Mart in Venice

One of the really few interesting things at the last Effetto Venezia was an exihibition of the works of Mart.

We do not know much of Mart, but we have seen several of his works all around town.

As you can see the artist is on his way to improve a few works of the some important masters.

Search labels: Mart

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I have been posting photos of Livorno for the best part of five years. My modest images show a real, if somewhat too kind, view of the city where I live. You do not find here fancy effects and rosy sunsets, but mostly no-frills photos of buildings and places that make Livorno what it is.
This takes time and effort without any kind of reward, and I am fine with that. I am content with the circle of friends and bloggers I have met through City Daily Photo, and you will not see me pestering people for a larger audience or some more ‘likes’.
Sadly, I keep seeing my photos used by others with absolute carelessness and without any recognition. Always ready to whine about the sorry state of our city, these guys have apparently no time to go around with a camera taking simple shots. It is easier to pilfer some of the four thousands pictures posted on our blog until now.

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Sant'Andrea's Bell Tower

The bell tower of the church of Sant'Andrea seen from Via del Seminario.

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Pig and Sauce

“Sugo” may be gravy or sauce in Italian, but I do not like it much as a name for a restaurant.

“La Cravatta del Maiale” (The Necktie of the Pig) in via Palestro. “It suits him like a necktie to a pig”, we usually say this of something elegant on someone completely not.

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On the Roofs of Venice

A strange creature living on the roof of a building on Scali delle Ancore, in the Venice quarter.

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Royal Princess

The “Royal Princess” is a 329-meter cruise ship built by Fincantieri at their shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy.

The geometric thriumph of her side balconies, with very few passengers still on board.

The “Royal Princess” was launched in August 2012 and delivered to Princess Cruises in spring 2013. The ship's horn can play the first two bars of the The Love Boat theme and usually does it when the ship departs from a port. Do not forget that the original Love Boat was a Princess Cruises' ship, the “Pacific Princess”.

Search labels: cruise ship
External links: Royal Princess - Princess Cruises - The Love Boat - Pacific Princess (Wikipedia)
Horn on new Princess ship to play ‘Love Boat’ theme (USA Today)

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The Last Phone?

An almost rare public telephone in Via Goldoni: it was even in working order...

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Porticoes and Planters

Almost the whole length of Via Grande, a fully porticoed street, seen from its Piazza della Repubblica end, with a distant view of the Porto Mediceo.

This fashionable planter in Largo del Cisternino, at the end of Via Grande, looks unkempt and neglected, but it is only part of a carefully studied new ‘casual look’ painstakingly implemented all over the city.

See also: Via Grande - Ferragosto

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Moby Vincent

The “Moby Vincent” is one of the oldest ferries in service between Livorno and Bastia: she was built at the Rickmers shipyard in Bremerhaven, Germany, and launched in 1974 as “Stena Normandica”.

The ferry, like many other born up there, got tired of the cold Northern seas and in 1990 migrated to the Mediterranean. Renamed “Moby Vincent”, she began to ply the route between Corsica and Italy.

Search labels: Moby - ferry

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Watching Over

A new apartment building was built on a vacant lot on the corner of Via della Venezia with Viale Caprera. This half-broken votive niche was restored in the process. “Mi posero a custodia del quartiere” translates as “They placed me here to watch over the neighborhood”. Considered the night life in the area she could use the help of a couple of patrol cars.

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The Tired Cyclist

A tired cyclist resting on a bench in Piazza della Repubblica.

Search labels: bicycle art
External links: Bicycle Art

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The Stop

Leaving the port they saw a friend on the jetty, so they stopped over for a chat... (Picture taken last August)

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Do You Want to Live Here?

This ad, on a recently renewed building in Via della Venezia, is asking if you would like to live here.
By the way, we will be in Venice, the one on the lagoon, for a few days.

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Via Mayer's Monster

We have already seen this mural three years ago, in an Easter Monday walk. This time I managed to get a straight shot, without the parked cars. It doesn't get much better, but at least it can be judged properly.

See also: Easter Monday

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Leaving for Corsica

This is almost the same kind of shot, taken in three different days of September.

The passengers are on the aft deck of the “Corsica Marina Seconda”, leaving Livorno for Corsica.

The ferry leaves our port in the morning for Bastia, at the northern end of the island.

See also: Corsica Marina Seconda
Search labels: ferry

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Arethusa

When you see her completely outsized by other ships, it would be easy to dismiss the 60-meter “Arethusa” as an odd-shaped motor yacht, but she is the top ranking vessel in the small cruise ship sector.

The “Arethusa” carries no more than fifty passengers arranged in 26 cabins on only three decks. She sails through the Mediterranean exploring, as they say, ‘villages, wines, and history.’ Her itineraries include a two-week tour of the Greek Isles and one at the discovery of the hidden beauties of the Dalmatian coast.

External links: Arethusa (Condé Nast Traveler) - M/V Arethusa (Grand Circle Cruise Line)
Search labels: cruise ship

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The End of Summer?

Whitecaps at the Bagni Tirreno (formerly Bagni Trotta), seen from the “Terrazza Mascagni”.

See also: Terrazza Mascagni

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Art of Work

If have a trained and sensible eye, or a drink too much, you can feel the artistic streak of Livorno almost everywhere. Ours is such a refined city that art installations sprout even at construction sites and we will soon be able to organize the first world exihibition of “art of work”.

“Black spiral wrapped in orange-red netting, against a grey background”

“The fight of the little excavator against the huge corrugated pipe”

“Rusted iron Stonehenge with cigarette butts”

See also: Curbside Art - The Barriers of Art

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Manhunt

The nightmare is over, now we can breathe again! “Il Tirreno”, Sunday 8th September:

“Preso il ladro dei bagnanti caccia all'uomo sugli scogli”

(Caught the thief of the bathers manhunt on the rocks)

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MS Queen Elizabeth

With a choppy sea four tugboats are waiting at the entrance of the port of Livorno.

Even inside the breakwater the heavy boats are dancing a bit.

Then the 294-meter “Queen Elizabeth” arrives and the tugboats ease her into port. The Cunard's cruise ship was launched in January 2010 at the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone. In a ceremony held later the same year in Southampton, the ship was christened by Her Majesty the Queen.

External links: MS Queen Elizabeth (Wikipedia)
Search labels: cruise ship - tug

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Terrazza Mascagni at Dawn

“Terrazza Mascagni” at dawn: windy day with choppy sea.

See also: Terrazza Mascagni
Search labels: Terrazza Mascagni

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Canon PowerShot SX50 HS

Somewhere in my junk room there is an old and heavy shoulder bag containing the slowly decaying bodies of two SLRs and a half dozen of their lenses. I feel no nostalgia for those costly and clumsy contraptions I once loved and revered: with the advent of the digital era I am a born again photagrapher, who now enjoys the practicality and the convenience of bridge cameras. Every few years I buy a new model of the same type and this summer was time to replace my Canon PowerShot SX20 with an SX50 HS. I know that some of you will turn up your nose at this choice, but I consider myself a lazy and not very demanding amateur.

To test my new zoom lens I am taking a shot at the weather vane on the top of the Town Hall turret.

The wide angle shows us a fishing boat in the “Darsena Vecchia” (Old Harbour), also known as “Pamiglione”.

See also: Three Years of PowerShots - Municipal Palace - Gone with the Wind? - Pamiglione
External links: Bridge camera (Wikipedia)

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Moby Aki and Wonder

There is no way that this summer is going to end without seeing again two of our most colorful ferries.

A set of Looney Tunes characters on the side of the “Moby Aki”

The same set, differently arranged on the side of the “Moby Wonder”

See also: Moby Aki - Moby Wonder
Search labels: Moby - ferry
External links: Looney Tunes (Wikipedia)

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The Scaffolding

This structure at the entrance of the port, still hidden by a cover and protected by a scaffolding, is the new 6-meter tall statue of the Madonna dei Popoli (Our Lady of the Peoples), a project of our (Pisan) bishop Simone Giusti. The statue was commissioned to the (Pisan) sculptor Paolo Grigò and will be unveiled this afternoon in a formal ceremony. A minority of Livornesi is against the statue for not easily understandable reasons.

External links: Ecco la Madonna del porto (Il Tirreno, in Italian)

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Flowery Bicycle

A flowery bicycle chained to the railing of the “Fosso Reale”, on Scali d'Azeglio.

Search labels: bicycle art
External links: Bicycle Art (Inspiration Green)

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Bunch of Chimneys

A bunch of chimneys seen from Piazza della Vittoria.

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Apostolos II

The “Apostolos II” is a 179-meter geared handysize bulk carrier or a ship that transports unpackaged bulk cargo, such as grains, coal, ore, and cement in its cargo holds. Geared means that it is equipped with cranes to load and unload the cargo. Handysize usually refers to vessels with deadweight of up to 50,000 tonnes.

External links: Bulk carrier - Handysize (Wikipedia)

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Matching Color

Do you think it is cool to have a scooter that matches the color of your car?

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Corinne

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein, commonly known as Madame de Staël, wrote her most famous work in 1807: “Corinne, or Italy” (Corinne ou l'Italie). In this work, at some point of her stay in Scotland, the protagonist reaches a moment when a crucial decision is made with the unexpected help of some people from Livorno:

[Portrait of Madame de Staël as Corinna by Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun]

“Then, toward evening on the following Sunday, I heard some singers under my window—Italians who had come from Leghorn on the ship. Theresina had drawn them there as a pleasant surprise. I cannot express what I felt. Floods of tears rained down on my face; all my memories were bom again. Nothing retraces the past like music—more than retraces it. When music evokes the past it seems like the ghosts of those we loved, covered by a veil of melancholy and mystery. The musicians sang those delicious lines written by Monti in his exile:

Bella Italia, amate sponde, Pur vi torno a riveder. Trema in petto e si confonde L’alma oppressa dal piacer.

(Beautiful Italy! Beloved shores! I come again to see thee My soul fainting with pleasure Trembling and stunned within me.)

I was intoxicated. I felt for Italy everything we feel when we are in love—desire, enthusiasm, longing—I was not my own mistress. My whole soul was drawn toward my native land. I needed to see it, to breathe it, to hear it; every beat of my heart called me to my beautiful home, my smiling countryside.”

(Madame de Staël, Corinne: Or, Italy, 14.3)

External links: Germaine de Staël - Vincenzo Monti (Wikipedia)

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Theme Day: Pink

A pink house on the “Fosso Reale”.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

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