Trojan Seahorse

What would a celebration of mythical Greece be without a Trojan Horse? The organizers of “Effetto Venezia” provided us with a rarity: an exact replica of the one made by the two-year-old Telemachus, the son of Odysseus. Not even the Pisans would have been tricked by this goofy seahorse.Considered that it was placed between the palm trees of “Piazza del Municipio”, I suspect that the only living beings you can find inside it are probably rats!

Search labels: Effetto Venezia
External links: Effetto Venezia (Official site, in Italian)

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A Few More Votes

The fantastic effort of our friends Stefano Ceccarini and Matteo Giunti and their enthusiasm, with the help of many others, has brought the Dutch Church to the first place of the national list of The Places I Love. If we will be able to keep this position until the end of October, the restoration of the church will be financed by the Intesa-San Paolo bank. Everybody can vote, even from abroad: it only takes a couple of minutes, please help us to save this historical building!

Search labels: Dutch church
See also: Abandoned Church - Scali degli Olandesi - Chiesa degli Olandesi - Sad Preview - A lecture - Finale - A Ray of Hope - Falling to Pieces - Flying Rats - Another Collapse - Fenced Off - Piazza Poerio - The Places I Love - A Few More Votes - Rose Window - Second Place?
External links: Temple of the Dutch German Congregation (Wikipedia)
Facebook Group: “Salviamo la chiesa degli Olandesi a Livorno” (Save the Dutch church in Livorno)

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Effetto Venezia 2012

It is that time of the year again, “Effetto Venezia” has begun. This time I was almost sure that there was no money for it, but they were able to find some funds somehow.After Spain and France, this year's theme is Greece. The organizers felt somewhat obliged to specify “Mythical Grrece”: a clumsy tentative to distance us from our “brothers in debt”?I am not sure if in planning the inauguration last Friday, in coincidence with the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, they were overconfident or simply uninformed, but having watched bits of the London extravaganza, for once I will go with “Effetto Venezia”...

Search labels: Effetto Venezia
External links: Effetto Venezia (Official site, in Italian)

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Three Men in a Boat

Three men in a boat (without the dog) are looking at the superyacht “Valerie”...

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Rats and Palm Trees

Something strange is happening around the palm trees in “Piazza del Municipio” (Town Hall Square). Their base has ben taped off and a section of the trunk shows a sort of wide bandage.The mystery is solved if you look closer: two mouse traps are waiting for rodents. It seems that some daring rats climb the trunk in search of food: not a welcoming sight for the busloads of cruise tourists stopping nearby.

See also: Piazza del Municipio

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Summer Hawk

The fast motor boat V 609 Falco (Hawk), in late April, with the usual hard top.The “open” version of the same boat in early June.

See also: V 609 Falco
External links: Guardia di Finanza

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Flor de Chavín

[Photos by Trillian]

This year recurs the centenary of the birth of the Livornese poet Giorgio Caproni (Livorno, January 7, 1912 - Rome, January 22, 1990).Last Monday the sculpture “Flor de Chavín”, a work of the Peruvian sculptor Joaquìn Roca Rey, was installed in “Piazza Giorgio Caproni” with a simple ceremony.The Peruvian sculptor and the Livornese poet became acqained during their stay in Rome. The work is a gift from the Roca Rey family to the city of Livorno. The actor Blas Roca Rey, son of the sculptor, and his wife, the actress Amanda Sandrelli, attended the ceremony, reading some poems of Giorgio Caproni.

See also: Piazza Giorgio Caproni
External links: Joaquìn Roca Rey - Chavín culture - Giorgio Caproni (Wikipedia)

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Awnings

A building facing the canal, in the Venice quarter, not far from the “Fortezza Nuova”.

See also: Fortezza Nuova

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Cargo Port

The tiny shape of the “Fortezza Vecchia”, that was on the left in Over the Porto Mediceo, is now on the extreme right, grouped with the Fish Market building and the “Palazzo del Portuale” around the Old Harbor. Most of the buildings we can see on the top part of the photo belong to the Venice quarter, while the rest is an area of the usually unseen cargo port. The cruise ship is berthed to the relatively new “Molo Italia”, while in foreground we have the “Darsena Petroli” (Oil Tankers Dock).A wider view of the cargo area of the port with the “Darsena Toscana” on the right. The narrow body of water crossed by a road bridge in the lower part of the picture is the “Canale dei Navicelli”. In the upper part of the picture we can see the Industrial Canal and a basin with some quite busy berthings that still go by the colonial names of Tripoli, Assab, Gondar, Addis Abeba, Neghelli and Bengasi.

See also: Flying over Livorno - Over the Porto Mediceo - Fortress from the Sky

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La Perla del Tirreno

Livorno, the Pearl of the Tyrrhenian sea

First-order sea resort - Enchanting beach
Rocky and sandy beaches - Purgative and diuretic source waters

Various celebrationa - Great horse races with rich
prizes - A very pleasant and modern city with plenty of drinkable water
(new waterworks from Filettole) - Cable car to the Sanctuary
of Montenero - Car tours center - Wonderful
promenades by the sea - Pleasant surroundings for a holiday

(A 1919 postcard digitized from the collection of Antonio Cantelli)

Search labels: postcard

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Over the Porto Mediceo

In foreground we can see the “Diga curvilinea” (Curved seawall), built to protect the port from the sea. The “Porto Mediceo” itself is the relatively small basin in the middle, with on its left a barely visible “Fortezza Vecchia” and on the right the blue sheds of the Benetti Shipyard, the large dry dock, the floating dock, the lighthouse and the “Darsena Morosini” (Morosini docks). Beyond that begins the “lungomare”, we have already seen a part of it in Flying over Livorno, while inland lies most of Livorno proper.

See also: Flying over Livorno - Cargo Port - Fortress from the Sky

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Narrow House

A quite narrow building in “Via Strozzi”.

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Flying over Livorno

Our flight from Paris was so kind to pass three times over Livorno before landing in Pisa, so I was able to take some pictures of our town seen from above.
In foreground we can see, from left to right, the round building of the acquarium and the grey snake of the “Terrazza Mascagni”. At the other end of the terrazza stands the Gazebo and just above it the Grand Hotel Palazzo, with the “Pancaldi Acquaviva” sea resort. The large compound which hosts the Naval Academy lies by the sea, while the “Armando Picchi” football stadium and the “Federico Caprilli” racetrack line up in the top part of the picture.

See also: Over the Porto Mediceo - Cargo Port - Fortress from the Sky

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Numptia

The 70-meter “Numptia” was built in 2011 at the Rossinavi Shipyard in Viareggio. Here the boat is entering our small dry dock for some maintenance.“Numptia” can reach speeds of 18.6 knots. At 16 knots (30 km/h), a speed achieved with 50 percent power, she burns about 132 gallons (500 liters) of fuel per hour.“Numptia” also has a touch-and-go helicopter pad with built-in landing lights.
Decidedly more modest means of transportation will get us home today.

Search labels: yacht
External links: Rossinavi (Official site) - Numptia Super Yacht (Yachts International) - Numptia Super Yacht (The Cool Hunter)

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Roughcast and Death Rays

Not even Clet Abraham could do better than this!Some passing aliens have probably turned their death rays on this one ...

See also: Clet Abraham - Bad Signs
Search labels: Clet Abraham

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Mysterious Object

Maybe not so mysterious, but at least a bit deceiving ...It is an external access ladder, with a safety cage, to access the roof of the Fish Market building.

See also: Fish Market

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14 juillet

On July 14th, somewhere in Le Marais, took place the third annual meeting of Livorno Daily Photo with Versailles Daily Photo.By the way, if you have seen ciel's post, this is the picture we were taking in the Village Saint Paul.

See also: LDP meets VDP - LDP & VDP
External links: 3ème rencontre LDP-VDP - Attendre 23 h le 13 juillet - Un dîner franco-italien (Versailles Daily Photo)

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Five Tables, Twenty Chairs

Chairs and tables on the sidewalk of via Magenta outside the “La Mela Stregata” (The Bewitched Apple) ice cream parlor.

See also : Six Chairs, Three Tables - The Bewitched Apple

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Little Pink Bicycle

Little pink bicycle lost in a world of bigger and motorized wheels.

Search labels: bicycle art
External links: Bicycle Art

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Happy Birthday Modì

Let us take inspiration from our stay in Paris to celebrate today the 128th anniversary of the birth of the painter Amedeo Modigliani (Livorno, 12 July 1884 – Paris, 24 January 1920).Amedeo Modigliani, Reclining Nude on White Pillow, 1917
Oil on canvas, 60 x 92cm
Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

Modigliani's first and only solo exhibition was in 1917 at the Berthe Weill gallery in Paris. Most of the paintings exhibited there were nudes. The police of a city accustomed to considerably more erotic images declared the nudes a public nuisance and closed the exhibition.

(Masterpieces of Western Art by Ingo F. Walther, Robert Suckale, Taschen, 2002)

Search labels: Modigliani
External links: Amedeo Modigliani (Wikipedia)

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Wind Surf

The 187-meter “Wind Surf” was built in 1990 at the Atelier et Chantiers du Havre. A modern sail ship, she has a computer-controlled sail surface of 2500 square meters and a relatively shallow draft which allow her to call in ports that are inaccessible to larger cruise liners.With a crew of 160 and 154 cabins for 300 passengers, life can't be so bad on board...

Search labels: cruise ship
See also: Wind Star
External links: Windstar Cruises (Wikipedia)

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Paris Gâteaux

I saw this some time ago in a shop window in “Via degli Avvalorati”. I have no idea what a “Paris Gâteau” is, but we can try to find out at the source: we will be in Paris for a few days.

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Palio Marinaro 2012

After two victories of “Venezia” in 2010 and 2011, “Ovo Sodo” (Hard boiled egg) won the “Palio Marinaro”, the most important race of our rowing season. (Picture taken on June 3 during the “Coppa Risi'atori”)

Search labels: rowing

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“La Toscana” Restaurant

A 1909 postcard advertising the hotel restaurant “La Toscana”, owned by a Attilio Carpignani. It was on the corner of “Via Greca” with “Piazza Colonnella”, where now stands one of the Sea Monsters fountains.The interior of the restaurant: you can easily recognize the arched French doors of the above picture.

(Postcards digitized from the collection of Antonio Cantelli)

See also: Via Greca - Sea Monsters
Search labels: postcard

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Bows in a Row

From left to right we can count six bows of different type of ships: “Crown Princess”, “Cedeira”, “Sovereign”, “Mega Express Three”, “Stad Amsterdam” and “Aethalia”.

See also: Sovereign - Stad Amsterdam
Search labels: ferry

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Via Manasse

A grassy small yard with vine-covered walls in “Via Manasse”. (Picture taken on May 20, 2012)

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Vitruvian Man

Following a tip from a friend, I came across another work by Clet Abraham: a Vitruvian Man on a no vehicles sign.

Search labels: Clet Abraham
External links: Clet Abraham (Wikipedia, in French) - Vitruvian Man (Wikipedia)
The language of the street signs by Clet Abraham (Abitare)

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Sovereign

The 268-meter “Sovereign of the Seas” was launched for Royal Caribbean International in 1987, at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire, France. In November 2008 the ship was transferred to the fleet of Pullmantur Cruises and renamed “Sovereign”.In January 1988, at the time of her maiden voyage, she was the largest cruise ship in the world.

Search labels: cruise ship
External links: MS Sovereign - Pullmantur Cruises - Royal Caribbean International - Chantiers de l'Atlantique (Wikipedia)

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Video Surveillance

With a sign like this one, does somebody really believe that this area (the central Piazza Cavour) is under an effective video surveillance?

See also: Piazza Cavour

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Dormer

In Italian a dormer is called “abbaino”, with the accent on the i, a word that sounds strange even to us. The obvious etym would be “abbaiare” (to bark), but this is not the case. It does probably come from the old Genoese dialectal form abbaèn, which literally means a young abbot, but was often used for young friars. In fact, the slate cover of the dormers was similar to the grey of the young friars' frocks. Others say that it is a form of “abbadino”, which comes from “badare” (to watch), or from the French baie (an opening in a wall).

External links: Dormer (Wikipedia)

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Theme Day: Chimneys

On the “Serenade of the Seas”: I am not even sure if these are some funnels of sorts, but I liked them anyway.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

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