Riots in Switzerland....

So it is not as it appears: even in Switzerland there are riots. In the latest days it is eas to read about it in Basel, Chur, Zurich. But I didn't notice anything strange close to me. Maybe because I don't get all the discussions, even if I 'm often on the train or the bus.
It looks also that Switzerland is not new to the riots, as it has happened in the past. I found this reportage really interesting, but I don't have time to look more depply to understand the reason of those riots.
It seems that a famous school (ETH) was moved from a place close to the Hauptbahnhof of Zurich to another place as a consequence of some riots happened sometime in the past.
For me it is strange to here about it, as I always think of Switzerland as a peaceful land, so I can say that Swiss people have a character as well as the rest of the world.

Next episode

Hi

after my leaving from Italy this is my next episode I 'd like to talk about in my beloved blog.

Today I was in Zurich as I daily do since 1 months, and I was going to have a "Kaffee Creme" in Mc Donalds during a break ( I can tell you ... it is even better than an extremely expensive coffee in a bar in Zurich ). Just before Mc Donalds, in the middle of the street, but in a pedestrian area, there was a dog, a nice and sweet puppy.

No dog in Switzerland walks in a street alone so the only possibility was that someone had lost him. He came towards me and I stopped him to cross the road. He obeyed and was so sweet!! Then he started running towards a young boy just to play with him but the sweetest scene was seeing the boy and some other people taking care of him. They kept him and made a call, probably to police in order to get the identity of the dog and then the owner's address.

I stopped a while and I just looked at that scene and I thought : "How lucky is that dog? He is absolutely safe! People, who don't know him, a dog, takes care of him". I smiled and I felt full of positive energy, and I thought that Switzerland is really amazing.

It is amazing breathing positive feeling and looking at smiling people when you are on the train, on the street or in a shop. It is amazing how much patience Swiss people have in listening to my "schlecht" (horrible) German and answering so politely!

And finally amazing is how people enjoy a sunny day at lake's river, by reading, talking, or simply relaxing. I enjoy as well that and I can tell that sometimes this helps me do not miss my sea.

What is missing?

Hi my favourite wall,
from day to day I think that I want to write this or I want to write that on the blog. I should arrange a good terminal so that I can soon write what I have in mind, so do not loose my thoughts...
Anyway for sure something is in my mind since days, and I thought how to write it here, as a story? as a poetry? as a simple post? How to be general as I usually am in my blog? let's try.
Happy to announce that I 'm going to leave my country to start a great (the greatest one life can offer ;)) adventure abroad! Feelings? I 'm Excited, Scared, Curious ... Optimistic and Longing to win (or at least survive ;)) and grow personally, professionally and what else is possible to improve!
Of course melanchony, homesickness, they will come soon or later. But a friend of mine asked me: "what exactly is tying you up?" ... well good question!! Key question I'd say! Let's move this question on : "what do you want?", "what do you expect from life?"... too serious? Maybe it would be easier to look at life, how short it is and how big is the set of opportunities in the world! and then, here is the answer : GO!
Still preparing myself, friends to the departure, but I 'll keep this blog up to date! Not too far from the departure date! Good luck to me!

Rossy

World Press Photo 2009

I 've just been to the World Press Photo Exhibition 2009 (currently hosted in Zurich).
My impression about it? I felt not the same emotion I felt the first time I saw it, I 'm little bit disappointed, I am not expert but I didn't get such a special emotion in front of the photo, as usual happens when you see a special and well-done photo.
What I liked a lot is, as always, stories they want to tell. From American mortgages crisis to immigrates tragedy, and so on. You can have a look at the site it reports a nice gallery.

Ross

Neuchatel

Hi there!
It is long time I haven't posted about my travels.

So, here is Neuchatel! Really nice villlage :) one hour from Zurich by train.
I enjoyed a lot sightseeing by bycicle for one day.




Ross

Tasse sui biglietti aerei....curiosità.

Visto che oggi pomeriggio non ho molto da fare, faccio finalmente il biglietto di ritorno da Parigi.
Pagato il biglietto su Internet di un volo Meridiana, controllo per filo e per segno che tipo di tasse pago :P. E noto che :

tariffa(il prezzo indicato è comprensivo di IVA 10%)		116.00 EUR
Tasse e supplementi	QX - Controllo passeggeri	8.91 EUR
	FR - Tassa locale francia	13.55 EUR
	IZ - Tassa di solidarietà	1.00 EUR
	YQ - Crisis surcharge	6.00 EUR
Prezzo		145.46 EUR

Diritti amministrativi e di emissione(inclusa IVA 20%)	3.00 EUR
Totale pagato	148.46 EUR

Lo sapevate l'unione europea ha lanciato la tassa di solidarietà? "Una tassa dell' Ue sui voli, per finanziare gli aiuti ai Paesi più poveri colpiti dall' Aids".
Grazie al mio biglietto allora l'AIDS viene combattuto ... voglio crederci...

Interessante anche la tassa "Crisis surcharge" : "È un supplemento che copre i costi dei maggiori controlli di sicurezza ritenuti necessari dopo gli attentati dell'11 settembre 2001 negli Stati Uniti." Quindi quelle file interminabili e i controlli di sicurezza che io eviterei perchè mi sembrano assurdi, hanno costi coperti dal mio biglietto!


E chi lo sapeva..da oggi avrò un atteggiamento diverso quando decido di fare un viaggio :D!

Ross

... e l'Italia è tecnicamente in recessione!

Bene .... sembra ufficiale : qui!
Se si tira troppo la corda ... prima o poi si spezza, si sa. E così dopo che per strada e per anni si sente parlare di prezzi che aumentano senza alcun controllo e di stipendi che rimangono fermi..adesso tutti i media si svegliano e dicono ciò che per molti è ovvio. Una buonissima parte degli italiani non arriva a fine mese, vendite in calo in tutto il paese perfino per pasta e pane! E certo, la gente è indebitata fino al collo!
E ora? Cosa si fa? Staremo a vedere!Sembra che ancora si stia parlando della scoperta dell'acqua calda,vediamo quando si passerà ai fatti, quelli veri!
Io intanto penso bene di emigrare, per adesso l'Italia e soprattutto Catania non mi offrono nulla di positivo!

Ross

Zurich ... Opernhaus and lake

Hi
still living in Zurich..and I 'm starting appreciating some Swiss habits.
Moreover, I was at the Opernhaus. It is really nice, and to have a walk along the lake into the park, I like it a lot, together with bicycle ;).

Zurich ... tram city.

Hi
after a month in Zurich still not breathing Swiss air, but experiencing a multicultural and anonymous city.
As a friend suggested yesterday evening, I have to live the Swiss Zurich joining Swiss locals and Swiss life. I agree it is the best way to be in touch with a city, living as a citizen not as a tourist.
Anyway until now, what I 'll remind thinking on Zurich is the dense network of trams. Efficient and characteristic trams. You can reach all the city areas jumping from one tram to another. If it still not enough, add a bus or a regional train as well :). A lot of possibilities to get a destination. Wonderful, no stress, just a little bit cold waiting at the stations. But trams and buses are well warmed.

Zurich

Hi
a lot of time far from the blog!!Now it's time to be back ;).
I spent a week in Zurich, it was my third time there. Is it enough to talk about it? Uhm, let's put my first impression here. It is funny for me to be back through my old posts and remind my feelings :).
I can say I 'm lucky, it was a terrific sunny week. I had a lot of work but the week end was beautiful, mostly because I did the thing I love above all : GO AROUND with the BICYCLE! This time the scenario was the Zurich lake, gardens and the city as well. I adore sightseeing a city by bicycle!
Of course my trip there encountered other opportunities, as visit a museum (Museum Fur Gestaltung = museo del design ) , visit the sorroundings ( well known to me but interesting for comparing city to the rest ), have a special evening at the Langstrassenfest ( it seemed to be in London ) , a dinner with guys of different countries and a nice dinner with a special guest ;).
So, my first impression about Zurich is a multicultural city. In these terms it is similar to London, but not so chaotic, the density of the population seems to be lower than London's. There is an efficient transportation system, trams and buses. They are a lot and of course Swiss-ly on time ;). You don't need a car.
Then I learned something more about Swiss language. It seems to be a merge among different languages, i.e. Italian, French and German of course. German is a little bit different and becomes a dialect. The language changes while moving through the Switzerland, with more French influence while moving towards West for example. So there is no a precise and well defined language to learn, it depends mostly on the place where you stay or live.
Next time I 'll be there I want to find out something that makes my feeling of a soulless Zurich overturned! There should be something that shows the original Zurich, it is not visible at first, it should be discovered.
The picture in the right is a nice ice cream at Sprungli 's bar :).

Travelling a lot ...

Hi
I couldn't find time to update my blog, I 've traveled a lot in the last 2 months.
I went to Madrid, Warsaw, Zurich and I had a tour of the western sicily... WOW!

I 'll try to post something in the next days!

Picture was taken close to Trapani (sicily). It is funny, isn't it?

Ross

Bern

Hi guys
in the last months I had the possibility to visit Switzerland.
Some days ago I was in Bern, where I spent 2 days. Here some pictures :).
I sightsaw the city by bicycle, I love to do it :). Weather was beautiful and people as well.
The city was full of football fans, even if Bern only hosted the so called "Fanzone"s, i.e. squares provided with enormous screens and closed, creating protected and safe areas. A lot of policemen were at the entry of the zones and all over the city.
The city is nice and small.
I found Einstein Museum and the Museum of the communication really interesting. I loved Einstein Museum because of the structure, it is well organized in periods. Each period is well organized by using a description of the society, economical situation in which Einstein lived. It was like living with him, looking at any aspects that influenced his life.
I also learned the Relativity Theory ;).
Moreover I appreciated the videos of the postwar. A section in the museum was dedicated to the second world war. Among the others, there were two monitors, one projecting life in Switzerland after the second world war, and the other life in Europe in the same period. It is incredible how they differed! Ski holidays, life and prosperity in Switzerland; corpses, ruins, sadness in Europe.
The Museum of the communication is an "interactive" museum and I like these kind of museums :).

Italians in Switzerland

Hi fellows,

I 'd like to collect another feeling I experienced yesterday.
As you MOST PROBABLY know, European championship is running in Switzerland/Austria, and yesterday Italy (FORZA AZZURRI!!! :P) beat France (Zidane was not the cause this time :P).
The match looked like a box match instead of football, but I 'm not either expert or fan of football, so never mind!
At the end of the match we spent some more time in the center of a small Swiss village, drinking beer. We spent half an hour maybe. That was enough to see a crowd coming into the center... a crowd of Italians, celebrating the winners! A plenty of Italians, I couldn't imagine how many!
Swiss friends explained that young people we saw in the crowd constitutes the second generation of Italians here in Switzerland, that means that parents established in Switzerland and their sons still live here. Swiss uses to call each young "secondo".
I was wondering of the patriotic spirit they spread in celebrating the winners! That young people, although grown in Switzerland, still has an Italian heart! And this is wonderful!

Actually Swiss people consider Italian as friends, and they celebrated as well :).

Italians! Be proud of being Italians and do not damage Italia image! Abroad we are still loved ... hopefully for long yet!

Rossy

My first canyoning adventure :)

Hi fellows
I would like to share with you my memories about the terrific adventure I had some days ago.
I joined a great team to share a really fun adventure: canyoning at Gole dell'Alcantara, Sicily!
Look at the fantastic team ready to start!

Hopefully I 'll receive the picture of the team after the canyoning.. I 'm eager to see the faces :D.
Unfortunately I don't have pictures about the canyoning itself as we didn't have any cameras with us..what a shame!
We went through cascades (small :P), streams and along rock walls to get to the furthest point possible. Then we went back by simply sliding on the water, the stream guided us towards the ravine (where the river completes its path, and where we started climbing).
We took 2 hours to get to the furthest point fighting against the stream , and 5 minutes to get back :D because of the stream.

Great! I suggest all of you going in Sicily to try it, it is fantastic!

Ross

I 'm back ... to my blog

Hi Folks,
finally I'm back to my blog, and actively back.
Many events brought me back, to read my old posts. I received an email from a friend of mine, she reads my blog, that's great! A colleague (and friend as well) asked me about my blog, about it's birth and maintenance.
At last, these days are quite calm in terms of work so I have time to spend for my blog. It is like to be back of one year, I collected a lot of emotions, at least in the first time, and it is nice to be able to live that emotions again.

I 've just read the "birth of my blog" ... what I wrote on "why" I decided to create this blog (by now more than one year ago). I wrote that my intention was to discuss about life, and above all nice aspects of life, worth to be shared with you. Recently I didn't share so many life events with you.. sorry I broke the promise. I 'll try to tell you something more.

I didn't travel so much, so I don't have many arguments about that. I 'll be in Paris next January. It is a good opportunity to complete my post about Paris!

I 'll add also a post about Milo, where I went last Saturday. It is a nice village close to Etna's top, it recalls me life when I was 14 years old. It is nice to observe how places don't look like you remember them.

So, come on!! Wait for me!!!

Kisses!

Ross

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)

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.

London

Hi fellows,
unfortunately I 'm back from London.I 'm sad ... look at the picture and you can just imagine why!
I 'll try to share with you what I lived for 3 days (very short period).
I cannot miss to say that I like London, it is objectively nice! But most of all I enjoyed it for many reasons.
I walked freely, with no fixed destinations, no time tables. I tried to live everything as much slow as possible, to capture not only London as a touristic city, but London and Londoners.
Thanks to a friend (and destiny as well :P), I met Peter and Adam (see the picture), lovely persons.
We were at a club in which fans of the Northern Soul music meet to share a common passion. Peter loves that music and I was happy that he decided to share this with me. I 'm eager learning about music, most of all jazz, soul and blues.
I had also a dinner with Peter two days later, and we had a walk through the "City" of London. I loved walking and talking to Peter in that beautiful atmosphere.
Therefore I was at the Tate Modern museum, an old power station reused as museum. I like this kind of museum, modern, out of the classic schema, in which you can find the classic paintings, as well as a video produced with strange effect on a mobile wall, and more artistic experiments.
As I planned before leaving, I was to the theater for the "Phantom of the Opera"... nice! Despite audio and the seat in the balcony (the highest location in the theater :(, even if I payed 24 pounds for that seat! ) I enjoyed the show.
I spent most of the time in the touristic London, and this is not representative for the entire city, I saw people from everywhere, a lot of people of different countries, but living and sharing the same places and services, no suspicious with each other, no awry sights ... just living peacefully.
Moreover, English people are really polite. They take care of individuals, above all if they need help. I saw more than once people asking to provide help if needed. I know that it is not very unusual, but I think it was great because it was done without distinguishing among races and colours. Probably, that's why I didn't see people asking for money or washing car's windows or selling roses (as happens in Italy) at the traffic lights. If everyone stops to help anyone asking or not, there 'll be no one searching for any kind of job to live (or survive).
Finally, art, architecture, music, nature (in the beautiful parks!) and hospitality distinguished this travel to London.
Of course, I have to wish to myself to be back in London not too late :P!

Athens

This is a post dedicated to Athens, Greece.
Last year I spent two months (June and July) in Athens. Now, I 'm in Athens again but for 2 days.
As soon as I landed I noticed that sun in Greece is different, is warmer and lighter than other countries. This enjoyed me a lot.
When arrived at office (13 o' clock more or less) I watched through window (I was at third floor) and I saw the "glittering" buildings ;). That is, most of the buildings (maybe every building in Athens) has a solar panel system installed on the ceiling. According to the sun position, the metal part of the system reflects the light, and this creates the "glittering" effect. It is nice :) to see.
Then I met people, and I realized that Greek are really similar to Italian. They are warm and simple. I like it :).
I 'm also amazing that I remember most of the streets' and areas' names, and some Greek words as well: kalimera, euphcaristo polli, signomi, avrio, parakallo, apodixi ... ;).
Unfortunately I don't have pictures to publish ... but I 'll take some not to late, who knows? ;P.

AAA ... London!

Aprile a Londra, qualcuno vuole unirsi? :)

April in London, would you like to join me? :)