Procession

An hilarious video on Corriere della Sera featuring a driver from Cardito, a province of Naples, who cannot park. Blocking traffic on both sides, a small crowd gathers; other cars, bikers, a church procession.

Paris women finally allowed to wear trousers

Article from BBC

Paris women finally allowed to wear trousers

The French government has overturned a 200-year-old ban on women wearing trousers.

The Minister of Women's Rights, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, said that the ban was incompatible with modern French values and laws.

She said the law, imposed on November 17, 1800, had in effect already been rescinded because of incompatibility.

The move to formally repeal the law followed a parliamentary question asked last year.

According to the law, women needed to have the permission of local police if they wanted to "dress like a man" and wear trousers.

Though it has been ignored for decades, formally it remained on the statute books.

Ms Vallaud-Belkacem said the original law had been intended to prevent women doing certain jobs.

"This order was aimed first of all at limiting the access of women to certain offices or occupations by preventing them from dressing in the manner of men," she said.

It was modified in 1892 and 1909 to allow women to wear trousers if they were "holding a bicycle handlebar or the reins of a horse".

During the French Revolution, Parisian women had requested the right to wear trousers and working-class revolutionaries became known as "sans-culottes" for wearing trousers instead of the silk-knee breeches preferred by the bourgeoisie.

President Obama Delivers His Second Inaugural Address

President Obama Delivers His Second Inaugural Address

Some photographs of Barack Obama's second inauguration into Presidency of the United States of America.

Red Dust

Spectacular red dust alert as Australia’s freak weather continues

by Sophie Tedmanson, Sydney

11 January 2013

A massive wall of red dust barrels towards ships bobbing in the ocean, looming large and causing a breathtaking, apocalypse-style spectacle on the horizon.

But this is not a scene from a Hollywood blockbuster – it is Mother Nature playing havoc after the freak summer weather conditions that have struck Australia this week.

As bushfires continued to ravage the southeast coast, 2,000 miles away across the other side of the country a cyclone is threatening this weekend, just days after the red-dust storm created an extraordinary natural phenomenon.

Tugboat operators working off the far northwest coast were treated to the spectacular sight as a thunderstorm, which had gathered red dust and sand as it passed over the Pilbara region in the Outback, cut a path towards them across the Indian Ocean on Wednesday.

Brett Martin was working on a tugboat about 25 nautical miles off Onslow in Western Australia when, just before sunset, he noticed the orange haze – topped off with billowy white dust clouds – across the skyline, rising up from the glassy, flat ocean.

But when the wild weather arrived the swell lifted to 6ft 6in (2m), winds increased to 40 knots and visibility was reduced to 100m.

“We were steaming along in the boat just before sunset and the storm was casually building in the distance, then it got faster and faster and it went from glass to about 40 knots in two minutes,” Mr Martin, who captured the stunning photos on his mobile phone, told the West Australian.

“I’ve never seen anything like it, it was pretty special and it was definitely an eerie feeling.”

Another tugboat operator, Isaac Kneipp, saw the storm approach while at a cyclone mooring off Onslow.

“I have been at sea for 15 years and I’ve been through dozens of cyclones and heavy weather,” he told the newspaper. “But this is one of the most visually spectacular I have seen. The storm lasted about an hour and then went back to calm weather.”

Back on land, the storm plunged daylight into darkness as it passed over Onslow, on the edge of the Pilbara mining region, at about 6pm. Nintey minutes later the gusts had reached 75mph (120km/h).

The spectacle was created as wind and rain caused the storm to dump the sand and dust it had gathered while passing Onslow, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Western Australia is meanwhile bracing today for Tropical Cyclone Narelle – unrelated to the dust storm – which intensified as it approached the Pilbara coast last night.

The bureau said it was unlikely that Narelle, a category four cyclone, would directly hit the mainland, but winds are likely to pick up along the Pilbara coast by tomorrow, with destructive gusts over 80mph (130km/h) expected overnight.

The cyclone, still some 325 miles offshore, is moving southwest at 8mph (13km/h). Very destructive winds with gusts up to 155mph (250km/h) are possible near its centre, the bureau said.

Cyclone alerts have been issued in or near coastal and island communities, including Onslow, where the dust storm struck.

Western Australia’s multibillion-dollar resources industry was preparing for the cyclone, with some iron ore ports set to close and workers in some mines ready to be evacuated.

On the east coast meawhile fire authorities prepared for worsening weather over the weekend as fire crews battle to quell blazes that have raged this week, 14 of them out of control in the most populous state of New South Wales.

Two days of cooler weather brought a brief respite, but heat and high winds returned to much of the country today. Total fire bans are in place across New South Wales and Victoria, as well as the Australian Capital Territory as the record-breaking heatwave continued, with the mercury set to hit low to mid-40C range (above 104F).

“We’ve obviously got severe fire danger,” the NSW Deputy Rural Fire Service Commissioner, Rob Rogers, said. “On the back of those very warm days the vegetation is very dry and all we need is sparks and we will have a fire going.”

Article from The Times and photographs from Corriere della Sera.

 

Flooding Hits Tuscany

The swollen River Arno flows under the Ponte Vecchio in Florence

Three dead as Italy flooding hits Tuscany Three people died on Tuesday when their car fell into a swollen river as torrential rain caused widespread flooding in Tuscany and Umbria.

by Nick Squires, Rome

13 November 2012

The flooding in central Italy followed heavy rain and an unusually high tide in Venice – the sixth highest level since records began in 1872 – which left nearly three-quarters of the lagoon city under water. The three people feared to have drowned – two men and a woman – were believed to be employees of Enel, Italy's biggest electricity company. The car they were travelling in was swept off a collapsed bridge in Grosseto, a few miles inland from the Tuscan coast. The deaths brought the death toll from the bad weather to four – on Monday a 73-year old man was swept away in his car by floodwaters near the town of Capalbio, also on the coast of Tuscany.

Elsewhere in the region, normally known for its sun-baked summers and idyllic landscapes, people were plucked from their roofs of their flooded homes by rescue helicopters. As rivers broke their banks, more than 100 people were forced to flee their homes and take refuge in emergency shelters. The towns of Orbetello and Albinia were inundated with water, with the latter "looking like Venice", according to Italian news reports. In Rome, the Tiber was so swollen that it was no longer possible to walk or cycle along its banks. Major roads and railway lines were blocked.

Enrico Rossi, the head of Tuscany's regional government, said the flooding was so severe that it required intervention by the army. He said floods had worsened in recent years and blamed global warming. "Climate change is causing ever more serious flooding," Mr Rossi told Corriere della Sera. "We can no longer postpone the work that needs to be done." He called for 50 million euros a year for the next 10 years to build new bridges and embankments. The flooding in Venice on Sunday and Monday allowed tourists to pull on their swimming costumes and go take a dip in St Mark's Square, the lowest lying part of the city. The level of the water reached 149 centimetres – the highest since 2008.

The flooding underlined the need for a multi-billion pound flood protection barrier to be completed as quickly as possible, the consortium behind the project said. The Moses flood prevent project entails the construction of giant steel gates across the three inlets through which water from the Adriatic surges into Venice's lagoon. The 300-tonne hinged panels will be fixed to massive concrete bases dug into the sea bed and will be raised whenever a dangerously high tide is predicted. Inaugurated by Silvio Berlusconi, the then prime minister, in 2003, it was due to be completed this year but is now expected to be operational in 2016. The consortium, the Consorzio Venezia Nuova, said that had the much-delayed project been up and running on Sunday, Venice would have remained dry. "This high tide underlines the urgency and necessity of completing the project quickly," it said in a statement.

Source

Acqua Alta

Acqua Alta has left two thirds of Venice, Italy, submerged in water.

  

Images found here on The Telegraph.

Sistine Chapel

A photograph I took of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling in Rome a few years ago; Michelangelo's masterpiece is now 500 years old!

Here is an article from BBC News about the artwork.

Sistine Chapel ceiling at 500: The Vatican's dilemma

Alan Johnston, BBC News, Rome

31 October 2012

The Vatican has indicated for the first time that it might eventually need to consider limiting the number of visitors to the Sistine Chapel, 500 years after its completion.

Michelangelo's famous frescoes have been described as one of the world's supreme sights. In scene after scene, some of the Old Testament's most powerful stories unfold. And at the centre of this vast work is one of the best known images in Western art; the depiction of God reaching out to touch Adam into life.

But for some, the room has become a victim of its own fame and magnificence. They say it just attracts far too many tourists. Twenty-thousand visitors pour through the Chapel's doors every day; more than five million a year. And the Italian literary critic, Pietro Citati, recently launched a searing attack on the Vatican authorities for allowing in such huge numbers. Writing in the pages of Corriere della Sera newspaper he went as far as to describe the crowding on an average visit as an "unimaginable disaster". "In the universal confusion no-one saw anything," he wrote. And speaking to the BBC he reinforced his criticism. "The Sistine Chapel was full of people - a huge crowd, packed tightly together... and they were all breathing! There was this dense 'human-ness'! Human sweat. It was horrendous." Mr Citati said that this endless, rising, humid "wall of human breath" could be damaging for the priceless frescoes above.

Responding to this kind of criticism, the director of the Vatican Museums, Antonio Paolucci, acknowledged that there was a "serious problem". He said that the whole doctrine of the Catholic Church was set out in the images in the Sistine Chapel, and that he wanted everyone who visited to be able to appreciate that symbolic system. But Mr Paolucci accepted that that was not easy to do when the room is packed. "It becomes noisy, people are confused, bewildered - it's hard to understand." he said. "Too many people make it uncomfortable... and it also creates a problem for the conservation of the frescoes." Mr Paolucci said plans to improve the ventilation and counter the threat from humidity in the Chapel would be unveiled soon.

But he also said that, ultimately, steps might have to be taken to restrict the numbers allowed in. "We may get to that point - if necessary - a so-called 'limited number' of visitors," Mr Paolucci said. "But so far we've tried to avoid this because the Sistine Chapel for those who visit the Vatican is not only a place of art but also a spiritual, religious place."'A living death'

There is an argument that it should be made as easy as possible for any pilgrim coming to Rome to see this room that has such a significant place in the Catholic world. The Sistine Chapel is also a papal conclave where the College of Cardinals meets to elect a new Pope And just a matter of weeks ago, in a newspaper article, Mr Paolucci said it would be as "unthinkable" to limit access to the Sistine Chapel as it would be to limit access to the famous shrine at Lourdes.

But the critic, Mr Citati takes a darker view, arguing that it is all about money. The Church makes a significant amount out of visitors to the Chapel and the other delights of the Vatican Museums. Everybody in the long queues in St Peter's Square is paying more than 15 euros (£12.50) for a ticket. But it is possible though to avoid the masses if you can spare close to 220 euros for a private tour. Each involves about 10 people who are allowed into the Chapel outside the standard opening hours. Mr Citati is not the first person to take issue with the number of visitors being allowed into the Chapel. Writing shortly before his recent death, the art critic Robert Hughes recalled reading of the German writer, Goethe, visiting the Chapel 200 years ago. Back then the Sistine was "a place where one could be alone, or nearly so, with the products of genius," Hughes wrote. "The very idea seems absurd, today; a fantasy. Mass tourism has turned what was a contemplative pleasure for Goethe's contemporaries into an ordeal more like a degrading rugby scrum." He said that painting was a silent art, that deserved silence from those who came to view it.

But these days the Sistine Chapel is filled with the sound of its murmuring mass of visitors. And it is hard to ignore the conversations around you. "Can you imagine someone painting this... with a brush!" an American tourist exclaimed to his companions on a recent visit. Then they discussed what Michelangelo would have been paid. And soon afterwards they were laughing out loud, thoroughly enjoying themselves but prompting an angry security man to come stalking over, glaring at them, and "shushing". It was the sort of exchange that drains the place of the spiritual intensity that Michelangelo wanted to give it.

Robert Hughes said the modern atmosphere in the Sistine represented "a kind of living death for high culture" at the hands of mass culture. And with its talk now of the possibility of eventually limiting numbers, perhaps the Vatican is beginning to feel the same way.

Commissioned by Pope Julius II, Michelangelo began work in July 1508, and the ceiling was unveiled on 1 November 1512. Michelangelo accepted the commission unwillingly at first as he considered himself to be a sculptor rather than a painter. The Sistine ceiling was the first, but not the last fresco Michelangelo undertook. The central ceiling vault depicts nine scenes from the Book of Genesis: three of the Creation, three the fall of Adam and Eve and three of the story of Noah. The Sistine Chapel was named for Pope Sixtus IV, the uncle of Pope Julius II. Michelangelo later said: "After four tortured years, more than 400 over life-size figures, I felt as old and as weary as Jeremiah. I was only 37, yet friends did not recognise the old man I had become."

Earthquake

Early yesterday there was an earthquake in southern Italy, new report from TVNZ here.

Magnitude 5 earthquake hits southern Italy

26 October 2012

A magnitude 5 earthquake struck north of Cosenza in southern Italy early today, and police said a hospital had been evacuated after cracks were found in its structure.

There have been no reports of injuries, however, AFP reported a man died after having a heart-attack.

The quake hit at 1:05am local time (11.05am NZT) about 6.3 km underground, north of Cosenza in the Pollino mountains area on the border of the southern regions of Calabria and Basilicata, according to data from the Italian Geophysics Institute (INGV).

It said on its website that at least 14 other tremors followed the initial earthquake.

An Italian police official told Reuters a hospital in the small town of Mormanno had been evacuated as a precautionary measure because some cracks were found in its structure.

Italian news agencies reported scenes of panic in the hospital and said many inhabitants of Mormanno and surrounding towns had come out in the streets.

Police and fire fighters are surveying the area for further damage, officials said.

Biciclette

Article on The Telegraph about the increased popularity of bicycles in Italy.

More bikes sold than cars in Italy for first time since WW2

For the first time since the end of the Second World War the number of bicycles sold in Italy has overtaken the number of cars.

2 October 2012

By Nick Squires, Rome

In a radical departure for the car-mad country, home to legendary marques such as Fiat, Ferrari and Lamborghini, 1,750,000 bikes were bought in 2011 compared to 1,748,000 motor vehicles.

As austerity cuts deepen and petrol prices hit a new high, the purchase of new cars has dropped to levels not seen since the 1970s.

Families are buying bikes, ditching their second cars and signing up to car pool schemes – a major shift for a nation which has one of the highest car ownership rates in the world, with around 60 cars for every 100 people.

Car ownership became a symbol of the Italian economic miracle in the 1960s and has steadily grown since, but as unemployment rises and living costs soar, it has become an unaffordable luxury for many Italian families.

Petrol recently hit two euros a litre, the highest in Europe, and it is estimated that the average car in Italy costs €7,000 a year to run.

More than 60 years after the making of ‘The Bicycle Thief’, a classic film about a man desperately hunting for the stolen bike that he needs for work, Italians have also hauled around 200,000 rusty old bikes from their garden sheds and attics and restored them to roadworthiness.

“More and more people are deciding to bring their old models out of the garage or the cellar,” said Pietro Nigrelli, of industry association Confindustria.

“Bikes are easy to use and they cost little. And on distances of five kilometres or less, they are often faster than other modes of transport.”

Out of a population of 60 million, 6.5 million Italians use a bike to get to work or school, while 10.5 million use them occasionally, mostly at weekends.

Italians have a new-found appreciation of the convenience of bikes and the fact that they do not pollute the environment.

“People who have only ever driven cars are changing their thinking,” Antonio Della Venezia, the president of the Italian Federation of Bike Lovers, told La Repubblica newspaper.

“I don’t think Italy will go back to the levels of cars sales that we saw before 2008.”

As bike sales boom, the car industry is going through its worst crisis for decades – new car sales in August were down 20pc on the year before.

Sergio Marchionne, the head of Fiat, said last month that "anyone operating in the automotive sector in Europe today is experiencing varying degrees of unhappiness. The European car market is a disaster".

Italians are not just cutting down on their beloved cars – they are also spending less on food and groceries.

Six out of ten Italian families have cut their expenditure on food, including staples such as olive oil and milk, according to a study by Coldiretti, the country’s main agricultural association.

Consumer spending is expected to fall by more than three per cent by the end of this year, the sharpest drop since Italy was founded as a republic in 1946, according to Confcommercio, a consumer association.

The only sectors bucking the crisis are mobile phones, computers and discount supermarket chains, the association said in a report.

Reggia di Caserta

Here is the description from UNESCO about Reggia di Caserta.

'The monumental complex at Caserta, while cast in the same mould as other 18th-century royal establishments, is exceptional for the broad sweep of its design, incorporating an imposing palace and park, and also much of the surrounding natural landscape and an ambitious new town laid out according to urban planning precepts of its time. The industrial complex of the Belvedere, designed to produce silk, is also of outstanding interest because of the idealistic principles underlying its original conception and management.

In 1734 Charles III, son of Philip V, became King of Naples, a self-governing kingdom that was no longer part of the Spanish realm. He decided in 1750 to build a new royal palace, to rival the Palace of Versailles. It was designed to be the centre of a new town that would compete with leading European cities. He employed architect Luigi Vanvitelli, then engaged in the restoration o St Peter's in Rome. The Bosco di San Silvestro, on the two hills of Montemaiuolo and Montebriano, was covered with vineyards and orchards when in 1773 Ferdinand IV decided to enclose it and create a hunting park.

The hill of San Leucio takes its name from the Lombard church at its top. A hunting lodge, the Belvedere, had been built at its foot in the 16th century by the Princes of Caserta. The fief had been purchased by Charles Ill, and in 1773 Ferdinand IV initiated work on the Old Hunting Lodge, to be abandoned after the death of his son. In 1778 the king decided to begin the production of silk. His architect, Collecini, converted the building for this purpose, as the centre of a large industrial complex, including a school, accommodation for teachers, silkworm rooms, and facilities for spinning and dyeing the silk. He issued a series of laws in 1789 to regulate the San Leucio Royal Colony: this laid down piecework rates of pay, abolished dowries, and prescribed similar clothing for all the workers, in a form of proto-socialism. During the next decade plans were made for enlargement of the village, and Collecini produced designs for a town, to be known as 'Ferdinandopolis', but this dream was not realized because of the French occupation.

The fishponds in the gardens of the Royal Palace, the Royal Silk Factory and the planned new town all required large amounts of water, and so the Carolino Aqueduct was built (completed in 1769) to bring water from the Fizo spring over a distance of 38 km to the top of Montebriano. In 1744 Charles III acquired the rich Carditello estate. The hunting lodge there was built in 1784, as part of a complex of rural houses and roads radiating fanwise from the main building. This had the royal apartments in the centre and rooms for agricultural and stock-rearing activities on either side.

The Royal Palace is rectangular in plan, with four large interior courtyards intersecting at right angles. It covers 45,000 m2 and its five storeys rise to a height of 36 m. An indication of its scale can be judged from the fact that there are 143 windows on the main facade and the building contains 1,200 rooms and 34 staircases. The building is constructed in brick, the two lower storeys being faced with travertine ashlars. The whole structure is crowned by a central cupola. In front of the main facade is the elliptical parade ground. Inside, there are three octagonal vestibules, aligned on the main axis of the building and acting as fulcrums for the entire complex. The monumental main staircase gives access to the royal apartments, which are decorated and furnished in 18th-century style. The chapel, inspired by that at Versailles, opens out of the lower vestibule. Another noteworthy feature is the Royal Theatre, a superb example of 18th-century design.

The park, which lies behind the palace, was planned by Luigi Vanvitelli but completed by his son Carlo. The main axis is punctuated by a series of Baroque fountains and stretches of water. This magnificent perspective terminates in the Great Fountain, where water cascades down from a height of 150 m into an ornate basin that depicts Diana bathing, observed by the unfortunate Actaeon.

In 1734 Charles III (Carlo Borbone), son of Philip V, became King of Naples, a self-governing kingdom that was no longer part of the Spanish realm. He decided in 1750 to build a new royal palace, to rival, and perhaps outdo, the palace of Versailles, as the symbol of the new kingdom. It was designed to be the centre of a new town that would also compete with the leading European cities. He employed the famous architect Luigi Vanvitelli, at that time engaged in the restoration of the Basilica of St Peter's in Rome. The tist stone was laid in 1752 and continued throughout the reign of Ferdinand IV, Charles's successor, until Vanvitelli's death in 1773.

The Bosco di San Silvestro (Wood of St Sylvester), on the two neighbouring hills of Montemaiuolo and Montebriano, was covered with vineyards and orchards when in 1773 Ferdinand IV decided to enclose it, together with some adjacent land, and create a hunting park. The building there served as a hunting lodge on the upper floor, the lower being used for agricultural purposes.

The hill of San Leucio takes its name from the Lombard church at its top. A hunting lodge, known as the Belvedere, had been built at its foot in the 16th century by the Acquaviva family, Princes of Caserta. The fief had been purchased by Charles Ill, and in 1773 Ferdinand IV initiated work on the socalled Old Hunting Lodge, to be abandoned after the death of his son. Between 1776 and 1778 the Belvedere was restored, the main hall being converted to a church.

In 1778 the King decided to begin the production of silk. His architect, Collecini, converted the building for this purpose, as the centre of a large industrial complex, including a school, accommodation for teachers, silkworm rooms, and facilities for spinning and dyeing the silk. He issued a series of laws in 1789 to regulate the San Leucio Royal Colony: this laid down piecework rates of pay, abolished dowries, and prescribed similar clothing for all the workers, in what has been described as a form of protosocialism. During the decade that followed, plans were made for enlargement of the village, and Collecini produced designs for a town, to be known as "Ferdinandopolis," but this dream was not realized because of the French occupation.

The fishponds in the gardens of the Royal Palace, the Royal silk factory, and the planned new town all required large amounts of water, and so the Carolino Aqueduct was built (completed in 1769) to bring water from the Fizo spring over a distance of 38km to the top of Montebriano. The final stretch runs through the Tifatini hills, where the medieval village of Casertavecchia, with its Romanesque cathedral, forms part of the panorama visible from the Royal estate.

In 1744 Charles III acquired the rich Carditello estate. The hunting lodge there was built in 1784, as part of a complex of rural houses and roads radiating fmwise from the main building. This had the Royal apartments in the centre and rooms for agricultural and stock-rearing activities on either side. The courtyard in front, which has the shape of a Roman circus, was used for racing horses and decorated with fontaim and obelisks. In the 19th century Ferdinand II expanded the agricultural activities.'

 

The grand palace has over 1200 rooms, including 24 state apartments, an expansive library, and its own theatre. There is also a large garden that stretches 120ha; with fountains, cascades, and a botanical garden designed by Carlo Vanvitelli and John Graefer in the 1780's.

At the end of World War II, Reggia di Caserta was the seat of the Supreme Allied Commander, and in April 1945, the signing of the unconditional German surrender of forces in Italy took place at the palace. The first Allied war trial was also located at the palace in 1945.

Rome tourists face €500 fine for snacking

Audrey Hepburn eating ice cream on the Spanish Steps in Roman Holiday

Rome tourists face €500 fine for snacking

By Nick Squires, Rome

2 October 2012

Eating a gelato on the Spanish Steps may be at the top of a list of things to do for many visitors to Rome, but it could land them with a €500 (£400) fine from today.

Visitors who want to emulate Audrey Hepburn in the classic film Roman Holiday will be slapped with hefty fines under a new law adopted by the city's council.

Under the law, tourists are prohibited from eating pizza, sandwiches, panini or any other snacks around many of the monuments and architectural treasures in the 'centro storico' or historic centre of the Eternal City.

They include the marble fountains of Piazza Navona, which is thronged with cafés, restaurants and street artists, as well as the stone walls which surround the Pantheon, a former Roman temple converted into a church, and Via dei Fori Imperiali, the broad approach to the Colosseum, the ancient Roman arena where gladiators once fought.

Fines will range from 25 euros up to 500 euros, in what one Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, described as a war against the sandwich.

"It is forbidden to encamp or erect makeshift shelters and stop to eat or drink in zones which have a particular historic or architectural value," reads the ordinance adopted by Rome city council.

The law is intended to "guarantee the protection of areas of merit in the historic centre." Similar bans have been adopted in Venice, where eating snacks on the street is prohibited in St Mark's Square, as well as Florence and Bologna.

"This is a way to re-educate people about how to behave in this city. We've let standards fall," said Viviana Di Capua, from an association of residents who live in the historic centre.

"At the moment people can do anything they like in this city. We need to restore respect. It's just a first step – a lot more needs to be done," she said.

She called for a crackdown on drinking alcohol in Rome's cobbled streets and piazzas, while other campaigners said they wanted to see an end to the pub crawls that have become popular with young foreign tourists, particularly Britons, Americans and Australians.

Article from The Telegraph

Blue Honey

French apiarist Andre Frieh holds a sample of normal honey besides a blue colored one at his home in Ribeauville near Colmar, Eastern France.

I came across an article about 'blue honey' on Corriere della Sera, but my Italian is far too terrible to be able to translate it properly, so here is an article from Time about it.

French Bees Produce Blue Honey

5 October 2012

Mars Incorporated has proclaimed that “Chocolate is better in color” with its M&Ms. But French beekeepers may beg to differ on that.

Since August, beekeepers near the town of Ribeauville, in the northeastern region of Alsace, have been reporting their bees are producing blue and green honey, according to Reuters. And they’ve traced the cause back to a biogas plant that processes waste from an M&Ms factory.

Bees are apparently picking up vibrantly colored, sugary waste from the plant, operated by the company Agrivalor some 2.5 miles away from their apiaries. A statement from Agrivalor that appeared in the French newspaper Le Monde said the company would clean its containers and store waste in airtight containers to prevent bees from reaching it.

“We quickly put in place a procedure to stop it,” Philippe Meinrad, co-manager of Agrivalor, told Reuters.

France generates 18,330 tons of honey per year, making it one of the largest honey producers in the European Union. In Alsace alone, about 2,400 beekeepers manage 35,000 colonies, which produce about 1,000 tons of the stuff per year. However, France hasn’t been spared by the largely unexplained decrease in the world bee population in recent years, Reuters reported.

Gill Maclean, a spokesperson for the British Beekeepers’ Association, told the BBC that the harsh winter of 2011-2012 may have affected bees’ ability to forage. This could be a reason why the bees sought out the alternate sugar.

“Bees are clever enough to know where the best sources of sugar are, if there are no others available,” Maclean told the BBC.

Rest assured: Consumers won’t see blue honey on store shelves anytime soon. Alain Frieh, president of the apiculturists’ union, told Reuters the only similarity between regular honey and their bees’ M&M-tainted byproducts might be taste.

“For me, it’s not honey,” Frieh told Reuters. “It’s not sellable.”

Marcello di Finizio

I found this photograph here on Artdaily, taken by Andrew Medichini, of 49 year old Italian businessman Marcello di Finizio, from Trieste, as he protests from the Saint Peter's Dome in Vatican City, Rome. His banner reads in Italian, 'Help!!! Enough Monti (Italian Premier Mario Monti), enough Europe, enough multinationals, you are killing all of us. Development?? This is a social butchery!!'. Here is an article about the protest.

Man Ends Protest Atop St. Peter's Dome

An Italian beach bar owner who climbed onto the dome of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome to protest against plans to open up the country's seafront business sector to more competition has climbed down after a 24-hour protest.

Marcello Di Finizio, sometime owner of a business that rents out umbrellas and lounge chairs to sunbathers, leapt over railings near the top of the 137-metre-high dome on Tuesday afternoon (local time) before abseiling down to a ledge over a window in the cupola.

He then unfurled a hand painted sign reading: "Help! Enough with (Prime Minister Mario) Monti, Enough with Europe, Enough with Multinationals!"

After coming down today he said he would shortly hold a meeting with Tourism Minister Piero Gnudi to discuss the reason for his protest - anger at European Union rules that mean existing concessions to manage stretches of beachfront in Italy will be auctioned off from 2016.

"I really hope it's over now and we can start again with our small firms and get the economy started again," he told reporters and a small crowd of supporters.

"Something which has really struck me throughout this whole carry on is that I've asked for a meeting with the minister very politely many times and I've always run into a rubber wall," he said.

Di Finizio's protest was a microcosm of the deep-seated opposition Prime Minister Mario Monti faces as he seeks to overhaul an economy that has long been tightly controlled by special interest groups.

The auction move has been bitterly opposed by the beach clubs which control access to some of Italy's most popular beaches and which rent out the umbrellas and sun loungers favoured by many Italian beachgoers.

New rules will limit the length of the licences and put existing concessions up for auction, a change which operators say will penalise them and leave them out of pocket for the investments they have made.

They say the auctions will favour foreign multinationals over smaller local businesses.

How Travel Limits Our Minds

I came across this interesting article here from The Guardian about modern-day travelling.

How Travel Limits Our Minds

Julian Baggini

30 September 2012

My train and plane journey demonstrates that how we travel reflects the way we think – and we have become a society of airheads.

Slumping into the cramped confines of my seat, recovering my composure after a frantic, protracted check-in that made me mislay my wallet, almost miss my flight, and become €100 poorer, the result of my experiment in travel seemed obvious: boats and trains beat the pains of planes any day.

But the real problem with air travel is not the carbon footprint, the hassle of security checks, the tedium of the boarding gate, the soulless sprawl of the hire car lot, or Ryanair's excessive excess charges and unavoidable fees for allegedly optional extras. The deeper issue is that how we travel reflects and shapes the way we think, and we have become a society of airheads.

I started thinking about this because of a recurring desire to recreate an annual childhood journey by ferry and overnight train to visit our family in northern Italy. Was it just nostalgia pulling me, or is something of real value lost at 30,000ft? I decided to go to Italy the old way and return the new, to see how the experiences really compared.

The passenger terminal at Dover docks did not provide the most promising start, having all the charm of a 1970s coach station. But once on deck, with the white cliffs fading into the distance, I had a real sense of a proper trip starting, something that the palm-sweat-inducing jolt of take-off doesn't provide. The sedate passage of the ship, the gradual emergence of the French coast, and the disembarkation in the open air, with a real town in clear sight, provided a sense of the continuities between places. In contrast, planes simply transport you from one anonymous, homogenous edgeland to another, between airports virtually identical in their black and yellow signage and multinational franchises. It's the difference between travel – a movement between places in which the journey is part of the experience – and transit, the utilitarian linking of here and there, in which the destination becomes all that matters and the transfer simply something to put up with.

This was most evident in the gaps between each leg of the journey. Stopping for an early dinner in Paris at one of Café Charlot's street tables, the attraction of this is obvious. In contrast, the park next door to Gare Calais Ville is not exactly the idyllic location for a tasty picnic gathered from a nearby boulangerie. It appears to be a garden of lost souls, populated by people with vacant stares, not so much filling time as biding it, abiding in it, with no sense of anything to do. However, places like these and the makeshift tents and camps of asylum-seekers viewed from the bus from port to train station – interesting rather than obviously pleasant – often become the most memorable parts of journeys, and you only see them when travelling indirectly, in the interstices of the conventionally appealing.

Consumer culture has made us too accustomed to getting only what we want, no more and no less. Experiences are atomised into their component parts, the extraneous excised in an attempt to maximise the impact of the parts we prefer, with no thought to how their context changes them. But if you only ever get what you know you already want, serendipity is denied and the richness of experience is reduced to the button-pushing delivery of crude hits of fun, excitement, novelty or reassurance, often consumed in the private bubble of home or headphone.

In this respect, train travel on commuter routes has, alas, gone the same way as flying, as I am reminded on the two-hour TGV ride from Calais to Paris. But on longer distances, there is a palpably different attitude among travellers. Accompanying us in our four-berth couchette from Paris to Milan, for example, were Amanda and Ian from New Zealand. They were taking this trip because Amanda has a wonderful and vivid memory of stepping out of an overnight train into a Venetian dawn 20-odd years ago. Say what you like about flying, but North Terminal at Gatwick just doesn't have the same effect.

In some ways train travel demands more of us. But even at 5.50am, after a night of interrupted sleep in a narrow bunk, the great terminus of Milano Centrale has infinitely more charm than any baggage reclaim area. It is a contemporary malaise to avoid things that require effort but are rewarding in favour of gains in convenience that come at the price of blandness and loss of variety.

How different the flight back was, starting with the frantic and pointless shifting of luggage from one bag to another required by Ryanair's punitive baggage policy. Worse, as I went to pay the €100 excess, I couldn't find my wallet, which had slipped unnoticed into the long-gone hold bag in the confusion. After rushing through security dangerously and predictably late, yet not predictably enough for us to have relaxed in the first place, the long queue of passengers is still boarding. The only redeeming feature of the whole flight was the magnificent view of the Alps from above.

It might be objected that "slow travel" is just an indulgence of the time and cash-rich. But you actually gain holiday time when travelling is an integral part of the experience, because you lose none to mere transit. As for expense, the gap was not so wide, and was almost nothing after the excess baggage fee. And yet despite all I've written, I admit I have another trip coming up and, guess what, I'm flying. I'm just another airhead, led by apparent ease and convenience away from what is more profoundly rewarding.

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.