Week end in the sunny, colourful, chaotic South!

We had a hectic but beautiful week end. My cousins and their families (husband and children) and my family try to get together for one week end a year to explore some of the Italian Beauty. This time we decided to go south again. Two years ago we visited Paestum and Pompei , this time we decided to visit Oplontis and Ercolano .
It has not only been interesting and culturally invigorating but most of all it has been NOURISHING.
We could not have any idea of life during the Roman time if those places was not discovered.
The eruption of Vesuvius in 79 a. C. left everything right the way it was hours before it.
Of course it was a tragedy and a destroying event but what we can see in those sites is something that nourishes the soul and the senses.
I can't describe the feelings I had while admiring some fine mosaics and frescoes in the residential neighbourhood of Ercolano, where the blue of the sea and that of the rich lapislazuli mosaic tessera are so similar.
This is something you can feel only by looking at it by person, and that is why I invite everybody to join the South of Italy and not only the touristic cities, where shops and cafè are only for tourists. The Campania Region is of a special beauty that you won't find in any other place. The culture of those places is a world heritage.
The sea, the colours of the earth, the smells and the food are fulfilling. Lemons and oranges are kings in this area. Lemons, lemons, lemons... absolute lemons... full lemon, with its shiny full-green and the blue of the beautiful sea. Can you smell it? Have you ever breath an air full of lemon-flowers scent? I couldn't imagine such a delicacy before my nose was able to taste it. Olives trees and coloured flowers, the original pizza and other simple tastes, mostly fish and fresh herbs and tomatoes and sweets... sweets, sweets, full of lemons and oranges and beautiful to look at. It has been a complete delight!
Not to mention the happiness of sharing those moments with my family.
Wish I had more words and expression to pass more of this special experience.
Come to visit with your own senses and souls.
...btw... everything is really cheaper down south, so this is another hint!

Airport stories part 2

... just to make it short... the aircraft with the special guest-snakes was in quarantine for a total of 2 days. After this scrupulous check to find the snakes the aircraft flew again and in the middle of one flight from point A to B, one of our little guest-friends showed off in the passenger's cabin. Result: Emergency landing in point C.
This is ridiculus that they made the aircraft fly after 2 days.:-(

Airport stories....

I arrived in the office around 5.00am and I am usually one of the first of the morning shift to arrive. The first thing I do is usually approaching the message board, so to prepare the flights I have to follow, to know if there are any special assistences or freight or such. And today there was a weird telex saying :
' REF. FLT XY0000/23 MAY
WE INFORM THAT AT ARRIVAL O/B XY0000/ 22 - A/C OKXFB - AFTER UNLOADING PASSENGERS BAGS FEW LITTLE SNAKES NOT POISONOUS RUN OUTSIDE FROM THEIR BOXES IN THE FORWARD CARGO HOLD STP
AT THE END AFTER COUNTING FIVE SNAKES WERE MISSING PROBABLY IN PAX CABIN/COCKPIT OR INSIDE TECHNICAL INSTRUMENTS STP
THIS IS TO INFORM YOU STP
PLS SEND ASAP INFORMATIONS FOR TOMORROW FLT
BRGDS// BLQ'
So now, can you imagine the guys who opened the hold to unload the baggage and found out it was crowded by more than a hundred snakes? And can you imagine that this morning somebody could get into the aircraft and find a little crawling surprise?
So there was a big mess in the airport. The flight was cancelled for passengers but the crew flew back home with the aircraft and its guests... but there was a slithering sensation on the air... and on the ground. :-)

PS. I found the original telex, so I updated it. Just in case you don't know: O/B= on board or A/C= aircraft.

Family

Andrea in piscina a Pentolina ridotta
Originally uploaded by margiana.

It is so complicated to discuss about the concept of 'family' sometimes and emotionally touching.
I often think about my family and the relationship with each member is dense but difficult. It is all about ties and boundaries and anxiety and limitations and Love and belonging and pride and pity...and... a lot more.
It is frustrating but at the same time this is what makes me proud of being who I am.
It's my family! It's where all the bad things can be cancelled in a real second, exactly like the good one.... and the rise and the fall depend mostly on a gesture, a word a move of the head, a kiss, a caress...
And thinking about my family I imagine how I'd like my own one. What kind of family will I be able to deal with? What kind of parent will I be? Will I do a lot of mistakes or will I be fine? Will I be able to pursue a project of family with Andrea or will we fail? Of course only time will tell.
I usually don't think about other's family a lot.
It is such an intimate part of a person's life that I don't imagine or judge or such. I love to listen to family stories but never really ask.
Yesterday there was a party at Giorgio's (Andrea's older brother) to celebrate Matilde's second b-day (Andrea nice).
Giorgio and Linda live in a beautiful house on the hills around Bologna.
I went there late, arriving around 3. I worked from 6.30am to 2.30pm and it was very very hot. I had just the time to take a quick shower, pick my Supercar and 'flew' to the party.
There I found different people with different 'pockets' and manners. I ate something (how could I miss this part of the party) and laid on the swimming-pool bed to watch the world go by.
Giorgio, Paolo (the oldest brother), Andrea and Marco (Paolo's son) decided to jump in the swimming poll to get the first bath of the season! They were there, playing with the ball...all similar in shapes and expression...lighthearted and ... it suddenly came out this family picture in my mind.
They are bond together, apparently only because of the genes but deeply because of the family ties.... They are a family. No Mom or Dad to talk to them but surely there to watch over them.
The Canova's Family. Four boys from 23 to almost 50 years old playing with a ball in a swimming pool on a Sunday afternoon...just like a bunch of kids invited to a 2 years old b-day party.
I slowly fell in a soft sleep, caressed by the breeze and rocked by the voices of the kids.... of a family.

Lots of things done!

Andrea and I went to Rome for 3 days. I choose the wedding dress, and booked the restaurant. Lots of parents's money will be 'eaten' by the italian wedding tradition, even if I don't care a damn. I feel like I'm floating on the hands of traditional things. But I can see they are very happy. So I'll follow their wishes (for once).
Sorry I'm not posting a lot lately but I felt a little too tired.
Gotta go now... too busy.

Night's scent

Have you ever notice that at night the flowers smell more?
It's midnight and I just got back from work where the odours are horrible. I usually smell only fuel and exhaust of the means needed to push-back the aircrafts or to offload the baggage.
I finished work and took my bike to ride back home. It is a short way home,... some 1600 meters throught fields of wheat, salads, corn. But everywhere around there are flowers. The farmers usually have beautiful flowers around the fields; I think they are so much in contact with mother nature that appreciate the beauty of it.
Riding my bike at midnight with stars and the moon above, coming out of a noisy and bad smelling place, I dive into another world, where the noises are those of small animals, birds, and plants and the smell is king. Smell of wisterias, of liliac, acacia and others I can't recognise.
And a dog runs next to me following the fence of 'his' field... watching me... to let me know we are not alone.
Goodnight!

Pregnant friends!

Preggy Amanda
Originally uploaded by margiana.

So this is the time of blooming and blossoming... and sounds like a lot of friends are pregnant! Of course it is the age issue... You know there are those periods in which all your friends get engaged, then... all your friends get married, then... all your friends get pregnant. This is the pregnant period. My friend Jenny is pregnant of the second boy, Irene has a couple of twins in her small belly (male and female), Michela is almost done with a (I already know) beautiful baby girl, and also Amanda has a belly growing.
It is so encouraging to know that a lot of couples are giving birth since in Italy there's this rate 0 of growth.

Amanda and I had lunch together and then had a walk in the city center during her lunch break. We enjoyed a beautiful spring early afternoon and had fun together. She's so happy with her belly:-)
Happy big belly to all!

Mono and his love for the toilet paper

Mono divora-rotolo-cartaigienica
Originally uploaded by margiana.

This is what happens when Germana wakes up early on Saturday or Sunday to go to work and the boys stay home to sleep and play.
Andrea and Monocolo enjoy being together so not to listen to my 'don't do this!' thing.
So, once I got home from work I found the beloved (from Monocolo) toilet paper reduced in small small pieces, almost snow-like, and Andrea who documented with pictures the whole sequence of the distruction. He was still laughing when I came back home. So... isn't it silly? An adult taking pictures of a crazy cat who destroys a toilet-paper roll?...
I don't want to think about if I will ever have children:-)