Back?

A lot happened in my life since I last wrote

Wisdom tooth

Yesterday they kind of butchered me.....today I feel much better and I must say better than expected.

Solidarity to my people

Liguria has been hit by a terrible flood. One of the most beautiful places on Earth has been raped by nature.

Wroclaw - A surprising city

I did not know Wroclaw now I like Wroclaw. Poland is a country with a great history and there is a lot to discover here. I had the possibility today to nose around for a couple of hours at the end of a sunny day. The historical city center is very nice and recalls in some aspects a city like Prague. The river Oder also defines the city in a subtle way.
Wroclaw has a brand new football stadium soon there will be a brand new airport.


I had dinner at Mosaiq.
This restaurant is open since 6 months but already a must in town while the prices for European standards are extremely low. The Vitello Tonnato over there is "revisited" and worth a trip on its own.

This summer I have been so far in:

Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Ukraine.

Mondello, Palermo - Sicily

Today I set foot for the first time in my life in Sicily.
Sicily a region that has been a crossroads of culture throughout the ages and a key in the development of the Mediterranean regions.
What did I find?
Beautiful landscapes, sea, sun and a good tasting cuisine at Bye Bye Blues.

Apulia

Wonderful holiday, wonderful people, wonderful Trullo, wonderful food.
Top: Santa Croce in Lecce, Polignano a Mare views, seafood, my family.

Birthday

44

SaSaZu - Prague

Prague shows once again to have wonderful restaurants. SaSaZu is a bit Buddha Bar style but the food is better. The 7 spices meat was awesome.

R.I.P. Liz

Say goodbye to an icon of few generations. She lived her life to the max.

Puglia / Apulia - Next holiday destination

We have found this incredible place in Apulia and I am looking forward to get there in May.

A thought for Japan

What happened is just terrible and absurd but the strength of the Japanese people will win this struggle. God bless Japan.

Yerevan - Armenia

There are still places in the world where you can have a quick lunch for 50 Euro cents.

Fine food in Prague

Nice surprise in Prague. The food was very good (tagliatelle with crab and St.Jacques was the best), the service outstanding and the ambiance quite unique. Definitely worth trying.

Alone

Alone a-long alone, a life alive
Always felt fine, alone the lonely zone
A boy I was a boy, alone
A man I am a man, alone
Always felt fine alone
But tonight for the first time I felt myself alone.

---- thoughts at Restaurant Municipium in Rijeka, Croatia ----
Getting old?
Going nuts?
Else?

Dinner in Hotel Marina - Fazana - Croatia

Croatia reminds me of summer holidays but I can tell you that it is cold here. The heating in the hotel is also not doing its job (just like the shower and the tv) but the istrian ham and the sheep are good and so is the wine, let's see how the stuffed calamari taste...and the dessert.....and the coffee....

The village is small but very peculiar due to the fact that Tito used to bring his guests to the island of Brioni just in front of Fazana. So the pier has seen among others: Fidel Castro, Queen Elizabeth II, Breznev, Krushev and many many others.

Places I have been

Moscow -18

Just managed last evening to check the Red Square. It was ohh sooo cold...

Quando mi vieni a prendere - Ligabue

Mia madre che ha insistito che facessi colazione
e sa che la mattina il mio stomaco si chiude
ho finto di esser stanco, ho finto di star male
lei non ci casca più e io non schivo più l’asilo

In macchina si è messa a cantarmi una canzone
è sempre molto bella
anche se oggi non mi tiene
Il latte viene su
e mi comincio a preoccupare
che in mezzo a tutti gli altri
mi vergogno a vomitare

Quando mi vieni a prendere?
Quando finisce scuola?
Quando torniamo ancora insieme a casa?
Quando mi vieni a prendere?
Dammi la tua parola.
Quando giochiamo insieme a qualche cosa?

E la maestra oggi
sembra molto più nervosa
non so se è colpa nostra
o se sente chissà cosa
un paio di noi altro le fanno sempre fare il pieno
e io vorrei soltanto
che non mi stessero vicino

e poi è stato come quando tolgono la luce
e la maestra urlava come con un’altra voce.
Se non stiamo buoni arriva forse l’uomo nero
io prima ho vomitato e lui adesso è qui davvero

Quando mi vieni a prendere?
Quando finisce scuola?
Quando torniamo ancora insieme a casa?
Quando mi vieni a prendere?
Dammi la tua parola.
Vieni un po' prima fammi una sorpresa

L'uomo nero forse è qui
perchè ci vuol mangiare
non vedo la forchetta
ma il coltello può bastare
ti chiedo scusa mamma se ti ho fatta un po' arrabbiare
ma fai fermare tutto
che ho capito la lezione
e tu e papà che litigate spesso sul futuro
e io che sempre chiedo
ma il futuro che vuol dire

e l'uomo nero gioca
e questo gioco quanto dura
forse dopo questo gioco
avrò meno paura

Quando mi vieni a prendere?
Quando finisce scuola?
Quando torniamo ancora insieme a casa?
Quando mi vieni a prendere?
Dammi la tua parola.
Ti devo chiedere un'altra volta scusa

e la maestra adesso è sdraiata e sta dormendo
i miei amici urlano, qualcuno sta ridendo
ci sono le sirene e sono sempre più vicine
che giochi enormi che sa organizzare l’uomo nero
i miei amici ora stanno solamente urlando
e tutti quanti insieme
è proprio me che stan guardando
ma non ho scelto io di stare qui con l'uomo nero
appena lui mi lascia
è con voi che voglio stare

Quando mi vieni a prendere?
Quando finisce scuola?
Quando torniamo ancora insieme a casa?
Quando mi vieni a prendere?
Dammi la tua parola.
Vieni un po’ prima
fammi una sorpresa

I like this one

A falling tree makes more noise than a growing forest

In Patagonia

Today I started to read Bruce Chatwin's most famous book about one of my dream destination. Really curious to go through its pages.

Belen Rodriguez for Miss Sixty

You talkin' to me - Robert De Niro

The Bone Collector by Jeffrey Deaver

From page 1 onwards a catching book. To read in one go.

Dad

Exactly one week ago my father underwent an open heart surgery during which the surgeon (Dr. Roberto Coppola) exchange one of his heart valves.
I learned from my father how strong and brave he is.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjama

“The boy in the striped pyjama” is an amazing book. The dialogues between Bruno and Shmuel, their innocence, the pain. I have been in Auschwitz some time ago and if I close my eyes I can see the book event taking place. The linearity of the story and its simplicity are just stunning. The adult world and the children world clash in a contrasting way. I recorded the movie and I am going to watch it soon. Read this book as it is extraordinary for your soul.

Armenia - Sacred mountain and more

Next week my work will bring me to what I believe a very exciting destination, Yerevan, Armenia’s capital city. I have done some reading and I regret already the fact that it will be a “touch and go” visit. The country cultural complexity and long history fascinates me but I fear that most it cannot be found in Yerevan itself. I hope that the sky will grant me a glimpse of the Ararat Mountain.

Holiday over and done.

Unfortunately finished. Also this year the summer vacation is behind the back. Three beautiful, relaxed weeks. Why isn't life just like that? I suppose this is a millionaire reality.

Solidarity for my Dutch friends and family

Muse - A band well ahead in the 21st Century

My expectations were great, these guys went beyond them. A mature, multimedia show that probably has not much competition around.

The music was an orgy of sound, a solid barrier with great melodics. Guitar, bass and drums. Awesome. If you have a chance DO NOT MISS Muse.

Seen on 19th June, 2010 at Goffert Park, Nijmegen. The Netherlands.

Concert of the year ??

Getting ready for Muse in Nijmegen.

Normandie, Bretagne, EuroDisney and Genova...and an artistic surprise

Right now I am in Cairo, sitting in the hotel so I have some time to write a few words about the holiday I have spent with the family in the course of the last two weeks. Despite of the weather (quite bad and certainly not expected during the second week in Italy) we had a great vacation.
It started off at Colleville-sur-Mer but probably better known as Omaha Beach (D-day). This was really impressive. Just thinking about all those hero's that without any personal interest came to die in Europe to fight Hitler. The following days we have visited St. Malo, the coast around Cap Frehel, Dinard (beautiful), Cancale (the world most famous oysters), Dinan (where we have slept) and Mount St. Michel (a must-see). A culinary note: we had excellent food and sitting at Sourcouf on the Cancale's boulevard was huge.

After Bretagne we drove to Paris with one single aim during one single afternoon. Go with the kids on the Tour Eiffel. It took a long (cold) time in quite a stressing queue but we managed to get to the top.

The next two days we spend at Eurodisney. We had a lot of fun and the kids went crazy. We left France passing the Mont Blanc tunnel we entered Italy where we totally surprised my parents who thought that we were having our holiday in the USA.

After one week in Italy we finally drove home in less than 12 hours (1180 km.), not bad.

Oh, today on the plane I sat next to Ziya, we had a pleasant discussion. Check him on Youtube and if you have the chance go to see his performance.

To Spring - William Blake (1783)

O thou with dewy locks, who lookest down
Through the clear windows of the morning, turn
Thine angel eyes upon our western isle,
Which in full choir hails thy approach, O Spring!

The hills tell one another, and the listening
Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turn’d
Up to thy bright pavilions: issue forth
And let thy holy feet visit our clime!

Come o’er the eastern hills, and let our winds
Kiss thy perfumèd garments; let us taste
Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls
Upon our lovesick land that mourns for thee.

O deck her forth with thy fair fingers; pour
Thy soft kisses on her bosom; and put
Thy golden crown upon her languish’d head,
Whose modest tresses are bound up for thee.

Cordial, Oss

Hmmmm, hmmmmm, hmmmmm. Restaurant Cordial in Oss, The Netherlands. One of the top restaurant of the Low Countries. Tremendous cuisine. Three toppers: the crab amuse, the deer and the Canadian Vidal Icewine (oh so good).

Dubai...Dubuy....Dubye-bye

This week my work took me to Dubai. I was always quite skeptical about this city but I must say that it is really stunning, the city of the future....perfect beatiful streets, incredible buildings, lights and glamour. Burj Khalifa is really, really huge. I had also the luck to enter and stay at one of the villa's at Palm Jumeirah.

Belgrade and the Date Mussel

Despite the snow the visit to Serbia reserved a great surprise. The date mussel. Fishing this mollusc has been prohibited in Europe for many years (in Italy since 1988). Apparently there are no restrictions in Serbia where the date mussel comes from Montenegro. The soup at restaurant Bevanda was amazing and granted a jump back in time of 20 years.

The thin line

Gliding on the edge between joy and desperation, black and white, future and no future. Today we have been there but we have grown stronger.

New year, new trip, new country: Croatia

For the first time in my life I have been in Croatia. Every year we discuss home if we should go to Croatia and we end up somewhere else. Yesterday I landed in Zagreb but honestly I saw ZERO of the city. Last night I travel over to Dubrovnik on the Dalmatian coast. This is a beatiful medieval costal town, surronded by terrific walls built on dramatic cliffs. The weather was superb. The road from the airport to the hotel just wonderful. The sea, the islands off the coast, the mountains in the back, the stone houses with red-tiled roofs. All of it not spoiled yet even if in the high season it might be different. Oh, I forgot the most important thing, the people. Very nice and easy-going.

Haiti - Remember

I have googled Haiti to see how many hits there were last year.
Result: 389.000.000
I have googled Haiti to see how many hits there were in the last 24 hours.
Result: 220.000.000

Nobody ever cared about them, let's pray that we will care about them NOW.

Make a donation to help them.

Luca Collami @ Ristorante Baldin - Genoa

During our last visit to Genoa we enjoyed some classical Italian food revisited in modern style. On a rainy day we had lunch served by chef Luca Collami awarded this year with a Michelin star. Chapeau.

2009 going, going, gone.

2009 is history. Roughly 12 hours to go. A year with ups and downs as always. Last night watched "Brothers" a good way to say farewell. Welcome 2010 and bring us health, joy and happiness.

A travelling working year

2009 will be the year of the travel. Concluded with three in a row: Prague, Cairo and Kiev.

Happy that the holiday season is coming up.

Candy - Paolo Nutini

What a song and the trembling voice of Paolo makes it just so delicate. A top talent without any doubt who is able to set a diamond in the long list of juiceless songs of this moment.

I lost a part of me......

For the first time in my life I am not 100% original. One of my wisdom tooth is gone !!!

Riga and the Antichrist

Three great days in Riga. It was good, good fun to be in Latvia with our friends Claudia and Kenneth. We enjoyed everything: the food, the architecture, the dry (no rain) weather, the beach, the cocktails, the flights, the hotel, the ladies :-), the Lebanese, the movies....yes the movies.
The Antichrist will surely stay in our memories. A shocking movie certainly the last 30 minutes.

Sofia..Utopia...

A troublesome day. After landing in Prague and having the first meeting there I headed for the second part of the journey: Destination Sofia.....but Boeing did not think so. Luckily on the ground they found some problems at the plane so that we switched to another one...2 hours later......Landed in Sofia I have been ripped off by a taxi driver.....

Places I have been

Elisa, Marianna, Stefania, Marco

Back from the summer holiday where we had a lot of experiences and saw lots of places I cannot do anything else than dedicate this space to the people mentioned in the title.

Sometimes life can surprise you. You think you know your friends but still they can astonish you as Marco and his wonderful family did. They let us feel as king, queen, prince and princess in an incredible way.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you to the 4 of you.

Hot weather in Bratislava

At 22h00 the temperature was still of 27 degree Celsius. Strolling around it feels like being on a Mediterranean summer holiday location. All restaurants fully packed and beautiful surroundings.

And then came the time that Luca hit the road again

Last Friday we honoured Luca's decision to move again. Luca once moved from Italy to Holland and now he will be flying over the ocean: Destination Brazil. There he will join his wife and little daughter. This was a good opportunity to celebrate at Carlo's CookStudio in Den Bosch.

Manlio, Erik, Luca, Giovanni, Carlo, Marco, Carlo, Claudio, Giuseppe, Little Samuel, "George Matteo Clooney" and myself.

It was a truly pleasant evening with seafood and Manlio's white wines (the Soave was top).

Michael Jackson

He was not my idol, neither my hero. However there are many many songs I like and he was an incredible showman. One of a kind, I would say. Universally successfull but it always looked like he was leading an unhappy life. God bless him.

Balla Bella, balla ballerina

I thank God, Allah, Buddha or just the fate because today I saw my little girl dancing.

Long Live Gisele (Bundchen)

Dolphins, seals, warlrus and so on

Today we had a wonderful sunny family day out in Harderwijk.

Cairo - Culture shock

WOW. Three days but it feels like three months. What a roller coaster drive it was. I could start from the Pyramids and the Sphinx but what really hit me was the chaos, or as I want to call it, the "Linear Chaos", yes because Egyptians experience it as Total Order. I see chaos as a curved, spaghetti-alike kind of plot but they bend it so far that it becomes straight again, the "Linear Chaos" and they just live with it. For an European, even a South European like me, an odd experience.

Al Hussein Mosque, another stunning 10 minutes of a culture so different from ours. I will never forget it.

The Taxi Drive, felt each second of it as being the possible last one of my life (when trying to wear the belt, the driver told me not to do it or my shirt could get dirty !!!!).

Khan El Khalili. The Bizarre Bazar.

Milito, Milito, Milito game over sul Derby, impazzisce Marassi

Tomorrow

I turn 42.
Somehow I feel it today. It was a hard day at work with quotations for Cairo Airport and Wroclaw Airport plus a couple of meetings. Additionally we had to put all the furniture aside to allow the painting of the house tomorrow.

On the other side I know that in one week time we will fly over to Italy to RELAX.

Wieliczka Salt Mine

Today I have managed to visit the Wieliczka Salt Mine. This is the only salt mine worldwide functioning from the Middle Ages until today. It is quite amazing with several sculpture left behind through the centuries. These works of art have been initiated by the miners themselves and more recently this job has been taken over by artists. This is a UNESCO protected site and one of a kind.

Preghiera per l'Abruzzo, Italia. Aprile 2009

Pochi minuti di riflessione su un'altra tragedia che ci zittisce, ci fa guardare gli schermi come in trance, ci fa ascoltare la radio con il pianto nel cuore. Una parte dell'Italia è in ginocchio e tutti noi siamo in ginocchio con loro, e per loro. Fiumi di parole (le mie tra le altre) saranno scritti che mai eguaglieranno i fiumi di lacrime che tantissima gente versa e dovrà versare. Si sentono testimonianze incredibili di dolore, eroismo, paura, coraggio, forza, tenerezza.

La nostra impotenza esplode in tutta la sua nudità, guardando le fotografie vedo un enorme timore negli occhi della gente che mai e poi mai riuscirà più ad essere quella di due giorni fa. Sono sempre gli occhi quelli che cerco perchè non mentono, a volte una bocca sconvolta da un urlo o sfigurata da una smorfia mi fa deviare ma gli occhi alla fine mi raccontano tutto, mi raccontano il momento. Incredulo anche mio figlio di dieci anni che ieri dopo averne parlato si è trovato accanto a me a guardare il telegiornale ed ha capito solo allora l'ampiezza e la crudezza di quanto era successo.

Io non credo ma la preghiera è un qualcosa che mi aiuta, una preghiera che per me non è una filastrocca imparata da bambino, un testo imposto ma semplicemente un momento di riflessione, una pausa, queste poche righe. Per capire. Se mi leggete per favore pregate, come volete.

Lisbon - Nice to meet you

Good evening. Yesterday me and wife came back from a long weekend in Lisbon. We had 4 marvellous days full of different experiences.

The Weather: it was sunny all the time.
The City: very surprising and exciting (surely the Alfama hood at night....)
The Food: Casa de Linhares, Casa do Alentejo, Restaurante Via Graca. All of them with something to remember.
The Monuments: Well, the cloister of the Jeronimos Monastery in Belem left us speechless.
The Oddities: the Santa Justa lift
The Hotel: Olissippo Castelo
The Sport: up and down the hills
The People: Politeness
The Kiss: An old lady gave me one

So if you get bored, take a plane a fly to Portugal.

Warsaw calls Kabul

I was sitting at the 37th floor of the Marriott Hotel in Warsaw calling Kabul Airport. I realized how crazy that situation was, absurd actually.

116-year-young Genoa CFC