Bike Sharing

At last, someone noticed our very expensive and practically unused bike-sharing bicycles: nobody uses them, but some thieves broke a couple of racks stealing five bikes.

This happened in Piazza del Municipio, just in front of the central municipal police station and Town Hall.

Considered that almost everybody can afford at least an used bike, the money for this project would have been better spent on fighting bicycle theft, the real reason why a lot of people do not use a bike in town. But “repression” is not fashionable...

See also: Five-Thousand-Euro Bicycles - Waste of Money - A Diabolical Endeavour
- Piazza del Municipio - Town Hall
Search labels: bicycle art

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Guard Tower

No, this is not a prison, but just a corner of the wall surrounding the Naval Academy compound.

External links: Italian Naval Academy

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Choccolandia 2014

Do you have ever thought about a chocolate camera? You can easily find one at Choccolandia, the annual chocolate fair that comes in Livorno with its imaginative assortment of cocoa-laden objects.

Roses are not a problem, but they only come in brown...

You can always find less fancy sweets: orange peel in dark chocolate is one of our favorites!

See also: Choccolandia - Sicily in Tuscany - Hardware
Search labels: food fair

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Torm Trader

The flashy bridge castle of the “Torm Trader”, a 229-meter Panamax bulk carrier built in 2010.

External link: Panamax - Bulk carrier (Wikipedia)

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Santa Trinita Bridge

The Santa Trinita bridge is one of the main access point to Livorno from the north and the cargo area of the port. It has been damaged several times by trucks and never repaired.

The above picture was only an aperitif: as you can see the real damage lies a bit ahead.

The same damaged part seen from below. Considered the kind of traffic, it is incredible that a bridge like this has been built without a guard rail.

See also: Theme Day: Perspective - On the Bridge

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Saturday in Pisa

I happened to be in Pisa two days in a row: this is a selection of some pictures taken on Saturday.

It seems that the worst is passed, but the parapets of the river Arno are still planked up and sandbagged.

Visitors almost on top of the Leaning Tower.

Some Recommended by Routard plaques outside a hotel: I wonder what happened in 2010...

You see strange things on the roofs of Pisa.

Double and symmetrical selfies on the Ponte della Fortezza (Fortress Bridge).

More Walks
See also: Livorno Airport - Pisan Walk (2010) - Pisan Walk 1 of 2 - Pisan Walk 2 of 2 (2011) - In Pisa (2013)
Search labels: Pisa

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Sunset Light

The balcony of one of the Liberty houses on Viale Italia, at sunset.

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Dumpster Stories

This last time they emptied the dumpster something didn't go well...

Also that is plastic, after all...

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Livorno on a Grating

The coat of arms of Livorno on the grating of a window of the Municipal Building.

See also: Coat of Arms - Municipal Building

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STS Pogoria

The STS “Pogoria” is a Polish sail training ship built in 1980 at the Stocznia Gdańskа (Gdańsk Shipyard), in Poland. She was designed by Zygmunt Choreń and has a sail surface of 100 square meters.

We see her quite often in Livorno, embarking or disembarking part of her young crew, and it was one of the first ships ever posted on this blog in the early 2009.

See also: Pogoria - Welcome Back Pogoria - Goodbye, Pogoria!
External links: Pogoria - Gdańsk Shipyard (Wikipedia)

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Vintage Telephone

During my photographic walks it is not unusual to be asked why I am taking pictures, and sometimes an answer does not come easily. I was luckier last Sunday: photographing an old lamp in Borgo dei Cappuccini I met Alessandro, who introduced me to Gigi, the owner of an interesting collection of vintage items. We will see soon something more about this.

See also: Capuchins Walk - Raw Milk - Borgo Cappuccini - Santissima Trinità - Via degli Archi - B Like Borgo

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If This Is a Man

January 27th was the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this occasion a marble plaque has been unveiled on the side wall of our Town Hall: it bears a quote from “Se questo è un uomo” (If This Is a Man), a book by the Italian writer and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi.

This poem is also known as Shema, a Hebrew word that means “hear” and the name of a very important Jewish prayer.

Se questo è un uomo Voi che vivete sicuri Nelle vostre tiepide case voi che trovate tornando a sera Il cibo caldo e visi amici: Considerate se questo è un uomo Che lavora nel fango Che non conosce pace Che lotta per mezzo pane Che muore per un sì o per un no. Considerate se questa è una donna Senza capelli e senza nome Senza più forza di ricordare Vuoti gli occhi e freddo il grembo Come una rana d'inverno. Meditate che questo è stato Vi comando queste parole. Scolpitele nel vostro cuore Stando in casa andando per via Coricandovi alzandovi Ripetetele ai vostri figli. O vi si sfaccia la casa La malattia vi impedisca I vostri nati torcano il viso da voi.

If This Is a Man You who live safe In your warm houses, You who find, returning in the evening, Hot food and friendly faces: Consider if this is a man Who works in the mud, Who does not know peace, Who fights for a scrap of bread, Who dies because of a yes or a no. Consider if this is a woman Without hair and without name, With no more strength to remember, Her eyes empty and her womb cold Like a frog in winter. Meditate that this came about: I commend these words to you. Carve them in your hearts At home, in the street, Going to bed, rising; Repeat them to your children. Or may your house fall apart, May illness impede you, May your children turn their faces from you.

External links: International Holocaust Remembrance Day - Primo Levi - If This Is a Man - Shema Yisrael (Wikipedia)
See also: Town Hall

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The Isthmus of Crocetta

About a year and half ago I wrote about the non-bridge of Crocetta, the strange result of the works for the new canal in our historical Venice quarter. After four years since the dig started and a couple of years since it was completed, there is still a pile of dirt where a new bridge should have been. The reddish girder across the canal in foreground should have been one of the two projected footbridges, the other one is a grayish line just below the yellow building in background.

The soil has now been secured with barriers and concrete, so the non-bridge has become an real isthmus.

This will be another welcoming sign for the tourists coming in town from the new bus terminal, planned just outside the walls, across the isthmus.

See also: A New Canal - The Non-Bridge of Crocetta
Search labels: new canal
External links: Isthmus (Wikipedia)

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On Top of the Lighthouse

I already showed you our 52-meter lighthouse encased in a scaffolding, but now we can actually see people at work around the lantern room and even on top of it.

See also: The Lighthouse - The Caged Lighthouse
External links: Lighthouse (Wikipedia)

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Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol and a bicycle, Corso Amedeo.

Search labels: bicycle art
External links: Bicycle Art

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Gargoyle

One of the two gargoyles of the “Cappella di Maria Immacolata” (Mary Immaculate Chapel), which is inside a private school run by the Mantellate Sisters. The coat of arms of Livorno is visible on the right.

See also: Gargoyles - Coat of Arms
External links: Gargoyle (Wikipedia)

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Montcalm (D642)

The “Montcalm” (D642) is an anti-submarine frigate of the Georges Leygues class (Type F70) of the French Marine Nationale (French Navy). She is actually a destroyer, as the “D” in the pennant number says, but the French refer to this kind of ships as frigates. She was built at the Brest Arsenal between 1975 and 1982.

The “Montcalm” is a multi-role ship armed with Exocet and Crotale missiles, suitable for strategic defence and show of force operations. The superstructures of this class of ships are built to resist the blast from a nuclear explosion. The white device resting at the stern is a DUBV 43C towed array sonar.

External links: French frigate Montcalm (D642) - Exocet - Crotale (missile) - Pennant number - Towed array sonar (Wikipedia)

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On the Brink

Last week a car crashed through part of the railings of the Ponte del Mercato and almost fell off, stopping on the brink. The usual and ubiquitous barriers have been deployed...

See also: Ponte del Mercato

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Sailor Monument

A “Monumento al marinaio” (Sailor Monument) was unveiled last November on our seafront, not far from the buildings of the Accademia Navale (Naval Academy).

The statue was made by the sculptor Cesare Tarrini around 1926-27 for the tomb of the sailor Vasco Lomi, in the Municipal Cemetery. When the lease for the grave expired, the sculpture was removed and kept in storage for several years. It was recently considered fit and reused as a part of this new monument.

The statue of the sailor, for a long time confined inland, can finally see the sea.

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January Walk

It has been a long time since my last walk and probably some of you do not even remember what kind of walk this was. I like to wander about the streets of Livorno in the early Sunday afternoon, when almost everybody is still at home, and most of the pictures you see here are taken during these walks. There was a time when, mostly on Monday, I posted four or five photos following an itinerary, a story or a pretext. It ended because I exhausted almost every possible route and there was not much to photograph anymore. Last January I ended up in a part of Livorno where I had never set foot before, so here is one more walk, the first and probably the last of 2014. If you like the experience, here are ninety more...

An apartment building in Via Giuseppe Maria Terreni.

A strange platform with antennas in the same street.

Still in via Giuseppe Maria Terreni, a “VP” monogram on a facade.

On a front door in Via Paolo Lilla this dragon has been painted gold.

And to conclude our walk, a lovely balcony in Via del Mandorlo.

More Walks

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After the Pestilence

A detail of the plaque on the façade of the church of San Sebastiano:

“Temple dedicated to Sebastian martyr and benefactor, after the pestilence, in 1633
Damaged by time and by an earthquake, it was restored in 1880”

See also: San Sebastiano

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Non-Clet

Road signs marking the work site for the new bus terminal: somebody scribbled them over.

These artless taggers make us appreciate even more the funny works of Clet Abraham.

See also: Clet Abraham
Search labels: Clet Abraham

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Star of Lakshmi

We have already seen this detail of the railing of the Fosso Reale as decoration, but in its simplest form it is called Star of Lakshmi and in Hinduism it represents the eight forms of the goddess Lakshmi.
Otherwise, it may just be a Rub el Hizb, a Muslim symbol represented as two overlapping squares, which is used as a marker for the end of a chapter in Arabic calligraphy. You can find it in Unicode as the glyph ۞.
The American band Faith No More used the eight-pointed star on the cover of their 1985 album We Care a Lot and this symbol is present on every page of their website.

External links: Star of Lakshmi - Lakshmi - Rub el Hizb - Faith No More - We Care a Lot (Wikipedia) - Faith No More (Official website)

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Molo Novo

The seawall protecting the port of Livorno is called “Diga curvilinea” (Curved seawall) or more simply Molo Novo (New Pier), because until a few decades ago it was actually used to berth ships. You can have a better idea of this structure looking at it from above.

[Photos by Maurizio]

We usually see this from the land side because you need a boat to get there, but my friend Maurizio took these pictures for us. The external side is protected by rocks and by a line of concrete tetrapods.

On top of the barrier there is walkway from where you can see the whole port: here we are looking toward the south entrance, the only one used by ships.

See also: Over the Porto Mediceo - Between Sea and Sky

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Half a Million

A few days ago, according to Blogger statistics, our blogs on Livorno crossed the half a million page views line. About at the same time Livorno Daily Photo reached the 400,000 mark, while its Italian companion Livorno una foto al giorno, achieved 100,000 views. These may be ridiculously small numbers for many websites, but we are very happy with them: in five years we have helped to put a mostly unknown city “on the map” for a lot of people around the world.

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Homage to Friends from Montparnasse

In 1961 Marie Vorobieff, known as Marevna, painted “Homage to Friends from Montparnasse”, a Cubist recollection of the artists of the Parisian scene of the 1910s. We can see (top left to right) Diego Rivera, Ilya Ehrenburg, Chaim Soutine, Amedeo Modigliani, Jeanne Hébuterne, Max Jacob, Léopold Zborowski. On the bottom left sits the artist herself with her daughter Marika Rivera, on the right Moïse Kisling with a cat.

External links: Diego Rivera - Ilya Ehrenburg - Chaim Soutine - Amedeo Modigliani - Jeanne Hébuterne - Max Jacob - Léopold Zborowski - Marie Vorobieff - Marika Rivera - Moïse Kisling (Wikipedia)
Search labels: Modigliani

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Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi

The statue of Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi in his namesake square, a work by the Livornese sculptor Lorenzo Gori. The inauguration of the monument took place on 17 May 1885.

Here is an image of the original poster of the event, obtained thanks to my colleague Claudio.

External links: Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi (Wikipedia)

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