If all goes well today, tomorrow Phoenix will broadcast a real movie from Mars.

–rakkity

Michael,

On our way to the Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa, we learned that the Baptistry (adjacent to the Duomo and the Torre) has wonderful echoing acoustics. The echoes are exploited by chanting singers every half hour during the day, so I came to the Baptistry ready to record.  This is a big file (85 MB), so I couldn’t just attach it to my message, you’ll have to download it.

Oh, and there’s a problem — it’s rotated sideways. Can you use your iMovie powers to rotate it upright after downloading it to your site? Even if you can’t do the rotation, it’s nice to have it just to listen to the chanting and the echoes of the singing.

Click here and watch.

–rakkity

Hi Mike,

It looks like you all returned from Aruba about the same time we got back to Boulder, but you don’t have any jet lag, while we do. Right now in Colorfulado it’s dinner time, but my brain and stomach are confused because it’s 2 am in Manarola, Italy.

Our flights back from Sicily clicked right along, except for an announcement by our pilot in Rome. “This is the captain speaking. Due to aircraft controller strikes in France, the European air space is very busy, and we have been told that our departure will be delayed 55 minutes.” So we groaned inwardly and curled up with our books, but 15 minutes later we were winging our way homeward. Go figure. That’s “Italian time” for you. During our trip, some of our buses or trains left early, and some of them left late. We got used to it after 14 days in Italy!

Cinque Terre was all that we expected, and more.  I took 250 pictures there, and winnowed them down to a pretty good 56.  See them here.

–rakkity

Ciao from Italy,

Here are a couple of pictures from CInqueterre and the Aeolian Is. One shows the view from our Manarola hotel window of the farmed wall across the street.

Another is of Beth on the Via del Amore between Riomaggiore and Manarola.

Another is of a pretty flower by the trail from Vernazza to Corneglia.

Then there’s one of me quaffing a fine white Sicilian wine on a beach in Lipari in the Aeolian Islands.

Tomorrow we wing our way home from bella Sicily!

Arrividerci,

Ed & Beth

Hi KT,

We finally got out of the US on BA. (23 h of travelling yesterday!) We’re writing frim Vernazza, having taken the wong boat (but that’s all right it was cheaper) We got in a line at the harbor, thinking we were going to RioMaggiore. All these 5’Terre towns look alike’ — beautiful!

Today we got up at 10 am, having arrived at 1:30 am, and waking the proprietor. We were woken by chickens clucking from the vertical farm outside our window. Mom says it’s paradise! Lemons, roses, geraniums, nasturtiums and other flowers are every where.

Today we’ll take the 5Terre train and walk. It’s sunny and warm, getting lots of pictures, and will try to send some.

Love Dad & Mom

(Note from blogmeister: When Ed sends me email signed rakkkity, I know that’s code for post it on the blog. But when he copies me on emails he sends to his children, I’m not so sure. That unease, as you can see, does not stop the starving-for-material meister from posting.)

Michael,

Perhaps I was overly pessimistic in predicting catastrophes in our trip to Italy, but look at what has happened so far–
1. Alitalia sends email saying that Sicily’s main airport at Catania has closed for repairs, and that we must fly to Palermo instead.
(This adds to our itinerary.a 3 hour bus ride across Sicily.)
2. The Aliscafi we had been counting on to Stromboli Island doesn’t run often enough for us to get there on time, so we had to cancel and rebook 2 albergos in the Eolian islands.
3. British Air 218 left on time from Denver last night, but with odd lavatory smells infesting the cabin. As we entered Nebraska airspace, the captain goes on the PA with, “Unfortunately for health reasons we are returning to Denver because one of the toilets is overflowing.

I’m writing this from our hotel in Denver while we wait for a  new BA  flight. Of course we spent about an hour talking on the phone to Alitalia, making new reservations with them to Florence, and warning Albergo Ca’d’Andrean in Manarola that there is only a slim chance of making it there for our first night.

Travel is so invigorating and broadening!

–rakkity

Michael,

You might be interested in a discussion paralleling Weinstein’s.

The Economist, Apr 12 2008
Homo Mobilis
As language goes, so does thought.

….For about 250 years, the consensus in Western societies has been that grammar, syntax and spelling matter, and that rules have to be observed. That consensus now appears to be at risk. ….

–rakkity (not quite one of those electronic nomads)

Mike,

Is this what Stromboli (our hiking destination next week) looks like when it does its thing?

–rakkity

Mike,

This is where we’re spending the long weekend, Friday-Monday.
Ciao,

rakkity

Hi Katie,

Yesterday I returned to civilization from our Escalante side-canyons trip. At our base camp, the wind blew like a banshee all day and every day. But on our hikes down into the canyons we were protected from the winds and it was warmer and more fun. We day-hiked in 2 canyons — Horse and Death Hollow — and backpacked through 2 others — Wolverine and Silver Falls. Wolverine had the most interesting rocks — petrified wood, agate, and blobby things that might have been coprolites. I’m sending a picture taken down in Wolverine Canyon where the walls narrowed down to a “slot”. Part of the slot was only about 6 feet wide and over a hundred feet deep. Death Hollow has better slots, but those were technically difficult to pass through, requiring roped climbing, mud wallowing, and swimming.

There weren’t as many flowers on this trip as last year’s, but that may have been because it rained the first day on that trip. This time, rain would have been welcome! In the 4 canyons we visited we found more flowering plants in Silver Falls canyon than in the others. One was a flowering Fishhook Cactus, with barbs that would never let go if you let them touch you. There were springs in Silver Falls Canyon, and a small creek that reflected the green leaves of the cottonwoods, the red sandstone cliffs, and the deep blue sky.

It was great out there in the desert, but flush toilets, running tap water, and refrigeration do have their attractions.

Love, Dad

Hi Katie,

Yesterday I returned to civilization from our Escalante side-canyons trip. At our base camp, the wind blew like a banshee all day and every day. But on our hikes down into the canyons we were protected from the winds and it was warmer and more fun. We day-hiked in 2 canyons — Horse and Death Hollow — and backpacked through 2 others — Wolverine and Silver Falls. Wolverine had the most interesting rocks — petrified wood, agate, and blobby things that might have been coprolites. I’m sending a picture taken down in Wolverine Canyon where the walls narrowed down to a “slot”. Part of the slot was only about 6 feet wide and over a hundred feet deep. Death Hollow has better slots, but those were technically difficult to pass through, requiring roped climbing, mud wallowing, and swimming.

There weren’t as many flowers on this trip as last year’s, but that may have been because it rained the first day on that trip. This time, rain would have been welcome! In the 4 canyons we visited we found more flowering plants in Silver Falls canyon than in the others. One was a flowering Fishhook Cactus, with barbs that would never let go if you let them touch you. There were springs in Silver Falls Canyon, and a small creek that reflected the green leaves of the cottonwoods, the red sandstone cliffs, and the deep blue sky.

It was great out there in the desert, but flush toilets, running tap water, and refrigeration do have their attractions.

Love, Dad

The rakkities are risking a trip to Italy in May. (Manarola, in Cinqueterre on May 9-12, then Pisa, then Sicily and the Aeolian Islands, May 15-22.)

MAY 2008 HEADLINES

May 7. Alitalia airlines goes bankrupt, IATA revokes Alitalia’s license before a buyout can occur. Newly elected Prime Minister Berlusconi promises that his government will fix the situation when he comes into power.

May 10. Repeating the events of December, 2002, landslides in cliffs of Cinqueterre close train line connecting cities. Travelers staying in Cinqueterre’s towns must walk out of the National Park region, following ancestral routes through the terraced vineyards.

May 13. Railroad strikes stop train traffic across Italy. Anti hitch-hiking laws are not enforced, permitting disgruntled travelers to gradually move towards their destinations.

May 14. Tower of Pisa unexpectedly collapses. Unfortunately it falls onto the spectacular Baptistry in historic center. Carnage closes city.

May 15. Alitalia’s flights from northern Italy to Sicily become intermittent. Only flights between
midnight and 4 am on Mondays and Thursdays operate until further notice.

May 17. Mt Etna erupts, pouring lava down onto Catania and neighboring towns, repeating the disaster of 1992. Routes to Syracuse and Ortegia are closed, forcing locals to take boats or roundabout land routes.

May 18. Ever-rumbling Stromboli, highest and most active of the Aeolian Island volcanoes, creates a tsunami worse than the one of 2002, flooding the neighboring Islands, forcing residents and travelers to seek high ground.

May 19. Prime Minister Berlusconi eliminates all Federal taxes. Citizens celebrate with massive wine fests across Italy. Taxis, buses, and ferries become more erratic than usual.

May 20. Air France buys Alitalia at fire-sale price of 25 Euro-cents per share. Alitalia’s pilots and airline workers quit in disgust.

May 21. British Airways workers cannibalize old terminal 4 at Heathrow, while re-constructing terminal 5. Incoming flights from continental Europe are stopped from landing at Heathrow. Connections to the United States fail. Travellers stranded in Europe, some happy, some not.

—————————————-
Some of these events are currently in progress or promised, others having happened in the past. But what the heck, you can’t worry in Italy. Good meals of fine pasta with excellent Italian house wine are ever available, regardless of the chaos.

-rakkity