A Bridge Never Built
The water that separates the toe of Italy from the Island of Sicily is three kilometres or two miles wide. It is said to be the origin of the phrase “Between a rock and a hard place”, the hard place refering to the village of Scilla in Calabria, the home of the sea monster Scylla of Greek mythology.
This is taken from Scilla, looking across the water to Sicily. Now, the only way to cross the Strait of Messina is on a ferry that carries people, cars and train carriages. I have done this a number of times. Always amazing. But a bridge would be easier.
There is much talk of a bridge, and there is a an exhibit of an early 20th century plan at the Wolfsonian, a museum at Nervi, a town just along the coast from Genoa.
The model shows piers with buildings on them connected by a suspension bridge. It was a grand plan of the Mussolini era, and never got anywhere.
The Wolfsonian is a museum founded by an American philanthropist, Mitchell`Micky’ Wolfson, who is still alive at 88. There is also a Wolfson museum in Miami, the city where Wolfson’s grandfather was the first Jewish mayor.
Among other things, the Wolfsonian celebrates Italian design: vacumn cleaners, motor scooters, train cars and bi-planes among other things. And furniture.
A round table where the plates and the food spin to come to you. Wine by your side.
A dining table from 1937 designed by Piero Bottoni.
And a bed from the 1920s done in a style called Magic Realism. It is inlaid with precious stones.
A Photo Exhibit on the World and Water
A jaguar by a river in Matto Grosso state in Brazil, taken in 2011. The largest cat after lions and tigers, the jaguar is a strong swimmer and its diet includes caimans.
The photographs are the work of the Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado. This exhibit deals with water on every continent, including Antartica. He has taken photos in 120 countries. The photographs are shot in a large format which allows the pictures to be huge, as you can see from the person standing beside a giant print of an Oasis in Libya. They are always in black and white.
A lot of his work is in South America, like this rainstorm so intense it resembles an Atomic mushroom cloud. Taken in a national park in Acre State in Brazil in 2016.
A man of his time and place, Salgardo, 80, is an idealistic South American, like the current Pope, and his choices refelct his concern with the planet and social justice.
The photo above was taken in the Amazon rainforest in the Javar Valley in 1998. Rather than a National Geographic type shot of native people, he humaizes the subjects by using their names: “Near the village of Maronal. In the foreground: Txomaewas with a hand in the water; in the background: Vonchi Peko. Txonami Ewa, Kena Paichi and Rio” reads the caption near the giant photo.
Below, semi Nomadic cattle farmers in Namibia in 2005, who depend on water.
Fishermen from the Sicilian town of Trapani in 1991 out to catch tuna. Their techniques produces tuna so valuable you can see the Japanese buyers in the boat behind who take the catch right away.
Chinstrap Penguins slide into the cold southern Atlantic Ocean on the isolated South Sandwich Islands in 2009.
The exhibit, and others, is at the Ducal Palace in Genoa, once home to the Doge of Venice, the powerful ruler of a city state built on ships and the sea.
The stud marked giant door with Neptune, the Roman god of the Sea as the knocker.
Italian Car Crash
This has nothing to do with museums, but it caught my eye. A trusting soul gave a 24 year-old car jockey the job of driving a 1987 Ferrari F40, worth $3.2 millon, to a car show in Germany. The Ferrari F40, built for the company’s 40th anniversary, has a top speed of 324 kmh or 202 mph. The kid must have floored it in the tunnel with the results seen below. The engine wasn’t wrecked, it is behind the driver, who wasn't hurt; no word if he still has a job.
A one hour hike on Sunday from San Rocco to Punta Chiappa to take a ferry back to Camogli. This is highly unusal behaviour.
And simple food.
Spaghetti with asparagus at Izoa in Camogli
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