Italy: sunsets and garbage men

Last night, just before sunset, I saw a large garbage truck, parked next to the alley way giving access to beach. I walked onto the sand and I saw the two garbage men.

Both of them looked straight West, as the sun was sinking behind the horizon, in a sky transitioning from bright yellow to dark blue, over a flat wave-less sea.

As I passed the two men, I heard one of them say: "Mamma mia, che bello!"

At that moment, I thought: "Probably, Italy might be the only place on earth, where two garbage men would interrupt their route, just to watch a sunset".

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Alitalia crash reveals dead bodies in the closet

The crashed "Alitalia" plane as it looked on Saturday

Last Saturday night, a plane crashed at Fiumicino (FCO), Rome's main airport. The initial news reports mentioned "an Alitalia flight from Pisa to Rome, veering off the runway after landing in strong winds".

Already from that moment, I was a bit surprised: I live 5 miles from the landing strip, and the wind was not unusually strong. Luckily only one person was seriously injured. But surprise: it was a flight attendent who was apparently not strapped in. Why would a flight attendant not be strapped in, during landing in strong winds?

And within hours, a more obscure story came up: While the plane had the colours and insignia from Alitalia, Italy's national carrier, and had an Alitalia flight number, it had nothing to do with Alitalia. The plane was not only operated by Carpatair, an obscure Romanian budget airline, with a Romanian crew, but was also owned by that same obscure airline. The plane itself was actually registered in Romania, and not in Italy, as Alitalia planes normally are...

More suspicion came in when I saw this Carpatair press release (.PDF):

The forcasted (sic) winds in FCO were in the limits for the ATR as aircraft type as well as those of Carpatair. Windshear predicition (sic) information was not available in the in the (sic) reports regarding actual weather and forecstaed (sic) meteorological conditions given to the crew before the flight, it was not mentioned to the pilots in the weather updates info through the ATIS (actual weather special radio frequency) during the flight or by on the tower (sic) frequency before landing

I am a firm believer that small details often reveal a full picture. A sloppy press release full of spelling/grammatical errors, puts Carpatair in the category of "duct tape and shoe lace"-airlines, in my book.
Now beyond that, what are they trying to say: that their ATR-72 aircraft should not have been flying in this weather, but nobody informed them? I smell rotten fish.

So here is my question: Explain why this is not plain fraud? While code sharing and the practice of "flights of one airline being operated by another", is common practice, in this case, there is absolutely nothing that ties this flight to Alitalia. Except the flight number.

And of course, less than 24 hours after the crash, the plane was neatly repainted, hiding all references to Alitalia.

The "Alitalia" plane, one day after the crash

Smell the dead bodies in the closet? Next thing we will hear is that a Moldovian hooker was giving the captain a blow job at the time of the crash, like with the Italian Costa Concordia cruise ship, which ran aground off the coast almost exactly a year ago...


Pictures courtesy Daily Mail and EPA.

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Living in Italy - Part 18: Mobile phones

In Italy, talking on a mobile phone without an earpiece or microphone is punishable by law.

But I am not sure if the law actually has provisions if you talk on one phone, held in your right hand, while at the same time, you set the Email configuration of an other phone with your left hand.

While you are driving.

Let me correct that: While you are driving a bus full of people. In the middle of Rome.

I mean, after all, God gave men two hands, right? How else would you use the spare time in a traffic jam than calling up a helpdesk to configure the "Backke Barry" (sic) Email settings. Right?


Discovered via Repubblica, tipped by @GeoMmm

Read more in the Living in Italy series

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Viva Alitalia - This is why the pope kisses the ground after a flight

As part of the series The Flying Fun on The Road, here is an interesting event to further relativate the "Science of Flying".

When we landed with an Alitalia Airbus A321 last Sunday, the cabin sound and light installation went completely bezerk for the whole of the 20 minutes we were taxiing to our gate. Both the rhythmic flickering and rapping beat in the speakers made it look and feel like a night at the disco.

I imagined one of the flight attendants coming from the back rapping to the tunes of Cobra Starship:

I have had it with these motherf**king snakes
on this motherf**king plane! (oh-ah)

Times are strange (ho-ho)
We got a free upgrade for
snakes on a plane. (ho-ho)
F**k 'em, I don't care. (ho)
Bought the cheap champagne, (ho)
we're going down in flames, hey. (hey,hey)

Oh, I'm ready for it (ho-ho)
Come on, bring it. (ho-ho)
Oh, I'm ready for it (ho-ho)
Come on, bring it. (ho-ho)

But none did. There was no announcement to apologize -leave alone explain-, and no reaction from the flight attendants other than a chuckle.

I guess the fact we were already on the ground, made things a bit "lighter" for all. I wonder how people would have felt if this were to happen in mid-flight. Would they still joke "Ahhhhlitalia"?

Or is this how a cabin looks like before things really start to go wrong...

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Snapped: The Finale from Le Marche

Before this site turns into a photo blog, some random pictures from Le Marche. I challenge you: take a car, drive for 15 minutes in Le Marche, and you will find a treasure.

We got lost there on purpose: A small town called "Force", which had no decent restaurant but breathtaking views


We got lost there once. I think this was near Montecchio


We got lost there on purpose. Near Monti Sibillini National Parc.

We did not get lost here. We looked for it and actually found it: Lago di Fiastra


Force. As the town did not feature a restaurant, we got lost looking for one in the next town.


We did not get lost here. We saw a town on a hill, and said "Let's have dinner there". It took us two days to actually find the road to the town: Ripatransone.
It think.


Along the road to Lake Fiastra. We got lost on the way back, though.

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Snapped: A French Bulldog in Italy

Black as the devil, snors like a drunken sailor with a major sinus problem, ugly as the night and is addressed as "Ciao bello!" by most Italian women we cross in the streets.

"H", short for "Hercules", our two year old French Bulldog is generally considered to be "cute". I call him "Mr Ugly", or "Mr Pea". The kids hug him like a baby. Tine tolerates his snorring more than mine. He loves to be around us, cries like a baby when left alone in the house, and proud like a peacock (or something), when he takes a walk with us.
He is just a few inches tall, but has an attitude of a Dobermann, and the macho-ism of a young Italian. He is stubborn like a donkey, can play "pull my toy" for hours, jump on his four legs while turning on his own axis and still be clumpsy as a pup taking its first steps, can run on two legs and knows no fear. He often reminds me more of a cat than of a dog.

In short, "H", is part of our family. And he came with us to Italy.

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Snapped: Sunset in Marche

An inspiring sunset in Marche

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Snapped: Views from Marche

This year, we went for a week to Marche, in the east of central Italy. A Friend recommended Marche as "the undiscovered Tuscany", a stretch of rolling hills between the Apennine mountains and the Adriatic coast.

The fields on the hills were less spacious than in Tuscany, but no less appealing: condensed fields of olive trees, vineyards, wheat and sunflowers dotted for as far as the eye can see.

Here are some views taken from the house we stayed in.

Our garden by sunrise


At sunrise, you can see the silhouette of Gran Sasso, the master of the central Apennines


There is some magic in seeing the last stretches of the Apennines fading out into rolling hills


The same view with the olive trees right next to our house


A view to the South of our house


A view to the next farmhouse, with bougainvillea from our garden


The next village from between the trees


The neighbour's vineyards and olive trees, a typical sight in Marche


In many places in the world, people build houses in the valleys, where they are more protected. In Marche, houses and villages are built on top of the hills


A typical view of Marche: small fields, one next to the other.


Olive trees, vine yards, olive trees, vine yards, olive trees,...

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Snapped: Sunflowers in Le Marche

Last year, I published a series of sunflower shots from Tuscany. Here is a followup from Le Marche, on the Italian east coast.

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Snapped: Sunset near Perugia

Impressions from a sunset near Perugia, Center Italy.

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Snapped: Orbetello

Many people come to Rome, and stay in the city. They miss quite a few stunning sights in the area, though.

About two hours drive from the center for Rome, you'll find the peninsula of Orbetello, which I featured in some posts before. Orbetello gives an amazing view towards the mainland, and the islands of Elba and Giglio.

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Snapped: Lunch on the beach

It is sizzling hot here in Italy. The best place to get a refreshing breeze is... on the beach.

We love to just drive off, and see where we end up. This time, we got lost somewhere a 100 miles north of Rome, on the coast. We found a small stabilimento in what must have been the southern part of Tuscany.

"Stabilimenti" are the Italian version of "beach resorts". Some are just wooden shacks on the beach, nothing more than a bar which rent out beach chairs and parasols. Others are more luxurious settings with a swimming pool, renting surf boards or canoes... but always much lower key than in many other countries. And there are thousands of them.

All in the Italian tradition: if they offer food, you will not find hotdogs or hamburgers, but fresh sea food, salads, fruit.

Some pictures from lunch from a stabilimento we ended up in:

The setting...


A view from our spot.


The breeze.


The view from within the stabilimento offers different frames as if in a movie set.


Lana, 15 now...


And Hannah, turning 13!...

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Snapped: Dinner in Fiumicino

It is that time of the year: evenings on the beach!

There is a small shack on the beach in Fiumicino, near Rome. Nothing more than a wooden structure, few square meters of covered space, and a deck. But Stefano serves one of the best dinners around.

A typical Italian setting: low key, limited choices, but fresh. And in a idyllic setting, facing west, over the Mediterranean.

Dinner on the deck


A view of the sea through the restaurant.


A significant sign.


Sunset as we had aperitivo...

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