Molti penseranno che l’attività migliore alle 8 di mattina sia dormire in un comodo letto; io, invece, tanto per mostrare che non ho nulla di meglio da fare, ho deciso di leggere uno dei temi della prova di Maturità del 2010 e di scrivere qualche parola senza senso in merito.

Trattasi del tema dal titolo “Siamo Soli?”, della tipologia saggio breve e, fortunatamente, nessuno mi darà un voto in quindicesimi. Il testo completo della prova è disponibile qui.

Famosa scena del film E.T.

Il discorso a proposito di forme di vita al di fuori del nostro pianeta è qualcosa che mi ha sempre affascinato in modo particolare: il fatto che questo sia uno dei tanti misteri che ad oggi non siamo ancora in grado di sfatare lo rende un argomento davvero entusiasmante. Sin da piccolo immaginavo di poter un giorno abbandonare la nostra cara Terra, così meravigliosa e grande, ma pur sempre insignificante all’interno dell’immenso Universo; e, sin da allora, pensavo che non fosse possibile che la vita, forse uno dei pochi misteri che mai risolveremo, non avesse trovato il modo di svilupparsi in qualche altro angolo sperduto del cosmo.

Uno degli argomenti più sollevati dagli scettici è il seguente: se davvero esitessero questi fantomatici alieni, perché non si sarebbero fatti vedere? L’argomentazione è, a mio avviso, totalmente insensata: non esistono forse luoghi sul nostro pianeta che sono ancora sconosciuti a noi intelligentissimi esseri umani? Luoghi in cui, nonostante le difficoltà, si è comunque sviluppata la vita?

Ciò che più mi lascia perplesso è la convinzione con cui molte persone negano questa possibilità, quasi come se fosse qualcosa di terribile e spaventoso: esistono forme di vita sulla Terra che ancora non conosciamo, pesci che sono in grado di sopravvivere negli abissi degli oceani, in grotte profonde senza luce né aria, in cima alle montagne più alte; esistono quantità inimmaginabili di pianeti che potrebbero fornire un ambiente perfetto, forse addirittura migliore, per lo sviluppo della vita. Mi trovo in pieno accordo con quanto scritto da Paul C.W. Davies nel 1994 nel suo “Siamo soli? Implicazioni filosofiche della scoperta della vita extraterrestre“: non siamo e non possiamo pensare di essere il centro del creato, così come non siamo presenze insignificanti in questa enorme macchina che chiamiamo Universo. Se la vita ha trovato il modo di nascere qui e trova ogni giorno il modo di resistere, cosa impedisce che questa si sviluppi in qualche lontano pianeta?

UFO è un acronimo che tanto è divenuto di moda nell’ultimo secolo: ormai sinonimo di velivolo alieno, più in particolare si riferisce a qualunque oggetto nel cielo che non siamo in grado di riconoscere. Parlare di questi oggetti non può a mio avviso essere paragonato al discorso sulla vita extraterrestre: credo che vi sia un enorme differenza tra l’escludere categoricamente che altri pianeti possano essere abitati rispetto al pensare che qualche alieno sia in grado di raggiungere la Terra con tecnologie avanzatissime. Non ho un’idea chiara su questo secondo pensiero: non escludo che sia possibile che qualcuno abbia trovato un modo per abbattere le distanze infinite che ci separano, ma, al tempo stesso, la cosa mi lascia alquanto perplesso.

La cosa su cui è forse più interessante riflettere, senza troppo considerare lo scetticismo o la credenza, sono le conseguenze che un simile incontro potrebbe avere: penso ai tanti esperimenti ideati dai nostri scienziati per mettersi in contatto con forme di vita aliena e questi mi lasciano indubbiamente più basito dell’idea che un UFO possa sorvolare le nostre città; le differenze tra le diverse specie animali che popolano la nostra Terra sono alcune volte abissali, quasi incredibili: persino tra esseri umani troppo spesso la comprensione è difficile e non vedo come un ipotetico abitante di un pianeta lontano possa riuscire ad interpretare ciò che vorremmo dirgli. Vengono inviati nello spazio grandi quantità di messaggi, testi, musiche o disegni, nella speranza che qualcuno li possa percepire per mandarci una risposta; tutto questo è basato sull’idea che questi esseri siano simili a noi, cosa che potrebbe non essere effettivamente vera.

Un’ulteriore domanda che nasce al pensiero che, invece, questi alieni riescano a comprendere ciò che vogliamo dirgli è questa: potremmo mai diventare amici? Nonostante le buone intenzioni che gli ideatori ed i sostenitori di questi progetti vogliono far credere di avere, la mia risposta è no. Solitamente i più spaventati all’idea di un incontro ravvicinato del terzo tipo, come un famoso film lo ha un tempo definito, sono convinti che l’unica missione di questi abitanti dello spazio sia raggiungere il nostro pianeta per distruggerlo: non la vedo una possibilità così remota. Non mi viene in mente alcun animale che vive la sua vita senza danneggiare chi è più debole di lui: è una legge della Natura, non una legge terrestre, e come tale posso immaginare che sia valida in tutto l’Universo. Al tempo stesso, però, mi domando cosa faremmo noi, se un giorno dovessimo raggiungere un pianeta alieno: sono convinto che, così come nel XV secolo iniziammo la conquista del Nuovo Mondo, allo stesso modo faremmo con questo nuovo territorio, senza alcuna pietà di coloro che vi abitano; tutto questo soltanto se e perché, per volere di Dio o del Fato, abbiamo avuto la fortuna di essere più forti di loro.

Il punto di vista di Stephen Hawking nel suo “L’universo in un guscio di noce” fa riflettere: possiamo davvero definirci intelligenti? Come possiamo dare una definizione di cosa questo voglia effettivamente significare? Lo sviluppo tecnologico degli ultimi due secoli è stato effettivamente incredibile: tra scoperte ed invenzioni sorprendenti, la vita sul nostro pianeta è cambiata radicalmente, rendendoci incapaci di immaginare persino l’esistenza senza tutto ciò che questa tecnologia ci ha regalato; eppure esistono animali che popolano la Terra da molto più tempo di noi, perfettamente in grado di sopravvivere e che non subirebbero gravi conseguenze nemmeno nell’ipotesi di una catastrofe che annienterebbe il genere umano: il fatto che non sappiano aggiornare il proprio status su un social network li rende forse più stupidi di noi? Probabilmente è una questione di punti di vista.

Lo stesso discorso può essere applicato a questi extraterrestri di cui tanto abbiamo parlato: padroni di tecnologie a noi inimmaginabili oppure semplici esseri viventi che lottano per la sopravvivenza? Probabilmente entrambe le cose: ciò non li renderebbe né più intelligenti né più stupidi di noi, ma soltanto differenti; ciò non fermerebbe una guerra, poiché sono convinto che, se non fossero loro, saremmo comunque noi ad iniziarla. Mi viene in mente a tal proposito una canzone di Fabrizio De André, “Girotondo“: un discorso sulla guerra e sulla povera gente che, rimasta sola dopo che tutto il resto è stato distrutto, può finalmente conquistare la Terra per poi ricominciare una nuova guerra, come in un girotondo. Queste sono parole putroppo verissime, applicabili a tutti gli esseri che popolano il nostro pianeta e, perché no, anche gli altri che potrebbero ospitare la vita.

E così, mentre alla domanda “Siamo soli?” risponderei con un secco no, spero non vi sia un giorno in cui, dopo l’ennesima guerra sul nostro pianeta, questi lontani abitanti dello spazio giunti sulla Terra non si trovino a dover dare una risposta affermativa a questo interrogativo.

Incontrata Anni all’aeroporto – dopo circa 5 mesi – ci dirigiamo in treno verso Leiden, la città dove vive. I treni in Olanda hanno un che di costoso: pensavo che fossero perfetti-e-sempre-in-orario, ma non succede così nemmeno qui. Arriviamo a destinazione in una quindicina di minuti ed impieghiamo lo stesso tempo per una passeggiata dalla stazione a casa: Leiden è una città davvero carina, con centinaia di biciclette e le tipiche case olandesi con il loro particolare tetto appuntito.

Ancora non lo sapevamo, ma la casa di Anni sarebbe presto divenuta il principale problema della vacanza: situata in un sottotetto, la casa ha due stanze, una piccola cucina e un bagno che sarebbe inutilizzabile da persone più pesanti di 80kg; dopo aver piazzato le mie cose nella stanza “libera”, affittata da qualcun altro fino a pochi giorni prima, prepariamo un veloce spuntino e ci dirigiamo a visitare la città. Ora, vi starete probabilmente chiedendo perché la casa fu così problematica, ma ovviamente continuerò il mio racconto in ordine cronologico, così che non smetterete di leggerlo fino alla fine.

Leiden – e come ho potuto notare in seguito anche altre città olandesi – è piena di fast food: ingurgitai hamburger per giorni e non vedevo l’ora di gustare una deliziosa cena italiana a casa. Il primo giorno visitammo di Leiden, mentre Lunedì fù dedicato a L’Aia: avevamo in mente di visitare un mio amico italiano alla sera, in modo da guardare la partita Italia – Paraguay tutti insieme. L’Aia è leggermente differente da Leiden: anch’essa calma e carina, era colma di Olandesi vestiti in arancione per via dell’incontro con la Danimarca; ci avvicinammo agli schermi per vedere il risultato due volte, ed in entrambi i casi l’Olanda segnò un gol: gli olandesi dovrebbero ringraziarci.

Comunque, ci accorgemmo presto che visitare l’Aia dal mattino alla sera è forse troppo, quindi decidemmo di raggiungere un’altra città per qualche ora: la scelta cadde su Delft. Spostarsi da una città all’altra richiede pochissimo tempo ed anche in questo caso non impiegammo più di 15-20 minuti. Anche Delft è particolare, piccola e con una bellissima piazza in cui Anni decise di mostrare al mondo la sua abilità di indossare i collant in pubblico: memorabile il suo “ed ora che faccio?” una volta realizzato che non è certo la cosa più semplice da fare senza che la gente si giri a sbirciare.

Tempo di tornare all’Aia, dove incontammo il mio amico – Luca – e con un altro ci recammo al pub in attesa della partita. Anche se non era un fast food, la mia cena fu un altro hamburger: stile di vita meraviglioso. Meglio non commentare il risultato della partita (e nemmeno la reazione di Luca quando l’Italia segnò).

Amsterdam fu la destinazione per il terzo giorno: immaginavo di trovarmi davanti una città più caotica e confusionaria, ma non fu così; certamente era molto più viva di persone, soprattutto nelle vie principali – piene di coffee e sexy shop, direi – ma non certo comparabile con il casino nelle città che amo di più (qualcuno ha detto Tbilisi?). C’era una mostra fotografica in una chiesa, quindi decidemmo che saremmo dovuti tornare.

Ma spendiamo un paio di parole sulla chiesa; come molte altre in Olanda, anche questa è teatro di mostre e concerti: molto probabilmente il dio olandese ama il divertimento. La seconda cosa simpatica che mi colpì è il luogo in cui si trova: proprio all’inizio del quartiere a luci rosse, circondata da sexy shop che propongono tutto ciò che si ha bisogno per una notte di divertimento. In ogni caso, visitammo il quartiere a luci rosse, a quell’ora (sfortunatamente ) non completamente al lavoro; potete comunque trovare a qualsiasi ora una fanciulla disposta a soddisfarvi – cosa non molto diversa da ciò che accade in altri Paesi, aggiungerei.

Quella sera, Anni aveva lezione all’Università e mi si presentarono due scelte: unirmi a lei per 4 ore di lezione sul management (o marketing o qualsiasi cosa fosse) oppure visitare di nuovo L’Aia, dove Luca avrebbe sperimentato la preparazione delle lasagne; non c’è bisogno di dire quale fu la mia scelta, comunque ottima. Meta successiva, Haarlem: andammo di nuovo in treno, senza particolare entusiasmo, ma alla fine ci accorgemmo che è forse la città più bella visitata in questi giorni. Piena di vita, gente in giro, piccola e decisamente bella.

Apriamo una piccola parentesi prima di parlare di Giovedì: i vicini di Anni. Entrammo a casa loro un paio di volte per tentare di sistemare i problemi con internet, che non funzionava a casa nostra da una settimana: persone decisamente strane, con un cane solo apparentemente cattivo, un gatto ed alcuni rettili tra cui due meravigliosi serpenti lunghi qualche metro. Dal loro appartamento un cavo ethernet avrebbe dovuto connetterci al magico mondo della Rete, ma siccome non sembrava funzionare a dovere, chiamammo i proprietari per verificare il problema.

Finalmente, Giovedì: al mattino andammo di nuovo ad Amsterdam per la mostra di foto; apparentemente la giornata sarebbe stata calma, ma alla fine si rivelò la più lunga e folle di sempre: di ritorno dalla capitale, Anni mi invitò a partecipare al meeting del Business Club insieme con un suo professore ed alcuni compagni di Università in un bar di Leiden. La mia partecipazione al meeting segreto – che mi ricordò Fight Club – fu accettata e mi fu anche chiesto di dire un paio di frasi di introduzione: “Salve, sono Davide Cassenti, dall’Italia e sono qui per vacanza. Partecipo all’incontro del Business Club perché altrimenti sarei dovuto stare a casa da solo.” fu senza dubbio la migliore introduzione del giorno.

Decisamente noioso per un informatico come me, il meeting durò circa un’ora, dopodiché Anni andò al lavoro, mentre io decisi di visitare a piedi tutta Leiden. Tutto sembrava andare per il verso giusto, finché non ricevetti un messaggio da Anni nel quale mi diceva che i padroni di casa erano entrati, avevano visto le mie cose nella stanza proibita (tutto è vietato lì) e si erano infuriati. Anni finì di lavorare poco dopo e tornammo a casa; dove trovammo la grande sorpresa della settimana.

I proprietari non solo si erano arrabbiati con noi: avevano anche portato via tutto dalla stanza, incluse le mie valigie, il computer, i vestiti e tutto il resto. In un minuto diventai come un vagabondo, con la mia macchina fotografica soltanto. La casa è piccola, quindi non impiegai molto ad accorgermi che avevano effettivamente rubato tutti i miei bagagli; e mi incavolai non poco. Tentammo di chiamarli per chiedere spiegazioni, ma siccome non volevano parlare con noi, decidemmo che la cosa migliore da fare era recarsi alla polizia. E lì avemmo la seconda sorpresa.

La prima cosa che uno si aspetta di ricevere in polizia è aiuto: ciò sarebbe normale in qualunque Paese di qualunque continente; spiegammo la situazione e ciò che ricevemmo fu una semplicr risposta: “aspettate domani: probabilmente l’hanno fatto solo per spaventarvi”; e mi incavolai il doppio. Come diavolo può un poliziotto dirti che è tutto uno scherzo, senza nemmeno chiedere nomi o documenti? Mi sto ancora chiedendo questo, visto che rimasi scioccato e senza le mie cose. La serata finì comunque con un drink: eravamo troppo nervosi per tornare subito a casa e la passeggiata ci aiutò a tornare alla normalità – se possiamo così definirla.

Quella notte ero così nervoso che non potei dormire più di qualche ora: alle 6 ero già sveglio, in attesa di riavere indietro le mie cose. Quando Anni si svegliò, chiamò i proprietari e questi ci dissero che avrebbero riportato tutto quella sera, ma che avrei dovuto pagare la settimana di uso della stanza. Decidemmo di evitare i problemi, quindi accettammo di aspettare qualche ora e decidemmo di continuare il nostro viaggio, tentando di avere un po’ di divertimento in un Venerdì uggioso. Prendemmo il treno per Alrmaar, cittadina famosa per il formaggio ad un’ora di treno da Leiden. La città mi piacque molto: in qualche modo ricorda Venezia, anche se la nostra città ha quel qualcosa che la rende unica; sfortunatamente perdemmo il Mercato del formaggio che si tiene ogni Venerdì mattina, ma visitammo un negozio dove acquistai un interessante formaggio al wasabi completamente verde (sì, il formaggio è verde) ed alcuni altri: se qualcuno volesse favorire, siete i benvenuti.

Il giorno successivo è oggi: sveglia alle 7, tempo di prendere l’aereo per tornare in Italia. La cosa migliore della giornata è il fatto che il volo è Alitalia: grazie all’italiano come lingua principale, ho finalmente capito cosa dice il pilota nei microfoni poco prima di atterrare – ed ora sono felice. Il volo è stato piacevole, ma non posso dire lo stesso sul tempo: ancora più triste e piovoso della fredda Olanda. Grazie al cielo una deliziosa carbonara ha salvato la giornata.

Met Anni at the airport – after about 5 months – we headed with the train to Leiden, the town where she lives. Trains in Holland are kinda expensive – and not expansive as I usually write: I first thought they were perfect-always-on-time ones, but that’s not the truth even here. We reached our destination in around 15 minutes and we needed other 15 to walk home: Leiden is a pretty nice town, with hundreds of bikes and the typical dutch houses with a very particular roof.

We still didn’t know, but Anni’s house would have soon been the main problem of the holiday: situated in a attic, it has with two rooms, a little kitchen, and a bathroom that is not usable by those who are more than 80kg; I placed my stuffs in the “free” room, which was rented by someone else since few days before, and after a fast lunch we went to visit the town. I know, you’re probably wondering why the house was so problematic, but of course I will go on in chronological order so that you won’t stop reading ’till the end.

Leiden – and as I could see later even other towns in Holland – is full of fast foods: I’ve been eating burgers for days and looking now forward for a delicious italian lunch at home. We visited Leiden on the very first day, while Monday was dedicated to The Hague: we had plans to meet my italian friend in the evening to watch our Italy playing against Paraguay all together. The Hague is slightly different from Leiden: still very calm and nice, it was full of Dutch dressed in orange because of the match vs. Denmark; we went near the screen to see the result twice and both the times Holland scored a goal: they must thank us.

However, we realized that visiting The Hague from the morning to the evening was quite too much, so we decided to head to another town for a couple of hours: our choice was Delft. It needs very few time to move from one town to the other and also this time we didn’t need more than 15-20 minutes. Also Delft is nice, small and with a very beautiful square where Anni decided to show off her ability to wear tights in the public: memorable her “what I do now?” when she realized it was not the simplest thing to do without having people watching at you.

Time to go back to The Hague, we met my friend – Luca – and with his other friend we went to a pub waiting for the football match. Even if not fast-food, I had again a burger there: awesome lifestyle. Better not to comment the result of the play (and neither the reaction of Luca when we scored a goal).

Amsterdam was the destination of our third day: I imagined it more confusing and messy, but it is not really so; it was indeed more full of people, walking mainly in the main roads – full of coffee and sexy shops, actually – but still it can’t be compared with the mad places I love (did anyone say Tbilisi?). We found out there was a photos exibithion in a church, so we decided to go back again to visit it.

But let’s spend a couple of words on the church: as most of the others in Holland, it was house of exhibitions and shows: most probably dutch god likes to have fun. The second nice thing of it was the location: just at the beginning of the red lights district, it was surrounded by sexy shops selling all the stuffs you would need for a night of fun. We then had a visit in the red light district, which at that time was (unfortunately ) not fully working; however, at any time you might find a girl that would please you – which is not so different from what happens elsewhere, actually.

In the evening, Anni had to go to some lesson at the University and I had two choices: joining her for a 4 hours lecture about management (or marketing or whatever) or visiting The Hague again where Luca was experimenting cooking lasagna; no need to tell which my choice was, just it was very good. Haarlem was the next destination: we went there again by train, without any particular enthusiasm, but we found out that is probably the best town we visited during the week. Full of life, people all around, small and beautiful.

Let’s open a little bracket before talking about Thursday: Anni’s neighbours. We visited their house few times in order to try to get internet at our home, since it has not been working for a week already: strange people indeed, with a dog just apparently evil, a cat and some reptiles including two wonderful snakes some meters long. Running from their apartment, an ethernet cable was supposed to connect us to the magic world of the Net, but since it wasn’t working, we tried to ask to the owners to come and check what was wrong.

Finally, Thursday: in the morning we went again to Amsterdam to visit the photo exhibition; apparently the day was calm, but it was the longest and craziest day ever: back from the capital, Anni invited me to attend a Business Club meeting with her professor and some her classmates in a bar in Leiden. They accepted my attendee in the secret meeting – that reminded me Fight Club and they also asked me to give a brief introduction of me: “Hello, I’m Davide Cassenti, from Italy, and I’m here for holidays. I’m attending the Business Club meeting because otherwise I would have been home alone.” was without any discussion the best introduction of the day.

Quite boring for an IT as me, the meeting lasted about an hour and after that Anni went to work, while I decided to visit the whole Leiden by walking. Everything looked fine and even fun, until I got a message from Anni saying the owners saw my stuffs in the forbidden room (everything is forbidden there) and got angry for this. She finished working earlier and we went home together; here we found the big surprise of the week.

The owners not only got angry with us: they removed everything from the room, including my suitcase, computer, clothes and everything. In a minute I became like a vagabond, with only my camera and nothing else. The house is small, so I didn’t need so long to realize that they really stolen all my baggages; and I got mad. We first tried to call them to get explaination about that, but since they didn’t want to talk to us, we decided the best thing to do was to go to the police. And there, we got the second surprise.

The first thing you would expect to receive in a police office is help: this would be normal in every country of every continent; we explained the situation and what we got was just a simple answer: “let’s wait tomorrow: they might have done it just to scare you”; and I got double mad. How the hell can a policeman tell you that everything is just a joke, without even ask us names or documents? I still am wondering about it, since I got shocked and had to go out still without anything. The evening ended with a drink in a bar: we were too nervous to go home and the little walk helped us to get back to normality – if we may call it so.

That night I was so nervous that I couldn’t sleep more than few hours: at 6am I was already awake, waiting  for the moment to get my stuffs back. When Anni woke up we called the owners, asking for them, and they just told us they would have brought them in the evening, but that I had to pay the room that I used. We decided to avoid problems, so we agreed to wait few hours and we continued our trip, trying to have anyway fun in a gloomy Friday. We took a train to Alkmaar, town famous for the cheese one hour far from Leiden. I liked the city a lot: somehow it reminds Venice, even if our city still has something particular that makes it different from everything else; we unfortunately missed the Cheese Market that is held every morning in the town, but we visited a shop where I bought a very interesting wasabi green cheese (yes, the cheese is green) and some others: if anyone would like to taste, you’re welcome.

The next day is today: waken at 7am, was time to get the plane back to Italy. The best thing of today’s flight was the fact that I used an Alitalia airplane: thanks to the italian as primary language, I finally understood what the pilot says just before landing – and I was very happy. Pleasant flight, I cannot tell the same about the weather: more gloomy and rainy than the cold Holland. Thanks God a delicious carbonara saved my day.

No Facebook Day - June 23rd, 2010

How much facebook-addicted are you? Can you stay one whole day without it?

On June, 23rd 2010 forget about the social network, don’t try to login with your mobile, avoid looking for someone to chat with… and disable all the mail notification. Can you live without it – for just a day?

Just a little experiment to see how many people would try to avoid connecting to the popular social network and find out if they are addicted.

Join the event: http://vaime.org/nofbday

I probably don’t remember everything, but looking at my photos – yes, I am not lazy to take photos at least – I can see what’s new here: first, my sister had great results in her gymnastic competition; we’ve been in Mortara, a small town not far from Pavia, and she did the third best result. Wonderful.

There has been Easter under the rain and Angel’s Monday, surprisingly sunny and hot, spent at Belgioioso’s castle where a Fantasy show was held. It was more an event for kids and big fans of collectible card games and similar, but even for the very normal people it came out to be very nice and interesting: they prepared some exhibitions inspired to the most famous fantasy stories – such as The Lord Of the Rings – and tens of kids and actors in costumes were playing them.

In April I had few days of vacation in Budapest with my friend: I flew there with WizzAir, which turned out to be a nice flight company, and spent few days in a really great hotel, cheap and in the downtown. The city is really beautiful – and hot. It was really interesting how the people think abuout Italians and english language: one morning, in a bar, the barman asked us something and when I said I was Italian he explained me that usually we just say “one espresso!”; I would probably had too, if I liked coffee. Anyhow, what he asked us was some nail polish remover for his friend – a boy – who had nails painted: we didn’t want to investigate more about it.

The flight back was awful: we had to leave the hotel at 4am took the plane and landed in Bergamo in the early morning. Seems to be fine, if you don’t consider that from that airport is then impossible to go back to Pavia: the first step is to go to Milano; then, for a misterious reason there are no trains during the whole morning and the only solution is to take the metro and go to take a bus somewhere else. Big congratulations to our Ferrovie dello Stato.

Panorama of Budapest

In May I had a really nice weekend with my georgian friend Nana. I invited her because there would have been a Georgian party in Milano – she’s in Italy of course: she was my guest for a couple of days, so we decided to take a visit to some other places too. On Saturday we have been to Sirmione, a wonderful town on the Garda lake and then a quick visit to Verona.

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

We had then to run back home to see the final match of Champions League at my friends’: but we couldn’t resist without drinking something, so we had to stop at McDonald’s McDrive to order a drink. I do not know if “2 big Fanta” is a sort of magic sentence or if they thought we were just hungry, but we asked it and surprisingly found a BigMac, two salads, two cokes, a sweet and chips in the bag they gave us: we’re lovin’ it. In the end of the day, let’s don’t forget the crazyness at home due the victory of Inter in the Champions League.

The next day we’ve been at the Georgian party, organized by the association Con la Georgia nel cuore: very well, with photos, talks, tasty food and shows. We missed some of them because we preferred to take a visit to Milano, but I’ll definetly will attend those parties again when they’ll be repeated.

Now I’m in Bologna, returning the visit to Nana: arrived yesterday, we’re planning a ride to the seaside soon, even though the day is not the best ever. However, we’re brave enough to take a swim; probably.

The train is quite comfortable, but late: it needs about 3 hours from Milano, then you can visit the whole city by walking. The first thing that immediatly you can see when you arrive during the Carnival is the number of people: I was there during the New Year’s day, but the crowd last Saturday was really something different.

However, after a good lunch in a restaurant on the Grand Canal, the visit of the city was great: hundreds of people with amazing dresses, crazy costumes and beautiful masks are all around; by my side I was wearing my top hat and then a painted black mask made by a woman that had to stop eating her sandwich when I arrived (what can I do, I just arrived in the wrong moment).

Whenever you find a square you are sure to find lot of people in costume ready to pose for your camera: San Marco’s square was full of  all kind of them; in the same square a show was also on going, but it was hard to see it with such a crowd.

After a look at the city from the high tower – the San Marco’s campanile – the time to go home came; actually, i was even late. If you ever think to take a taxi in Venice, don’t even dare: they asked 60 euro for a 10 minutes ride to the station; probably it would have been faster, but walking – with 60 euro in the pocket – was a better solution. Pity that it was too late to catch the train.

Thanks God, the man at the station was kind and changed the ticket for the next train for free: after other 2 hours in Venice, it was time to go home. I think everyone looked at me as a mad guy when I was walking around in Milano with a mask drawn on my face, but I did not care so much.

Great day and wonderful colors, this Carnival worths a visit and even more; next year should go there with a great costume: any suggestion?

Owner of Facebook has confirmed that they will send $1 dollar to the rescue fund for the Haiti earthquake disaster for every time this is cut and pasted as a status. You only have to leave it up for one hour. Let’s do it to support thanks!!!

The first thing I’d like to say is that 99.9% of these messages are fake; I don’t really understand what’s the point to send them out and what kind of joy the authors feel when they do this; however, I will tell my comments why I say this is part of those 99.9%.

“Owner of Facebook has confirmed„
The first thing to do when you read this sentence is very simple: check if it’s true; thanks to our big friend Google it’s very simple to do such search and in few seconds you can realize that there is no official place where this news is reported.

The fact that the text says this have no meaning: I can write that the president of US confirmed he will give 1,000,000 $ to every people on Earth, but this doesn’t mean it is true. Also, whenever Facebook announces some change, such as the change of privacy rules as it happened few weeks ago, they send out a big announcement: so why not using the same way for such a big project, if it was true? Why bothering users with an ugly status?

“they will send $1 dollar to the rescue fund for the Haiti„
This is simply crazy: if you take a look to Facebook’s income and number of users, it becomes clear how impossible is to keep this promise. Facebook, in fact, had a 230 millions dollars income last year (income, not profit) and they have over 350 millions users: even if they had no expenses and they would use every little dollar for the cause, they could have problems in case everyone would join.

“Let’s do it to support thanks!„
If you want to support boring of your contacts, this is the best way indeed; but if you really want to support Haiti, take that $1 and donate it to one of the international NGO that are already helping. Even Facebook has an official page about the help to Haiti: http://www.facebook.com/DisasterRelief.

However, the best way, again, is to find a fund and donate there; some examples of funds are Red Cross or Doctors without borders: few dollars may seem nothing, but it’s better than just copying that status on your Wall. If Facebook owner wishes to help, he will do it; with or without your status.

The photo used in this post can be found here under Creative Common license: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhilung/4276325012/

The rules from the group:

1. We want people to offer just one image to be printed as an art print.
2. Then invite people to bid in the comments. The highest bidder on the set date will win the auction and the print.
3. The photographer will pay for the print to be produced and postage to the winning bidder.
4. The winning bidder will go and donate their winning amount to the specified charity and take a screen grab of the confirmation of their donation and email to the photographer for proof that they’ve paid.

And this is the photo I decided to put:

Pavia is a small but nice city in Lombardy: counting aroung 70.000 inhabitants, it was the capital of the Kingdom of the Lombards between 568 and 774; if you ask anyone who visited it what was the first thing they saw, the answer can be various: the Visconti Castle, built on 1360 as a fortress, the Certosa Monastry, the towers, the bridge. But if you ask Anni, she will tell the cemetery (and don’t ask me why she had such wish).

After this must-see place, we had a walk around the city ’till midday, when we met my friend Elisa to go to Milano – where another friend of me, Marco, would have met us as well. Before going there, we decided to visit the Certosa monastry: parked the car (for 2,50 €) we discovered the place was closed. Wishing to kill the parking attendant, I had at least saved some other tourists that were going to pay as well by informing them that the place would have staied closed for other 2 hours.

Marco met us there and together we went to Milan – with a stop at his place to get some home-made chocolates. I am not a big fan of Milan (both city and football team), but I guess there are much better places than Spizzico – an italian style fast food – to see; but we are different kind of hungry tourists and that was our first choice. After lunch it was already quite late, so the only thing we saw was the Sforza Castle with its evening light-show.

Running was our favorite word these days: after Milan, in fact, we had to run as fast as possible because we had planned a dinner near Piacenza with some of my colleagues; we arrived there just half an hour late, which is a great result for a georgian and we had really great food in a restaurant that opened just for us. Time to sleep came and we went back home, ready to leave for Venice the day after.

Swimming in Venice

The adventure begun on December 30th: my father took us to Pavia’s train station, where we got the train to Milan and then the one to Venice. Frecciabianca; that’s the name of the train (white arrow): brand new, looking nice both outside and inside and giving you the idea of speed, it just lacked water in the toilets and space for suitcases. And of course, it was more than half an hour late.

We were still on the train when I got a phone call from a strange number: it was our Venice hotel, saying me they did some mistakes and our room was not available; I was going jump out of the train, when the woman informed me that they already solved the issue by booking another room in the hotel next to them, for the same price and explained me how to get there. When we arrived, the first impression of Venice was quite normal: instead of the bus, out of the station there was a boat waiting for us to go to the Lido island where our hotel was; just the ticket price – 22 euro for 3 days – was quite impressive.

The hotel was very nice, even though quite far from the city; put down our baggage we got ready to go back to Venice. Once there, we discovered that it is not such a normal place as it seemed at first: narrow roads along the canals, no cars and most of all water. Everywhere. We felt like prisoners trying to escape from the police that was blocking all the roads. After few minutes we realized that without rubber boots it would have been impossible  to walk around: pity that the boots shop was under 30cm of water. Without listening one old man’s suggestion to take off shoes and walk barefoot in the water, we found another little shop and we finally got our precious footwear.

From that moment, everything became different: Venice is simply amazing, a totally different world. We visited the city only walking – except using the boat to go from/to the hotel; in the evening we decided to go to a restaurant: the woman working at the hotel said us there was one about 5 minutes far from the hotel – by bus – so we decided to walk there; after an hour, we realized that maybe her idea of 5 minutes was different from ours, so we took a bus and finally got our dinner after a very long day.

Quite strange fact happened in the hotel in the evening: we were back, Anni got a shower as soon as we arrived and I got a rest meanwhile; when she came out, she turned on TV and in the exact same time someone knocked at our door: a man told us not to make noise, because they were going to sleep in the room over ours. Puzzled, we informed him that we didn’t even talked yet, since we just came, and the answer was quite extravagant: “Oh really? Well, it was just an advice, we are going to sleep so don’t make noise.„ We agreed, still perplexed.

Visiting Venice doesn’t need any particular map: we have been there three days, saw many things and spent the New Year’s night “swimming” in San Marco square, where the water was high exactly at midnight. Weather was nothing really amazing, with clouds and some soft rain time by time, but we anyway had fun and enjoyed the place a lot; it was January 2nd (and happy New Year to anyone reading) when we left the raining Venice to go to the sunny Florence. Useless to say that the train was again late.

A little day in Florence

Florence is a very beautiful city; unfortunately, after seeing Venice, it looks much less cool than it is. We spent there just a day and an half, this time using a map not to get lost around museums, bridges and nice churches. We spent the evening walking and the day after we begun the real visit. The famous Uffizi didn’t impress me that much – but I am not such a big art lover, but the city is really nice. A must see is Piazza Michelangelo, on top of an hill, where the view of the whole city is really worthy; we also met my another georgian friend – again Ana – and we spent a nice sunny day in the city of art. However, one day to visit Florence is enough; the morning later we took the train to Rome; once again, under rain. Once again, late.

The Rome of Julius Caes… no, Biagio Antonacci

Just before leaving Florence I decided that it was better to buy a new suitcase: considering we would have came back by plane and the maximum weight allowed was 15kg. This however made some more issues on the train, since again there were not much space for the suitcases. However, we arrived safe and Rome is always Rome; the hotel was nice and the temperature about 10 degrees more than Milan.

We met strange people during the three days there: the first morning, during the breakfast, we couldn’t find any place to sit, so we decided to ask someone if we could stay at their table; I was going to sit when I heard “yes”, but I had to stop when the man looked horrified at the ham in my plate adding “but we are vegetarians”. Ok, nevermind, let’s find another place: the old French couple (they said ouì when we asked to sit) in a near table seemed perfect; although they were not French, but Spanish, and it seemeed that the man knew Russian and was very worried about the health condition of the first Georgian president Shevardnadze.

Despite these strange situations, we walked a lot in the capital: for the first time I went up to St.Peter’s cupola, after an agony 551 stair-steps long; despite I was almost dying, it really worths: the view from the top of the Vatican Basilica is really impressive. We’ve also been inside the Colosseum – but unfortunately we didn’t see any gladiator killed by lions there: maybe next time.

The last day in Rome was sunny: after visiting the Colosseum we were quite hungry and we stopped in the first pizzeria we saw along the road; it was full, but they found a table for us, so we ordered our lunch. It was clear that something was happening there: it looked like everyone knew each others – and sometimes they also thought we were in their group, asking us if we wanted coffee or stopping at our table. The first thing I thought was that they were celebrating a birthday or the Epiphany, but the truth was much more terrible: the man sit next to our table suddently weared a mask and everyone clapped; then someone else made everything clear: they were members of Biagio Antonacci’s fan club. It was in that moment that we decided it was better to go.

Time to go home

We left Rome after 3 days and at the airport we had to open all our suitcases because one bag was more than 15 kg: putting as more things as possible in our hand baggages, that looked like camping bags then, we managed to go on the plane, which landed also 10 minutes early. We were very tired, but not as much to refuse my granny’s invite for a dinner: after delicious ravioli, meat and potatoes – and chocolates, but only for Anni, and already finished – it was time to go back home and sleep. Time to go back home for Anni the day after.

Ok, I forgot to talk about our fights, if we call them so, and the thoughts about killing each others during these days, but it will be in the next episode. At last, the trip was very nice, full of adventures and crazy moments. An advice for anyone who will ever want to have a vacation with Anni: keep some chocolates always ready with you and she will be happy and with a great smile - and let’s hope she won’t read these last lines.