps: Avignon

Bal

The Turkish film Bal, which translates as ‘Honey’, is a 2010 autobiographical drama directed by Semih Kaplanoğlu. The third and final part of the ‘Yusuf Trilogy’, coming after Yumurta (‘Egg’) and Süt (‘Milk’), Bal explores the early childhood of Yusuf. The trilogy runs backwards chronologically. It won the Golden Bear award at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival in 2010.

At a press conference, Kaplanoğlu said of his work, ‘In these three movies, I have tried to uncover my character Yusuf through time, in a retrospective way. The first film is on his life during his 40s, the second movie is on his life during his 20s… and finally ‘Honey’ is on his life during the age of six. These films, in a way, had been a journey through a lost heaven, through purity… where people coexist with nature in harmony.’

Bal is one of the most delicately tender and beautiful films I have ever seen, with visually stunning cinematography, a dream-like natural setting in the Turkish mountaintops, and minimal dialogue. The story tells of the young child Yusuf, his incredible shyness, his wish for approval at school, his love for his father. His mother picks tea and his father harvests honey of wild bees. The defining moment happens quietly and truthfully. The mesmerising magic of this film is the mystery of him; his silence, how he can only read when he is alone, how he can only speak to his father, and even then, only in whispers. Deep and meditative, Bal is one of my favourite indie films.

I watched this film back in July 2010 at the New Zealand Film Festival and have been meaning to rewatch it when I track down the DVD sometime. I'd also like to find the first two parts of the trilogy.

Adidas All Blacks: Dan Carter and Israel Dagg

Adidas All Blacks: Dan Carter and Israel Dagg design two new shirts

Hahaha these two are cute.

One Year

Conrad Smith

I came home from uni just in time last night to watch the All Blacks' rugby match against Los Pumas of Argentina. The stormy weather conditions up here are even worse in Wellington; causing a black out during half time, delaying the second half. Quite hilarious, and quite typically New Zealand.

It has been a year exactly since the Rugby World Cup 2011 kicked off on the 9th of September in Auckland, and it was on this night that we had all been in town installing artworks for the Myers Park Fan Trail and joining the crazy festivities. So much fun. Seems like so long ago.

Trains

'Italians are entirely without any commitment to order. They live their lives in a kind of pandemonium, which I find very attractive. They don't queue, they don't pay their taxes, they don't turn up for appointments on time, they don't undertake any sort of labour without a small bribe, they don't believe in rules at all. On Italian trains every window bears a label telling you in three languages not to lean out of the window. The labels in French and German instruct you not to lean out, but in Italian they merely suggest that it might not be a good idea.'

from Neither Here Nor There - Bill Bryson

Following in Picasso's Footsteps: Arles

Following in Picasso's Footsteps: Arles on Euromaxx, Deutsche Welle

Toni Alberto

Yesterday I came across this heartwarming video about a diary; and I sat in the university computer labs, tearing up at the beauty of this story. The diary was written during the war by an Italian, Toni Alberto, and found by a New Zealander, Joseph Miller. Miller brought it back to New Zealand after the war; not knowing to whom it belonged, it was kept for years in a tin. When he passed away it was discovered by his son and daughter-in-law, Ron and Shirley Miller. They began the quest to find the family of the man who had written the small diary, so they could return it.

Italian Toni Alberto

New Zealander Joseph Miller

Here is a news article about the beautiful story:

War diary on its way home
EDITH DAUGHTERY AND PAUL PETERS
6 July 2011

'An Italian's war diary found by a Taranaki soldier in the North African desert almost 70 years ago will be reunited with its 96-year-old owner who has been traced to a small city in his home country.

The quest to find him began when Inglewood couple Ron and Shirley Miller recently became intrigued by a diary Ron's late father, Joseph Miller, originally of York Rd, Midhirst, brought back from Egypt in World War II.

Joseph was with the New Zealand 10th Railway construction company as an engineer and arrived in Egypt in June 1943.

Mrs Miller said she phoned ACE (Adult Community Education) Taranaki which put her in touch with one of its tutors, Edith Daughtery, who teaches Italian and German, to see if the diary written by Toni Alberto could be translated.

She asked Mrs Daughtery if the Italian's family could be traced and the diary returned to them.

"My husband's father found it next to an Italian plane that was shot down by the British, so this diary probably belonged to an Italian pilot," Mrs Miller told her.

"Anyway you can't do worse than the Italian Embassy. We gave it to them about eight years ago, and all they managed to do was spill coffee on it and break its back."

Mrs Daughtery, who is also a relief school teacher in Stratford, began her search on Facebook and found a man with a similar name, as grandsons were often named after their grandfather.

"I sent him a message in Italian, but he replied to me in Spanish. He said that that his granddad was Italian. He had been a soldier in Egypt during the war and his name was Antoni Albert. He was, however, uncertain whether this was his granddad's diary.

"I suddenly realised that this was a strong lead and asked my colleague, a Spanish tutor, to translate a short letter which I could send with the details of Toni Alberto's birthday, which I found out while translating his diary.

Mr Alberto, an infantryman, wrote on December 16, 1941: `Situation is not beautiful - we are surrounded by the enemy and they are shooting at us'."

Later on he writes: "During the days I pray to thank God to have taken me in his hands when on the day of my birthday, December 13, I have taken a gunshot. I really don't know or understand the reality of the miracle. I was covered in rock and stones, but came out of it without even a little scratch. I repeat it was a miracle, and I promised when I got back to give 500 lire to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in St. Antonio of Padua and to the Holy Rita, as well as Lucia the dearest Virgin of Peace.

"I am still convinced that Saint Anthony will grant me my return. I shall return."

Mrs Daughtery said that unfortunately the connection led to a dead end.

"Toni Albert on Facebook did not reply and he didn't want to be my friend either. I really don't blame him. Who wants to be pestered by a woman my age? I felt utterly disappointed but continued my research on the internet."

One day she came across a PDF file that seemed unusual because it listed all Italian service men and women who died in 1940 and 1941.

"I searched through a list of more than 49,000 but couldn't find his name. In desperation I wrote to the organisation, giving them a few details which I found in the diary.

"Twenty four hours later a reply came back. I was given the name of Toni Alberto's father, the name of the town where he was born and the fact that some families of that name were still living there. In addition, I was also given the e-mail address of the mayor's secretary so that I could make further inquiries.

"I made three telephone calls. Firstly I rang up a Toni Lina, but her young son answered and he didn't really feel like talking to me.

"Then I phoned Toni Manuela, who I knew would be related to him somehow. I realised in her voice that she thought that I was trying to sell her something, as she referred me on to her son.

"Finally I spoke to her son, explaining that I was translating a diary and was looking for a person called Toni Alberto, who (by then I knew) had been a prisoner of war in Egypt.

"I was overjoyed by his reply."

He wrote: "It is my grandad. He was born on December 13, 1915. This is not the only diary he wrote. He wrote more while he continued to be a prisoner of war.

"The reason you didn't find him among the fallen service men and women is that he is still alive and 96 years old!"

The war veteran lives in Bagnacavallo near Ravenna. He was captured in 1941 and shipped initially to Greenock, Scotland.

In an interview posted on the internet in 2009 he recalls the great humanity of the people in Britain, not ever suffering serious abuse or beatings.

After the 1943 armistice between the Allies with Italy, and a plebiscite organised by the British, Mr Alberto joined the Pietro Badoglio government opposing Mussolini's fascists.

Mrs Daughtery said she went back to Facebook and wrote: "Eureka. l'ho trovato. I found him."

"It felt better than winning the lottery."

The diary has been given back to the Miller family and they are arranging its safe return.'