Joulukalenteri 19: Bah, humbug!
Humpuukia koko joulutouhu, voisin tuhahtaa Ebenezer Scroogen lailla, mutta koska Dickensin klassikko on jo niin vanha kirja, sen voi ladata iTunesista ilmaiseksi. Tämä lämmittää saiturinkin mieltä. Lisäksi löysin Charles Dickensin Joulutarinan Vinicio Caposselan lukemana, kuulopuheiden mukaan sen voisi ladata Radio RAI2:n podcastina, mutta RAIn sivusto on sekava ja P2P-verkko paremmin viitoitettu… Read More
The Moral Basis of a Backward Society
The Moral Basis of a Backward Society on yhdysvaltalaisen politologin Edward C. Banfieldin vuonna 1955 pseudonyymiltaan Montegranoksi nimeämässä eteläitalialaisessa pikkukaupungissa tekemään havainnointiin perustuva teos, joka pyrkii selittämään yhteisön taloudellista jälkeenjääneisyyttä itse- ja perhekeskeisellä eetoksella. ”Amoral familism”, italiaksi familismo amorale, asetti välittömän ydinperheen ja (parhaimmassa... Read More
7: Lecce
[…] I sensed something Spanish in the atmosphere of Lecce, in the gravity and dignity of its people, in the formality of their manners and in the elaborate architecture of their background, which reminded me of Spanish baroque in those regions where the stone cuts like butter and hardens like steel. Lecce’s baroque is not spectacular, but is a style based on the classical, and having explore the cathedral, the bishop’s palace, several... Read More
6: Otranto
Alone among all of the cathedrals of Italy, the cathedral of Otranto has an intact Norman tesselated pavement that stretches from the west door to the altar and is continued in the apse. I felt that I might have been walking on the Bayeux tapestry. A priest told me that it was the work of a monk or a priest called Pantaleone and was completed in 1160, the year when William I of Sicily died. Artistically, the pavement is decorative but crude; it is... Read More
5: Gallipoli
[…] There is scarely a tree in the old town, which resembles a crowded island in the Venetian lagoon, but no Venetian lagoon was ever quite as blue as the sa that surrounds Gallipoli, neither is any Venetian island so white and African, nor has Venice anything like the massive Angevin fortress with its circular bastions in whose immense walls nestles a little cinema which, when darkness falls, is outlined by electrical light. […] but hte... Read More
4: Alberobello
As one travel toward Brindisi unusual and attractive features of the landscape, dotted about vineyards and olive groves, are circular stone buildings whose cone-shaped roofs are made of limestone slates beautifully packed together without mortar, like the dry-stone walls of Cumberland. These buildings are called trulli. Their origin, and also the origin of name, are unknown. […] The trullo achieves its metropolis in the town of Alberobello,... Read More
3: Trani
I always went to Trani, ten miles farther along the coast, full of pleasurable anticipation. Slightly smaller than Molfetta, like all the Adriatic coast towns, it leads a dual life, that of an ancient fishingport with a modern extension devoted to minor industries which have been introduced within the last twenty-five years. At Trani, however, one of the industries is an old one: it is a centre for the South Italian wine trade. The cathedral stands... Read More
2: Bari
The South Italian habit, which began first at Bari under Murat, of building a new town next to the old one, has changed the character of the country beyond the recognition of such travellers as Ramage (1828) and Edward Lear (1847), though it was already operating by the time Norman Douglas visited the South in the early years of this century. Since then the process has been accelerated by Government policy and grants. It seems to have become an accepted... Read More
1: Matera
”Saavuin Materaan noin yhdentoista korvissa aamulla”, hän kertoi. ”Oppaastani olin lukenut, että tämä maalauksellinen kaupunki kannattaa nähdä. Siellä piti olla antiikin taiteen museo ja eriskummallisia luola-asumuksia. Mutta kun lähdin liikkeelle asemalta, joka muuten on moderni, miltei ylellinen rakennus, ja tähystelin ympärilleni, etsivät silmäni turhaan itse kaupunkia. Sitä ei ollut missään. Seisoin eräänlaisella karulla... Read More
Paluumuuttaja
Talvi-iltoina, keiton kiehuessa ledellä, hän kaipasi muinaisen kirjakauppansa toimistoloukon hellettä, auringon huminaa pölyisissä mantelipuissa aivan yhtä kiihkeästi kuin oli Macondossa kaivannut liedellä kiehuvaa talvikeittoa, kahvinkaupustelijan huutoja ja kevään katoavia leivosia. Peilikuvina toisiaan heijastavien kahden koti-ikävänsä villitsemänä hän kadotti kosketuksensa hienosyiseen epätodellisuuteensa ja kehotti lopulta ystäviään... Read More
