I'm pro-tourism again!

Let’s see so much to write about. I guess I’ll leave out the little stuff. I had a good weekend and I hope you did too. First of all I was going to do a good new/bad news post but the bad news is all crap that’s the usual crap, gas prices, politics, trash problems in Naples. Some of the good news…
As you see in the photo La Befana was here yesterday. She didn’t leave much candy but I guess she knows I’ll just eat it all right away. I still have a big Pandore that I just bought for 50% off because it’s the end of the season sale. Along that line I’m proud of myself because this weekend all the sales started and I didn’t buy any clothes. I don’t really need anything so that’s not a big surprise but just to help Friday I went online and paid my credit card bill for December. That was enough to put me off spending more money!!!!
In the news the big story is that in June THE POPE is coming to Brindisi. That’s right the guy with the funny hat is coming here. I’m excited and I’m not even catholic, maybe that’s why he’s coming!! Although this excitement may wear off the first time I hear about some hair-brained idea to block off the town to cars or make my life a mess. Suddenly it all makes sense. In the last 4 years just about every church in town has had some major restoration. Right now they are taking down the scaffolding on two churches, Santa Teresa and Santa Maria degl’Angeli. I don’t think the Pope is going to visit all the churches but I bet they wanted them all to look nice for people who come here from other areas. So this year is a good time to visit our churches in the best condition they have been in for years. The newspaper article says they will spend a million euros in preparations for his visit just in the next 6 months. One thing they didn’t mention is when was the last time a Pope came to Brindisi.
Other good news. I’m back on a pro-tourism push for Brindisi. Last night some friends and I went out to look at some presepi (nativity scenes). I guess after last night they will all be packed up until next Christmas. This one below is one of my favorites.


Walking from one mostra (exhibition) to another we passed something new. I read about this but I didn’t know it was open until we saw it. It’s Brindisi’s new “Sala di Colonna”. Brindisi has made a special room where the capital (top) of the Roman column that marked the end of the Via Appia is now housed. The one exposed to the elements in the harbor is a copy and the second one, as we all know, is still in Lecce (where’s my column stealing posse?). Right now the room is kind of bare but I imagine they will add other artifacts from the same period as time goes by. The other great part of this is that this room in inside a building called the Palazzo Granafei Nervegna (16th Century) that has stone balconies outside that remind you of Romeo and Juliet and also this building is across the street from theater with the Roman ruins under it. It makes a good combination. To come and see just one of these two things would be ok but to be able to see both makes the trip worthwhile. My friends tell me they have been working on this Palazzo for 10 years so I’m going to whine a little and say, "Why does everything take to long?” For more info on all the things to see in town (besides Churches then go to this link: historical town center

Upstairs from the column there was another little exhibit showing models of some plans for Brindisi. They were closing as we entered so I didn’t get chance to see everything. I did see a very nice looking park but I don’t know where in Brindisi it was going to be built. I’ll have to go back.
That's one big piece of 2000 year old marble! And it's really getting the star treatment. Good job Brindisi.

Back to Normal...for now...

For those of you who don’t read other Italian blogs then you may be surprised to learn that all the truck drivers in Italy were on strike from Monday thru Wednesday. It was a madhouse, at least from what I saw on TV, because here in Brindisi very little actually happened. On TV I saw store shelves empty of fruits, vegetables, and other perishable goods but here in Brindisi I went shopping last night at Mino’s then the local veggie place and I didn’t notice a thing out of place. Maybe they were a little low on castagne nuts and Mino didn’t have any mozzarella di bufula (he did have regular mozzarella) but then he never has it on Wednesdays. He’s closed on Thursday so it doesn’t make sense to stock up, as he wouldn’t want it to sit around for a day. It’s nice being so close to the food and goods you buy because even without trucks we get by. It’s funny because Rosalba’s husband was leaving the veggie place as I came in. He was smiling ear to ear as he was going to deliver food to the big supermarket outside of town. I’m sure he screwed them on price AND quality because there isn’t a lot of love between the big supermarkets and the mom and pop grocery store.
One part of the strike that we were not immune to was the gas shortage. There were huge lines for people filling up their cars but that was just the panic buying that surrounds any sciopero (if you don’t know that means “strike” then you haven’t be reading an Italian blog for very long!). Tuesday night I was driving my boss to the airport and there were already these lines surrounding gas stations. I’m thinking I’m sure the gas stations have a few days of gas stocked up. Of course I was wrong because almost all were out of gas last night and today. But still this doesn’t affect me because I go for weeks on tank of gas. I walked to work today because there is hardly a cloud in the sky and on the way home I want to harass Lucia at the cafe because today is the saint’s day for Santa Lucia. If we had a Lucia at work then we would have cornetti but nooo. Maybe on the way home I’ll get a free coffee from her. That may be asking a bit too much.
Still this strike was pretty amazing as strikes go. I’m just lucky in that there isn’t much that I need and there wasn’t any place I needed to go. The trucks were trying to make life hell for as many people as they could. Not only did they not deliver goods but they also blocked the highways. So what was the deal? They were upset about high gas prices and abusive (illegal) trucks. There is nothing that can be done about high gas prices and I see the police pulling over trucks all the time checking their "paperwork". So I really don't know what they are crying about. The government promised to work on some new law that will limit out of country trucks from going more than 120 km into Italy and they will spend more money on roads. Big riggin deal. All this chaos for nothing really. A friend at work says that this strike was also politically inspired as the political right is trying to get the left out of power. If the country is “out of control” then the political right can call for a new government, which they have been doing ever since the day Prodi was sworn in. This political bickering is amazing. It's just getting going in the US and the election is just under a year away.

Some Christmas and news

I need some Christmas stuff in the blog!! How about a photo or two. This is photo of my house back in the US when I would decorate it. I haven't put up the lights on my balcony here in Brindisi yet. I assume this weekend everyone in my building will and then I will too.

Below is my parents tree from a year or two ago. See with the new portable hard drive I have all my photos ALL the time.

This week has been pretty routine except for a few things. Monday morning I almost fell out of my chair at work laughing. My mom sent out an email about Christmas and at the end she reminded use to forward anything we wanted from Santa to her. My sister replyed back.

Dear Santa,
Tell your reindeer to quit eatin’ my garden or I’m going to shoot the sonsabitches

Maybe you have to know my sister to understand how funny that is. Anyway it really made my Monday morning. Also on Monday Greenpeace was at work again and painted climate killer and stop coal on some of the ships that were off loading coal at the Cerano plant they attacked this weekend. I don’t think this made into the news except around here.
Tuesday was the start of the windy days. It’s been howling windy for three days now. In fact on Tuesday we had a “Tromba d’aria” or tornado. I could look out the window at work and see a perfectly formed funnel cloud. There was no warnings or panic like there would be in the Midwest. Davide and I have discussed this before. They just don’t have the power here that they have in Tornado Alley in the US. We're on a peninsula surrounded by sea that tends to equalize out the temperature. So Tuesday had just enough wind and a difference in temperature to make a tornado but not enough to fuel it to destructive levels. As far as I know no one around here has an experience with a real destructive level tornado.
Tuesday also started our current string of days with cornetti. Somebody has brought in cornetti, Pasticciotto, and graffie (doughnuts) everyday since Tuesday. In fact Tuesday we had two people bring in these treats. It seems that this is the time of year when the Italian company announces promotions and raises. If you move up a level at work or get a raise then it’s assumed you’ll bring something for everyone. I guess I’m starting to put on those Christmas pounds.
Tomorrow is the day we in Brindisi eat puccia. Let’s hope there isn’t a repeat of my incident last year.

I'm back after doing it!

Well there’s some news from this weekend. I was excited to see that Greenpeace “attacked” our local power station. Attacked is strong word (used by one newspaper) but what they did do is hang huge banners on the plant. The biggest (20m by 25m) said “1st Climate Killer In Italy”. This is to signify that the coal-fired power plant at Cerano was the biggest polluter of CO2 for 2006 in Italy. They also say that the 2nd place plant is in Taranto. Finally we beat Taranto! First of all, it’s a little scary that about a dozen Greenpeace activists could break into the plant and hang banners all over the place. I mean it's not easy to sneak in carrying huge banners. We all know the security at tourist sites is tight but not at the big power plant! It was done this weekend because the UN is meeting in Bali to talk about climate change. Greenpeace wanted to remind people the problem is right here in Europe, not just someone else’s fault. I also will go on record that I had nothing to do with this protest but I applaud their efforts. I hope Enel does something to improve this plant. In related news Enel is talking about merging with EDF an energy giant in France. The funny thing about this is that France is big in nuclear power and Italy is against nuclear power BUT Italy buys power from nuclear plants in France. This new merger would probably only increase the amount of nuclear energy in Italy.
I bought something electronic this weekend that I’ve been dreaming about. A Wii, or maybe an Xbox360? No, for me it was an external hard drive. I was giddy driving home with it (yes I’m that much of geek). This little baby is USB powered so it’s incredibly portable and it’s 160 GB! Now these days that’s not a lot but it’s more than all the other hard drives I own, together. My ancient laptop has a 30 GB hard drive. My iPod was the best of the time but only 40 GB and my work laptop is 60 GB. So I can save more stuff on this little new thing then all my old things together. I love it because now I’ll have all my music and photos with me when I travel back to the USA. If my sister wants a Francesco Renga song that I have then, BAM, we copy it over to their computer. If my Keith and Pam like one of the photos I took of Kyle then, BAM, we copy it to their computer. You get the point. I don’t need to carry my computer because everyone I know and everywhere I go, somebody has one. The really strange thing is that I tried to buy one of these hard drives in the US when I was there in October but nobody had them. I went to Best Buy, Circuit City and etc… they all “carried” them but didn’t have any in stock. I went to an electronics store here on a whim and they had several sizes and three different brands! I ended up getting a Packard Bell model because the physical size of the device was smaller than the Toshiba. I can’t help but wonder why in the world I couldn’t get this in the USA but I could here. It’s not just this as there are Wii shortages in the UK but plenty here. Are the businesses that bad and getting stock to right places or is there something else going on?

Goldoni

So the newest music pub is open. Thursday night the place was packed and rocking. This first photo is outside early in the night. As you can see there is not much to see outside but there is room for smokers to hang out, which is important. The cars make good places to put your beer while outside.


Inside you see that the place has the barrel shaped roof. You are surrounded in yellow, or gold light. I took this photo from the stairs as you head into the main room. It's in the basement of 3 story building. Nice layout with a long bar on one side and all the tables on other. The beers are good but it's officially a wine bar so I'll be tasting those in the future. I'm not sure how old this place is but I was told that this place was a bomb shelter in World War II. Then it was a pizzeria until now.


The band Creme had the honor of playing the first night. They have a new CD out called Sulla Collina. There is a screen behind the stage to show videos or CALCIO.

Frigo part 2

So R2R wants to know what’s in the fridge. That’s a little scary when you mention that it’s a window into your soul so let’s see what I have in my soul….(quite fitting this close to Halloween and All Saints Day).
The top shelf is a bottle of white wine chilling nicely, Fanta, and coffee. I’ll admit it, that’s not Illy coffee in that can. I’m just using the nice can the Illy people give you. It’s really Moka, the cheap stuff. I swear the middle shelf was like that before the photo and I’m not sure why I didn’t put this fruit in the fruit drawer. I’m usually kinda of anal about that. It has a special drawer for fruit, dammit. I have a peroche (cross of peach and something else), 1 pear, 2 Chinese oranges (think that’s what they are called), and 2 mandarins. In the cheese drawer just below them, you can’t see it, but there is grated Parmesan. The next shelf down we have: a half empty jar of Old El Paso Salsa Mejecan, half empty jar of Barilla sauce (Tuna flavor, hey I didn’t feel like cooking after the gym yesterday), beer, and leftover Pizza. In my drawers you have one potato and one onion in the vegetable side and 1 lemon and grapes on the fruit side. The meat drawer below is currently empty except for garlic. A little old lady told me that’s the best place to keep garlic and it does seem to keep well down there. On the door we have 6 eggs, some butter, 3 bottles of Aperol soda (which I hate so they will be there adding color to my fridge until someone else drinks them) and some orange juice.
That’s exactly how my fridge was when I got home yesterday. I thought about shopping to make it look better and more interesting but I have a more interesting shot of my frigo back here… That was in May of last year. Amazing the difference. Si?
I'm not going to tag anyone for reasons I've mentioned in the past. I love doing these but not tagging people. However, I would love to see what Lori and Kent have. I'm sure it's full of crazy stuff!

Return the 2000-year-old marble column and no one will get hurt!

Something has been in the local news lately and I love it because it sparked a good debate after lunch in the office. I was really getting into it. I’ve mentioned in the past how Brindisi historically is known as the town at the end of Via Appia, which is the greatest road in the Roman Empire (history according to me!). I have also told you that the end of the Via Appia was marked in Brindisi with two marble Roman columns, which are the symbol of the town. I also have mentioned that Lecce, for some odd reason, has one of the columns in Piazza Oronzo in Lecce with their patron Saint Oronzo on top of it.
(cue the music)
Now....
The rest of the story....
In Brindisi the popular story is that Lecce is a bunch of thieves and they stool the column back around 1660. Lecce believes that the column was a gift, which sounds like something a bunch of lying, cheating thieves would say. I’m not trying to influence you or something. Recently the mayor of Brindisi started asking the mayor of Lecce to please give us back our column and we’ll stop calling them lying, cheating, ugly, good-for-nothing thieves. I, for one, would love to see both columns back in Brindisi overlooking the sea like they are supposed to be. Why now? Well just recently Brindisi finished a restoration of the capital of the column we have. The capital is sooo precious that Brindisi is putting it in the “Salone di Colonna” (basically indoors to keep in preserved) instead of back on top of the column we have. They on the other hand are letting our column fall apart. Our column in Lecce has metal bands on it to hold it together under the weight of their fricken saint!
I should be fair. The big question should be, why would Brindisi give such a beloved piece of the town to Lecce? Well this is good story. It seems in 1528 one column fell over. No one is quite sure why but the common belief is that an earthquake caused it. I think someone from Lecce knocked it down, have you seen how they drive? Anyway, history is sketchy back then because Brindisi was hit with The Plague in 1526. Naturally putting the column back up was not a priority as people were dying in the streets. The column sat in pieces and not much is known until in 1660 when the column was erected in Lecce with a bronze of Saint Oronzo on it, like it is today. The theory is that sometime between 1528 and 1659 Brindisi gave the column to Lecce because Saint Oronzo liberated Brindisi from The Plague. That sounds like a reasonable reason to give the column away but Brindisi claims (and always has) that San Rocco liberated Brindisi from The Plague so there wouldn’t be any gifting of nothin’ between Brindisi and Lecce. There is even a record from November 2, 1659 in Naples of the mayor of Brindisi asking for the column to be returned but it was denied. So even before it was put up, Brindisi was asking for it back and now 348 years later and we are still asking. Sorry I went back to being a little one sided there again.
There is a response from the mayor of Lecce and I’ll just say it’s long and boring and definitely written by someone in politics. He even mentions at one point “Where would Lecce put its statue of Saint Oronzo?” Boy, do I have a response to that!!!!!

This jaded history is taken from the site below which is a Brindisi site so even my original story is from the Brindisi perspective….but you can’t trust those Leccese anyway… http://www.provincia.brindisi.it/provbr/storiatradizioni.nsf/3e86072a2032ae07c1256cf40039e714/51a1062d34b7b7a2c1256cf5003db251?OpenDocument

It's MADNESS! I tell you!

There’s madness everywhere right now. Who comes up with some of the crap I’m writing about today???
Here in Brindisi something that’s maddening to me is the fact that there is a plan to drag up tons of sand from a beach just outside the park where I go and then deposit this sand down by Lecce. I guess the good news is that they aren’t taking it from the park. The thing that really gets me is that you can’t beat Mother Nature. If the beach down there is losing sand then this isn’t going to do anything except give them a place to play for a few months. Next year they will need more sand and the cycle will go on forever. So there is a protest today to try to stop this waste of time, energy, and destruction of the environment for some idiots. Legambiente has already come out and said that this move is technically and ethnically unacceptable. I think only someone with a lot of money thinks it’s a good idea.
Speaking of technically and ethnically unacceptable (and money), on the other side of the ocean I’m getting screwed by a different kind of madness. The biggest news story in Indianapolis is what happened to property taxes this year. Indiana has reassessed property values and raised property taxes at the same time. Doesn’t that sound like a good idea? People in Marion County, where my house is, “are feeling more of the tax burden” to quote the politicians, “are getting screwed more than ever” to quote me. The property taxes almost doubled on my house and there are others where the increase was more than double their current taxes! Now NO ONE has come out to look at buying the house. Me selling my house is nothing compared to the rumors of people on fixed incomes loosing their houses. The housing market that already wasn’t doing too well is getting an extra kick while it’s down. There are even protests going on in Indianapolis to try to get the property taxes lowered and that’s something because Americans don’t go protesting as easy as Italians. Property values are going down, taxes going up. I really, really picked the wrong time to try to sell my house. I guess the good news is that the house may still be waiting for me by the time I get back. I always liked that house.
So in Italy people are trying to steal the beach and in the USA politicians are stealing my money. Not a good Monday. Therefore in the middle of this madness post I thought this would be a good time to use the photo of the worst mime in the world. I swear this guy is talking every time I go by and he’s always out. He does the same stupid 10 second routine of bowing and waving his hands around every time someone gives him change. It’s madness!

Real Estate

I think I’ve mentioned that one of things I really love about living here is that I get to see how Brindisi changes. I don’t think I noticed new things in Indianapolis like I do here (again maybe I’m becoming too Italian as I see what’s going at all the stores as being “my business”). I like to watch new stores open up. Who knows what it will be!! Then sometimes it actually hurts when they close because you lose friends. The pet store where I used to buy everything for Nello and Mara closed without warning and I ran into the lady that worked in it and she said that her brother owned the store and he just wanted something further outside of town that was cheaper to run. It was shame as she was very friendly and quick with help. When Mara arrived at my place she sent me directly to the Pharmacy to get “Milkazoo” or something like that. It’s powdered milk made for cats and dogs still nursing but without a mother. She kept pictures of many pets around town in her store and knew all of them by name.
Then there are the other stores I don’t miss, like when a store opened next the gym. I knew it couldn’t last. This new store had the brilliant idea to sell cell phones (we really needed ANOTHER cell phone store) and…wait until you hear this…perfumes! What a combination. That was a store destined to close and it didn’t make 6 months.
And it’s not just stores that have changed over time. Piazza Vittoria in town was completely redone and made off limits to cars. Almost every church in town has been, or is currently, covered in scaffolding during the time I’ve been here. Some one-way streets have changed direction 3 times now! I never cease to be surprised. Right now there are 71 houses, although some are not real “houses”, that are being bulldozed just North of town because they were built without zoning approval and too close to the sea. The owners built illegally on purpose and then planned to fight in court until they are allowed to leave their house in place. It didn't work this time. The current mayor is always talking of a new “water front” project. The whole area from the Bar Betty to the Vertigo could become a piazza with no cars. That would be great but we would loose a lot of parking that’s needed in the summer. Well, not for me because I walk down there. I wonder how this mayor will get it done and what compromises will be made. I'm staying tuned!
Closer to me there are two big pieces of property that could be interesting developments in the months to come. Across the street and next to the old wall is an abandoned building that is now up for sale. I see my neighbor two floors down, the one with the yapping dog, wrote about it in the newspaper. He expressed my sentiments too. It would be sooo nice to knock it down, which would expose more of the old walls that used to surround Brindisi and maybe make a nice little piazza there. We’ll see.
The other property is just on the other side of that old wall from my apartment. It too has been abandoned the whole time I’ve been here. Recently they had the steel shutters open and I saw into it for the first time. It turns out the building itself is not very deep because there is an internal courtyard completely hidden from the street. I was immediately thinking “that is so cool” and it’s been abandoned for who knows how long. I asked Mino at “il Salu..mino” what is being done with the building and he said no one is sure but the rumor is that a “Fabbrica di birra” is going in. What? A brewery? Surely he means a bar, as it would have to be a true “micro-brew” to fit in that place. Also I can’t imagine a brewery inside the centro storico. Anyway there’s always something to watch or listen for in news (be it official or through the grapevine).

The Missing Statues?

This photo is of the main duomo in Brindisi before a major renovation of the exterior started this summer. I was walking past a newsstand and saw a headline that said “Le Statue Distrutte”. I couldn’t believe what I read so I went past the duomo myself this weekend and it’s true. The 4 statues you see on top of the duomo in this picture are gone. The scaffolding is almost gone and the church looks great but I can’t believe these statues are not going to come back. The newspaper article is very short and gives no details. It seems that “Striscia La Notizia” will be doing a story on it this week. This TV program is a comedy but they expose some very real problems in Italy. So I’ll be watching Striscia to find out the rest of the story.
I did find out that the statues aren’t that old. Maybe someone decided that they were a recent addition that didn’t fit with the historical style of the church. The original church was finished 1143 and then rebuilt in 1743 after an earthquake. The statues, it seems, didn’t come along until 1957 if what I read is true. Do they belong?

Brindisi Basket

What? Brindisi is leading it's division in Basketball and I would really like to go see a game. I copied down the schedule a long time ago and it seems there is a game tomorrow, or not? I looked at the schedule today online to check and the game is now on Sunday. That's better for me, but get this the location is "da stabilire" and the referee is "da stabilire". So there is a game Sunday at 6:30 PM but they don't where and they don't know who is going to be the referee!!! UGGHHH. No wonder I haven't been to a game yet! I couldn't understand why I didn't know more about them. In their defense they are just finishing up a new "stadium" for the team here in town. I say stadium because it looks like a high school gym, but all the better. I bet there isn't a bad seat in the place and when it's open I bet it will be packed. I'll keep checking their website and maybe I'll get to a game!