Most people watched the recent solar eclipse through pinholes projecting tiny images on a piece of paper. Or they wore very dark orange eclipse viewing filters, looking like they were about to watch a 1950s 3-D movie. My son and I built a large projector using a pair of binoculars that gave us a crisp 4" large image to view. But the most interest method is the way Italian Nonnas might have used in to view eclipses in the past... just go in the kitchen and grab a scolapasta--a common colander. You'll have to agree, the varied patterns of holes make for some great eclipse art... some of which look absolutely astronomical! Between Venice and Padua you will find one of the most beautiful maze gardens in the world... the Villa Pisani in San Pietro di Stra. The villa and garden labyrinth was built on the banks of the Brenta river, by the rich and powerful Pisani family in 1722. Its nine concentric circles are formed by 900 boxwood hedges with a tower in the center with a confusing double helical external staircase. The labyrinth has an ancient origin in the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur being imprisoned in the labyrinth of the Knossos Palace on Crete. In the Middle Ages such labyrinths represented the struggle of life with Faith guiding us through. One can also look at the labyrinth at Pisani as getting oneself lost in Love... When my father was a boy, he and his brothers swam in the Hudson River... brown on some days, green on others, always polluted from industries up river. He lived to be 86. Similarly, in Rome people often took a swim in the muddy, polluted Tiber River, even though it has been polluted and undrinkable for many centuries. Today, the river always runs green. The saying, "swimming the Tiber" or "crossing the Tiber" at one time became a metaphor for a Protestant converting to Catholicism. Today, it is illegal.... swimming, I mean. As the rivers nears Tiber Island adjacent to Trastevere, fallen trees, debris and other flotsam don’t escape the pressures of a low-head dam. A swimmer drowning in the Tiber would more than likely be discovered stuck in the dam. Paddling or swimming the river nowadays is a fools game...
Isola Bella is found on Lago Maggiore in north Italy just 1500 feet from the town of Stresa. A mere thousand feet long, it contains a small fishing village, a grand palazzo and one of the most formal and beautiful Italianate gardens in all of Italy. Begun in 1632, the rocky islet was transformed with the construction of the palazzo and gardens. Forty-nine years later the gardens were completed. Isola Bella is a popular tourist attraction, with a regular ferry service from Stresa, Laveno, Pallanza and Intra. It plays host to the annual Stresa music festival. Built in 1930 at Castellammare di Stabia, the Amerigo Vespucci is a full rigged three-masted steel hulled tall ship built in the the style of large late 18th century 74-cannon ships of the line. It is 331 feet long, including the bowsprit, with a beam of 51 ft. The tallest of her three masts is 178 feet tall. Her draft is 23 ft below the waterline with a displacement of 4146 tons. The ship is used as a training vessel by the Italian Navy and carries a crew of 16 officers, 70 non-commissioned officers and 190 sailors, but in summer the midshipmen of the Accademia Navale causes its crew to expand to 450. The ship was named for Amerigo Vespucci, who in the late 15th and early 16th centuries explored nearly the entire coastline of both North and South America, proving that Columbus didn't discover a route to Asia, but in fact came upon a "New World", and two new continents.
The Most Serene Republic of San Marino, is an independent microstate surrounded by Italy at the northeast edge of the Apennine Mountains--essentially, a country within a country. It can stamp your passport and supply you with San Marino postage stamps. It covers only 24 sq mi but has a population of over 33,000, and has more vehicles than citizens. San Marino has the smallest population of all the members of the Council of Europe. Interesting to watch is a special team from their tiny army demonstrating their prowess with the crossbow.
|
Categories
All
Archives
January 2024
|