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narrow escape

Posted on July 29, 2011 @ 2:40 pm by massimo | Filed under: advertisement,beach,blog,boracay,cheap,fear,illustration,island,mythology,news,package tour,philippines,sailing,wordpress

Andrew was an Australian I met in Boracay. He lived in General Luna, Siargao Island main town, fronting the pacific Ocean. Andrew owned a paraw and he used to go sailing in the Siargao sea, among  unpolluted and enchanting islands: Dinagat, Dako, Anahwan, La Januza. “An obsession!” he claimed. His tales were so enthusiastic that Gino and I could nothing but leave Boracay, go to General Luna, rent a paraw, and go sailing togheter with Andrew. In a nut shell,  there is a special feeling when you realise that you are sailing the immense and powerful Pacific Ocean on board a paraw: such a tiny boat,  a sort of unravel threat! And really our last navigation was threatening. In the late afternoon we found ourselves a mile off La Januza; we decided to head back to General Luna, at a distance of around ten  nautical miles. The wind was dropping; we tacked upwind but I suddenly  realised that the rudder blade was off the hull: its precarious tin pintles had given up. Meanwhile the gentle and constant wind pushed us towards the open sea! No wonder that we felt lost and panicked: no water or food on board, no compass, nothing but a piece of rope to bind ourselves to the mast. In the sunset light we saw Andrew’s paraw sailing home fast, getting far, while on the opposite side the unreachable La Januza looked a mirage. But, hurra! Neptune and Eolus themselves woke up togheter to save us: after a 20 minutes long hopeless drifting, the wind changed and we finally managed to land in the dusk  in La Januza beach. The island people who had previously noticed our drifiting were waiting for us. Perhaps I spent my life dearest night inside a rented room on that remote little island. The next day as soon as we had the rudder repaired, we sailed back to General Luna where an amazed Andrew was waiting for us. What else can I say? For sure our short tour had not been  a cheap package holidays!

Illustration Friday topic is: obsession

jam jars

Posted on July 24, 2011 @ 6:07 pm by massimo | Filed under: ancona,beach,books,cheap,croatia,food,holidays,illustration,island,mediterranean,news,politics,travel,wordpress

While reading an old guide book printed  by the former Yugoslavia Tourist Bureau in the mid ’70, I can’t avoid some personal memories.  My hometown Ancona lies on the Italian side of the Adriatic sea and, as a matter of fact, the Croatian coast has always been for us the very place heading for a short  holiday: a ship passage takes just a few hours. Everything was cheap in Yugoslavia, perhaps the most welcoming country among the ex-communist block. In 1984, as a moneyless youngster I went for the first time to Croatia, to Ugljan Island exactly. A very few money in the pockets means no comfortable hotels and restaurants. Cheap room renting was ok for me and some fasting too. Yet after a few days I really needed jam, sweet  and fresh blackberry jam. There was just a food shop. I went in and bought a jam jar. The label was peculiar, simply I couldn’t understand a single word but the expiring date and that stuff was expired since the previous year! So I asked politely the good-looking girl to have my jar changed; the good-looking girl looked at me smiling and politely said “yes sir, off course  consider that all the jars we have here are already expired ! “. I survived indeed the very expired Yugoslavian jam and I was able to happily go back many times more for new Croatia holidays.

fusion food

Posted on July 21, 2011 @ 6:00 pm by massimo | Filed under: advertisement,ancona,beach,blog,food,fun,holidays,mediterranean,news,people,travel,ukiyo-e,wordpress

Among the  thousand reasons that make an Italy holidays very peculiar, there is food. Italian food is higly reputed due to  its traditional quality and variety. Yet, as for the rest of western or westernising  countries, (I apologise for my bizarre neologism) a new  cooking trend has gained little by little more passionate fans, even in the conservative Italy: the fusion cuisine.  The most creative Italian chefs deals with fusion and try their best in order to create new appealing dishes, which invariably make use of ingredients from distant and different cooking stiles. Here is a good example! The Ristorante Clandestino chef is truly influenced by Japanese food and he is invariably able to produce some funny, inusual, always excellent, food combinations. To underline the concept, last but not least, the management of this cozy beach restaurant, called it SUSCI restaurant instead of SUSHI restaurant, but you won’t understand the pun unless you speak Italian!