Social lives of networked people

Nowadays we can always see people attracted by texting, Facebook,  Twitter, instant messaging, and other social media. We see them completely "networked" everywhere: along the streets, in open plan offices, and inside restaurants and department stores. Sometimes we can see them inside the church. We are surrounded by awkward images of people who now go online to connect other people in their community. They don't  see the world around them. Since the late 2000s I have seen people who send text messages while they are running. How do they carrying mobile phones while they are running?

I would like to carry a camera while I am running instead of a mobile ... I took the picture of the seagull above while I was running this week.

Happy Easter to the blogging community!

Cold wind on Easter Monday

Today is Easter Monday. And this morning the weather was colder than normal, so I had no choice but running with scarf and hat. I ran 50 minutes through a strong and cold wind ... although this is the second week of April, and we saw the beginning of Spring on March 21st.

The chart below shows the running path where I ran last week. I was delighted with my training as I did 12 km at 05.30 min./km pace.

I would like to post four pictures that I took today after I had run. We spent this cold and windy Easter Monday in the hills, here in Central Italy. The first one shows a very small stone house in the countryside.

An old farm house has been transformed into a restaurant. We had lunch there with other friends.

 The  picture below shows its old wooden ceiling.

After we had had lunch, we went walking through a village called Tuscania, about 100k North from Rome, where we visited the old church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Its rose window, also called wheel window in Gothic architecture, gives to the church a somewhat English character. Absolutely stunning! If you were to visit me I would be honoured to take you there. 

 Nice week to all my blogger friends!

Easter cakes are ready

As usual, the South Italy's Easter cake is still ready: we'll have it tomorrow at lunch. We've planned to go in the hill with other friends on Easter Monday.

My running shape is slightly increasing: this week I ran three times, and I did 32 km (10k on Monday, 12k on Wednesday, and 10k yesterday). I hope to run a 10k race in Tuscany on April 18th. 

Happy Easter to everyone! 

Eastern Monday

The photo posted shows the place where we spent Eastern Monday on April, 9th. That old farm has been transformed in a nice farm house resort and it is located 120 km North from Rome. In Italy, that style of vacationing is called "agriturismo" and this word is a  combination of the words for "agriculture" and "tourism" in Italian.

We stayed with friends and their children and we had a great time although the weather was windy.

Tomorrow I am running the Rome's Vivicittà 12 km race. It's a world–renowned Italian-founded race which takes place every year all over Europe and in other cities around the world. Its aim is to achieve integration between different cultures and peoples by using sport as an instrument of socialization.

Stefano and I are running that race as training. As I wrote on  Char's blog, where I've just left a comment, I still see a lot of chocolate in my house and I'm not losing weight :)

I hope you'll have a nice running, swimming and biking weekend!

Easter tradition

Thanks to everyone for the Easter wishes. I hope all you have had a relaxing Easter time with your family or your friends, running, hiking or biking.  I'd like to show you  these photos which I took on Friday, April, 22nd. It's a view of the Civitavecchia's procession which had been held for Easter tradition.  It takes a whole month to organize it and everybody joins in the preparetion. Before the procession began the streets had been cleaned because people white hooded  walked barefoot and dragged heavy chains. You can see them in these three  photos.

The tradition of the Easter procession, which began in the seventeenth century, gives a mystic atmosphere to the town. From a sociological point of view it's important that people try to keep a tradition alive.

A nice week to everyone.

Easter weekend

A beautiful Easter weekend to all my blogger (and running)  friends!

Easter time

I arrived at the Park early enough to do a short warm-up on my own before meeting up with the small running group. The time taken during that training session was 1 hour, 14 minutes and 26 seconds. This time I didn't improve the speed but I maintained my pace. We run 14,12 km along the Southern side of the town and through the countryside. My average pace was 5:16 min/km.

As you know we need a well balanced meal after running. If you see the photo below posted you can see the Italian Easter’s pastry which contains both proteins and carbohydrates. It is made from a very special and old recipe which has two particular ingredients which make it unique: moisture taken from the orange tree blossom and cooked wheat. Also used in the recipe are "ricotta" cheese, candid fruit and classic short pastry. Making the Easter’s pastry does not require any great ability.
Happy Easter to you all.

Wild asparagus

Thanks all blog's friends for the happy birthday wishes! Yesterday I wore the new running clothes which my family gave me for my birthday. After I had run 2 km warm up I ran 14 km throught the countryside in the Southern surrondings of the town. In that sunny afternoon the average pace was 05:14 min/km. Our running team wasn't there and I ran with a friend of mine this relaxing training.
There were some wild donkeys along the track. They live in this special patche of Mediterranean forest and this environment may become a small protected area near the town. While we were running we saw a lot of wild asparagus near the path. Today I've sought them and maybe we'll prepare the Asparagus salad with potatoes this evening.

Now I have to help my family to prepare the pastry of Easter. Its name is "Pastiera" and it has to be cooked with some days advance. This pastry takes time to prepare and requires presoaked grain. I'm going to buy its exotic ingredients such as cinnamon and vanilla extract. This is my contribution.

In the first photo above posted you can see the new running clothes. The other two photos show you the wild asparagus and the protected wild donkeys.