55 secs
There was a beautiful storm last night, off in the distance to the north. I recorded for about 40 minutes, then edited it down – I only worked through the first ten minutes or so before I got very bored of looking for the lightning in all that darkness!
I may have to eat my words about Italians not wearing shorts. I’m seeing more and more of them doing exactly that. And men in baggy capri-length pants, with big clunky sneakers, yet! What is Italy coming to?
Fabrizio said something to me years ago that always stuck in my mind (though it took me years to act on it): In Italy, dressing well is considered an act of courtesy towards others.
Not every Italian thinks this way, nor abides by it all the time, but, as cultural markers go, I’d say that this is a sign of an advanced civilization. When somebody goes out in public dressed like a slob, what are they saying about their attitude towards you, who have to look at them?
I am permanently scarred from the vision, 20 years ago, of an American woman in a supermarket in Jakarta (Indonesia) wearing sloppy clothes, with her hair in curlers. Maybe going shopping in curlers was normal where she came from, but I cringed at her doing it in a country where she was a guest, and, by shared nationality, implicated me in her rudeness.
Share your own tips on dressing for Italy
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We were en route from Chianti to Abruzzo and decided to visit Siena, for the first time in years. This little sequence is the approach to the old walls of the city, and parking. It shows a bit of scenery, but mostly I just thought the contrast between the view and the soundtrack was amusing. Yes, we were actually listening to that in the car (I make very weird compilation CDs for car trips). The Cartoons were a Danish novelty band; you probably won’t have heard of them unless you lived in Europe and had a pre-teen kid (as we did) about five years ago. |
In the evening, we took the car ferry back from Cadenabbia (on the west bank of the lake) to Varenna, on our own side. This saved us the drive north around the tip of the lake and all the way down the eastern shore.
map: Gestione Navigazione Laghi
The ferry came across from Bellagio, and unloaded two Smart cars.
54 secs, 2.6 MB
42 secs, 2.1 MB
Our car had to be loaded backward, because we would be getting off at Varenna (the second stop) instead of Bellagio (the first). This is why I avoid driving in Italy as much as possible – it often requires maneuvers that I just can’t manage!
We visited the Galleria Ferrari in July, 2004. The museum is not large, but crammed full of fascinating Ferrari memorabilia and, of course, dozens of beautiful cars.
full Ferrari gallery here
