FARAWAY

FARAWAY

Feb 8, 2025 | BOOKS, BOOKS

I would like to thank Jessica Pini and Mari’s Manual for Faraway.

Faraway. 

We often repeat that reading takes us far away, in this case, the journey already starts with the title.

You know I never anticipate what one will discover when reading, so I ask you: what does your ‘far away’ correspond to?

A place?

Or a concept, perhaps: something far away from you.

You can create distance in space, in time, in the heart, in the mind.

Johann Wolfang Goethe left us this reflection:
One never goes so far as when one doesn’t know where one is going.

Do you agree?

I often remind of Shrek and the Kingdom of Far Far Away.

Faraway

Jessica also mentions Shrek but for a different reason, I still took it as a sign, a kind of affinity.

In particular, I appreciated the passages where the book dwells on the description of the environment with the attention of someone who cares about it.

Jessica then keeps the focus on female strength, declined in the variations in which it can make a difference.

She herself describes a good book as a bridge to other worlds and a way to live more than one life at the same time.

I will leave you one of her introductions by subscribing to it:

Jessica, on the other hand, has left me waiting to find out how the story will continue: her Faraway is meant to be the first chapter of a saga.

So let’s not stray too far, let’s keep in touch 😉
#FarawaySaga

ITALY SLOW TOUR

ITALY SLOW TOUR

Feb 1, 2025 | A COFFEE WITH, JOURNEY FROM MUG TO MUG

Italy Slow Tour is a website, Italy Slow Tour is a YouTube channel, Italy Slow Tour is much more.

How can you encapsulate two people like Syusy Blady and Patrizio Roversi in a single description?

Syusy describes herself as an eclectic artist, journalist, actress, TV presenter and whatever else pops into her head.

Let’s say that a lot of interesting things have popped into that mind so far.

Patrizio‘s bio is a narcissistic double-edged carping exhibitionist complex.

So it seems quite natural how Patrizio could have been thunderstruck by Maurizia while literally ruling a group of kids on the beach in that Stop Model splendour that we would all later discover.

The union of two diametrically opposed yet inextricably complementary personalities.

Together they gave us programmes like Lone Wolf or The Arab Phoenix that made history, and became The Travellers par excellence.

Tourists by chance.

Before Beijing Express, before the Travel Bloggers, before the Digital Nomads, Patrizio and Syusy taught us the true spirit of Travel. 

Thanks to them, we saw distant and unseen places, discovered real life, observed food, learned customs and traditions.

Experiences based on two unfailing ingredients: respect and irony. 

Syusy and Patrizio’s irony is something I have always loved, which is why I recommend you follow their Syusy and Patrizio News. 

A condensation of useful and interesting information told with their way of being themselves: Tourists by chance but Artists by merit.

THE LAST RIDE

THE LAST RIDE

Jun 15, 2024 | AWARD, STORIES

The Last Ride is the title of my story for the Bisarca 2024 competition organised by Il Perdilibri. 

I have already told you about the Bisarca  competition in past editions: but I quote directly: what do you win? The satisfaction of participation and eventual victory.

I would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank Il Perdilibri for hosting The Last Ride.

Habit is regarded as addiction, but asking questions is also a habit.

Eleonora, however, is not in the habit of doubting her schedule, starting with the alarm clock: for which there are three repetitions before getting up, every day, regardless of tiredness, weather, hunger, or stress level.

After that everything is calculated, including the delay, a luxury offered to her by an anonymous traveller.

A group sub-habit is created among the usual commuters: a kind of unwritten code according to which, occasional invaders aside, seats are occupied according to a kind of hierarchy acquired over time.

Eleonora remembers the day when the man with whom she shares the seat beckoned to her: ‘as of today the seat is free’ were the only words other than good morning and good day, which they exchanged over a period of what may be a thousand days now.

Eleonora arrives at six forty-three minutes, sure to find the seat reserved by her travelling companion, who, as always, rests his briefcase on the window side until she reaches him.

All she knows about him is that he travels daily to Milan, that he perpetually listens to something on his earphones, that he prefers classic, good-quality clothes in shades of grey, and that he uses a perfume with Vetiver as the base note.

Every morning they exchange a single good morning each, Eleonora sits down, takes the book out of her bag and starts reading. In these thousand days she will have read a hundred books, all in strict silence until she arrives at Porta Garibaldi, when her travelling companion wishes her a good day before gettinf off, leaving her for her ritual minutes during which she waits for the crowd to thin out.

If you want, you can find the rest here. 

But first tell me: what would be the last ride for you?

There are many examples: books, movies, on a personal level though, does your first instinct lead you to think of last in a positive or negative way?

LIFE IS A BEAUTIFUL AND ENDLESS JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT CUP OF COFFEE.Barbara A. Daniels

LIFE IS A BEAUTIFUL AND ENDLESS JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT CUP OF COFFEE.Barbara A. Daniels

Feb 24, 2024 | JOURNEY FROM MUG TO MUG

Life is a beautiful and endless journey in search of the perfect cup of coffee.
Barbara A. Daniels

I take this fantastic quote to thank Tomislav  for taking up my invitation: I am always happy when you send me pictures of your coffee.

In this case Tomislav sent me a picture of his afternoon coffee, telling me that he had found a new cup that was smaller than the one he used to use.

And look how beautiful these vintage advertisements are too!

There’s a cappuccino radiating light just to represent a happy moment.

Happy as I am adding a new stage to the journey from mug to mug. 

I take this opportunity to show you a picture of what used to be my favourite cup before it broke.

 

What a sad fate when the objects we care most about break more easily than the things we care less about, isn’t it?

Am I the only walking disaster?

I remember the exact moment when I realised that the cup had slipped out of my hand … can you imagine the echo of my noooooooooooo?

Do you have a favourite cup in particular? And if so, have you managed to preserve it?

Tomislav replaced his cup with a new one, how long has your cup been with you? How many coffees have it seen?

So, considering the opening quote:
Life is a beautiful and endless journey in search of the perfect cup of coffee.

Did you completed the wonderful journey in search of the perfect cup of coffee?

I NEVER FORGET TO CALL YOU LOVE

I NEVER FORGET TO CALL YOU LOVE

Feb 3, 2024 | BOOKS

Non mi dimentico mai di chiamarti amore (I never forget to call you love) is the sylloge published by Parallelo45 for which I surely “won’t forget” to thank Carmelo Cossa and Manuale di Mari. 

February has arrived, the month of Valentine’s Day, the most famous romantic occasion, just as romantic is the author’s soul.

Carmelo Cossa is immediately striking in the way he declares his love: love for poetry.

So Poetry becomes the way for expressing the idealisation of love as a totally harmonising expression of feeling.

The author is like a knight of the dolce stil novo, even though life has taken him far from his roots.

Reading the poems in Non dimentico mai di chiamarti amore (I never forget to call you love) I had a strong sense of how the journey from his homeland to the place that would offer him fulfilment was a key element for Carmelo.

Among my favourite poems:

Con il cuore appeso (With the Hanging Heart) because I found myself in the concept of a night grip and also in the comparison of a shredded cloth stretched out in the sun.

Natura e vita (Nature and Life) because I found the personification of nature in the first person a metaphor capable of giving a powerful sense of flow, vitality and harmony.

Magia di vita (Magic of life) for the concept of the ‘beginning again’ of the cycle of the seasons that repeat, but even more so, relive.

Speaking of his Poetry, Carmelo Cossa also quotes Rita Levi Montalcini:

it is better to add life to days than days to life

thus capturing the mark of what I would dare to call a life mission for him: he lives for poetry and makes poetry alive.

So I invite you to pause on Non mi dimentico mai di chiamarti amore (I never forget to call you love) and to think about to which ‘love’ your life is dedicated.

Archives

Pin It on Pinterest