After a few days of sun, a grey and hazy Sunday morning at the 29th TAN.
The MSC Orchestra is in port and the sailboats are at sea, on the racing fields.
On the other side of the port, a forest of masts...
Four pictures following a passing cloud, taken at 1-minute intervals in a pause between races at the “Trofeo D'Alesio 2012”. (Exact timings: 10:33:34 - 10:34:54 - 10:36:06 - 10:37:32)
The delegations of the Navies present to the 29th TAN paraded yesterday on “Via Grande”, gathering then in “Piazza del Municipio” (Town Hall Square) for a simple ceremony. The Navy band was playing all along.
Alessandro Cosimi, the mayor of Livorno, was on the balcony of Town Hall with the commander of the Naval Academy, the Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone.
The cadets of every Navy present at the Trophy were carrying their flags.
The marble staircase of Town Hall festooned with flags at the end of the ceremony.
The flags were arranged in alphabetical order at the right of the Italian Navy flag, continuing on the other side of the staircase.
The apparently chaotic warming up of the Venezia, San Marco-Pontino and Antignano crews for the races of the “Trofeo D'Alesio 2012”.
The first competition of our rowing season is the “Trofeo Gaetano D'Alesio”, which usually takes place during the TAN. “Venezia”, last year's winner, triumphed again in the ten-oar boats.
The boat of “San Jacopo” finished second ...
... with only a third place for “Ovo Sodo” (Hard boiled egg).
After the refurbishing of the “Chiesa della Santissima Annunziata” (Church of the Most Holy Annunciation), now is the turn of the “Chiesa della Madonna” (Church of the Madonna), in the same street.
A stained glass window seen from inside the church.
A duo of Anna G. corkscrews by Alessi in a shop window in “Via Marradi”.
A model in full sail of Christopher Columbus' “Santa Maria”, which, by the way, wasn't a caravel but a carrack. The ship models exhibition is on display at the “Tuttovela” village in occasion of the 29th “Trofeo Accademia Navale” (Naval Academy Trophy), taking place in Livorno in these days.
In 1993 the 50m long sailship “Swan fan Makkum” was launched in a Gdansk shipyard, becoming the largest brigantine in the world. With 1,300 square meters of sail and a 44-meter air draft she is one of the tallest of the tall ships.
She has crossed the Atlantic 18 times, has made regular appearances at major sailing events around the world and competes in at least part of the Tall Ships Race series every year. In 2006 the “Swan fan Makkum” was sold to the Italian Navy and renamed “Italia”. She is now jointly operated by the Navy and the Genoa Yacht Club (Yacht Club Italiano).
One of the new planters in “Piazza Attias”, decorated with a slice of “Lungomare di Antignano” (Antignano coast) by the Livornese painter Giovanni Fattori.
The supply vessel “TITO” is in the dry dock for some refurbishing. This kind of boat is designed for the offshore and salvage industry, it is equipped for oil recovery, fire fighting and can also be used as a communication center during rescue operations.
The boat, 63-meter long, was built in 1981 at the Astilleros de Huelva (Huelva shipyard), in Spain. The second picture was taken ten days after the first one.
A relatively modern building in “Viale degli Avvalorati”, facing the “Fortezza Nuova” (New Fortress). Please keep in mind that the “new” in the fortress name is still four centuries old.
A Sunday morning on the “Fosso Reale” for a boat tour of the canals.
In background, from left to right along Scali D'Azeglio, we can see Palazzo Squilloni, Palazzo dell'Aquila Nera and Palazzo Maurogordato.
It is not clear if this truncated stele is part of what was once called “Fonte Guglia” (Spire Fountain), whose collocation was however elsewhere, at the corner of “Via delle Spianate” (now “Corso Mazzini”) with “Borgo dei Cappuccini”. The obelisk has already lost its top some time ago due to stability problems.
In a view of Livorno from L'Italie à vol d'Oiseau (A bird's eye view of Italy) by Alfred Guesdon (circa 1850) you can easily spot the pristine obelisk at the right end of the green area. It was probably built in the 1830s with parts from other steles, formerly used to delimitate the area around the old city walls where building was not allowed.
A postcard showing “Piazza Mazzini” in 1911, now full of young trees, with the obelisk visible on the right.
An Aprilia Sportcity One of the “Polizia Municipale” (Municipal Police) parked outside the Town Hall.
A vintage grocery store sign in “Via Garibaldi”. “Generi di Monopolio” means that this was an authorized seller of State monopoly merchandise. At the time this category included table salt and matches.
The strange sign of the “Boutique dei fiori” (Flowers Boutique) in “Via Magenta”.
The colorful sign of “Paninoland”, an eclectic eatery in “Via Bosi”.
The pavement under the porticoes of “Via Pieroni” is being re-layed in a quite complicated way, called “Palladiana” (Palladian flooring).
This technique consists in composing large surfaces of contiguous flooring out of thousands of all differently shaped smaller pieces of marble.
From the funnel of the “Moby Corse”, Tweety is probably wondering at the unusual black hull of the 60-meter superyacht “Ulysses”.
The same vessel inside the “Darsena Nuova” (New Harbor) just after the launch at the Benetti shipyard in the summer 2010.
In a vintage postcard, the building that once housed the Giovanni Battista Niccolini gymnasium and the Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi liceo classico, after 1952 liceo classico Niccolini Guerrazzi.
Today the slightly restructured building is part the “Niccolini-Palli” secondary instruction institute. At the end of the street, in both images, we can see the side of the “Teatro Goldoni” entrance portico.
Reflections in an odd-shaped mirror inside a hairdresser salon, seen through the shop window.
Behind the bicycle, on the crumbling plaster: “Ho visto occhi di donna guardare la corrida” (I saw woman's eyes watching a bullfight).
The 34-meter CP 409 Ingianni, built in 1992 at the CRN shipyard in Ancona, is the biggest patrol boat of the Italian Coast Guard. The red stripe is the international symbol of the coast guard, usually personalized by each country, in our case with a thin green stripe and an anchor.
