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August anniversary

Posted on August 15, 2011 @ 3:36 pm by massimo | Filed under: advertisement,bargain,blog,food,holidays,illustration,news,people,travel,wordpress

On August 13 morning, 1978, I woke up in  the ground floor dormitory of King George VI Memorial Hostel, Holland Park, London. I was very dizzy. The first thing I could see from my bed was a bunch of clothes in the middle of the room and my room-mates standing around it,  picking up their trousers and shirts…What the hell had happened was clear to me when someone told that burglars had entered the ground floor dorm in the nighttime, by an open window, sprayed the air with some funny sleeping gas, stolen everybody’s money. I was definitely broken! I went to the dorm upstairs where my travelling companion was, I talked to him and borrowed 30 £. All I could do with such little money was to buy a cheap ticket home. I went for Magic Bus. At their travel agency in  Shaftesbury Ave they told me that a coach bound to Greece was scheduled on august 15 at 8 pm; I was supposed to get off in Milan, where my dear aunty lived. The ticket price was 25 £! All I had to do was to survive until the bus departure. Friends of friends drove me in Weighton rd, Penge, where someone else lived in a squat. I was welcomed and I was suggested to attend the nearby Hare Krishna restaurant where I could get free vegetable soups. On august 15, the magic bus left from Charing Cross. I was on board, rather hungry, a Wimpy Bar sandwich in a box, 5 copper pence in my right pocket and the absolute certitude to be in Milan in less than 48 hours. The bus was overcrowded by last minute tourists, willingly looking their hot greece holidays. In a hurry, we all where positively hurry for some reason, but, alas! that bus company was really magic. As soon as we reached Chamonix Bus Station, on the French side of  Mont Blanc tunnel, the Greek driver asked everybody to get off:  a new magic bus would be arrived in half an hour and picked up all of us. It is a fact that after 6 hours no bus whatever was in sight yet! All The Brits where absolutely disgusted and very, very angry. I left them there , still waiting for their never coming bus, and I  caught an ordinary shuttle bus to Aosta, Italy. Once in Aosta I went to a police station, I showed my fully empty pockets, so getting a printed temporary permit to travel by train for free to Milan. Happiness and exctiment swelled within me: I felt so proud, I was just 18 after all…

Illustration friday topic is: swell

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!

canned food!

Posted on July 26, 2008 @ 6:06 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog,croatia,food,fun,holidays,illustration,mediterranean,news,sailing,wordpress

I’m going to be off-line till mid august. I’ll be sailing on board the Natahel, heading east to beautiful Kornati Islands. and further south to Korcula…I guess I’m going to have plenty of canned food and this is a pity: actually, I can’t stand it, since I love …

animal rights

Posted on November 24, 2007 @ 11:21 pm by massimo | Filed under: animals,another green world,blog,food,fun,holidays,illustration,island,news,politics,thailand,travel,wordpress

I always hated the zoo. Simply I try to figure the way an animal feels behind the bars of a cage, or what it might prefer to do instead. I like to think that every living creature was born to be somehow free, so set them free…
The cute, black, little monkey spent …

lapu lapu

Posted on November 10, 2007 @ 6:30 pm by massimo | Filed under: animals,beach,blog,boracay,food,illustration,island,news,philippines,ukiyo-e,wordpress

Red groupers typically have a stout body and a large mouth. They are not built for long-distance fast swimming. They can be quite large, usually largest fish of the grouper family, and their body, soft dorsal and anal fins, are covered with scales and thick skin.
Lapu Lapu is the Pilipino name …

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 …

green tea

Posted on August 4, 2007 @ 5:11 pm by massimo | Filed under: africa,bargain,blog,cheap,fashion,food,fun,holidays,illustration,news,people,travel,wordpress

Essaouira’s camping area was bordering the long sandy beach. I had got there at dusk, after a long, long drive, and parked my car by the sandy dunes. My two travelling companions and me sat on the sandy ground, and lit quickly the oil lamp with …

calamansi

Posted on May 12, 2007 @ 3:34 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog,boracay,cheap,fashion,food,fun,illustration,island,news,philippines,wordpress

Calamansi, is easy to spell, hard to forget, and adds zing when you least expect it! Calamansi is the most commonly grown backyard tree in the Philippines, among the citrus species. It is a small tree with a height of about 2 meters, with broad egg-shaped, …

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