Ferry Boat on #Bodensee Lake @Maineau and @Meersburg

Yesterday we spent the “Pfingstenmontag” holiday wandering on the North part of Bodensee lake. Left the car in Konstanz, we took the ferry to Meersburg and we stayed. Little bit. In the mid of afternoon we took again the ferry to go to the “Flower Island” of Maineau. It’s a show worth a visit… Maybe later in few weeks, during the Roses exhibition (more than 1100 species).

At Maineau it can even happen to see a bed hanging from a tree…

#Italian Sunday #Lunch – Mari e monti (Sea and Mountains)

Last Sunday… It was time to go back to a nice Italian lunch.. All about fish.

First we prepared ourselves De Cecco’s Linguini Pasta “Mari e monti” (sea and mountains). The seasoning was made with shrimps and wild asparagus cooked together with mushrooms into Safran milk cream.

Then we have some cod fish fried into Puglia’s olive oil with cherry tomatoes parsley and a little of oregano.

#Afro-Pfingsten Festival in Winterthur

Last Saturday we visited the yearly AfricanPfingsten Festival in Winterthur.
Change to see a little integration at work… And to taste some African Food. Fried bananas, rice and black beans…

So many mixed couples with children… Nice example.

The #Present wins always. #Pratolini

“The present win always”. From Italian writer Vasco Pratolini. Book: “Allegoria e derisione”.

#Bischofszell

Sunday afternoon in Bischofszell.
Walking trough “Altstadt”, visiting the “Stadt Museum”.

Primo Levi, Poetry

DELEGA (non chiamarci maestri)

Non spaventarti se il lavoro è molto:

C’è bisogno di te che sei meno stanco.

Poiché hai sensi fini, senti

Come sotto i tuoi piedi suona cavo.

Rimedita i nostri errori:

C’è stato pure chi, fra noi,

S’è messo in cerca alla cieca

Come un bendato ripeterebbe un profilo,

E chi ha salpato come fanno i corsari,

E chi ha tentato con volontà buona.

Aiuta, insicuro. Tenta, benché insicuro,

Perché insicuro. Vedi

Se puoi reprimere il ribrezzo e la noia

Dei nostri dubbi e delle nostre certezze.

Mai siamo stati così ricchi, eppure

Viviamo in mezzo a mostri imbalsamati,

Ad altri mostri oscenamente vivi.

Non sgomentarti delle macerie

Né del lezzo delle discariche: noi

Ne abbiamo sgomberate a mani nude

Negli anni in cui avevamo i tuoi anni.

Reggi la corsa, del tuo meglio. Abbiamo

Pettinato la chioma alle comete,

Decifrato i segreti della genesi,
Calpestato la sabbia della luna
Costruito Auschwitz e distrutto Hiroshima.
Vedi: non siamo rimasti inerti.
Sobbarcati, perplesso;
Non chiamarci maestri.

24 giugno 1986

sommario

μῆνις

The Iliad, lines 1–7
Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεὰ, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος
οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί’ Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε’ ἔθηκε,
πολλὰς δ’ ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προῒαψεν
ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν
οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι· Διὸς δ’ ἐτελείετο βουλή·
ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε
Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς.

An #Italian #Dinner

Last Saturday we’ve got friends for dinner. Then we decide to prepare an Italian dinner.

Starters:
- Bruschette (roasted bread) with olive oil and oregano.
- Pinzimonio: fresh carrots and fennel with olive oil and balsamic winegar
- Caprese salad: tomatoes, buffalo Mozzarella cheese and basil

Pasta dish:
- De Cecco/ Di Filippo Pasta with tomato and mushroom dressing completed with Parmesan Cheese

Main dish:
- Backed Chiken with vegetables

Dessert
- Chocolate and zucchini cake

Wine
- Veneto’s Prosecco as starter
- Puglia’s Primitivo for the rest of meal

Papa Francesco #PopeFrancis – Let us never forget that authentic power is service

The vocation of being a “protector”, however, is not just something involving us Christians alone; it also has a prior dimension which is simply human, involving everyone. It means protecting all creation, the beauty of the created world, as the Book of Genesis tells us and as Saint Francis of Assisi showed us. It means respecting each of God’s creatures and respecting the environment in which we live. It means protecting people, showing loving concern for each and every person, especially children, the elderly, those in need, who are often the last we think about. It means caring for one another in our families: husbands and wives first protect one another, and then, as parents, they care for their children, and children themselves, in time, protect their parents. It means building sincere friendships in which we protect one another in trust, respect, and goodness. In the end, everything has been entrusted to our protection, and all of us are responsible for it. Be protectors of God’s gifts!
Whenever human beings fail to live up to this responsibility, whenever we fail to care for creation and for our brothers and sisters, the way is opened to destruction and hearts are hardened. Tragically, in every period of history there are “Herods” who plot death, wreak havoc, and mar the countenance of men and women.
Please, I would like to ask all those who have positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life, and all men and women of goodwill: let us be “protectors” of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment. Let us not allow omens of destruction and death to accompany the advance of this world! But to be “protectors”, we also have to keep watch over ourselves! Let us not forget that hatred, envy and pride defile our lives! Being protectors, then, also means keeping watch over our emotions, over our hearts, because they are the seat of good and evil intentions: intentions that build up and tear down! We must not be afraid of goodness or even tenderness! [...]
Let us never forget that authentic power is service, and that the Pope too, when exercising power, must enter ever more fully into that service [...]
Hoping against hope! Today too, amid so much darkness, we need to see the light of hope and to be men and women who bring hope to others. To protect creation, to protect every man and every woman, to look upon them with tenderness and love, is to open up a horizon of hope; it is to let a shaft of light break through the heavy clouds; it is to bring the warmth of hope!

Papa Francesco #PopeFrancis, life as a path.

“Life is a path: if we stop, it’s not going to work. We should never stop walking.”
Pope Francis.