July 1, 2009 | Comments (0)

I just read an article on web and it says that Puglia is the Italian region that produces the most electricity with photovoltaic cells. According to the article Puglia produces 63 KW of power from the sun. I also remember reading a short time ago that Puglia also produces more electricity with wind turbines then any other region. So Puglia is frickin powerhouse of Italy. Because as you loyal readers know Brindisi also has the dirtiest coal fired plant in Europe and on the top of the list of places to put a nuclear power plant. So we have good and bad. Puglia is doing it’s part to save the environment and destroy it. So strange. I still refuse to get behind the nuclear plant until they show me the plan for the radioactive waste. Yes there is great new technology in nuclear power but the waste is still THE problem according to me.

By the way I’m experimenting with the iPhone so I may be posting more often!

June 13, 2009 | Comments (1)

Ok I’m going to try to recover my blog. I’ve been neglecting this thing for months. I’ll blame work and my new Iphone. The Iphone makes it so easy to jump on Facebook and add a photo or little blurb of what I’m doing that writing on the blog is like I’m repeating myself.
Still there has been big news. Marco and Antonella got married a short time ago. It was a blowout party fest the likes of which not to be repeated too often. It went on all day and we ate A LOT and yet still somehow managed to dance. I have never danced so much in between dishes. I mean there was a pause between the first first dish and the second first dish. During this time people got up and danced and when the next dish arrived we all sat down and ate (then after eating some people had the normal smoke break outside). Then we repeated these steps from about 3:00 PM until 10:00 PM. At 10:00 PM we started to slow down and the dessert took its toll. Then we went back outside for the big cake, which also had a dessert. In the end it was after 11:00 PM when we started to make our way to the cars. I was dead tired in many ways. The legs were tired from the dance floor and my brain was very tired from thinking. You see my brain still goes into overload after several hours of intense Italian. This wedding was many hours of intense Italian and Brindisi dialect. I don’t think I’ve ever made it through so much in such a short time. Usually my eyes start to glaze over after 2-3 hours over a normal dinner in a loud restaurant. I felt proud of myself for not taking a timeout and staying in the party from the start to finish.

So what else is going on, well the big news around here is the election of new mayor. The ads with candidate photos are flowing on the buildings and in the street, literally. There are many candidate posters plastered to buildings and anything else. Then there are the little leaflets making the streets even more full of litter than usual. It appears that some people just dump the leaflets on the ground and let the wind circulate them. Also I find it funny that the candidates usually use an abandoned store as a little party headquarters. It’s a place you can go to talk with people to find out the candidates belief on important issues. Don’t they realize they are calling attention to all abandoned stores in the center of town? I have mixed feelings about the current mayor. He’s definitely tried and made some improvements but some things are worst. Recycling has made only the slightest improvement in town and I haven’t heard him say no to the nuclear power plant they plan to build near Ostuni. He’s in Berli’s party so does that mean he is for the nuclear power plant? I see nothing of the waterfront improvements except the kids rides were kicked out of town but to me that was no big deal one or the other. The Palazzo Nerevenga and Teatro Verdi are open with the Palazzo having a beautiful room for the original top of the famous column. That’s good news but the sea castle or Argonese Castle is still not open to the public except on rare occasions for some odd reason. I fail to see the military need for the castle and they open it once in while so obviously there is nothing top secret going on.

May 29, 2009 | Comments (0)

Well today it’s Summer! You may ask how do I come to that conclusion but it’s quite simple. The restuarants and cafes have set up their outdoor seating. It’s been unseasonably hot and dry for almost 3 weeks now but it wasn’t until yesterday that they set up the wonderful outdoor seating that makes summer, summer in southern Italy. Actually, I think they are required by law to wait until yesterday because June 2 is a holiday, so today is the start of a 4 day weekend. Everybody is going on vacation and they want to be able to sit outside and eat in the sun or the cool shade. Speaking of that exodus for vacation, I may or may not still be in Brindisi by the time you read this…..

In an ironic twist the weather has cooled down so now that we CAN eat outside, we may not WANT to. The last 3 weeks have been like August but we’ve taken a short trip back to April!

May 17, 2009 | Comments (2)

I haven’t posted for a while so I’ll spare you the details and go with photos of what I’ve been up to..

I couple of weekends ago I went to Maratea and Trecchina. Maratea is on a little piece of Basilicata on the Tyrrhenian Sea coast between Calabria and Campagna.
First a photo of the coast…

Up here that they have a statue… of guess who…

This Redeemer Statue is 22 meters or 72 feet high. It’s not Rio but close…

I’ve meet cows and goats that have the good life in Italy. Well these sheep, just outside of Trecchina, also have the good life in my opinion….

I call this one “The Historic Center of Trecchina” because most of the houses are abandoned after the earthquake in 1980. The new historic center is farther down the hillside.

On the way home we stopped here in at Rivello. This would have been a great postcard shot but the air was very humid that day so the picture didn’t come out as clear as I would have liked. I guess I’ll have to go back…

Last weekend I enjoyed the Ionian Sea at Santa Maria al Bagno. The boat seemed to be hovering the water was so clear.

And some time ago I worked on the plants on my balcony. Now I can take a photo like this one above today! It’s funny because I also saw tourists taking a photo of my my wall from down there on street level. I wonder if they would pay to come up here and take a photo?