Sant'Antonino Fair

The “Fiera di Sant'Antonino” is the most popular fair in Livorno. It takes place every year on June 12 and 13, morning to midnight, in a zone called “Fiorentina”, by the name of the gate where the ancient road to Florence started.About two hundred stalls are lined up selling various wares, foods and sweets. With this post we are going to show you some sweets: “zucchero filato” is the Italian for cotton candy.
We already introduced you to the “brigidini” in our post “Primavera a Colline”, and probably most of you will already know the “torrone”, a delicacy originally from Cremona, Lombardy. You can see another popular summer refreshment in the foreground: “cocco fresco” (fresh sliced coconut).The “marzapane” (marzipan) is a typical Sicilian sweet which has found a second home in Tuscany. It's always shaped and painted to resemble miniature real fruit.
You have seen much of Livorno and so it's time for you to meet some real Livornesi, like this crowd marching through the fair. It's late afternoon, not much young people around.

See also: Primavera a Colline
External links: Torrone - Marzipan (Wikipedia)

Versione italiana

Inside Santa Caterina

You probably remember the exterior of “Santa Caterina”, not one of the best church façades you have ever seen.
A few days ago I sneaked inside to shoot quickly some photos. There was not so much light and I was trying to push my camera on benches and against columns in search of some stability.
The results are not technically perfect, but I hope that you will appreciate how beautiful and rich is the interior of this church.I'll try to repeat my intrusion but, as I already wrote, it is not easy to gain access to the city churches outside the time of mass.
See also: Santa Caterina

Versione italiana

Fisherman's Friend

No menthol lozenges involved here, and these friends are not disinterested. Every time I wander to the far side of the Elba or Capitaneria piers in the “Porto Mediceo”, I see these birds chirping and waiting just on the edge of the jetty.This is a favourite spot for fishermen and, now and then, the little birds get some bait throwed at them, just for fun or to keep them quiet. They eat the small worms voraciously, but this part I'm not going to illustrate here.

Livorno Centrale

With the station of Ardenza now closed, Livorno has four still active railway stations: Centrale, Calambrone, Antignano and Quercianella-Sonnino. Calambrone has no passenger traffic and only local trains call at Antignano and Quercianella-Sonnino, so we are left with the main station: “Livorno Centrale”.The new station was built in 1910 to position Livorno on the Genoa-Rome line, replacing the old “San Marco” station. The main building faces “Piazza Dante” and its public gardens, from where “Viale Carducci” and then “Via Grande” form an axis straight to the “Porto Mediceo”.The building was recently renovated and is a terminus for several local bus lines. From here you can travel by train to Pisa in fifteen minutes, to Florence in one hour and twenty minutes and to Rome in three hours (two with an Eurostar).

Versione italiana

Odd at Sea

Odd things at sea, or better in the waters inside the harbor. A Corsica-Sardinia ferry manouvering back to her berth with a small boat right on her way. You could see these ferries here.A tugboat trying hard to slow and stear the approach of a cargo ship entering the port.

Search labels: tug - ferry

San Marco

We already know that Livorno has a Venice, so what about a “San Marco” (Saint Mark), with his winged lion?This is the other quarter resulting from the urbanization of part of the “Fortezza Nuova” during the first decades of the 17th century. “Porta San Marco” (Saint Mark Gate) is one of the few gates still standing after the demolition the Leopoldine Walls.The first railway station of Livorno, was built here in 1840: it was the terminus of the “Leopolda” Railway to Pisa and Florence. The “Leopolda”, then “San Marco”, was the main station of Livorno until “Livorno Centrale” was built in 1910. Its building still stands just outside the gate, almost completely abandoned.Through the gate, now a pedestrian zone, you can see the whole length of “Via Solferino” straight to the “Fortezza Nuova”. In 1849 the Austrians, after a short siege, broke through the city walls through a breach here, despite a strenuous defence by the brave Livornesi.

See also: The Austrians Are Coming

Versione italiana

Italian Baseball

British sailors teached us football (soccer) and we learned quite well. Long before this, American sailors tried to teach us baseball, with not so good results. In 1884, on January 23 and the following days, the crews of the USS Lancaster and USS Quinnebaug met in Livorno, on the “Campo d'Osservazione” (Observation Field), for an unknown number of innings.A plaque was placed in 2001 by the Italian Baseball Federation on a wall of the “Gymnasium” to commemorate the first ever game of baseball played in Italy and, probably, in continental Europe. The “Campo d'Osservazione” is now a football (soccer) field.

Related post: Ménio

Awards

Jacob of Ocala Daily Photo and The Villages Daily Photo gave us the “Honest Scrap” award.

I appreciate his intention and his serious interest for LDP, but I think that this, as many other “awards”, would be better to stop.
If I give 8 new awards to fellow bloggers and everyone complies with the rules, in a week we'll have more than 16 million awards and counting. So what is the purpose of this?
The better way to give an award to a friend blogger is to follow his or her blog, link it on your page, quote it in your posts and just keep in touch.
I hope my friend Jacob will understand, I appreciate his work, his comments and his advice. I am very happy to have just discovered his Villages blog and consider this a very good prize.