Theme Day: Funny Signs

A 230 year old “No playing, no loitering, no standing” sign trying to discourage disorderly presences from the area of the portico of our Chamber of Commerce, then the Royal Customs House.

By Order etc.
It is forbidden for anyone
of any rank and condition
to leave trash, to play games
or to make any loud noise
under and around the Loggia
of this Royal Customs House
under the punishment of capture,
imprisonment and harsh trial,
if disobeying or transgressing etc.
Given by the Criminal Chancery
of the Government of Livorno
21 August 1781

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

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Under the Castle

This the vault of the arch under the small castle at the entrance of “Villa Maria” facing “Via Calzabigi”.“GL” are the initials of Giovanni Lazzara, who built this villa.

To honor his memory, the heirs of Giovanni Lazzara,
Knight of the Work,
donated this villa and its park to the local council
so that the building would be used as museum
and the garden open to the public.
31 October 1962

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A New Crane

The port of Livorno has a new mobile crane, with a lifting capacity of 140 tonnes and a 51 meter maximum operating radius.This 2 million Euro Liebherr LHM 500 can handle general cargoes, containers, bulk materials and the occasional heavy lift.With its forty-wheel undercarriage the crane can travel in every direction, even sideways or diagonally.

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Loeb se cruza con una moto en dirección contraria en el Rally de Portugal

Sebastien Loeb se llevó un susto tremendo en la segunda especial del Rally de Portugal cuando pilotaba su Citroën C4 WRC. El campeón del mundo se cruzó con una moto ante el estupor del francés: "¡¡¡Hay una motocicleta por delante!!!" dijo Loeb a su copiloto Daniel Elena, que respondió sorprendido: "¡¡¡La he visto!!!

Inside S.E.A.S.

I had my First Communion and Confirmation in the grand “Santa Maria del Soccorso”. When a new church was built and our home was included in the new parish, my disappointment was great.
The new church looked like a recycled hangar and was dedicated to an obscure American lady, not even properly Saint at the time.
I still have pictures of my younger brother dressed up for his First Communion in front of that... shed.I missed many masses since, I knew that a real church has been built years ago, but never bothered to visit it, even after starting this blog.
Last Sunday I ventured there to take a picture of the statue of the Saint, which I knew was in the garden, and found the church open, almost a miracle here in the early afternoon.
I went inside and saw the light. No, not in that sense, I am quite hopeless now, but a lot of sunlight filtered by colored windows.
After a recent week of full immersion in Roman baroque, I was impressed by the simple interior of this church.The unusual “Via Crucis”, with its stations gathered in a cross made of bas-reliefs.

See also: An American Saint - S.E.A.S. - Mother Seton Parish (in Italian)

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La que se avecina 4x02: Un masajista, un imán de chochetes y un príncipe de los Cárpatos

En el episodio titulado "Un masajista, un imán de chochetes y un príncipe de los Cárpatos" , completamente trastornado, incapaz de superar la infidelidad de su mujer y obsesionado con descubrir la identidad de su amante, Antonio Recio está convencido de que el responsable de su crisis matrimonial es el masajista de su mujer.

Por otra parte, Fran, que se ha vuelto gótico, informa a su progenitor de su deseo de contraer matrimonio. Con el fin de acercarse a su hijo y comprender sus nuevas inquietudes, Enrique muestra interés en conocer a la novia del joven. Previamente al encuentro, el concejal de Juventud y Tiempo Libre del Ayuntamiento redecora su apartamento y modifica su indumentaria siguiendo la estética gótica.

Tras ser convocada a un casting para un anuncio de cereales, Estela acude al proceso de selección acompañada de Lola. Cuando la joven es elegida para protagonizar el spot, se produce una guerra abierta entre madre e hija en un momento en el que Lola asegura haber descubierto su gran vocación: la interpretación.

Ha cobrado su primera nómina pero no desea compartirla con su ex-mujer, por lo que pide un favor especial a Javi: ingresar el dinero en su cuenta para que Maite no pueda hacer uso del mismo. La situación se complica cuando Lola descubre el ingreso y utiliza dicha cantidad para matricularse en una escuela de Arte Dramático.

Footwear

I am a mostly black shoes guy, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw these highlighter shoes on a stall of a seasonal market.Fancy Disney flip-flops, but the story is always the same...A bunch of colorful Crocs... with a reflection.

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S.E.A.S.

This strange structure beyond the trees is the bell tower of the church of “Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton”.The church was hosted for years in a prefabricated structure, then came the new compound. The entrance of the church itself, which is only a part of the building, is on the terrace at the first floor.The upper level is easily reached by stairs and a ramp with a view on the small garden below.

See also: An American Saint - Mother Seton Parish (in Italian)

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Straight Walk

My walk starts with the window of a model shop in “Via Mentana”.Same street, a tagger likes the bakery next door (in English).The plaque says to the mailman: “Mailboxes are at number 99”.A lady vanished leaving only a pair of shoes and a cigarette butt.“Via Gramsci”, a leafed monster is trying to catch the street lamp.Same street: after the most stupid-faced lion, here's the ugliest!

More Walks

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An American Saint

This church in Manhattan, New York City, stands on the birthplace of Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.
Elizabeth, born in 1774, at the age of nineteen married William Magee Seton, a wealthy merchant in New York City. After William became ill, the doctors advised him to move to a warmer climate, so Elizabeth and their eldest daughter accompanied him to Italy, where he had some trade connections in Livorno.Because of the yellow-fever their ship was quarantined in Livorno and her husband died shortly after. He was then buried in the Old English Cemetery.
Elizabeth then spent time with the Filicchi, a wealthy local family of faithful Catholics. Two years later, after returning to the United States, she converted to Roman Catholicism.

From New York her birth city
come to the sea and the sun of Italy
looking for relief to the poor health of her husband
the Blessed Elizabeth Ann Seton
between the walls of the nearby old Lazaret of St. Leopoldo
lost in God with serene strength of mind
endured the harsh quarantine
from November to December 1803

A plaque on the church of “San Jacopo in Acquaviva” remember her trials. The statue of the Saint stands in the small garden of the church dedicated to her in Livorno.

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Audrey Hepburn

She's been recently voted the most beautiful woman of all time and many voters weren't probably even born when she started making movies. You won't see many Audreys walking around in Livorno, but we have our “Colazione da Tiffany” (Breakfast at Tiffany's) in “Via Marradi”.A “Vacanze Romane” (Roman Holiday) t-shirt in a window of the “Gaia Scienza”, a bookshop inside the “Palazzo della Galleria”.
I liked this because we recently had our Roman holiday, but I am quite sure that Audrey Hepburn wasn't a t-shirt type.

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Pilotina Due

Last Thursday, during the final touches of some maintenance work on land, the “Pilotina Due” (Pilot Boat Two) took fire by accident and burned almost completely.The three yard workers on board at the moment of the fire were able to escape unharmed from the scaffolding.I took many pictures of the elegant mahogany finished boat during her rides across the waters of our port.Goodbye “Pilotina Due”, you braved the waves to meet a sad end on land. We'll miss you...

See also: Pilots - Backgrounds - Turning Ships - Leale

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Palazzo della Galleria

Opposite the Central Post Office, still in “Via Cairoli”, we find the “Palazzo della Galleria” (Palace of the Galleria) built in 1927 by the “Istituto Nazionale Immobiliare”.
The galleria was originally intended as a link between “Via Cairoli” and the area of the “Mercato Centrale”, but it never really worked and now the space is a glorified hall with a café.
By the way, our friend Stefano took care of the recent restoration process of this galleria.

See also: BNL - Via Cairoli - Banco di Napoli - Central Post Office

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Secret Doors

You can still see these concealed doors in some older building, sometimes perfectly painted, like this one in “Via Cambini”,or a bit more decrepit, like this other in “Corso Amedeo”.This front door is gone, and elegantly replaced by a temporary one made of particle board.

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El País del Caballito Frenao

En un reciente viaje, por una emergencia familiar, a Venezuela -antiguamente conocida como la Tierra de Gracia, pero que ahora podríamos denominar, cariñosamente, un Tierrero en Desgracia- tuve la oportunidad de vivir en carne propia, un par de logros del Socialismo de Siglo XXI: la destrucción del sistema de salud pública y la destrucción del sistema de educación pública.

Yo nací y fui operado par de veces en un hospital público -el Universitario de Caracas- y desde preescolar hasta la universidad estudié en educación pública; así que me siento con autoridad para decir que -con sus defectos, cómo negarlo- la salud y la educación pública, en la Venezuela en la que crecí y me hice adulto, funcionaban.

Estuve metido dos semanas en una clínica privada, que por lo abarrotada de gente que estaba su emergencia, hospitalización y terapia intensiva, se podría haber pensado que era un hospital público; con la pequeña diferencia que la terapia intensiva costaba 10.000 bolívares fuertes el día, o lo que es lo mismo 2.300 dólares diarios. Y mis lectores no venezolanos se preguntarán: ¿Por qué carajo si es tan cara, la gente prefiere una clínica privada en vez de un hospital público? Porque en el Socialismo de Siglo XXI los hospitales no tienen medicinas, personal suficiente o, simplemente, están desmantelados. En pocas palabras: no son una opción.

Uno de los días que pude salir de la clínica, me fui con mi hermano a hacer una rolo ‘e cola de tres horas y pico en un colegio privado para buscarle cupo a mi querido sobrinito; después de pasar calor, cansancio y roncha, cuando llegamos a la puerta una señora malencarada del personal del colegio nos gritó: “los cupos pal primer nivel se acabaron”. No sé si sea necesario aclarar por qué la gente no quiere entregarle la educación de sus hijos a los maestros de las escuelas públicas bolivarianas.

Aunque lo que más me impactó del viaje no fueron estas dos anécdotas personales, sino que los genios comunicacionales del Gobierno Bolivariano hayan escogido como símbolo del Bicentenario de la Independencia una imagen gráfica tan parecida al, famoso mundialmente, caballito frenao del Ron Pampero.

Y me pregunto: ¿Habrán querido sugerirnos algo sobre esta rolo ‘e pea por la que estamos pasando? O ¿Nos están preparando pal ratón?

Ciro

Caballito Frenao en Blogalaxia
Venezuela en Blogalaxia
Socialismo de Siglo XXI en Blogalaxia
Ron Pampero en Blogalaxia

Central Post Office

The “Palazzo delle Poste” or “Poste Centrali” (Central Post Office) was the first building to be built during the urban renewal of “Via Cairoli”. The building was completely designed by the Technical Department of Municipality of Livorno.
On the side windows a couple of “postal faces” are clearly visible.After a ceremonial first stone laid in 1919, works actually began few years later and the building was completed only in 1929. Alongside the “Poste Centrali”, the “Banco di Napoli” in a vintage postcard.

See also: Postal Faces - BNL - Via Cairoli - Banco di Napoli

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Sea, Air, Land

The first brave turists on a boat cruise along the “Fosso Reale”.The beautiful window of a villa in “Viale Marconi”.A detail of the above rose...“Via Redi”, the most stupid-faced lion I have ever seen.This balcony in “Via Cambini” is all for wind wheels and spinners.

More Walks

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Moses Montefiore

This is the Montefiore Windmill, which is not in Livorno but in Yemin Moshe, an old neighborhood in Jerusalem. The windmill was funded by the British Jewish philanthropist Moses Montefiore, who devoted his life to promoting industry, education and health in the Holy Land.
Moses Montefiore may be rightly considered British but he was surely born in Livorno in 1784, where he began his career as an apprentice to a firm of grocers and tea merchants.
A pair of plaques commemorate him on the wall of the community building, next to the Synagogue.

To the perpetual remembrance
that on 24 October 1784 here was born
Sir Moses Montefiore
in Syria, Russia, Morocco, Romania
tireless apostle of tolerance
to any kind of misfortunes
without distinction of country or persuasion
widely merciful
Died in Ramsgate on 28 July 1885
Honored by the powerful blessed by the poors

Plaque recovered from the nearby house
where Sir Moses Montefiore was born
Placed here on 21-2-1965

One hundred years after the end
of the long and full life
be blessed the memory
of Sir Moses Montefiore
27 October 1985
12 Cheswan 5746
World Sephardi Federation

See also: Synagogue of Livorno - Inside the Synagogue

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Strange Ships

The ferry “Bastia” showing her tongue.The little boat is looking for the larger one with the same colors.
Someone forgot a backhoe on this ship.
A quite funny livery for a cruise ship.

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