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family memories

Posted on September 28, 2011 @ 5:45 pm by massimo | Filed under: advertisement,ancona,blog,fun,holidays,illustration,mediterranean,news,people,sailing,wordpress

My parents, a couple of true sea lovers never owned their own boat, yet they often arranged our family holidays on board their best friends motor-cruiser. Well knowing that such kind of  holidays would make priceless memories for me and my sister, they managed to get everyting right, in order to avoid any possible annoyance: the chosen destinations were always reasonably close and the motor-cruiser capability let 4 adults with their 4 children, to cohabit without particular problems during the navigation.  As 7 or 8 years old kids we used to play below deck during the passage,  were trained to sleep two by two in the berths, or allowed to steer for a while. Great fun!  Would be my parents tricks useful to some travel advisor at hand, in order to arrange super special holidays for parents and childs?  I don’t know: yet it was exactly during a recent night-cruise, that these memories could’nt wait anymore: the boat pushed by a gentle and stable breeze under the light of a benevolent moon, having nothing do but gazing at the whispering sea, I experienced that peculiar meditative attitude that every sailor, under similar circumstances, had surely learned. “Why “-I wondered- “I am so invariably at ease while on board whatever boat or ship?”  ”Where does my sense of  well being when resting in a narrow berth during a rough navigation, comes from?” Off course, you see, the very obvious answer is deep in my childhood.

underwater landscapes

Posted on September 20, 2011 @ 6:02 pm by massimo | Filed under: advertisement,animals,another green world,bargain,beach,blog,diving,fun,illustration,mediterranean,news,swimming,turkey

Kaş, once an unspoiled fishing village, is now a relatively unspoiled tourist town on the southern bulge of Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. The area around Kas belongs to the Top 100 diving destinations worldwide. This is because this area have an high amount of underwater life, combined with very clear water (up to 40 meters visibility) and beautiful underwater landscapes. Actually there are around 30 different dive spots and many great places for swimming and snorkelling:  a destination really worth a Turkey holidays, in my opinion. Always, while I’m afloat on the sea surface, I know that a more or less intense underwater life is going on just under my feet: this fact simply makes me feel dizzy!  What then,  if you are bathing or -better- snorkelling a diving spot notoriously crowded by baracudas, stingrays, sea-turtles, rare snails, dorades, jack-fishes, soldier-fishes, octopusses, muray-eels, trumpet-fishes, brasses of many kinds, as well as huge groupers? What would be your feeling when so many amazing underwater lifeforms are to be seen regulary in unpolluted and crystal clear sea waters like Kaş’ ones? Would you realize at last, that a crowded, sunken and parallel world coexists with the one we are used to  ive in?

Illustration Friday topic is: mesmerizing

Lanzarote

Posted on September 13, 2011 @ 5:17 pm by massimo | Filed under: advertisement,africa,architecture,bargain,blog,cheap,flights,holidays,illustration,island,news,people,wordpress

A friend of mine lives in Las Palmas, Canary Islands. He recently wrote me about Lanzarote, an island of contrasts -according to him- where  long ocean beaches coexist with the lunar atmosphere of the National Park of Timanfaya.  Harsh in some ways, this island can surely surprise me with its beauty that now I wish to discover. Meanwhile I’m only browsing the Web and searching among heaps of  low-cost deals, I found out that these cheap flights to Lanzarote are really worth checking! The island is the easternmost of the Canary Islands and is about 170 km from the African coast. My friend wrote that probably  the first thing I’ll notice -as an architect, is the elegance of Lanzarote buildings: white traditional style buildings never exceeding a certain height, with green or blue shutters.  It is the result of a plan strongly supported by architect Cèsar Manrique, who wished to preserve and protect the natural heritage of the island. Manrique,  born in 1919 in Arecife, after living in Madrid and New York, returned to his beloved island in 1968 and began a series of works, with the sole goal of harmonizing the landscape in the artistic creation. The otcomes of his work are scattered throughout the island and make it a unique place in the world. His house, Taro de Tahiche 5 km from Arrecife, was carved out of a solidified lava flow: it is the result of  a game of surprising contrasts that includes the blinding white of the structure and the black volcanic rock. My summary representation of Taro de Tahiche relies on a photo found on the Internet; it’s  just a personal reminder until I’ll be able to pay a visit to my friends in Lanzarote…

boundaries

Posted on September 10, 2011 @ 6:41 pm by massimo | Filed under: advertisement,blog,cheap,fashion,fun,holidays,illustration,news,people,thailand,travel,wordpress

Most of us live their lives within a consolidated routine, whose boundaries completely depend by our will. In other words we are supposed to be sufficently self-possessed in order to get out our rate-race as soon as we are fed up with it: our mental well-being cannot but improve! With this …

last minute!

Posted on September 8, 2011 @ 10:16 am by massimo | Filed under: africa,art,bargain,blog,fashion,flights,fun,holidays,illustration,kenya,lamu,people,travel,wordpress

I am quite an organized fellow when it comes to plan my trips. Since I’m going to be “on the road” usually for long, I always try  to arrange as many details as I can before leaving: booking in advance  is a must for me. Off course many people simply let …

Harry Morgan

Posted on September 4, 2011 @ 9:47 am by massimo | Filed under: advertisement,blog,books,fashion,flights,illustration,island,news,people,politics,travel,wordpress

I’ve not been yet in the U.S. These days however, a good reason to drive me there would be to visit Key West: I have just been re-reading Hemingways’s  “To have and Have not” and now I fancy a quick trip to this very tiny island, about 6 km long and 3 …