Saint Joseph's Day

On this sunny Sunday we, Westerners, celebrate Saint Joseph's Day. Always held on March 19th, the feast honors Joseph, husband to the virgin Mary.

According to the tradition, the cakes in the picture above are typical of Saint Joseph's Day. Custard cake filling is made with egges, milk, vanilla, lemon and sugar.

Meanwhile, the same seagull that I mentioned in my previous post, is still on  cars' rooftops. This time the seagull hasn't chosen my car :-) 

Have a nice Saint Joseph's feast!

Plan to ease the curfew

Since more than 50% people are vaccinated in the EU, we have seen many little tables scattering along streets and alleys. But we have to wear a mask, wash our hands and observe social distancing rules, as not everyone is vaccinated.

Today is public holiday in my country, as Italians celebrate the day when they voted to abolish monarchy in 1946 ...  my daughter had been cooking when I saw the colors of the Italian flag on the kitchen table: parsley (green), garlic (white), and tomatoes (red) 🇮🇪

On that  sunny morning I saw some beautiful donkeys while I was walking through the countryside. A fence and a small donkeys stable have been built on a spacious piece of land close to the town.

We have had Sars-CoV-1, MERS, and Sars-CoV-2 ... what will be the next one? Go running, go walking/hiking, go swimming, go biking ... because our lifestyle will dictate how vulnerable we are to the viruses 🏇🏇🚲🏃🏊🏂

Christmas decoration are still on road

According to tradition, we should take our Christmas decorations down on January 5th 🎄

Today, in the late afternoon, I walked fast 45 minutes in the dark. While I was walking through the urban environment of my town,  I noticed many people are keeping their Christmas decorations up longer this year.

Happy new year!

Pictures of the volcanic island of Ischia

I've just spent four days in the volcanic island of Ischia, about 30 km West from Naples. Since Monday Easter I have not run and I have not gone cycling. I have Mainly enjoyed thermal spas.

While I was on holiday, my nephew (17 years old) gave me a phone call. He said he found a World War II-era bomb while he was hiking in the hills situated close to Gaeta, 90 km North from Naples. His smart phone was very useful, as he was able to take latitude and longitude. Of course, I quickly sent latitude and longitude to army specilists, who will remove the World War II-era bomb on May 5th. Poeple don't live near the place where the World War II-era bomb was found.

During the second World War the Gustav Line stretched across the Italian peninsula and barred the way to Rome for two allied armies in Italy. Unfortunately, Gaeta was on the Gustav Line. That's why a lot of  World War II-era bombs are still there.

The first days of March in London

Just a short post to show the weather conditions I saw in London last week.  Snow and rain since 1st to 5th of March.

In the aim to avoid cold weather, I spent about one hour visiting the Inner Temple Library. 😓 It's a private law library in London, serving barristers, judges, and students. In addition to legal materials, we can found there specialist Scottish and Commonweath collections.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed England. 😊 Although cancelled Tubes and trains is annoying, I think London's people felt this extreme weather so exciting. There were people taking pictures of the snow out of the windows, and boys throwing snowballs in the park for hours. I heard people's conversation about weather on the Tube, in shops.  With a sprinkle of snow the ugliest place of London looks nice.    

Non-acidic fruits & vegetables

I've been cycling since I noticed  that osteoarthritis of my feet is strictly related to running. So during the second week of July I gave up running and began cycling in the Hills,  through tall oaks and olive trees.

Cycling is great exercise but hard work when it is windy and the path is up-hill. It gives me the same endorphin production as I experienced when I was a runner. 

Just a picture of  the Southern Italian Coast which I visited in August:

And with regard to August, people who live in the Northern Emisphere  can enjoy in Summer time a huge list of non-acidic  fruits & vegetables. As it is known, we always have to consume non-acidic food in the aim to maintain our body pH level normal.
Lemons, lime and kiwi are  categorized as highly alkaline fruits and are therefore non-acidic. Other non-acidic fruits include bananas, cantaloupe, coconot, grapefruit, grapes, watermelon and berries (exceptions are cranberries and blueberries which are classified as acidic).

Apple and orange are non-acidic fruits which we can find in Winter. In addition, in Winter there are a lot of non-acidic vegetables, such as cabbage, carrots, artichoke, pumpkin, lettuce and garlic.



 

My 200th post

Hello everyone! This is my 200th post.
I haven't been blogging since last month.(sorry for delay). Next week I'll be on vacation and my best destination will be the Ponza Island. Two days ago, my  sister sent me the picture below which shows the place where I'll spend a three days next month. It's the place where my mother usually lives in Summer which is situated in the hills close to Gaeta. Her house's rooftops are covered with photovoltaic panels. We are going to celebrate her birthday on August 2nd.

I have never seen such stunning rainbow through that valley.

As usual, in Summer I lose the ability to run over a long period of time without getting tired. I haven't plan to run any race in the next two months. That's why I didn't run the 10km race which was held yesterday in my hometown. On the other hand, I gave my support as volunteer, providing water along the track :) and got the t-shirt of the race although I didn't run it. Some runners from Sweden and Netherlands ran that 10km race as they were here in Italy on vacation. Beautiful atmopshere before the race.
I'll probaby sign up for a Half Marathon which will be held in October. The running path will be around the "Vico lake" here in Central Italy. So, at the moment I am trying to maintain my running shape considering that our body sometimes needs a break.
Happy Summer to all my blogger friends!

Happy Easter!

I'd like to show you this picture taken yesterday while I was running in the hills near to the town. We (my wife and I with our friends) have planned to spend there Easter Monday. As you can see in the picture, yesterday the weather wasn't sunny enough and it still is so cloudy. I hope it will be better during this Easter weekend, considering that my daughters have planned to go on the beach.   

Happy Easter to all of you!

New Year's Day traditional food

Thanks everyone for sharing information about the name of the Nativity scene. Is it Crèche or crib? I noticed that both the two words express the same fundamental meaning. Maybe, the best term is Nativity scene , although displays often go beyond the manger scene and may even include a representation of the entire village.
So this is the last day of the year and tommorrow New Year's Day is every man's birthday. According to tradition, New Year's Day food will bring you fortune in the year to come. Here in Italy, seafood dishes are always eaten at New Year's eve. With regard to fish dishes, the picture below shows a big brown grouper, which I saw while I was buying seafood on December 24th.    

In most cultures,  meal prepared on New Year's  Day brings good luck.  Here  in Italy New Year's eve  meal consists of seafood and lentils,  which symbolize little coins:  they can  bring prosperity  for the new  year and should be the first meal we eat for the new year. Of course, we also celebrate with party and firework.

What is your New Year traditional meal? 

Happy New Year to all the blogger friends! 

Moray eel

This morning I noticed that my blood cholesterol level decreased from 254 to 230 mg/dl: since May it has decreased by 10% and I'm so happy for that and I will try to eat healthy food again. First of all, seafoods, considering that Civitavecchia, the town where I have been living since 1991, is situated close to the see and I can always buy good fish. Local market offers seafood that have been harvested in the past 12 hours and can contain more iron, phosphorus, proteins, and vitamin D than fishes that are shipped from far away.  With regards to local fishermans, the picture above shows a muray eel. I saw that it in the local market and despite its snake-like appearance, moray eel is a fish and not a reptile. Of course, it is edible: the meat is very soft and white, delicious. Someone says that deep fry works better but I don't think so ... I've decided to avoid fried food. Have you never eaten that fish?

Just two picture, here on the left,  to show you a particular motorcycle (maybe,  its right definiton is "sidecar"). 
It was in my neighborhood this morning and came from Poland, as  shown by its registration number.  We, bloggers,  are sometimes  looking for new  images  for our blogs. 

Running sessions are going well although I'm running no more than three times a week at the moment. 
On the vacation front, I will be on holiday since July 25: the main destinations are Gaeta and Bologna (North Italy).  I really need some time off work to be spent doing whatever I want.

Happy vacation time to everyone!

Blackberries

Yesterday after my daughters had picked some blackberries we made a delicious jam. Ultimately, we only made a jar of jam. Better than nothing :) But the most important thing is that they enjoyed walking through that wonderful countryside. They found the blackberries along a path which is a beautiful place to run too. I sometimes go running along that path because the environment is really great and ... it is flat :). You can see it in the photo below which I took while my daughters were picking the blackberries. If we had had enough time we would have  picked figs too. We will  do this next time!



The running path through the countryside where my daughters picked the blackberries

                    


The jar of blackberry jam which my daughters made yesterday

I've come back in my town and next week I'll come back at work. We were on vacation in South Italy on relaxing beaches, green hills with olive trees and old villages. So we visited a small town where most houses were built with white stones. That small town is called Ausonia and it is very old. It's a characteristic place and I would never thought there were so narrow streets. In the photo below you can see one of these houses above mentioned.




One of the houses of Ausonia (South Italy) which were built with white stones

Now I'm trying to improve my training and I'll help my friend Stefano who is following a marathon schedule.
Nice running to all my blogger friends!