Wednesday 25 July 2007

Agrigento and "Scala dei Turchi"


Agrigento and surroundings, another beautiful and hidden location in Sicily.
Hidden...yes really hidden and far from Catania. I took 2 hours and a half to get the destination, traveling with 43 degrees .. :|!
But the place was so beautiful and so a rare spectacle that it was really a great idea! I 'm talking about the "Scala dei turchi", it is a calcareus, clayey white big rock at the seaside. It looks like stairs starting from the sea and goes up...really up and they are really precipitous!
They are wonderful.. look at some pictures! (thanks to the author again :P)

Thursday 12 July 2007

Germany : Munich, Leipzig and Berlin

My first time in Germany.
I spent a week in Munich and unfortunately I didn't have enough time to sightsee the city, I 've just started meeting German people and a German city (and German weather as well.....what cold!!).
Then I spent the weekend at Leipzig, really nice city. Quite big, young city, hosting an old university.
What I appreciated more was the company and the bicycle :P. I loved a lot walking with bicycle, crossing all the city, freely, using bicycle lane, and pass through parks. Thanks to my friend for that!!! Now I 'll get my bicycle in Catania :P. The problem is that there is no bicycle lane, so the city is quite dangerous in this sense :(.
In Leipzig I saw (or listened to) a concert of classical music at a park; the Gewandhaus orchestra played for three hours, celebrating the end of the symphonic season.
German people live classical music daily, during religious offices, with the events the city offers, every day. The park was full of people, families, children and adults, listening to classical music. Even if there were a lot of children, the concert was not disturbed. Nice nice evening!

My last day in Germany was spent in Berlin. As I spent only few hours I can say my first, really first impression about it.

I didn't like it as Berlin is not a nice city according to me :P. But I think it is a very interesting city, it is more than beautiful to sightsee it, expecially if you are interesting in the last century world history. I felt really full of emotions when I saw the rests of the wall, and mostly the "Checkpoint Charlie". It is amazing thinking about people that lived in the middle of the war, living terrorism.
Holocaust 's monument is great as well!
See pictures about Potsdamer platz (square) and Checkpoint Charlie.
Potsdamer platz makes you feeling as in an empty space, it hosts with few modern buildings, as it was crossed by the wall till 1989. A Renzo Piano building is in the square and the Film Haus, where Berlin Film festival is celebrated.
Berlin made me eager of studying last century history deeply. I'll buy some book and hopefully I 'll take time to read it :P.