James & Vilija

A couple of weeks ago I went to see an art exhibition by an illustrator named Emmanuel Luzzati, a Genova local. He is most famous for a character named Pulcinella (masked (masquerade) man). The exhibition began with a half an hour film of the Luzzati operas. These operas were cartoons set to operatic music (no actual words used). The first was a love story between two cats, the second was the story of the Turks in Italy, the third was the story of the Italians in Algeria, and the forth was the Birds’ revenge on bird hunters, all very cute, and very funny. I think that now is about the time when I point out the somewhat obvious – Italians are perhaps (;-P) a step behind when it comes to political correctness. The Turkish have a reputation of being lazy here in Italy. Therefore this particular opera was about a lazy Turk who doesn’t want to go to work despite his “old lady” kicking him out of the house. He (Pulcinella) urinates on a statue and the rest of the opera depicts him being chased all over town by the police for this indiscretion. (more…)

Hi all,
This is my first attempt at a blog post I’ve decided to treat this a little as a journal and a little as a letter back home so please forgive any ramblings!

Its not yet been a week and yet so much has happened. I arrived in Italy last Wednesday (6 days ago). My first taste of Italy was an introduction as to how things work around here. I arrived at Rome airport, found the gate from which I was to depart for Genova, then decided to ring James to announce my safe arrival. One of the fist things James asked me was how I found passport control. I said that I figured that I would go through that in Genova as I didn’t go through customs. He asked if I’d shown my passport to anyone, yes one cop briefly glanced at the front cover of my British passport, “well, you’ve passed passport control”!?!?!!! (more…)

Ciao Everyone,

Welcome to what will be my last update for a while. Next Friday I am off to Milan, then Dubai and then Melbourne in another 30ish hour odyssey. As I am flying Emirates, bets are open as to the accuracy of my “itinerary”. Though I hope that Murphy is kind to me this once as I can’t wait to drop home (one of them) for a visit.

This week has been another week of normality. Genova welcomed in the first day of spring (21/3) with a lovely day full of rain and grey clouds. But other than that the sings of spring are starting to appear; warmer days, wild flowers and daylight savings (or legal time in Italian) which started today. (more…)