MILAN SIGHTSEEING

... I don't love MILAN ... I spent there 5-6 years as a university student ... and the grey colors ... the smog ... the cars parked on the pedestrian paths ... the fog ... the people always in a rush and without a smile ... made me sick ... but I have to say that visit it as a tourist isn't that bad ... of course I didn't catch this bus o visit the city ... but in a way I did really when around like a japanese tourist taking pictures ...

... but I spent half a day as a tourist ... taking pics ... and visiting churches ... there are a lot of art masterpieces in Milan ... and if you are not in a rush ... you have he chance to enjoy them ... here some of them ... Milan main attraction is the DUOMO (the dome) ...... an incredible mix of styles ... built over 5 centuries ... the result is unique ... a mix of gothic, reinassance and baroque style ... on top of that there is a the GOLDEN MADONNINA (Mary, Jesus mom) ... the tallest point in Milan ... no building is taller than that ... and and even Leonardo da Vinci ... was in a way involved in it ... because Milan doesn't have any river ... he was asked to design a network of water canals which was eventually used also to move to Milan the white marble necessary to build the dome ... if you have the chance go to visit it now ... they are in the last phases of its renovation ... and the white marble cleaned is simply wonderful ... and you can also visit the church rooftop ... which is pretty cool ... especially in a day with blue sky ... here some pictures ...

... here some other random art masterpieces I had the chance to see ... I spent in Milan only half a day ... but I have to say ... that this time I liked it ... I hope you will have as well the chance to visit it ... but don't spend in Milan more than 1 day ... go to BERGAMO ... my city ... it is only 25 miles away ... and to me it is much more pretty ... ehehe ... :o ...

ALE and THE PERFECT PICTURE

... Ale & Max are friends ... and they are really lovely ... and this is a picture we took last nite ... to remember the nice evening together ...... Ale was used to study with me at the university ... we spent so much time to study together ... in the same public libraries ... really nice memories ... and last night they had been sooooooooo nice ... they invited me to sleep in their new apartment place in MILAN ... because today I had to be early morning in the US CONSULATE in MILAN to have the new US VISA STAMP on the passport ... really nice ... and Ale is also the person who took one of my favorite pictures ever ... actually ... my favorite picture ever ... here it is ...... it was last year in Manhattan Beach ... when she came to visit me in LA and other friends living closeby ... in the picture ... Seba, myself and Jake (my former roomie) on the beach before an early morning surfing ... I love this picture ... to me it has something special ... it means a lot to me ... friendship ... sport ... outdoor ... fun ... surf ... I just love it ... thanks for everything Ale ... and you too Max ... I love to have such good friends ... and have fun in VENICE in the weekend ...

DEDICATED TO CELINE

... this is a picture I took today in Via Montenapoleone (the heart of the fashion ditrict) in Milan ... and it is dedicated to my friend CELINE ...... not sure if she is reading it ... what is really important ... is what I felt today ... I did turn my head right ... I saw this name ... just a name ... 6 letters ... one after the other ... and I felt happy ... the name ... reminded me the smile of a good friend ... and our small backpacking adventures ... and made me smile as well ... in the middle of a grey Milan street (I kinda hate the grey Milan streets) ... mmmm ... isn't that nice ... mmmm ... probably just childish ... I know ... but I love to smile ... and I love to share it ... and I love to remember good friends ... :D

A NIGHT ON THE SINK

... this is not the way I expected to spend one of my nights here in ITALY ... but it did happen ... I am pretty sure it was food poisoning ... some crappy pizza I got at dinner yesterday... but my doctor told me that I had a food poisoning or it is a case of flu ... bottom line ... I think I will have to eat light for few days now ... what a pity ... in the meantime ... last nite ... I spend some good time with some ofmy old friends ... really nice to see them again ... after such a long time ...

... and my feeling is that nothing really changed since I left ... not sure if it is a good or a bad thing ... probably good ...

ITALIAN GELATO

... this is me ... when two days ago ... I finally had the chance to eat my first Italian ice cream (GELATO) ... actually it was a AFFOGATO ... means cream Ice cream with a espresso on top of it ...... it wasn't the best ever ... bu it was definately YUMMY ... :D

I AM IN ITALY

... so ... I am back to ITALY ... more precisely in BERGAMO ... my home town ... 25miles from MILANO ... BERAGAMO is really a beatiful place ... especially the old part of the town ... all surrrounded by 4km long 1400 Venician walls ... simply gorgeous ... this is a section of the wall ...... and this is the simbol of the VENICIAN REPUBLIC ... a winged lion holding a book ...... here myself going around with an old bicycle ... it is an old BIANCHI from 1930 ... still perfect to ride ...... here l am in front of the city art museum ...... and here other pics ... of some of the buildings in the old city ... this is an old church converted in a section of the city university ... really pretty ...

... this is the public library ... one of the nicest building in town ... really really nice ... you should see it inside ... marvelous ...

... this is ... PORTA SAN GIACOMO ... in english is ... St. James door ... one of the 4 gates to enter the old town ... all white marble ... and here as well ... you can see also the Venice symbol ... the lion with the wings holding the book ...

... this is one street in the old town ... I like this picture ... with the sunset ... lighting one of the city towers ...... I will stay here for 2 weeks ... until September 23rd ... enjoying my family ... friends ... food ... wine ... and the weather ... really a mild fall so far ... I will update you soon ... had to go to the bank now ... it is closing in 1 hour ...

SAME SAME

... SAME SAME ... BUT DIFFERENT ... this is the favorite quote of the backpackers in Thailand ... it is very true forme when I am trying to do something ... always the same ... I am never on time ... I am always behind the schedule I create ... ehehehe ... today it did happen again ... I tried to do too many things ... work ... shopping ... bank ... barber ... friends ... check credit history ... buy ticket to Chile ... buy gifts ... and now ... I am still here ... at midnight ... with my luggage not ready ... uploading music on the iPod ... afraid that I forgot something important ... :O ... and tomorrow morning 7.30AM ... I have a 10K run in Manhattan Beach ... I want to go surfing with Oliver at 9AM ... and ... at 3.30PM I have my flight to Milan, Italy ... ehehehe .... I hope I will get on time at the LAX ...

FUNNELING BEER

... so ... now that I finally found a way to upload videos from YOUTUBE ... it is time to upload some video I did ... this is pretty old ... but probably is the only decent one I have ... ehehehe ... it is from the bday party ... we had in our place last June 10th ... 4 months ago ... actually this was the pre-party in the afternoon ... LEIF is the cameraman ... YANN is holding the funnel ... JASON is the referee ... and I am drinking ... ehehe ... unfortunately once uploaded ... the video and the audio have a delay of 2 seconds ... not sure why ... I hope you will enjoy it anyways ...

... BTW ... that was my first funneling ever ... we don't do this stuff in Italy ... but I have to admit ... it is pretty funny ... kind of breezing your forehead all that cold beer in a shot ... but you can easily survive ... or atleast I did survive ... :o

GOODBYE DINNER

... since few weeks Tuesday seems to be the party day ... yesterday night was at our place ... pretty easy but cool actually ... I did prepare some pasta ... Leif prepared a salad ... Silkie, Andrea and Oliver prepared the dessert ... everybody bring some wine ... and surprise suprise ... nobody got drunk ...... it was my way to say goodbye to some of my friends here in LA ... Saturday I have my flight to Milan ... honestly ... I can't wait ... I want to see my friends and get some serious fun with them ... hug my parents ... go hiking my my brother ... and a lot of other things ... mmmmm ... I can't wait ... :O ... and after that I should go almost directly to Chile and Argentina for 4 weeks ... hiking in Patagonia ... Cape Horn ... Whales ... glaciers ... penguins ... mmmm ... and all that sh*t that makes me happy ... ehehehehe ... I am still Xing my fingers for that trip ... it depends if my VISA STAMP in Italy won't have any delay ... anyways ... if everything will go in the right way ... I should be out of LA until the end of November ... in a way I am superhappy because it is vacation ... trip ... adventure ... backpacking ... walking the Earth ... new countries ... in a way I am also a little bit sad to leave this beatiful paradise ... :D

ICH LERNE DEUTSCH

... so ... from today ... I am doing this experiment ... I am trying to learn some German ... exchanging emails with a friend ... she is teaching me some sentences, on my request, in German ... I do the the same in Italian ... of course the communication language is English ... so ... today I learned ... Ich lerne Deutsch ... which should mean ... I am learning German ... and ... Mir geht's heute total gut ... which should mean ... Today I am really happy ... ehehehe ... let's see where I will end up with this experiment ... :D

DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?!?

... now ... be sure to have your loudspeakers on ... so ... this is dedicated to all my German friends around the world ... I love you all ...

... and of course it is dedicated also to all the people who is struggling with the English ... and to myself ... who after 4 years living in this country ... I don't know yet the difference between a MATCH and a GAME ... so ... the story goes like this ... Sunday I am on the porch chit chating with Leif and Yann ... Jason is inside with a group of friends watching football (i.e. American Football) on TV ... he steps out of the house to smoke a cigarette ... so ... I ask him ... "How is the match?" ... he looks at me like I just asked the weirdest question ever ... "The match!?! ... What match?!?" ... I try again ... nothing ... after an other couple of useless repetitions ... he looks at me and with wide eyes open tells me ... "aaaahhhh .... you mean the game!?!?!" ... of course ... the game ... fortunately for me ... I don't work neither in an airport Control Tower ... nor ... in a Coast Guard Radar Station ... ehehehe ... :O

OLIVER IN THE SURF CLUB

... this is today when Oliver ... signing in the SURF CLUB ... he is now officially a member of the club ...... so it went like this ... my weekend was surprise suprise ... alcohol free ... after Tuesday drama ... I decided to quit for a while ... I need really to be sure to take seriously the preparation for the marathon ... and avoid to destroy my liver ... so ... I didn't drink ... I did ride my bycicle ... I went running ... and after some weeks I went surfing ... surfing was fun ... I went out with Oliver this morning ... Oliver just landed 2 weeks ago from Germany ... he is a colleague of a friend and he will live and work here in LA for the next 6 months ... so I thought he had to live his california dream and a way to d it was to start surfing as soon as possible ... so I borrowed him one of my boards and one of my wetsuits ... and we went out ... a little bit late ... the best waves were gone ... but it was nice ... so welcome to the club Oliver ... and whrn I will back from my vacation in Italy and hopefully in Chile (Xing my fingers for this) ... we will continue ... surfing is really something more than a sport ... and the best way to enjoy it ... is to share this blessing with friends ... so welcome into the club my friend ... :D

REALLY IN A MOVIE

... today HOLLYWOOD came to HERMOSA ... they invaded a couple of streets with people, trucks, lamps, technicians ... in order to shoot some scene of a movie in the coffee shop on the strand ...... not sure what movie was this ... they shoot a lot of them here around ... one month ago a friend of mine told me she saw JOHNNY DEPP dressed like a pirate in REDONDO BEACH (just south of HERMOSA) ... apparently they were shooting the 3rd episode of the PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEAN ... I wasn't that lucky ... but I didn't really check who was in the coffee shop ... who knows ... possibly they were shooting an other part of PULP FICTION ... and inside JULES and VINCENT ... were telling a new espisode of the WALK THE EARTH speech ... :O

FREE HUGS

Not sure if you have already seen it or not ... in case you haven't seen it yet ... stop whatever you are doing for 3 minutes and watch this video ...

... I would love to have the guts of this guy ... today was not a good day for me ... but definitely this video ... this guy ... Juan Mann ... this song ... made my day ... and something more than that ... I surely cried when I watched it today ... A BIG HUG TO EVERYBODY ... XA

HERMOSA SUNSET

... not sure if you know it ... but ... HERMOSA in spanish means BEAUTIFUL ... and probably there is a reason why they called this city HERMOSA BEACH ... here today's sunset on the beach ... really wonderful ... I particularly love the first picture where you can see the last tip of the sun disappearing over the horizon ...... I love to live here ... I really love it ... it makes me feel that miracles can really happen ... I think beauty is really the greatest muse ...

SEPTEMBER 26

... I don't know exactly what is it ... but there is a definitely a connection between me and this date ... 3 of the people that I like the most on this planet have their birthday on this day ... 2 of them live far away from me ... so I couldn't really celebrate with them ... but at least I had the chance to celebrate with the 3rd one ... YANN ... yep ... yesterday was YANN's birthday ... here some pictures of the dinner last nite ... the baloons are, of course, Leif's creation ...... after the dinner Cristina, Justin, Yann and I went to drink more ... but that part of the nite is too much even for this blog ... let's put it like this ... I got really wasted ... but ... I got really really lucky to meet on my way 2 guardian angels that helped me to stay away from troubles bigger than me ... thanks to them ... even if I don't even know their names and I can't even remeber their faces ... thanks ... and this is a lesson for me as well ... help people in trouble is really the best thing you can do in your life ... :o

GUNS N ROSES CONCERT

... INLAND INVASION ... this was the name of the concert I went on Saturday ... in the desert just east of LA ... we didn't really have a GPS ... but Elvis as map holder did work out pretty well ... ... we got there in time ... I went with LEIF and YANN ... and it was just great ... great music ... almost 12 hours of very good live music ... from 2PM until 2AM ... the best were there ... Guns N Roses ... Alice in Chains ... Muse ... Papa Roach ... Avenged Sevenfold ... Rise Against ... Atreyu ... Buckberry ... 30 Seconds to Mars ... honestly I didn't know all the bands ... I went because I wanted to listen to the GNR in concert ... coming back to Southern California after 14 years ... and I have to tell you that ... the concert was worth every penny I spent ... just because of the GNR ... they played just great ... and AXLROSE ... has such an incredible voice ... and he did put so much energy in the show ... definitely ... something worthwhile ... especially for an old GNR fun like me ... honestly .... I was expecting some b*llshit from the GNR ... like not showing up ... or getting on the stage drunk ... or playing only a couple of songs and that's it ... after all Axl Rose is well know to be the biggest d*ck of the rock n roll history ... but you know what ... it didn't happen ... probabbly he got to the point where he can't mess up anymore with his funs ... probably he needs to be sure that people will buy the new already dealyed twice new album ... CHINESE DEMOCRACY ... and at the end ... the GNR did a 2 hours concerts ... great music ... great songs ... and the last one was my favorite ... PARADISE CITY ... such a classic for a concert ... but all of them were just great ... AXL did made also some small speach ... he call everybody ... motherf*ckers downloaders ... kind of funny ... like my brother told me ... there is really nobody who downloads GNR music anymore ... it is now more than 10 years that they don't make any new song ... no need to download anything ... good point ... :D ... unfortunately no digital camera were allowed inside the outdoor theatre ... so we had to get a disposable camera ... here is when we found out about it ... not nice ... we got the dsposable camera ... we took pictures ... and now I can't find it anymore ... :o ... we had fun anyways ... and of course also no alcohol was allowed inside ... I mean ... you had to buy it inside ... if u wanted to consume it inside ... so we ... like anybody else ... made sure to get confortably tipsy before entering the park ...... and we go completely wasted inside ... but the beer didn't change anything ... the concert was really great ... and if you have the chance ... don't miss the next GNR concert ... definitely ... the best!

ATLANTA TRAFFIC and HUMOR

... the ATLANTA commuting traffic jam yesterday definitely kicked my *ss ... there was a huge traffic jam in downtown ... and I missed my flight ... 2nd time that it happens in 8 years ... since I start traveling .. ooopppsss ... working ... this is ATALNTA downtown ...... seen by my car seat ... but this gave me a chance to take a good picture of a piece of the 1996 ATALNTA SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES ... the OLYMPIC TORCH ... looks a kind of cheap to me ... but I guess it is a piece of the city architecture...... the nicest thing of the almost 5 hours flight from Atlanta to LA was definitely the flight attendant humour ... he started with ... "LA weather at the moment is 25F and there is a heavy snow storm over the city" ... it coninued with ... "Ladies and gentlemen ... we will be late, because the technicians have found a flat tire, and they are going to inflate it for us now" ... when I start complaining about the delay he came to me and told ... "Sir, you should be happy ... you won't find any traffic on the 405 when you will land ..." ... definitely ... a type of humor that I like ... at the end I got into my bed at almost 2AM LA TIME this morning ... definitely a long day ...

PICTURES FROM THE SKY

... today I decided to threat myself ... I had to fly from LA to ATLANTA ... and instad of the usual RED EYES ... I flew during the day ... the sky was clear ... and these are two pictures I took ... first one is LA ... you can recognize the SOUTH BAY (i.e. South part of the SANTA MONICA BAY) ... you can also recognize ... very tiny the REDONDO BEACH HARBOR ... PALOS VERDES and ... LONG BEACH ....... this is ATLANTA ... and here you can easily recognize the skyscrapers of the downtown area ...... I have to admit it ... I love flying ... and I love to take pictures from the airplanes window ... and probably the favorite picture that i took today ... is this one ... wonderful small white clouds ...

LIKE IN A MOVIE

... probably it is just naive or weird ... but sometimes I feel like living in a movie set ... this is especially true here in LA ... incredible city ... with incredible things to see ... and do ... for example ... look at the car that I saw last Sunday in HOLLYWOOD ... I think it just came out from a movie set ...

... and definitely travelling is one of the reasons why I am feeling like in a movie sometimes ... it is becaue I am travelling so much ... travelling is definitely giving me the opportunity to see ... taste ... enjoy things that otherwise I would have seen only in TV or in a movie theatre or read in a book ... and living them ... makes me feel good ... yes ... in a way makes me feel like in a movie ... a very special movie ... I was thinking about it on Sunday ... when I saw this car ... yes ... I was thinking about this ... probably it is just weird ... or probably not ... but ... isn't our life like amovie ... a very special movie .... and the coolest thing about this movie is that ... we can decide how good ... interesting ... exciting it can be ... is just up to each of us ... isn't that cool!?! I think it is ... :D