Feeds

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.

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!

herons

Posted on May 30, 2008 @ 6:25 pm by massimo | Filed under: ancona,animals,another green world,blog,fun,illustration,mediterranean,news,wordpress

I have been visiting once upon a time, the little natural reserve of “Ripa Bianca”, just a few kilometres from home, on May, the 25th. It is a very  little area, sponsored by Italian WWF , bordering the river: actually an ideal spot for bird watching.
And I was trilled by …

theory travel at home

Posted on February 16, 2008 @ 7:36 pm by massimo | Filed under: africa,ancona,blog,illustration,island,kenya,news,travel,wordpress

Twenty years ago Madagascar was in my mind: it was the place I wished to go at all costs!
I got hold of guidebooks, maps, and an atlas even; everything that could be possibly useful to me was collected and then recklessly scattered upon my room’s wooden floor…
I spent hours fancying about my …

backwards self-portrait

Posted on December 15, 2007 @ 10:28 pm by massimo | Filed under: ancona,blog,illustration,people,wordpress

The past and present exist side by side, inhabiting the same person. This is my backwards self-portrait, while drawing Aynaku’s illustrations. Usually all I do is to sit behind my desk and concentrate, trying hard to merge into my memories: slowly a sort of transparent vision surrounds me  and the image materializes on …

moody blues…

Posted on September 29, 2007 @ 3:49 pm by massimo | Filed under: ancona,blog,food,illustration,package tour,swimming,wordpress

Summer time is over, at last. I’m just coming from the beach: I dared once upon a time cold October waters and took my last swim. I’m almost frozen and now I don’t want to go out, I am not in the mood…The blues you know, the moody blues is always …

wedding breakfast

Posted on September 16, 2007 @ 11:46 am by massimo | Filed under: ancona,another green world,cheap,food,fun,illustration,island,news,people,travel,wordpress

In Dondaduwa, a Sri Lanka south-west located coastal little town, I was invited to a local wedding breakfast. I felt honoured by this unexpected ask and was really curious. Just past the sunset, a little crowd of friends and relatives gathered an open space behind the …

discovery

Posted on July 15, 2007 @ 10:35 am by massimo | Filed under: ancona,architecture,art,bargain,blog,cheap,china,fashion,fun,illustration,news,people,travel,wordpress

Modern Beijing possesses a certain grandeur from its colourful past. There are a many places in the city were a visit is a must, and among them Liulichang Street, in the central Xuanwu District.
Liulichang Street was carefully restored to its original shape from the Ming …

abbey

Posted on July 1, 2007 @ 9:29 am by massimo | Filed under: ancona,architecture,blog,fun,holidays,illustration,mediterranean,news,travel,wordpress

Sometimes a wonderful, enchanting place is just behind the corner and once doesn’t really need to travel so far away. Accidentally a few months ago, it happened to me to come across the beautiful Sassovivo Abbey. The abbey, located in Italy’ central county of Umbria, is just a …

« Previous Entries