Off To Palermo Tomorrow
I’m off to Palermo tomorrow on the 06:20 easyJet flight out of Gatwick, to do another home run by train.
My schedule is looking like this at the moment.
8th – Palermo
9th – Naples
10th – Genoa
11th – Turin
12th – Geneva
13th – Paris
14th – I’m booked on one of the last Eurostars back to London.
Tragedy In Italy
The deaths of hundreds of asylum seekers off Sicily is tragic.
What can we do in Europe to stop this vile trade, that often ends in injury and death?
As long as Europe is a place where there people are well off, migrants will always try to get here.
And criminals will always take advantage by providing leaky boats, with crap crews!
How Many Good Paintings Have Gone In Skips?
This story about how Robin Darvell found a painting by John Constable in a job lot in an auction, is in The Telegraph.
The painting, bought at an auction in Canterbury ten years ago, has remained in a drawer ever since after the canny buyer spotted a faint signature on the corner.
It has now been revealed as a Constable painting, believed to have been completed near to his home in Suffolk, after being examined by experts on television programme Treasure Detectives.
It now looks like it’s worth about £250,000.
On my wall I have a painting by Arthur Perigal. He wasn’t in Constable’s class, but he is a well-known Scottish artist.
Villa Albani by Arthur Perigal
The painting of the Villa Albani, nearly went in the skip when I moved back to London, as it was in a broken frame and just thrown in the loft. It is signed Arthur Perigal RSA and dated 1872.
It’s not worth a lot, but then it would be worth nothing, if it was in the skip.
How my mother-in-law acquired the painting, can’t be determined now. But she did work for his son, Walter, who was the local doctor in New Barnet. The doctor was an amateur painter and she was given some of his paintings, when she left his employment. Or that’s the story C told. But knowing C’s father, I suspect he got them for perhaps doing a favour for the doctor.
Anybody, who knows the truth, died many years ago.
Is Gluten-Free Beer Illegal In Italy?
I have puzzled for some time, why there is no Italian gluten-free beer, as if Germany with their strict brewing regulations can have one, surely can most countries.
So I searched Google using “birra senza glutine” and found this Italian site. It says this about a beer called Beautiful Elena.
Beautiful Elena : Italian craft beer derived from rice. By law in Italy can not be called beer, because this name is reserved only to beverages that contain barley or barley malt, then find it on the shelves labeled “rice drink alcohol.”
So it looks like many of the gluten-free beers we have couldn’t be brewed in Italy. But they can sell other countries’ products.
Would You Trust Italian Engineering?
The British Grand Prix was a bit of a farce today, as several drivers suffered tyre failures as the BBC reports.
Now Italians may be good at some things like food, parties and calendars, but it does seem that their engineering companies aren’t up to their past high standards at the moment. After all, I did report on the quality of products from AnsaldoBreda here.
I suspect that just as they have with their economy and their politics, there is a lot of rethinking to do.
Why Do The Italians Live Longer Than Us?
This question is asked by Fergal Keane on the BBC web site in this article. This is the first two paragraphs.
What is it about the Italians? They smoke more than us, they earn less, their economy is in even worse shape than ours, they spend less on healthcare, and yet – they live longer. Not just a bit, but a whopping 18 months more on average.
They also have more years of good health before disease and disability set in.
Only speculation is offered as to the reeason of Italian longlivity. Although I do find this statement interesting.
There have been improvements in living standards here of course. But Alan Maryon-Davis, honorary Professor of Public Health at King’s College London suggests that Italy is a more cohesive and less divided society than ours. He said “There is a flatter social gradient – less difference between the haves and have-nots in Italy, and that is likely to play a role in health outcomes.”
He also speculated whether the British psyche was fatalistic when it came to illness: “I wonder if many people feel that they can ignore their health for decades in the expectation that the NHS will be there to bail them out when they get into trouble.”
Especially, as I had similar thoughts a week or so ago in this article.
It would be enlightening to see how long Italians, who have lived in the UK for some time, live! After all, if you are from an Italian family in the UK, you probably eat like an Italian, even if your family arrived here decades ago.
The article gives a lot of food for thought.
Italy Goes To Ireland
Next year, the Giro d’Italia will start on the island of Ireland with three stages. It’s all here on the BBC.
Knowing the Irish as I do, I think that they’ll have a good party.
And We Think We’ve Got Nimbys!
This article on the BBC’s web site shows that nimbys get everywhere, even in Italy. But it is a fascinating article about a rail tunnel between Italy and France. Christian Fraser, the author, puts this case in favour of the tunnel.
The pro-tunnellers employ a mixture of hyperbole and hard-nosed economic home truths as they argue for the project. The Atlantic will reach out to the Urals via this new link, they cry. Freight trains will zoom to and fro, boosting the shambling economies of southern Europe. Of greater interest to British tourists – skiers like me – is that the journey time from London to Milan will be cut to just six hours.
With those against as follow.
The naysayers insist that the tunnel will be an ugly, expensive white elephant. They point out that the existing trans-Alpine road and rail routes seem to cope very nicely, thank you. They claim that projections of traffic were drawn up 20 years ago and are hopelessly out-of-date. And they are worried about potentially dangerous minerals that are buried underneath the mountains being released into the air and water.
Hand on heart, even the keenest of protesters would struggle to claim the Susa Valley was an area of outstanding beauty. A narrow pass, it is already crammed with the clutter of human development – a motorway stalks across the valley floor on gigantic stilts, elevated above railway lines, quarries and factories.
But he also describes the action taking place.
In Italy, they have lobbied tenaciously – and at times violently – in their fight against the rail link between Lyon and Turin. Some 400 people were injured in clashes with the police last year when the tunnel site was first fenced off.
I know that area reasonably well, as I’ve driven through it and flown over it in a light aircraft several times. It is one of those areas, where if asked to dig a tunnel, your first action would be to ask if there was an easier route.
I don’t know the economics of this rail route, but I suspect that in the future some route will be completed to allow passengers to take the train from London and Paris to Rome or Milan.
Personal Taxation – Italian Style
This article from the BBC’s web site, describes how the Italian tax man is getting to grips with the country’s tax avoidance.
The Italians are finding it all a bit intrusive and with an election coming up, the tactics of the taxmen are an election issue.
According to the article, the United States uses a similar system, which links the amount of expenditure you have, with the income you need to sustain that lifestyle.
I’ve met many people over the years, who seemed to live very well, with no visible means of support.
So perhaps we need that sort of system here!
Stromboli Erupts
I read that Stromboli is erupting in The Sunday Times. There are more details here.
I stayed there once on a visit to the Aeolian Islands. Everybody should try to go to these islands at least once in their life.
The Anonymous Widower 