Yes, I know. I haven’t blogged in the last two months. Jessica asked for news and where I’m hiding. I’m happy she pushes me to blog more. Knowing there is somebody out there who cares for this mostly useless thing is a great motivating factor. Go Jessica go!
I was a bit busy working and traveling around and laziness temporarily won, but don’t worry, I’ll keep on blogging!
A merry Christmas to all of my friends!
A friend of mine recently closed his blog because he fears his privacy would be violated. This makes me think. Should I do the same? Blogs are a wonderful and exciting media and can be a lot of fun, but sadly in today’s society they can scare people. This is probably because laws are not protecting our privacy enough, and all sorts of governments, agencies and private companies are scanning the web collecting personal information. In Italy there is a law that theoretically is very strict about privacy, but unfortunately it is very hard to enforce.
I found this article on EFF website very interesting, with lots of suggestions about how to blog safely. I’m not scared, but I’m adopting some of this measures anyway. Better safe than sorry.
This weekend I have been to the seaside, on the border between Marche and Abruzzo. Going there has been painful but worthy. Painful because crossing the mountains between Tuscany and Abruzzo means driving on small hilly roads, climbing up to 800 meters. Worthy because it’s been a lot of fun. Read the rest of this entry »
Last night Daniele invited me and some more coworkers to have dinner at his family’s house. They live just outside Firenze, on the first hills of Impruneta. From their windows you can enjoy a breathtaking landscape over the valley. When you are there, in the middle of country and greenfields, it’s hard to believe that place is just 10 minutes from the city.
Yesterday my friends Emanuele and Marilena got married. Emanuele always lived in the countryside and even if he managed to become a professional engineer he’s still very proud of his origins. This is the thing I like the most in Emanuele: he’s so straighforward. After gathering all friends and relatives at his house, Emanuele led everybody’s car to the church driving a SAME tractor. It’s been a lot of fun. Actually they married twice, cause Marilena is waldensian and Manuele is catholic, so they held both ceremonies. Under the sun of July was impossible to wear a suit and quickly everybody took off his coat and tie. Then we moved to the restaurant, where a typically italian not-so-light-as-july-would-suggest several-hours-long lunch was waiting for us. I was sick (maybe hurted from frequent hot sun – airconditioned transitions) and had to leave at 17:30, while they were still eating the 1st round of 2nd courses. Congratulations Emanuele and Marilena! Have a wonderful life together!
This morning me and Anshul left Firenze for a trip to Chianti. He wanted to visit a winery, so I headed myself to Greve. We stopped there looking for some information and to visit a famous wine shop. The tourist info office was closed on sundays and while we were leaving, Jessica, Kate and Lauren, three cute canadian girls, stopped us asking for info and how to get to some wineries. These undergrad students were backpacking around Europe and felt a little lost because they had reached Greve from Firenze on a bus but on sundays almost everything was closed. “We have no car, can we come with you?” Read the rest of this entry »
My friend Stefano argued he can’t find any difference among wines and feels perplexed when sommeliers use all sorts of spice and fruit adjectives to describe them.
You know, wine is just grapevine juice where fermentation transformed sugar into alcool. Water, alcool and tartaric acid. This is all you need to synthetize something that’s technically 99.99% wine. The problem is, if you try tasting this fake wine you quickly discover it’s ugly, has no aroma and feels completely uninteresting. This is because the last 0.01% is what makes a wine great: hundreds of aromatic chemicals. And this is the only part you should care for. Read the rest of this entry »
Two years ago I’ve been to Tel Aviv for work. While I was there, a guy called Yaron (who worked in the company I went there for) tried all the best to make me feel at home. For example he brought me to Jaffa, the Dead Sea and more amazing places. One day I’ll blog about that travel. Last week he’s come to Italy along with his wife and I’ve had the pleasure to meet them in Ferrara, my birth town. I definitely love talking with foreigners, trying to understand their culture. This is how we discover we’re different and there are things we take for granted but shouldn’t. They told me they love Italy, except it’s too expensive and crowded by tourists. They’ll come again, I’m sure 
Last night we’ve been at Cesare’s farewell party and it’s been fun. After the party we ‘ve had even more fun girl-hunting between Piazza Duomo and Piazza Strozzi
