Sochi is in Russia

I have a day of nostalgy today. I think about my mother, about my country, about my happy young past days.

My mother lives in Sochi today. You could hear this name maybe. It's a costal city with subtropical climate in Russia. And my mother is there. She has 70 years this year. And I have seen her 3 years ago last time... I'm nostalgic and sad. There is not job here, in Italy, and I can't visit my mother because I have not job. So, I can only look at this photos.

Italian Feast "Sagra"

If you plan to visit Italy, you probably want to taste local foods and to partecipate on local feasts and life. So, you have to look for announcements that you can see normally on the walls, on the poles and in special places that tell about the "Sagra". You can have them all year round. When residents of this or that village need money for their projects, they organize Sagras.

We have a period of mushrooms now and different villages offer sagras where they offer home made food with mushrooms. I do not eat mushrooms normally, but once a year I like to taste them, so we visited one of the sagras this Sunday, and I took photos for you.



All the sagras I ever visited in the time I live in Italy have the same "plan": you receive the menu, choose what you want to eat, pay it



Than you take your dishes in the other stall



...and choose the place where you want to eat them.



It looks like this



all the receipes were with porcinis this time



Residents of this village needed money for the pilgrimage to Lourdes.
What is good in these kind of feasts is that you can taste real local cuisine and pay 2-3 times less than you would pay in a restaurant in the same zone or village. We paid euro 10 for all what you see on the tray. And it was possible to buy a glass of local wine for 0,50 euro.

Challenge of the Tromboners

I've just told you about the medieval town of Cava dei Tirreni in province of Salerno not too far from Naples. The central and the most antique part of it, Borgo, has very interesting look, storically created by the mercants and their shops with the porticos.





The town organizes different medieval manifestations during the year and the most believed is the "Challenge of the Tromboners" that had just the 37 edition. Here is one of part of the feast that I liked more than others. Hope, they won the contest the day after I coud not visit.

Monaco -My Love

The place I loved more than other among those I was fortunate to visit in my life was without any doubts Monaco/ Monte Carlo (Principality of Monaco). Surely, the reason why I remembered it nnow is the wedding of it's Prince. But I don't want to remember the new sad princess. It's because I was very impressed of this beautiful land.


Посмотреть на Яндекс.Фотках

It seemed to occupy so little piece of soil! And it was the country everybody without taxes, where all the residents have so many freedoms.The houses grow high there. Over the houses, there are gardens and pools: on the roofs and terraces.  The shops do not expose prices there. They say, it's because the clients do not think about the prices there. They see something beautiful, enter and take it. The most impressive was the part where is situating the institute of Oceanography. At that time, the director was very famous in our country Jacques-Yves Cousteau


«Спрут» на Яндекс.Фотках

The beautiful gardens and  squares, the beautiful women and the cars I've never seen from that time... Everything was interesting and worth the visit. So, I can advise everybody to visitr this little country.

Spartacus, the Gladiator

The amphitheatre of Capua I wrote about in my previous article Spartacus: Here the Gladiator Fought for Life was a kind of modern arenas where thousands of persons assist on the shows. The gladiators were very popular and they were heroes beloved by everybody.

We often think that they were "morituri", sentenced to death or war prisoners etc. Probably, it was so at the beginning. But this belief is not confirmed by the arcaeological excavations. And the amphitheater of Capua with it's underground part confirms the scientists. It was a real town with special entrances for participants and splendid (as you could see on my photos) part for spectators.

The little museum of gladiators near the amphitheatre presents very interesting pieces that you never would expect to see: the real armours of the gladiators and the reconstruction of the look of the arena.



Casually of fortunatelly (maybe because they were more numerous or more beloved) there are armours of the Thracians. The reconstructed look of these warriors was so:



And here are the pieses found in the amphitheatre:





Very interesting is this stone with the hunt of the wild boar. They say that the women-gladiators had the same clothes as the men but they had the breast bounded with a large belt. Here we see probably a hunt. Look at the woman: she is surely the protagonist. Look at her arms.

I noticed an interesting peculiarity: they have bracelets on the ankles.



This marble was a part of the decoration of the sittimngs for rich men (women had a special part where they could assist the battles, too, but they did not sit together with the men):