Last summer we were on our way back from Berlin when we took a little detour for a one day visit to Prague.  We were at the end of our vacation and didn’t expect much more from it, but after little walk in the city center I was totally hypnotized.  Surrounded by wonderful buildings, lots of people partying and having good beer down in the narrow cobble-stoned streets, no cars or any other vehicle in sight and the atmosphere felt a little like fairy tales.

I felt like I entered a different dimension in space-time and decided Prague deserved more than one day.  Unfortunately we had to come back home but I promised to myself thought I’d come back to Prague sooner or later.  A few weeks later Martina moved from Firenze to Prague and when she invited us for a visit we did not think twice.

We spent there the last weekend and found that in winter the medieval city center of this doorstep to the stars is even better, white snow everywhere and a little less tourists in the way.  Martina was very kind to be our guide and brought us to wonderful places we would have never reached otherwise, also telling us about the many juicy legends of the city such as Golem, places where you can do something to make a wish come true, devils and a water spirits with green coats living in the river, eggs being used to cement Charles Brigde and many others.

It was freezing cold so we had frequent breaks in all sorts of cafés and pubs.  One of the best places we visited is U Flekú, a famous brewery established back in 1499.  They brew their own lager, Flekovsky Tmavy Lezák, which is dark, tastes great and is not sold anywhere else in the world and also serve Becherovka a bitter liquor typical of the Czech republic.

So here I am, back to Brazil one year after last trip.  This time I flew TAP and had a short connection in Lisbon, just 75 minutes.  Of course the flight from Italy took off 45 minutes late and things went wrong.  When we landed I had already given up any hope to make it but, surprise, while descending the staircase to get out of the plane I noticed there was a little man waiting with a “Rio de Janeiro transfer” banner in his hands.

He took me and a few more people on a small bus and drove us through the runways straight to a desert, apparently not yet in use terminal.  There, a lone lady official stumbled at my boarding pass: “Sir, you have to go to terminal one, you can’t cross the border here”. Thanks God, the little man convinced the lady that we badly needed a shortcut.  I felt like I was in a sort of “mission impossible” action movie and I was the President or something.  The man eventually took us again on a bus and drove straight to the plane where they where ready to close the doors.  Pheeew!

Despite the adventurous connection I have to say TAP is not bad.  Their planes are modern and well equipped and the onboard service is OK.  And they did the impossible to make me catch the plane to Rio.  Unfortunately my luggage didn’t make it.  I have a very strange stastistic: each and every connection flight in my life, the luggage didn’t arrive at destination, except when flying through Paris.  London, Milan, Bruxelles, Amsterdam, Lisbon: all failed.  Such an high failure rate is remarkable and says it all about the status of the air trasportation system.  Anyhow, now I’m in Rio de Janeiro and therefore – luggage or not – I’m going to relax.

Boa viagem!

This weekend we climbed the mountains around Riva del Garda.

Riva is a lovely small town at the north-western end of Lake Garda, surrounded by the cliffs of Mount Rocchetta and Mount Baldo. This is a well known place for sailing and MTBing. We got there on Saturday evening, so we had time to enjoy the place, drink a Spritz in the main square and have a nice salmon trout. There were many tourists, mostly Germans.

The next morning we woke up early so that around 8:30 we were already boots-and-backpack at Pregasina, which is the starting point of our walk, 540 meters above the sea level. From there we took CAI paths 422 bis and 429 up to Scala Santa and Cima Nodice (~900m) where we could enjoy a wonderful view over the lake and Pregasina, giving us satisfaction for the altitude we had climbed so far (very steep!).

Moving ahead, we took path 430 towards the ridge and Cima Al Bal. Again it was a very steep path and I sweared at it. At some point there is a fork and the right path is for expert only. We preferred to take the easier one. Soon after that we found a military fortress that was carved in the rock during WWI. Nowadays it what’s left is a maze of tunnels unfolding inside the mountain (~1100m). Before Al Bal you also get a wonderful and unexpected view over the Ledro Lake valley.

At Cima Al Bal (1260m) you are on the ridge and find yourself walking on a blade-like path unfolding over a spectacularly thin line of rock, completely open on both sides and yet quite easy to follow. At Cima Nara (1376m) we were at the top altitude of our trip. We climbed 840 meters in approximately three hours. From there we followed the ridge to Mount Guil and Guil Greens, where a surreal bench stands right in front of the precipice and you can sit there gazing at the breathtaking landscape.

From Guil Greens, the farthest point in the trip, we took our way back through path 422 to Rocchetta Pass and then 422bis to Malga Palaer. Despite having 3 liters when we started, I was running out of water. Luckily enough there was a fountain (the only one we found in the whole trip) and that convinced me we could continue to Punta Larici where we easily walked to a overhanging rock dominating Limone and the most of the Lake. 422bis finally took us to Pregasina trough as an easy white road.

The whole trip lasted 8 hours and has been very nice.

This weekend I went with Fabio and Michele hiking on the mountains. I love hiking but it was quite some time I didn’t go, so I was a bit excited. Our target was Scaffaiolo lake (1775m), a place on the Appennini mountains between Modena and Pistoia, in the Frignano Natural Park area. The plan was to drive to hut Capanno Tassoni (1317m) and then walk up hill from there.

We weren’t equipped with complex stuff, in particular no crampons and no ice axes, so Michele called the hut’s caretaker to check for weather and snow conditions. Luckily enough, we were told there was some snow around 1500m but nothing difficult. My equipment was: a bottle of water, a couple sandwiches, one apple, some chocolate, a compass, a map, Aku boots, a waterproof wind-stopper jacket, hat, sunglasses.

Once we got to Capanno Tassoni – around 10am – we wore boots, reviewed the map, checked everything and started to walk uphill on trail CAI415, heading to Croce Arcana pass (1680m). Initial landscape was green forest. As expected, after a while we found ourselves walking over snow, but nothing too difficult. Luckily enough, my trousers turned out to be mostly snow-proof and the weather was warm enough so the thin jacket was sufficient.

In 80 minutes we made it to the pass. Up there you find no tree at all, just thin grass, and the pass is at the ridge on the border between Emilia Romagna and Toscana so the wind flows strong and steady moving between the two sides of the Appennini chain. A little cross and a military monument with a pair of howitzers mark the place. From there we switched to trail CAI00, that is walking east-bound on the ridge. The top of the mountains was mostly clean, probably because the south slope is more exposed to the sun and maybe also because of the stronger wind, so the walk was definitely easy with the added bonus of an awesome 360 degrees view on the surrounding valleys. Believe it or not, there were people jogging and cycling over there.

Moving forward we climbed mount Spigolino (1825m), rested a bit on the top and finally reached Lake Scaffaiolo (1775m) at 1pm, just on time to taste a big slice of hand-made blueberry cake at Rifugio Duca Degli Abruzzi. Good! Lake Scaffaiolo is a strange water basin on the top of the mountain. The ridge splits in two parallel lines and rain water (and melting snow) accumulate in the middle, forming a thin lake (just 2.5m deep). At least twenty people were there, resting, sunbathing, playing with their dog, having lunch, wetting their feet in the lake.

We tried to go down though trail CAI401 but bad signals hidden by snow made us get it wrong, so after some off-track we ended up on trail CAI333. No problem, the path was beautiful anyway and through CAI335 we quickly joined CAI401 in Cingio Ermidiano. At that point the weather got really warm. I had to undress to a simple t-shirt. From there we followed CAI401 to Della Riva pass and finally we took CAI445 back to Rifugio Tassoni. We walked 6h30 in total: whoa!

Here I am, just back from FEFF. I managed to watch 23 movies in 5 days. And I survived!

In the next few days I’m going to write about the movies I watched, but first I’d like to talk about a dinner we had in Udine.  A friend of us, Flavia, suggested we try Osteria Lo sbarco dei pirati in the city center and I’m very glad she did.  Thanks Flavia!

Lo sbarco dei pirati is a  picturesque place with plenty of traditional stuff hanging from the roof, that warm feeling you get inside mountain huts and a funny owner.  At first he tried to talk friulan (the local dialect) but we could barely understand what he was talking about.

After a very good goulash we ordered gubana, a traditional nut-roll cake.  The owner asked if we wanted it “with slivovitz”.  We said no, mostly because we didn’t know it, but that was a terrible mistake.  The owner reacted as if we murdered somebody, as if gubana with no slivovitz were a criminal sin!  You know, in Italy we care a lot for our traditions and if somebody tried to eat salamina without pure I would react the same.  We had to quickly retreat to re-establish the cosmic equilibrium.

After eating the cake we discovered slivovitz is a strong and bitter distilled liquor and makes a great pair with gubana!  Well, you have to be careful because you can get drunk eating cakes, but it’s definitely worthwhile.  Eventually I researched on the pedia to find out this is the generic name for a sort of plum brandy typical of the slavic area.  Good to know!

Between a movie and the next one you can sunbath on the grass in front of the theater or sit at the internal cafè. Here at the FEFF in the middle of the crowd it happens strangers will sit at your table and you suddenly find yourself doing conversation in a casual group of half a dozen people, one from Beijing, one from Klagenfürt, one from Udine, one from Villach. You can feel like you are in a global melting (G-s)pot, and that’s not just for cinephiles.

After having been to New York several times, I recently watched a movie shot in the city. When you recognize places you have been, the movie feels completely different, so I felt like watching some more and next in line came some classics like When Harry met Sally, Taxi Driver, and The Warriors.

The latter two in particular made me think. The New York they depict is very different than the one I visited.  They talk about a scary place where crime is commonplace, gangs fight to control their turf, whores tease on sidewalks, walking down the street alone at night is dangerous, and taxi drivers carry a gun and prefer to avoid some parts of the city.  Washington Square and Bryant Park were no-go areas for ordinary people.

Nowadays you’d never tell New York used to be like that.  As Travis hoped while talking with Palantine, they cleaned up the mess.  In one decade Mayor Giuliani and those who came after him made it one of the safest and cleanest places I’ve even been.

While writing this post I discovered after 29 years Paramount Pictures is re-making The Warriors movie and this time it’s going to be shot in Los Angeles.  It’s expected to hit the theaters later this year.

So far the US Dollar has been the undisputed king of the currencies. A $100 bill worked like a passport in many countries of the world and dollars were used as the mandatory currency for international transactions in some markets. At the same time, when foreigners had to go the the States they always had to exchange their money because – Canadian and Mexican borders excepted – nobody would accept foreign money in American shops.

By the way, every time I’ve been to New York I have been disappointed by how few and how crappy ATMs and exchange counters there were between Customs and the Taxi station of Delta’s terminal at JFK. Didn’t they think of the just-landed foreigners having to pay $45+toll cash for a cab to Manhattan?

Anyhow, things are quickly changing now. Dollars fell 15% in the last year compared to the the rest of the world and tourists (Europeans in particular) are visiting the States and shopping like crazy. For this reason more and more shops in Manhattan are displaying “We accept Euro” tags. Stuff there is now so cheap that last time I felt like I had to buy something, because it was a shame to come back home with spare room in my luggage. Eventually, I bought a 250G portable USB hard drive. Friends in Italy also asked me to carry something for them.

Because of their crappy pricing policy (or should I call it a rip-off?) Apple products are even cheaper. Apple apparently doesn’t know how to apply exchange rates. I mean, a Macbook Air is 1799$ in the USA and €1699 ($2497) in Europe. No wonder there are people who fly to the States just to carry back a couple of macs and sell them to friends. Their flight is paid by Apple. It’s called arbitrage.

Americans are now very worried of their money. Friends in New York kept on talking on how lucky I was, how much the dollar was falling, how I should invest my money by buying some real estate in New York because flats in Manhattan are a bargain nowadays and so forth. I was shocked. Euro money is now trendy! Next time I’m going to try to pay drinks in Euros in one of those coll rooftop bars, just to see how they’d take it.

A former ping-pong player spent his life as a loser after failing the world championship at the final match and having his army-veteran father killed by the triads. But now, CIA recruited him to go hunt the triad’s boss, who is passionate about ping-pong, and he is determinate to get back his and his father’s honor.

To help him, CIA will have him attend lessons on a Chinese kung-fu style school, where he gets to know the true art of ping-pong, as well as a fascinating she-teacher.

This is a crazy movie and it helped me a lot on a boring 9-hour flight between the US and Italy. Not a masterpiece as Shaolin Soccer, but truly fun. And by the way, the Italian dubbing is even more fun.

I see there are lots of negative critics of this movie, they say it’s not worth an 8 euro ticket, but you know what? On a long distance flight I find this much more enjoyable than serious movies.

Balls of fury
USA 2007, by Robert Ben Garant, Comedy
IMDB 424823

Few days ago I’ve been at the Madison Square Garden, arguably the world’s most famous arena. New yorkers simply call it The Garden, as if it were the only garden out there, or worse, as if it were a garden at all! Well, actually it’s not even on Madison Square. Thanks to wikipedia I discovered the current name is just a legacy from the original arena, that one century ago used to be located in a garden at Madison Square.  Anyhow entering the arena is impressive: you feel like getting into a temple, a place where people go to worship their idols. Oh wait, that’s exactly what they do there!

The show on stage was a basketball match in the College Hoops league, between St. John’s and Pittsburgh. I went with Carla, a friend from New York. She likes college basketball and taught me all I had to know and something more, e.g. that college teams usually have the name of an animal (Pittsburgh Panthers) but St. John’s is an exception (they call themselves the Red Storm). We took the obligatory beer (that they served us with a built-in pretzel) and brought it in.

Before the match started an actual singer sung the national anthem, everybody standing, hats off. Pitts were much stronger and they easily blew out St. John’s 81-57, but it’s been fun anyway. The home team had cheerleaders, dancers and a fanfare band and shot t-shirts to the public during time-outs. Much fun!

Too bad I’m already back to Italy.