Wisteria - Glicine - Blogging Break

Last weekend we went away to Umbria for the weekend to celebrate our Ruby Wedding Anniversary. We visited a number of the beautiful hill towns en route and spent a couple of days in Assisi. The plan was to this week write a post or maybe even two, about our trip and then for the end of the month produce one showing how the garden has been performing during April.

However, what do they say about the best laid plans? Since our return home I have been having computer problems, resulting in a complete failure that meant it went away to be repaired. I was told it would probably require a new hard drive, but no the computer engineer told us he had managed to sort it without replacing. It worked for about half a day, then started misbehaving exactly as before. It went back to him, quickly he sorted it, but no he didn't as after working again for a few hours yesterday it is now doing the same again today. My husband has managed to reset it yet again and I am frantically trying to post before it crashes yet again. I have already had a disaster trying to edit a post on my Book Review Blog that needed updating via my ipad and lost the entire post!  Does anyone else use an ipad and blogger, any tips?

Even though I have managed to get online this afternoon, looking at the display and formatting of this blog it looks a complete mess with photos and words all over the place. I have no idea if you are all seeing it this way as well or is it just me?

Anyway to cut a long story short it looks like I shall be taking a forced blogging break for awhile well these problems are sorted out.  If you are on Facebook please keep in touch via my pages  as so far I can still post updates there with the ipad and keep in touch with you all.

I may be away some time as we also have a few busy weeks ahead of us in real life, with Birthday celebrations and friends visiting to look forward to.

I will be back as soon as possible and will in the meantime still be reading your blogs, just maybe not commenting as much as normal.

If this is not resolved we may consider changing computers, as this one is already considered slow and out of date by the engineers, at just over three years old!  We are thinking of maybe changing to a Mac next time as we already have an ipad and an iphone. Do any of you have thoughts or advice about this? I have never used a Mac so am very unsure especially as I am technicalliy incompetent.

I am leaving you with some photos of this years Wisteria - Glicine.

See you all again soon with hopefully a properly functioning computer and lots of news to share with you.

Musical Moment - Momento Musicale - Arisa

Over the years I have discovered that there are others out there in the blog sphere that share my interests and thanks to all my lovely followers I now have separate blogs to cover books, photography and travel as well as this one concentrating on our life here in Lazio and sometimes beyond but always in Italy.


I mainly share the written word and photos but just over two years ago in February 2010 I started sharing music with a Sunday Song post which appeared on a regular and then gradually a more irregular basis.  It has been surprisingly successful and I was recently asked why it has only appeared three times this year.


In response I am reviving the posting of Italian Music, as the majority of readers seem keen on me doing so, (with apologies to S who always skips the music posts and to D whose internet connection is not good enough for her to listen to them).  Sunday Song is to be renamed Musical Moment - Momento Musicale meaning I am no longer restricted to Sundays, but can post when and if the mood takes me.


If you have ideas for Italian music or Italian artists you would like me to feature, please let me know and I will add them to my lists.  To start this new theme today I have chosen to feature some music from a young female artist, 'Arisa' who is currently high in the Italian pop charts for April with a beautiful song called La Notte.


Arisa, whose real name is Rosalba Pippa was born in Genoa, Italy on August 20th 1982 and grew up in Pignola near Portenza. Her professional name is an acronym of the names of members of her family, A from her father Antonio, R from her own name, I and S are her sisters, Isabella and Sabrina, the final A her mother Assunta. It is a clever idea that has worked. 


She rose to fame after performing at the San Remo Music Festival 2009 when she was first in the newcomers section. Since then she has released three albums, Sincerita in 2009, Malamoreno in 2010 and in February of this year Amami.  La Notte is a single from this album which she performed at Sanremo Music Festival 2012.  Last year she was seen on Italian television as a judge in the fifth season of the Italian version of The X Factor.

                                                            Arisa - La Notte - The Night

                                                       Uploaded by unvoltoperestasi on Feb 14, 2012
                                                                         :                          YouTube Link

Italian Lyrics to La Notte

Non basta un raggio di sole in un cielo blu come il mare
Perché mi porto un dolore che sale, che sale...
Si ferma sulle ginocchia che tremano, e so perchè...

E non arresta la corsa, lui non si vuole fermare,
Perché è un dolore che sale, che sale e fa male...
Ora è allo stomaco, fegato, vomito, fingo ma c’è

E quando arriva la notte
E resto sola con me
La testa parte e va in giro
In cerca dei suoi perchè
Né vincitori né vinti
Si esce sconfitti a metà
La vita può allontanarci,
L’amore continuerà...

Lo stomaco ha resistito anche se non vuol mangiare
Ma c’è il dolore che sale, che sale e fa male...
Arriva al cuore lo picchiare più forte di me

Prosegue nella sua corsa, si prende quello che resta
Ed in un attimo esplode e mi scoppia la testa
Vorrebbe una risposta ma in fondo risposta non c’è

E sale e scende dagli occhi
Il sole adesso dov è?
Mentre il dolore sul foglio è
Seduto qui accanto a me

Che le parole nell\'aria
Sono parole a metà
Ma queste sono già scritte
E il tempo non passerà

Ma quando arriva la notte, la notte
E resto sola con me
La testa parte e va in giro
In cerca dei suoi perchè
Né vincitori né vinti
Si esce sconfitti a metà
La vita può allontanarci,
L’amore poi continuerà...

Ma quando arriva la notte, la notte
E resto sola con me
La testa parte e va in giro
In cerca dei suoi perchè
Né vincitori né vinti
Si esce sconfitti a metà
L\'amore può allontanarci,
La vita poi continuerà
Continuerà
Continuerà


English Lyrics to La Notte - The Night

Not just a ray of sunshine in a sky as blue as the sea
Why I carry a pain that goes up, going up ...
He stops on his knees trembling, and I know why ...

It does not stop the run, he did not want to stop,
Because it is a pain that goes, that goes up and it hurts ...
Now is the stomach, liver, vomiting, but pretend there

And when the night comes
And I remain alone with me
The head part and goes around
In search of her because
No winners or losers
It comes out in mid defeated
Life can get away,
The love continues ...

The stomach has resisted even if not to eat
But the pain is going up, going up and it hurts ...
Get to the heart beat stronger than me

Continues its run, you take what's left
And in a moment, and I broke my head explodes
He would like an answer but basically there is no response

It rises and falls from the eyes
Where is the sun now?
While the pain is on the sheet
Sitting here beside me

That the words in \ 'air
They are words in half
But these have already written
And time will not pass

But when night comes, the night
And I remain alone with me
The head part and goes around
In search of her because
No winners or losers
It comes out in mid defeated
Life can get away,
Love then continue ...

But when night comes, the night
And I remain alone with me
The head part and goes around
In search of her because
No winners or losers
It comes out in mid defeated
L \ 'love can move away,
Life then continue
continue
continue.

Please do not expect the translation to be 100% accurate as lyrics are incredibly hard to make work and Google translate is not the greatest aid in this case, so the translation is just to give you the gist of the meaning.

My post has been complied with the help of information from the following websites. YouTube , Wikipedia, Top 40 Charts.com, Arisa - Facebook Page  and   San Remo Music Festival.

I hope you enjoyed the first Momento Musicale, do let me know.  Have a lovely weekend everyone where ever you may be and however you are spending it.

Tourists in Town - Festa del Cioccolato

                                                          
Easter was cold, damp and windy in most of Italy for the long weekend. Monday turned out to be the best day as at least the skies were blue, as you can see from my photos, but it was bitterly cold.     


Easter Monday is called  Pasquetta in Italy, literally Little Easter. Having probably spent the Sunday with their families, it is the day that traditionally Italians go out for the day into the countryside, for maybe weather permitting a picnic. 


Marta was overrun with tourists, with car parks overflowing and restaurants and bars pulling in customers as it was too cold for picnics this year.   This year for the first time Marta played host to 'Prima Festa del Cioccolato'  'First Festival of Chocolate', what a shame the weather was so disappointing as by Monday, some of the participants along the lakeside had already packed up and gone home.
                                                                                

You will see from my photos that the area around the 'Prima Festa del Cioccolato'  was particularly busy. Although on our stroll around the rest of the town there were lots of people walking along the lakeside, I did manage to get photos without the crowds. A few streets back from the lake where it was not in the sun was very quiet in comparison, also the harbour, was not surprisingly due to the cold, still very empty of  boats, although we did see a few out on the lake braving the wind.

 Those of you that have been following the changes at  Fishermens Beach - Spiaggia del Pescatore  will notice that the replacement trees are now all planted and we have new railings, plant troughs and benches. What do you think of them? 

The collages tell the story of the day, however  if you wish to view the full album or look at individual pictures enlarged you are welcome to visit my album entitled Pasquetta in Marta  at Flickr.com.


Have a lovely weekend, I am thinking of starting a new feature soon to replace Sunday Song, which has appeared three times this year, it had a good following as many of you have asked me to post Italian music more often.  I was planning on posting exactly the same sort of feature, but calling it a Musical Moment so that I am not committed to posting on a particular day of the week. What do you think? 

Buona Pasqua - Happy Easter

In celebration of  Easter I would like to wish all my family, friends and followers an enjoyable and peaceful time. We will not be with our family but we will be thinking of them, one daughter on holiday in Sri Lanka, the other in Salisbury, my sister in Wales, her sons, one holidaying in Peru, my husbands family in the UK and the rest of our extended families who live all around the world, far too many to mention them all. To each and everyone of you reading this or not we wish you a.......


                                   BUONA PASQUA

With thanks to Cartoline di Pasqua for the Pasqua images above.


The video of  Easter images is set to  Povia singing 'Vorrei avere il becco' which translates literally as 'I wish I had the beak'  the original version can be found on YouTube.  Link to YouTube Video of Povia performing this song.


Easter Greetings set to Music -  Auguri di Buona Pasqua.

                                    Uploaded by domy1292 on Feb 15, 2008


For those of you that have not been reading News From Italy for very long, I have posted about Easter in previous years, including some beautiful music and videos. I am including links to some of my previous posts, with a brief explanation of the information you will find if you visit them.


Giovedi Santo - Maundy Thursday
On this morning this the Pope carries out a mass known as 'Mass of the Chrism', in St Peter's Basilica. The chrism is a mixture of balsam and olive oil that is used in some of the sacraments after it has been blessed.  I am not a member of the Roman Catholic Church but of the Church of England, but this post I hope does explain a little of what happens in the few days prior to Easter Sunday in the Roman Catholic church


Venerdi Santo - Good Friday
Good Friday is not a Bank Holiday here in Italy as it is very much considered a day of mourning. The Roman Catholic Church treats Good Friday as a fast day, normally in the one main meal only fish is eaten.
This post also includes a video showing one of the many Venerdi Santo Processions that take place in the evening.  We have witnessed a number now in various towns and I find they are very emotional occasions.


Sunday Song - Easter Sunday - Domenica di Pasqua
Amedeo Minghi, an Italian singer songwriter with his beautiful rendition of ‘Gerusalemme’  'Jerusalem' a piece commissioned by the Vatican on the occasion of the 'Jubilee 2000'.


Buona Pasqua - Happy Easter 
Last year I posted a general update of the Easter festivities saying that our thoughts were with all our family, friends both real and virtual where ever they were in the world for a Buona Pasqua – Happy Easter.


Enjoy the Spring/Autumn Break for Easter, may it be peaceful and happy.

                                      With thanks to the Graphics Fairy