Posts under "Geography"

Una Visita a Frasassi

Posted by Serena 2 Comments
Dec 19 2011

Il Duomo di Milano (Milan Cathedral), at 108.50 meters high and covering an area of 11.700 square meters, is the fourth largest church in Europe. Yet there is an enclosed space here in Italy that could swallow the cathedral whole!

L’Abisso Ancona, altezza 200 metri,  lunghezza 180 metri, e larghezza 120 metri (The Ancona Abyss, height 200 meters, length 180 meters, and width 120 meters), is the biggest of the Grotte di Frasassi (Grottoes of Frasassi) and also one of the largest in the world. Discovered in1971, this spectacular subterranean space is breath-taking not just because of its dimensions but also for its sheer beauty. See this link for info on how to get there: Directions to Frasassi

Visitors to Frasassi can take a guided tour lasting just over an hour and passing through a series of amazing underground chambers decorated with spectacular sculptures, all created by the hand of mother nature. These natural sculptures have been given evocative names such as: ‘Cascate del Niagara’, which is described as una colata bianchissima di calcite allo stato puro (‘Niagara Falls’ a flow of pure white calcite), and: ‘Albero morto’, una stalagmite con forma superiore ramificata, originata da un cambiamento di direzione di caduta dello stillicidio dell’acqua (Dead Tree, a stalagmite with ‘branches’ on its upper part, caused by a change of direction in the dripping of water).

Above: ‘Cascate del Niagara’

Upon entering L’Abisso Ancona the visitor is confronted with: un enorme gruppo di stalagmiti, alte fino a 20 metri, che troneggiano su una lato della sala cui è stato attribuito il nome de ‘I Giganti’ (an enormous group of stalagmites, up to 20 meters high, which dominate one side of the ‘room’, and which have been given the name of ‘The Giants’.)

The tour, which covers roughly 1.2 kilometres, is fairly easy going, although visitors are advised to wear comfortable shoes. Warm clothing is also important due to the ambient temperature of 14 degrees centigrade which the caverns maintain all year round.

Once back up above ground you shouldn’t miss the nearby Museo Speleo Paleontologico ed Archeologico (Museum of Speleology, Palaeontology and Archaeology) which houses important prehistoric evidence and bronze age artefacts which have been discovered at Frasassi. Amongst these is un enorme  fossile di ittiosauro risalente al periodo giurassico  (an enormous ichthyosaurus fossil from the Jurassic period).

To learn more about Frasassi and the surrounding area this site is a good place to start: Visit Frasassi

La Leggenda del Ponte del Diavolo

Posted by Serena 5 Comments
Oct 12 2011

Travelling north from Lucca along the winding road that follows the river Serchio upstream into the heart of the Garfagnana region, one of the most notable landmarks that you encounter is il Ponte del Diavolo (the Devil’s Bridge) at Borgo a Mozzano. Four beautifully proportioned arches spanning the river, each one a different size, frame the dark green backdrop of chestnut forests reflected in the rippling water.

Ponte del Diavolo 1

Il Ponte del Diavolo is a ponte a schiena d’asino (mule back bridge) built in the Fourteenth Century by Castruccio Castracani, Lucca’s infamous warlord, (his name in English romantically translates as ‘Dear Castrator who Castrates dogs’) over an older bridge dating back to the Eleventh Century. The bridge’s real name is Ponte della Maddalena (Magdalena’s Bridge), named after a chapel which used to stand at one end of it , but it has become known as il Ponte del Diavolo (the Devil’s Bridge) because of a fascinating legend that surrounds its construction. I first heard this story as a child when my family used to go to the thermal spa at the nearby town of Bagni di Lucca, and every time we passed the bridge, I would feel shivers running up my spine.

Ponte del Diavolo 2

According to the legend the construction of the bridge was troubled by subsidence problems. Il capomastro (the master builder), concerned about the interminable delays, decided to make a pact with the devil: the devil would build the bridge in one night and in return he would get the soul of the first creature to cross it. The master builder accepted the deal and the bridge was completed as promised in one night. However, on the eve of the opening day the master builder, overcome with remorse, went and asked il parroco (the parish priest) for help. The priest promptly came up with a solution. The morning after, at the inauguration ceremony, the priest and the master builder sent a dog to cross the bridge! The devil, full of anger at having been tricked, grabbed the dog and threw it and himself into the river. People from the village of Borgo a Mozzano say that at night you can sometimes still hear the howling of the poor bedevilled dog rising up from the waters of the river.

N.B. There are several variations on this legend, e.g. sometimes the animal sacrificed to the devil is a pig. But this has always been my favourite.

Al Passo dei Due Santi

Posted by Serena 1 Comment
Jul 26 2010

Yesterday my husband and I took my parents to il Passo dei Due Santi (the Pass of the Two Saints) in the Appennino Tosco- Emiliano, located about 10 km west of Pontremoli a volo d’uccello (as the crow flies). The pass lies on the border between the regions of Toscana in the south and Emilia Romagna in the north, but in the 19th century, before the unification of Italy, this was the dividing line between two independent states: il Granducato di Toscana e il Ducato di Parma. This border was once delineated by a series of small standing stones, two of which are still in position in the middle of the pass. These rectangular upright blocks with a curved top, are about 70 cm high, and are engraved on the south face with the letter T (standing for Toscana) capped by a crown, while on the north face the crown is accompanied by the word Parma. On the sides of these stones, the date 1828 is still visible.

Il Passo dei Due Santi is situated at 1398 meters above sea level, in an area known as Zeri in northern Tuscany, and is the location of una stazione sciistica (a ski resort) called Zum Zeri. This is not a famous or fashionable stazione sciistica, but it’s the only one in the Pontremoli area, and in the winter they organize skiing courses. I wonder if I will ever find the courage to put a pair of skies on one day! The resort is very basic, just a rifugio/albergo, a restaurant with a bar, and one shop selling trekking gear, all spread around a big car park, but la vista è incredibile! (the view is incredible!)

To the south the sharp peaks of the Alpi Apuane jut up from the horizon like the teeth of a gigantic saw, and if you look carefully you can just make out the white patches of Carrara marble exposed by the quarries. To their right, looking toward Pisa and Livorno, can be seen the white curve of the coastline and the Mare Tirreno (Tyrrhenian Sea). Further to the west, obscuring il Golfo dei Poeti (the Gulf of the Poets) lies the headland of il Parco di Monte Marcello which flanks la Bocca di Magra (the mouth of the river Magra). Framed between this headland and the Ligurian mountains to the west you get another glimpse of the sea, and suspended in the mist of the far away horizon, almost floating in the sky, si staglia la sagoma di un’isola (the silhouette of an island stands out).

Zeri 

click on photo to enlarge

We were attracted to il Passo dei Due Santi by a concert given by the local coro degli Alpini (Alpini choir). Gli Alpini are a military mountaineering corps famous, aside from their outstanding military service, for their male voice choirs. They sing musica ‘a cappella’, that is, without the accompaniment of musical instruments. We all enjoyed the concert, particularly my father, who used to have an old record of canti degli Alpini (Alpini songs).

After the concert the Alpini and their families went to have lunch at the restaurant, while we sat in the shade of the beech woods just behind la cappella della Madonna della Neve (the chapel of the Madonna of the snow) to have our pranzo al sacco (picnic – literally: lunch in a bag). We got out the two foldable chairs which we had brought along for my parents, then me and Geoff found a convenient log to sit on. We ate our panini al formaggio e pomodoro (cheese and tomato sandwiches) whilst enjoying the fresh breeze and the limpid blue sky. Other people around us were better  organized: they had proper folding tables and chairs, sun loungers, bottles of wine, water and soft drinks, dishes of pasta salad, salame and prosciutto, e tanto altro (and much more), these were serious Italian picnickers! After lunch a nearby party of four set up a little table and started playing cards, while the children inside the bar played calcio balilla (table football).

In the next blog I’ll be writing in a bit more in detail about the Alpini.

A presto….

Smog Blog

Posted by Serena 6 Comments
Jan 29 2010

The word ‘smog’, as you can probably tell, is not an Italian creation, but we have certainly become experts at producing it!

‘Smog’ is an  amalgam of two English words: smoke, and fog, and was originally coined to describe the appalling, asphyxiating conditions in London when the smoke from thousands of coal fires, and factory chimneys combined with thick fog. These days coal smoke has been replaced by vehicle exhaust fumes, yet due to strict ecological measures the insidious smog  that choked the population not so long ago has been banished from London.

Here in Italy, unfortunately, smog continues to be a serious problem in many big cities: ‘le città più inquinate del duemilanove sono state Napoli e Torino, con centocinquantasei e centocinquantuno giorni di superamento delle soglie’ (The  most polluted cities in 2009 were Napoli and Torino, with 156 and 151 days above the safety levels). However, at present it is the huge urban sprawl of Milano in the north which is suffering badly. ‘Dall’undici gennaio, nuvole, nebbia, e temperature vicino allo zero non hanno mai permesso alle polveri sottili di scendere sotto la soglia di sicurezza’ (Since the 11th of January, cloud, fog and temperatures close to zero have never allowed the quantity of fine dust particles in the air to go below the  safety level).

So why is it that in 2010, with all our talk about ‘eco awareness’ and concerns about the impact of inquinamento (pollution) on our health and the future of planet Earth, we can’t sort out our smog problems? In a word (and not one that I like to use often) la politica! (politics!).

Until recently there were quite stringent laws in place that would block traffic from entering the most polluted areas of Milan during adverse weather conditions. Then the laws were changed. Milan decided to set itself up as a model of good conduct by following the example of London with systems like the ‘Ecopass’, or by preventing the oldest, most polluting vehicles from entering areas at risk. At the beginning it seemed that tutto andasse liscio (everything was going smoothly). In 2008 the pollution control sensors registered only settantotto giorni di smog sopra le soglie (78 days of smog above the safety levels), an absolute record! However, last year the benefits slowly evaporated and the levels returned to centosei giorni ‘rossi’ 106 ‘red’ days, in other words: days above the safety  levels.

So what went wrong? Well, the new measures, which initially looked so promising, needed revising, augmenting and enforcing ever more stringently. For example, the heavily polluting ‘diesel Euro 4’ vehicles should, theoretically, pay a pedaggio (toll) of 5 euros to enter the city, but the introduction of this simple measure has been ‘postponed’ seven times so far, ‘e non se ne riparlerà prima delle elezioni regionali di fine marzo’ (and it won’t be discussed again until after the regional election at the end of March). The politicians, having ‘kindly’ listened to the concerns of the commercianti (traders) regarding possible loss of revenue, seemed to have concluded: ‘non possiamo perdere voti per colpa dell’Ecopass’ (we can’t loose votes because of the Ecopass).

And what about the concerns of the ordinary citizens of Milano? Here are just a couple of quotes from Milanesi (people from Milan) extracted from comments on an article about lo smog in the online version of the newspaper Il Corriere della Sera:

“Io abito a Milano, dove l’aria fa sempre più schifo, e mi aspetto che i nostri amministratori facciano qualcosa per migliorare le cose”. (“I live in Milan, where the air is increasingly disgusting, and I expect our administrators to do something to improve the situation”.

“Io non voglio vedere morire mia mamma di bronchite cronica, come sta succedendo, per gli interessi di commercianti, proprietari di fuoristrada, costruttori amici del potere o amministratori incapaci di vedere al di là di un tornaconto elettorale”. (“I don’t want to see my mother die of bronchitis, as is happening, due to the interests of traders, off road vehicle owners, constructors  with powerful friends or administrators incapable of seeing beyond electoral results”).

A visit to Portovenere

Posted by Serena 6 Comments
Jun 15 2009

Last week my husband, my uncle and I went for a day out to Portovenere, a little jewel on the Riviera di Levante (the Eastern Riviera) in Liguria. Portovenere is a medieval fishing village situated on the southern tip of the Golfo di La Spezia also known as Il Golfo dei Poeti (the Gulf of the Poets), which takes its name from the 18th century British poets Byron and Shelley, who loved this area and lived here for a while. On arriving we set out along the promenade which is backed by an impressive wall of multicolored case torri (tower houses). Reaching the end of the promenade, we climbed up the stone steps to the small church of San Pietro situated on a rocky outcrop on the very edge of the peninsula. This small church, originally constructed in the the 6th century A.D. was rebuilt in 1277 in the typical Genovese Gothic style, with its grey and black horizontal stripes of local stone. From the cool dark shade inside the church you can walk out onto a tiny balcony at the back that affords a great view accross the stretto (straight) that divides terraferma (the mainland) from the luxuriant, green Isola della Palmaria (Isle of Palmaria). On the western side of the church there is a small portico with romantic arches facing towards the beautiful coast of Le Cinque Terre and its magnificent scogliere (cliffs). The church of San Pietro is said to be built on the remains of a Roman temple dedicated to the goddess Venere (Venus), and from this comes the name of the village, Portovenere, literally “Venus’ port”.

After a quick visit to La Grotta di Byron (Byron’s grotto), from which Byron famously swam to visit his friends the Shelleys in Lerici on the other side of the gulf, we walked down the main street to the molo (pier) where we were picked up by a beautifully stylish motoscafo (motor launch). The motoscafo took as across the narrow stretto to a famous restaurant on the Isola della Palmaria: I felt like a film star arriving at the Cannes festival! We had a wonderful meal of fish and frutti di mare (fruits of the sea, e.g. shellfish etc.) accompanied by a deliciously refreshing Vermentino (a white wine), and ending with a fantastic dessert, Torta di pere e cioccolato con salsa di cioccolato calda (pear and chocolate cake with hot chocolate sauce), and a creamy sorbetto al limone (lemon sorbet). All of this was a treat from my uncle, who regularly brings his guests to this place when he wants to fare bella figura (make a good impression). While waiting for ‘our’ boat to take us back to Portovenere we chatted to an old pescatore (fisherman) who was cleaning his catch of cozze (mussels) ready to be sold in the pescheria (fishmongers). He told us that Portovenere’s bay is one of the biggest farms for cozze in Italy, and that they export le sementi  (lit. ‘the seeds’, i.e. the baby mussels) to other Italian mussel farms. He also showed us the trecce (plaits, or cables), that are attached to poles planted in the water, and on which the cozze live and breed, complaining that nowadays they are all made of plastic because it lasts longer, and you can no longer find the old ones made from canapa (hemp).

When we got back to Portovenere, my uncle had another surprise for us: he sent us off on the Giro delle Tre Isole (Tour of the Three Islands) on a battello (passenger ferry). Situated in front of the very tip of Portovenere are three islands all in a row. Firstly there is Palmaria, (where we had our wonderful lunch) which is the biggest and has very few houses which are lived in by civilians, the bulk of the island being a military base. Then there is Tino, the middle island, which is owned entirely by the military, and is only open to civilians once a year, on the 13th of September for the celebration of the festival of San Venerio. San Venerio was a hermit who lived on the island in the 6th century A.D., and on stormy nights used to light fires to warn ships of the presence of rocks and shallow waters. He is now the patron saint of semaforisti and faristi (signals people and lighthouse keepers). The third island is Tinetto, which is just a largish rock in the sea. During our tour the remains of the cave di portoro (quarries of the local marble) on Palmaria were pointed out to us by one of the crew. Portoro is a precious black marble with golden veins which was quarried here until about 30 years ago, and in a small sheltered bay on the far side of the island you can still see a scivolo (slide) running down the steep hillside which was used to carry the portoro down to the sea and load it into boats, a pretty dangerous operation! Also on Palmaria is the Grotta Azzurra  (Blue Cave), which can only be visited in una barca a remi (a rowing boat). On the island of Tino there are the remains of fortifications built by the Germans during WW2 in defense of La Spezia’s harbor, which was (and still is) an important naval base; some of these fortifications and the sheer cliffs on which they are located were used as a set in the famous film I Cannoni di Navarrone (The Guns of Navarrone).

The highlight of our Giro delle Tre Isole, however, was the fact that we had the good fortune to see two pesci luna (moon fish), which are also known as pesci tamburo (drum fish). This was my first encounter with pesci luna despite the fact that they are native to the Mediterranean sea, and I must say they are amazing! This peculiar creature is a flat, round fish that can reach over two meters in diameter. It comes up to the surface to sleep, and in fact on first sight I thought that the first one we saw was dead, but after a couple of seconds it flipped its fin as if saluting us and disappeared into the deep.

For more info. on Portovenere, and some photos have a look at this website: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porto_Venere

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