San Pietro A Corte and Archeological Group of Salerno

You ask me from time to time, what I do in our excavations site in Salerno. Now I'll try to tell you about it .

«Сан Пьетро А Корте И Салернитанская археологическая группа» на Яндекс.Фотках
San Pietro A Corte is one of the 3 most important sites in Salerno. Here you can meet the story of the town from Roman times through the Early Middle Ages, Normann period till today.

We, volunteers of the Archeological Group, try to do all the possible to open this site every day. If it was not so, the site was close for visits as all other interesting places are. The town and the region has not funds for it. Actually we open it every day except monday.

To the persons that come to visit the excavations, tourists and residents, we tell the story of the town, of this site.
Not only we tell many interesting things to them but we learn from them too. Specially when residents remember what they have seen with their eyes and what they heard from their parents and grandies is very interesting.

Here, Felice Pastore, our president, with a group of tourists


«Сан Пьетро А Корте И Салернитанская археологическая группа» на Яндекс.Фотках

Pietro Crivelli, one of the eldest members of the group.


«Сан Пьетро А Корте И Салернитанская археологическая группа» на Яндекс.Фотках

Aurora, an other member of our group, with the tourists in the part over the Roman bath and Paleochristian church.


«Сан Пьетро А Корте И Салернитанская археологическая группа» на Яндекс.Фотках

The other part of the complex is the St. Anne's chapel


«Сан Пьетро А Корте И Салернитанская археологическая группа» на Яндекс.Фотках

When nobody comes to visit us we speak about everything. I love to listen to other members when they tell peculiarities from the story of Italy and this region. I ask allways and everytime. So, the shifts in S.Pietro are very informative and interesting for me.


«Сан Пьетро А Корте И Салернитанская археологическая группа» на Яндекс.Фотках

Italy -- Kosher dining in Rome

A kosher cafe in Rome. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The Forward newspaper runs a piece by food columnist Leah Koenig on kosher dining in Rome, particularly in the old Ghetto area. In the past few years, the Ghetto has undergone considerable development. The main street, via Portico D'Ottavia, is a pedestrian area, the Jewish grade school has moved into the neighborhood, and many new kosher eateries have opened. (Also Judaica stores).

Koenig mentions several places that I myself have recently sampled. The famous kosher pastry shop is a popular attraction -- it produces the best pastries in town, including a unique type of biscotto that combines spices and nuts.

Non-Jewish friends of mine recently introduced me to the newish restaurant Ba' Ghetto, a meat restaurant whose menu includes Sephardic, Ashkenazic and typically Roman Jewish dishes. When we dined there a few weeks ago, we started with appetizers that included a Roman-style torte of endive and anchovies, plus a Middle East platter of Humus and baba ghanoosh, plus a type of Yemenite puff bread. Two of us went on to cous-cous, while the third chose goulash. (The waiter also brought us a sample of excellent grilled steak.) Wine? We chose a kosher Italian red - but I can't remember which....

We reminisced with the waiter about the time, years ago, when there were no kosher restaurants in the Ghetto -- and only one in all of Rome, a Middle Eastern place called Da Lisa that was near the main train station. I don't think it exists anymore. But the family that runs Ba' Ghetto also has a place near piazza Bologna, outside the city center.

Earlier this month, when I was in the Ghetto to cover the pope's visit to the main synagogue, I grabbed a piece of pizza Romana (a sort of focaccia) stuffed with a little turkey mortadella at the Kosher Bistrot mentioned in Koenig's column. It was OK, but I was astounded at the price -- 5 euro, nearly twice what I expected to pay. The woman at the cash desk was unapologetic. "What do you expect," she told me. "It's all kosher, all controlled."

After the papal visit, I went with a friend to grab a slice at a kosher pizzeria a few doors down from the Bistrot -- it wax excellent pizza and only cost 1.5 euro.

Places Remembering Giordano Bruno

With this post I want to continue to follow the pathes of very important characters of the human history.

Here I begin with Giordano Bruno, a rebel monk. He teached different ideas that were against the doctrine of the church. First of all, he thought, the Earth turns around the Sun and not contrary. He thought, there are many planets similar to our Sun and the Universe is very big (Read this post too: What We Are In The Universe? )

The life of Bruno beginns not far from the place I live, near Nola, a not very big town behind Vesuv.

He studied at the monastery in Naples and 17 years old entered the Dominican Order. He did not want to follow the philosophy of the church and had his own point of view. For this heresy he had to run away from the church all his life. He changed many places but finished his life in Rome, where was burned at the stake by Roman Inquisition after 7 years of the prison.

Here you see the view on the zone where he was born with Vesuv in the background.

«Vesuvio» на Яндекс.Фотках

And this is the palace of the Inquisition in Rome, piazza dei Fiori, where Bruno was prosecuted. He was burned here too. The statue you see over here is situated in the same square too.

Посмотреть на Яндекс.Фотках

Italy -- Historic Synagogue in Sabbioneta Closed

                  

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The entry stairway to the early 19th century  synagogue in the historic northern Italian town of Sabbioneta has been declared unsafe and the building, now used as a museum, closed to visitors.

Sabbioneta, on the Po River near Mantova, was laid out as a walled "ideal city" in the second half of the 16th century by Prince Vespasiano Gonzaga Colonna. It is on UNESCO's list of world heritage sites, paired with Mantova as two aspects of Renaissance town planning.

Mantua shows the renewal and extension of an existing city, while 30 km away, Sabbioneta represents the implementation of the period’s theories about planning the ideal city. Typically, Mantua’s layout is irregular with regular parts showing different stages of its growth since the Roman period and includes many medieval edifices among them an 11th century rotunda and a Baroque theatre. Sabbioneta, created in the second half of the 16th century under the rule of one person, Vespasiano Gonzaga Colonna, can be described as a single-period city and has a right angle grid layout. Both cities offer exceptional testimonies to the urban, architectural and artistic realizations of the Renaissance, linked through the visions and actions of the ruling Gonzaga family.



Sabbioneta represents the construction of an entirely new town according to the modern, functional vision of the Renaissance. The defensive walls, grid pattern of streets, role of public spaces and monuments all make Sabbioneta one of the best examples of ideal cities built in Europe, with an influence over urbanism and architecture in and outside the continent. The properties represent two significant stages of territorial planning and urban interventions undertaken by the Gonzagas in their domains.

Jews lived in Sabbioneta from the town's early days -- even before it was laid out in its present form. There was a ghetto here, and the town developed into an important center of Hebrew printing.   The Sabbioneta synagogue dates from 1824 -- its present form is an enlargement and rebuilding of an earlier structure by a noted Lombard architect named Carlo Visioli.

The synagogue lay in sorry disrepair for decades until it was restored by local authorities, turned into a museum and inserted into local tourism itineraries. It has a gilded ark behind a low, elaborate grille and  flanked by Corinthian columns. The ceiling is decorated by ornate stucco work.

Neapoletan Christmas Cribs

Happy Christmas!

One of the traditions in Campania are the visits of "Presepe", the representations of Christ's birth. The idea comes from S.Francisc that wanted to explain the Bible to the simple persons. But it seems, the greatest diffusion it became in Neapoletan area. There are entire streets in Neaples dedicated to sell pieces of Presepe. And many of them are really works of art. To visit Presepe is a sign of auspice. And there are different possibilities. There are, for example, alive representstions where the persons show a sort of theater. There are little and large size pictures.

I visited one of them, exposed every year not far from Dom. The scene is crated on a round table, so I made some photos walking around it. Hope, this visit will bring you fortune too! :0)))

Many persons probably create a Presepe in their homes too. There are many places and even special shops where you can buy everything you need for it. All the figures seem to be alive. Made with great attention and love.

What is interesting, the image of Christ-child they put it on it's place only AFTER the birth. And in some cases all the "partecipants" like visitors of the Holy Family "come" every day nearer and nearer to the place of birth. Every day when you visit Presepe you will find other situation.

Campioni Del Mondo

Sebetulnya cerita ini udah basi, cuma pengalaman ini merupakan pengalaman yang tak terlupakan buat gue di era Word Cup 2006, yang pada waktu itu gue dan keluarga lagi liburan di Italy, jadi merasakan banget kebahagiaan atas menangnya tim Italia.

Jalanan sepi karena semua orang nonton bola

Pada saat itu semua orang ngga laki ngga perempuan, tua dan muda lagi gila nonton bola, piala dunia, jadi suamiku itu pun tiap ada pertandingan club-club besar, selalu nonton bareng temen2 nya di B11 Kemaman, Malaysia. Puteran ke 2 kita terbang ke Italy buat summer vacation. Kebetulan aku emang dukung Italy ( seperti cewek-cewek pada umumnya ;)). Tiap malam kita nonton sama mertua, mertua cewek padahal gak suka tapi ikut-ikutan ( hanya kalo tim Italy main ).

Orang-orang merayakan kemenangan di jalanan

Sampai malam final kita nontonnya sambil tereak-tereak, walopun menangnya kurang membanggakan, pokoknya menang (kata suami, yg girangnya bukan main). Malam itu kita rayain berempat dgn minum champagne ( Badai lg bobok, pdhal tadinya udh bela-belain pake kaos tim Italy ).Habis ngerayain di rumah kita ke jalanan by car, yang ada mobilnya gak bisa lewat, itu orang-orang seluruh Spotorno ada di luar semua. Semua orang bergembira, di jalanan Spotorno penuh dengan orang-orang, ada yang mengibar-ngibarkan bendera, ada yang bawa wine, champagne, sambil menyanyikan lagu yang berkata Noi campioni del mondo ( Kami adalah juara dunia ). Ada cewek2 yang dandanannya berwarna hijau, merah dan putih di mata, pipi dan seluruh badannya. Pokoknya malam itu seru banget. Hari itu merupakan hari besar buat Italy, esok harinya kita lihat di TV tim Italy merayakan kemenangan dengan sebuah pesta di Colosseum di Roma bersama2 masyarkat Italy.

Mont Blanc

Mont Blanc (French for white mountain) or Monte Bianco (Italian, same meaning) also known as "La Dame Blanche" (French, the white lady) is a mount in the Alps. With its 4,808m, it is the highest mountain in the Alps, and in Western Europe.

The mountain lies between the regions of Aosta valley, Italy and Haute - Savoie, france.The location of the summit itself is a subject of controversy between the two countries, and each tends to place it within its own boundaries on maps. In a convention between France and Kingdom of Sardinia, in Turin (1861), the border was fixed on the highest point of Mont Blanc and this was the last official definition of this border, but often the Italian and French maps do not respect this solution.

Mont Blanc di ketinggian 3800m - Aosta Valley dari atas 2000 m

The two most famous towns near Mont Blanc are Courmaveur, in Aosta Valley - Italy - and Chamonix in Haute-Savoie, France.
Begun in 1957 and completed in 1965, the 11.6 km Mont Blanc tunnel runs beneath the mountain between these two cities and is one of the major trans-Alpine transport routes.
The Mont Blanc Massif is popular for mountaineering, hiking and skiing.

Dari Spotorno, Italy kita nyetir selama kurang lebih 3 jam ke Valle D'Aosta, Italy. Disana kebetulan ada rumah tante nya suamiku, jadi begitu tiba disana kita ngga langsung ke Monte Bianco, tapi nginep dulu dan menikmati pemandangan Aosta dr Gardennya mereka yang kebetulan tinggi dan menghadap ke pegunungan pre-alps.... Pemandangan indah seperti itu bisa mereka lihat tiap hari, Gosh....

Naik ke atas monte Bianco kita menggunakan Cabble car, yang pelan2 naik keatas, agak antri untuk masuk ke Cable car, mengingat waktu itu banyak sekali turis yang datang ke Mont Blanc. Ada beberapa stasiun cable car diatas sana di beberapa ketinggian, jadi kalo kamu mau stop di ketinggian 1000 m atau 2000 m bisa saja, diatas sana diketinggian 3600 ada restaurant yang lumayan besar menyediakan makanan italy, restaurant nya berada diluar, jadi bayangkan saja, kita makan siang di atas Mont blanc, couldn't imagine.....

Dan diatas sana juga ada hotel, ngga berbintang banget, tapi cukup oke lah buat orang2 yang kebetulan lagi hiking. Waktu itu kita cuma naik sampe ketinggian 3800. Waktu itu kita kesana pada waktu summer, tapi diatas sana dinginnya bukan main, saljunya tak pernah cair. Pada waktu winter katanya saljunyaakan menutupi seluruh pegunungan.

Diatas sana di ketinggian tertentu ada tiga tanda panah yang berwarna warni yang menunjukkan ke beberapa arah, ke Italy, France dan Swiss. Jadi pada ketinggian itu kita bisa memilih jalan mau kearah mana. Sedangkan puncak Mont Blanc ( Monte Bianco) berada di France.

Valloria, a village with painted doors

Neighborhood

Valloria, an Italian village in the hinterland of Imperia, Liguria, has been revitalized by painted doors. Somewhat isolated, it was on the verge of dramatic decline until a local activist decided to invite artists to paint doors. Ten years later 72 artists have painted doors and the village has been revitalized. Houses have been re-occupied, local products are sold in the shops, a museum of forgotten things has opened and there is even a restaurant. There are food festivals, special events and the village has come back to life - all because of one simple idea: painted doors.

Some painted doors in Valloria