martedì 8 dicembre 2009

Save the Date: 12 dicembre, L'Aquila: “COMUNICAZIONE E SOCIAL NETWORK NELL’ERA DEL CAPITALISMO INTELLETTUALE”

Idee e misure concrete per il rilancio dell’economia abruzzese: il contributo dei Capitalisti Intellettuale

L’Aquila, 12 dicembre 2009 - Sala delle Conferenze Carispaq, Via Strinella, 88 - Ore 9,30 - 13,30

II Appuntamento del

CICLO DI FORUM


“COMUNICAZIONE E SOCIAL NETWORK NELL’ERA DEL CAPITALISMO INTELLETTUALE”


Il capitalismo intellettuale è la rivoluzione silenziosa del terzo millennio. L’uomo ritrova un posto centrale nel sistema socio-economico perché tramonta il modello dello sfruttamento meccanico di capitale e lavoro e la conoscenza diventa il motore fondamentale dell’innovazione e della capacità concorrenziale di imprese e sistemi-Paese. Il nuovo capitalismo antropocentrico si sviluppa sul valore economico della creatività, della professionalità e dell’innovazione tecnologica. E’ la sintesi finale, la simbiosi vincente, la saldatura competitiva tra economia, conoscenza e tecnologia.

In questo ambito, i capitalisti intellettuali sono i nuovi protagonisti della società e dell’economia. Tali soggetti, comunque svolgano la propria attività lavorativa (professionisti, imprenditori, knowledge workers), utilizzano e diffondono quotidianamente le proprie competenze distintive e le proprie capacità relazionali per migliorare i processi, le imprese, i mercati ed i sistemi sociali nei quali vivono. In tal modo, forti della consapevolezza del proprio capitale intellettuale e della propria singola imprenditorialità personale, esprimono una forza economica, sociale ed etica in grado di condizionare la propria organizzazione e l'ambiente che li circonda (gli stakeholders esterni). Quando poi entrano in collegamento attraverso i social network riescono a diffondere, nelle reti locali o globali, non solo la propria conoscenza ma anche il desiderio profondo di ciascuno di loro di tendere all’affermazione di un proprio modello culturale, relazionale e imprenditoriale. In altre parole, all’affermazione della propria visione del mondo.

E’ sulla base di queste considerazioni che è nato il ciclo “Comunicazione e social network nell’era del capitalismo intellettuale”. Questo appuntamento del ciclo avrà luogo a L’Aquila (Sala delle Conferenze Carispaq, Via Strinella, 88 ) il 12 dicembre prossimo (9.30 - 13.30) e sarà dedicata al tema “Idee e misure concrete per il rilancio dell’economia abruzzese: il contributo dei Capitalisti Intellettuali” come da programma allegato.

La finalità è quella di dare un contributo, anche provocatorio in qualche caso, di idee e di misure concrete che i diversi soggetti imprenditoriali e le Istituzioni nazionali e locali possano far proprie al fine di rilanciare il tessuto economico e sociale di una terra come l’Abruzzo, ferita ma mai doma.

Dove: L’Aquila - Sala delle Conferenze Carispaq, Via Strinella, 88

Quando: 12 dicembre 2009 - Ore 9,30 - 13,30

Agenda:

9,30 – 9,45 Registrazione dei partecipanti

9,45 – 10,00 Introduce i lavori:

Sergio GAGLIANESE

Vice Pres. SINTEG - Fondatore Gruppo Capitalisti Intellettuali

Saluti: Germana BURGARELLA - Pres. Gruppo Giovani Imprenditori e Professionisti

Modera: Rachele ZINZOCCHI – Collaboratrice de “Il Tempo”, Cons Univ. LUISS Attiv. Web e Editoriali, Consulente Camera dei Deputati – Autrice tv

10,00 – 10,30 Relazione di base

Idee e misure concrete per il rilancio dell’economia abruzzese nell’era del capitalismo intellettuale

Angelo DEIANA

Presidente Comitato Scientifico del CoLAP, Coordinamento Libere Associazioni Professionali - Autore de “Il capitalismo intellettuale”

10,30 - 13,30 Ne discutono:

Lorenzo AIT - Scrittore, Ricercatore universitario

Roberto BARBATO - Presidente FRIMM Holding Spa

Andrea CIARAMELLA – Docente BEST Politecnico Milano

Stefano CORDERO DI MONTEZEMOLO – Pres. AIMBA, Academy of MBA’s

Francesco DI CASTRI - Presidente SINTEG

Giuseppe FORTUNATO – Presidente Civicrazia, Membro Garante Privacy

Joshua John LAWRENCE – FERPI Abruzzo, Insider Strategic Relations

Pierluigi MANTINI – Comm. Giustizia, Università di Milano

Mario PIRILLO – Europarlamentare Comm. Ambiente, Sanità,Sic. Alimentare

Gabriel SIMONCINI – Ass. Prof. Political Science John Cabot University

Mario TASSONE - Presidente COPIT, Com. Parlam. Innovazione Tecnologica

Maurizio VICARETTI – Pres. Ord. Ing. Prov di PESCARA D.T. Saccomandi srl

13,30-14,00 Conclusioni

Massimo CIALENTE - Sindaco L’Aquila

Stefania PEZZOPANE – Presidente Provincia L’Aquila

martedì 24 novembre 2009

Rebuilding L'Aquila Through Culture and Art

Why it should be the European Capital of Culture in 2019

Those of you who have been following me here know how important L'Aquila is to me. Much of my adult life is woven through its streets, its people, its food and it's air.

The earthquake severed that. One of Italy's largest historical centers is still off-limits to everyone except the builders and the firefighters, with the exception of a few streets and hotels. It will take at least 10 years to make things begin to turn to normalcy there.

I believe that L’Aquila should be the European Capital of Culture for many reasons. It’s unique and rich cultural, architectural, artistic and musical heritage made the city one of Europe’s most overlooked city’s of art.
Unfortunately it took a disastrous earthquake to let the world know about L’Aquila.
The choice of L’Aquila as Capital of Culture will not only highlight what L’Aquila was, but it will show what it can once again become by 2019 and beyond. Reconstruction will have more than a goal, but a reachable dream.
And the city will become a showcase of what European, if not worldwide, cultural co-operation.

Please support us by joining our group on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=183317549268&ref=mf) or by subscribing to the blog (http://laquilaeuropeancapitalofculture2019.wordpress.com/).

That way those of us volunteering towards this goal will be able to keep you informed on our progress and how to help, and you will demonstrating your support.

Joshua

laquilaeuropeancapitalofculture2019.wordpress.com
carbonara.wordpress.com
expatinitalia.blogger.com

mercoledì 18 novembre 2009

L’AQUILA CAPITALE EUROPEA DELLA CULTURA 2019

(per sostenere l'iniziative è stato creato il gruppo facebook "L’AQUILA CAPITALE EUROPEA DELLA CULTURA 2019 (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=183317549268&ref=mf)

L’AQUILA CAPITALE EUROPEA DELLA CULTURA 2019

di Pierluigi Mantinie Roberto Daneo
pubblicato su Il Centro - 18 novembre 2009

Abbiamo avviato uno splendido progetto per il futuro dell’Aquila e la rinascita del suo territorio: la candidatura di L’Aquila a Capitale Europea della Cultura per il 2019.
Concepito come un mezzo per avvicinare i cittadini europei, la Città Europea della Cultura venne lanciata nel 1985 dal Consiglio dei Ministri greco su iniziativa del Ministro della cultura Melina Mercouri. Da allora l'iniziativa ha avuto sempre più successo tra i cittadini europei e un crescente impatto culturale e socio-economico sui numerosi visitatori che ha attratto.
Le città europee della cultura sono state designate su basi intergovernative fino al 2004; gli stati membri selezionavano unanimemente le città più adatte ad ospitare l'evento e la Commissione Europea garantiva un sussidio per le città selezionate ogni anno. Dal 2005 le istituzioni europee prendono parte alla procedura di selezione delle città che ospiteranno l'evento.
Nel 1999, la Città europea della cultura è stata ribattezzata Capitale Europea della Cultura ed è ora finanziata attraverso il programma Cultura 2000. Tre sono le città italiane che sinora hanno beneficiato della selezione: Firenze nel 1986, Bologna nel 2000 (per un’edizione straordinaria che prevedeva numerose città contemporaneamente capitali) e infine Genova nel 2004.
Con la Decisione 1622/2006 del Parlamento Europeo e del Consiglio, è stato istituito un calendario, che assegna a rotazione a due Stati membri dell’UE per ogni anno il titolo di Capitale Europea della cultura. L’Italia, insieme alla Bulgaria, avrà nuovamente diritto ad ospitare la Capitale Europea della Cultura nel 2019.
Dunque, possiamo farcela!
Il patrimonio architettonico, culturale ed artistico dell’Aquila ha paradossalmente suscitato l’interesse dei media e dell’opinione pubblica solo a seguito del sisma che ha colpito l’Abruzzo il 6 aprile 2009.
La designazione di L’Aquila 2019 aCapitale Europea della Cultura è una scelta di grande profilo per diverse ragioni.
L’Aquila ha una storia rilevante e originale nel panorama europeo. È città di grandi tradizioni culturali, in primis sotto il profilo architettonico: circuito delle Basiliche di Collemaggio, S. Maria del Suffragio e S. Bernardino, le chiese, la famosa fontana delle 99 cannelle, i numerosi castelli e palazzi disseminati sul territorio. Tuttavia L’Aquila è anche sede di uno dei 18 Teatri Stabili in Italia, vanta una tradizione musicale e operistica ragguardevole, ed è attiva anche nel campo cinematografico internazionale.
Il 2019 rappresenta un orizzonte temporale congruo per procedere alla riqualificazione del patrimonio architettonico, capace di offrire alla popolazione una prospettiva certa sui tempi della ricostruzione complessiva della città.
Le risorse già stanziate per la ricostruzione si trasformerebbero da un mero “contributo alla ricostruzione”, in un effettivo investimento di sviluppo, grazie all’effetto promozionale che un Grande Evento come la Capitale Europea della Cultura potrebbe generare. Non solo “il più grande cantiere edilizio di Europa” ma un cantiere skill intensive labour, ricco di idee e di valori.
Come solitamente accade in occasione dei grandi eventi, la Capitale Europea della cultura costituirebbe un potente “driver” di cambiamento, capace di riorientare la vocazione del territorio verso nuove forme di specializzazione (cultura, turismo, ecc.), con effetti assai positivi anche sul tessuto imprenditoriale.
L’impegno di numerose istituzioni internazionali e paesi stranieri (Germania, Spagna, Francia, USA) nella ricostruzione, fanno dell’Aquila un prototipo di collaborazione internazionale in ambito culturale, affermando la dimensione europea della città.
La riflessione recentemente avviata finalizzata alla candidatura della città dell’Aquila a Patrimonio mondiale dell’UNESCO ne risulterebbe ulteriormente rafforzata.
L’Aquila verrebbe rivitalizzata anche come città universitaria, centro di eccellenze, secondo le proposte O.C.S.E., sede di saperi e conoscenze diffusi, capaci nuovamente di attirare studenti dal resto dell’Italia e, potenzialmente, da tutto il bacino del Mediterraneo.
In sintesi, la ricostruzione dell’Aquila diventerebbe un paradigma della capacità di progettare il futuro attraverso un’attenta rilettura del proprio passato, individuando un equilibrio urbanistico, antropico e culturale capace di coniugare storia e modernità, rigore costruttivo e rispetto di un territorio a forte rischio naturale, trasformando un elemento potenzialmente distruttivo per la collettività locale in un’opportunità di cambiamento per tutto il territorio, una sfida esemplare per l’Europa e il mondo.
Abbiamo promosso la costituzione di un Comitato d’Onore con alte personalità abruzzesi nel campo delle istituzioni, della cultura, dell’economia, del giornalismo. Abbiamo già formalmente interessato il Governo italiano nella persona del Ministro per il beni e le attività culturali.
Collaborano con noi i giovani professionisti che hanno preparato il dossier vincente di Milano per l’EXPO 2015.
Nel mese di dicembre presenteremo a L’Aquila l’iniziativa, con le autorità locali e le personalità che vorranno aderire al Comitato Promotore e alla istituenda Fondazione.
Ma nulla si potrà senza il concorso e la passione dei cittadini. Vogliamo un sogno per L’Aquila, ne abbiamo diritto, si può fare.


L’articolo su ilCentro– L’AQUILA CAPITALE EUROPEA DELLA CULTURA 2019 - è consultabile anche ai seguenti indirizzi:

FACEBOOK - http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/note.php?note_id=191714093440&id=1148091025&ref=mf


PIERLUIGIMANTINI.IT - http://www.pierluigimantini.it/comunicati.php?id_comunicato=617

venerdì 23 ottobre 2009

Aleatory Elements

“You know, back home they would only think of doing that with a power saw”, my friend said as watched two city workers hammer and try to bend a no parking sign on the cobblestone just a few feet from our table at the Caffè della Pace.
“Your right, but this is much more fascinating.”
It was Wednesday morning, and we were sitting at an outside table, two blocks and one turn from Piazza Navona in Rome. Two empty, cappuccino cups were sitting on the table in front of us. Our second that morning.
The workers had finished pounding and one of them got in the small truck they had arrived on earlier. He turned on the engine and drove a wheel over lower part of the pole. The other one picked up the far and of the pole and started pulling in up, trying to break it like it was a giant wire coat hanger
It was almost raining, a light drizzle that felt more like mist. Large canvass umbrellas kept the rain off our hair and the Italian newspapers on the table.
“At home they wouldn’t even start without the right tools, but these guys don’t care, they’re going at it with a hammer and their bare hands”, I said.
When I was still living in Wisconsin, I would daydream of sitting with friends outside an old café, sipping cappuccinos or wine, talking about creative projects or world events. That’s the way things were in the subtitled movies I loved back then. It is still part of life in Italy, but the rush of work and raising families and paying bills means that most coffee breaks here are quick affairs - stolen from the corners of a busy schedule.
It was good to see that those movies, though fiction, were based on an Italy that was still alive. We were americans watching the random show that plays out every morning around the Caffè della Pace, or Bar Pasquino, or the two cafés in Piazza Sant’Eustacchio. The cappuccinos were expensive, but not more than in a take-away cup in a big city Starbucks. But here the ideas were flowing between as the rain picked up. The workers bent the pole using the wait of their truck for leverage until it made a loud snap. I was thankful my friend had called, and I was once again feeling why I loved living in Italy.

expatinitalia.blogspot.com

I also write here:
carbonara.wordpress.com

venerdì 25 settembre 2009

Forca di Penne - Transitions

Italy is a social country, if you are out with friends and let too much time pass by without speaking you risk worrying people that something is wrong. But not everyone has the wiring to withstand the hours of eating, drinking, joking and chatting that a holiday like Ferragosto (August 15th) can bring on.











Ferragosto is a religious holiday, but for most people it means picnicking. And it is taken very, very seriously. More shops and public services are open on Christmas day than on Ferragosto. Being on a picnic on Ferragosto is like turkey dinner with your family on Thanksgiving in the US.
At least on Thanksgiving you can take a mass nap in front of a football game (american rules).
So around five when I wanted to be alone, in this beautiful corner of Italy in the mountains near L’Aquila, I decided to take a quick 15 minute drive to find a nice scenic place to be alone.
Impossible.
Every scenic look out safe enough to park a car was occupied, every trail to the Tirino river or the artificial lake nearby was full. Everywhere I drove there were people.
Then I noticed the road to Pescara over a nearby piece of Gran Sasso. There were no road indications beyond the name of the road. “Forca di Penne”.
Playing on the hunch that if a road is named after a place, sooner or later it will take you there, I turned onto it.

The signs indicated the town of Ofena, home to some of the best red wine in Abruzzo come from this little mountain valley. My favorite “Cerasuolo” pink wines, they are robust enough to go with grilled meats. The road rose twisting back and forth through the Ofena’s narrow streets to the other side - still no road indications for Forca di Penne - so I kept going. After a few miles of driving up through pine trees the road forked. To the left, Castel del Monte, to the right, Pescara. Since the place I was after was a pass to Pescara I took a hunch.
Fifteen minutes later I pulled over. The road was about to level off and I was about to leave the Tirino Valley behind me. The view of Capestrano, and the patchwork of farmland below was breathtaking.

As I got into my car I noticed what looked like a ruined tower a few hours ahead of me. As I drove closer it became clearer - it was the ruins of a castle. Forca di Penne was a key passageway in the Transumanza, the ancient seasonal pastoral migration from central Italy to Foggia in Puglia (Apuglia).

I found a place to park my car and hiked up a steep, freshly harvested hay field to the base of the Castle. The view was spectacular. The slopes of Gran Sasso rolled lushly down to the Pescara valley below. To the right the Appenine’s second-largest mountain - the Maiella, dominated. Behind me was Capestrano, Navelli, L’Aquila and dozens of wonderful places wounded by the earthquake. In front of me was the sea and my soon to be new home.

venerdì 4 settembre 2009

What’s Italy without traffic?

Last night, on my way home from a quick family vacation in Sabaudia, I stopped in the office in L’Aquila to catch up on a bit of work. Silvia and the girls also stayed in town, so we ended up leaving together for home.


One of the many negative consequences of the earthquake is the traffic. We used to complain if a few of the main streets slowed to a standstill at rush hour, but at most they slowed us down by 15 minutes a trip. People in Rome or Milan (or Chicago, for that matter) would probably have called it light traffic.

Now, with two of the major routs across town off limits (one passes through the Red Zone, the other has a bridge out), traffic is everywhere. The road system in town, like most cities with thriving downtowns, was organized in a wheel and spoke system. Most of the traffic flow went to and from the center - in the space of 30 seconds that all changed, there is no center and will not be for years. Offices, both public and private, are scattered in neighborhoods and outlying hamlets many of us had never been to. Add in a boom of heavy vehicles for the reconstructions and you have a permanent log jam.


Until after six in the evening, when people start to leave. Tens of thousands of us now live in outlying villages just in or out of the "crater" and in cities and towns up to 100 kilometers away, sometimes more. Many take the bus, of course, but it is striking to drive out after work. Last night at eight I started driving home. I have my secret back roads in town that are mostly deserted at the time, but it was from the roundabout at the cemetery all the way to Navelli that brought back memories of driving with the cars full on the evening of April 6th, I was part of long trail of cars driving orderly out of the city towards Pescara and Sulmona. Very few cars were going the other way, unlike April 6th when cars and buses left, heavy vehicles from the fire brigades and civil defense services in the other.


This happens every night. Logjams in the morning as people try to make it in before work starts, a slower more orderly trail home at night.


By the way, the months living in a family-run hotel in Montesilvano on the coast was not a vacation as some try to pass off. My clear complexion below the neckline is testifies on my behalf. While we were sheltered and fed and away from the aftershocks, like tens of thousands of aquilani, we lost hours of our lives commuting and creating an ever larger carbon footprint.


venerdì 14 agosto 2009

Torrione

Today I stopped by my mother-in-law’s place to drop off a few things and pick up some olive oil she had in the basement.
The normalcy of that statement comforts me but although life goes on that sentence is far from normal.
Linda’s building, the one she and her husband built in the fifties with 7 other families and where Silvia was born in their fourth floor apartment, appears from the outside to be in good shape. There are just two nasty cracks on the north wall, and the garden has overgrown. But like much of the Torrione neighborhood, it is still off limits. The uneven quality of the cement in the late fifties means that the stability of the building is compromised. But the garage is still accessible to drop of the girls’ old books and toys and pick up a big bottle of great local olive oil. Two of the five liter bottles survived the quakes but will not make it past our summer salads.
Torrione was one of the first big post-war neighborhoods built after the second world war. Just below the Spanish castle, across from the rugby stadium.
The name “torrione” comes from the rough brick tower at the main intersection just two buildings down from Linda’s building. It wasn’t actually a tower, just the last leg standing from the aqueduct that brought water from Gran Sasso to the nearby Roman city of Amiternum. It withstood 2000 years, it’s half as tall now, surrounded by ancient red bricks.
It was once one of the three gateways to the old city and the only main road that crosses the city still passes through. Many of the shops have reopened, but very few people have come back to live - or park there before going to work downtown (with now downtown, why bother?).
The sensation is a mix of optimism (two bars, two great bread stores, and other activities have reopened. Others have installed kiosks in the neighborhood and moved in. My doctor’s office is in a small building and he’s been back for two months. But virtually no one lives there anymore. It’s as though an ember is still burning under the ashes, but the fire still need fresh wood to burn again. How much fire will there be before winter?

giovedì 13 agosto 2009

Opening Boxes After the Heartquake

I keep thinking of the song from the opening credits of the series Weeds.

"Little boxes on the hilltop
Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes on the hilltop
Little boxes all the Same"

The song refers to the houses of suburban upper middle class America, but in my case they are moving boxes - three different sizes, each taped shut with brown tape - all full of the things we, a half-dozen generous firefighters and a half dozen lazy movers pulled out of our house last week in L'Aquila. After four days of trips either with or without plumbers and electricians the towering maze of boxes and stacked furniture is starting to look like a home again. Every room is still full of boxes, but almost all three couches can now be used as (surprise!) couches and not resting places for lamps sand other fragile possessions.
Today as I pulled out plates and glasses from the boxes the firemen wrapped them in I was happy to find that most of the our white, basic Richard Ginori tableware set was still intact, just dusty, as were our better (but stemless) glasses. The wineglasses were nowhere to be found, probably mixed in with one of the piles of debris we left behind in the center of the rooms in Via Giovanni XXIII. .
Everything has to be dusted, scrubbed or washed. White plaster shavings and cement dust are in everything, pieces or our previous life to be washed or scrubbed away or shaken out. One of the smaller oriental rugs is resting on top of a stack of boxes in the living room. It looks faded, as if the colors have been washed away by the sun. It's just the dust of one big earthquake – the “heartquake” as it was re-baptized by many Italians living throughout the English speaking world and hundreds of smaller ones that followed.
The new house is in Pescara, Abruzzo's biggest city and industrial center on the Adriatic coast. We are hoping to stay our stay will be short, even though the idea of having to soon go through the purgatory of moving house does thrill any of us.
As I rest from my boxes someone is practicing a flute nearby. Tonight we drive back to Navelli where Sofia and Emily are waiting out the move up in the mountains. The annual chick pea and saffron feast will be held in ten days and despite the earthquake's damage to the town families have returned as have their summer friends.

Joshua
(also read me at carbonara.wordpress.com)

venerdì 24 luglio 2009

It's the little things

(This was published elsewhere, but I feel it's should be here too, as a record. it was from a month and a half after the earthquake) 

It’s in the little things – that I begin to touch what happened. Over a month has passed since we had to leave our homes at three-thirty in the morning, grabbing what we could as we rushed over the stucco flakes and other debris out of our house into the dark morning to find the hotel in front of us already down, folded like a layer cake of cement and steel.
I have been so busy getting on with life – finding a place to stay besides our car farther and farther from home, going back for essentials – and the cat – with the firemen, getting on with work in Rome, and just getting on with life with the girls here in Montesilvano.
It’s the little things. Last night we were driving to Navelli, the family house there is in much better shape than our house in L’Aquila but the aftershocks continue and most people still sleep in tents at night. The girls missed their friends there and we needed to get some fresh clothes. A song by Irene Grandi came on the Radio and we all started singing to it like in some cheesy movie and I started to cry – silently because I didn’t want them to miss a word.
The experts say that during earthquakes the best thing to do is duck under something that can protect you and wait it out. Which is impossible if you are a parent. As the floor rocked and everything shook and rattled and roared for almost half a minute, Silvia and I ran to the girl’s bedroom to get help them climb down from their beds. There’s really no room for thinking about what’s going on, being a father or a mother guides you.
A woman I saw on TV through the window of our cousin’s house (no one wanted to be inside so we watched TV from the garden), filmed in front of the pile of stones that was her house said something so simple yet full of truth.

“These are only stones, only bricks. I can put one on top of the other again. But my family and friends are the real bricks, and they are still here, and that’s what matters.”

Flying in.

Driving to L’Aquila this morning gave me hope. But then it always does, even before. From the hill town of Navelli where we spend much of the summer, past the devastated but once enchanting and hidden Castelnuovo di San Pio. The morning light tinging a slight burnt orange the slopes of Gran Sasso to my right somehow magnify the feeling that it’s more than just the infancy of another day. The road construction and heavy vehicles slowing me down seem just incidental as I move towards where I used to live. 

Hope. 

giovedì 16 aprile 2009

Helping L’Aquila Soar Again

To everyone who loves Italy,

I grew up in Wisconsin but have been lucky enough to call L'Aquila my home since 2001. My wife, Silvia, teaches Renaissance history at the university here and my daughters, Sofia and Emily are in school. Fortunately all safe after the Earthquake less than two weeks ago although, like thousands of others, we don't know when, or if, they'll be able to live again in our apartment. This message isn’t about us - our car wasn't destroyed and thanks to the hotels on the coast we have shelter and most things we need for the immediate future. I have work to get back to in Rome.

Reconstruction in the long-run and getting people into stable shelter and some normalcy will take time. To date a third of the buildings surveyed are unsafe to live in, and the historical center has not been included in that survey yet. Tens of thousands of people are in the tent communities in and around L’Aquila and many more are guests in hotels like me, or with relatives in Rome and elsewhere.

I have been told that the media in the US and UK have already moved on to other subjects (no Americans like me died or were seriously injured), although many grass roots groups - mostly connected to academia or the Italian-American communities are still very active.

With a few friends, both in the US and England, we noticed that we could help both the people of l’Aquila and the city and region that we love. We started with the first English-language group on the subject on Facebook ( L'Aquila Renaissance - Helping L'Aquila and Abruzzo , http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=66535648631&ref=ts)

We have also set up this petition in favour of L’Aquila and the villages and towns around it: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/laquila-renaissance/signatures.html

For now the group tries to give information on how to donate form the USA (often tax deductible). The list is incomplete.

USA
- NIAF - The National Italian American Foundation have created a Abruzzo Relief Fund & their online donation form is in English. Again here you can make a fast & easy online donation to assist in helping L'Aquila now and rebuild their lives, it's tax free for those in the US.
https://www.niaf.org/relief/Relief_info.asp
Italian Academy Foundation (IAF) has established a L'Aquila relief fund. Additionally, the IAF headquarters in L'Aquila (Bisegna) is open to the victims of the April 6, 2009, earthquake who are seeking shelter. View the IAF website at italianacademyfoundation.org.
Catholic Relief Services http://www.crs.org/emergency/italy-earthquake.cfm
- The Sons of Italy Foundation (SIF) has created an Emergency Relief Fund. View the Order Sons of Italy in America website at www.osia.org.
UNICO Announces Initiation of Fund to Aid Abruzzo Italy Earthquake Relief. website at www.unico.org-
The American Red Cross https://american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?idb=514161456&df_id=1094&1094.donation=form1&s_subsrc=RCO_link

UK
- Global Giving for Abruzzo - http://www.globalgiving.co.uk/pr/2700/proj2695a.html
- Red Cross UK - http://www.redcross.org.uk/donatesection.asp?id=93852&entrypoint=37220_mainItaly

While no one can argue that the human loss is greater than the cultural loss, I am also worried that during the reconstruction, the beautiful old city will be neglected. If I had talked to be before the quake, I would have spent half the conversation trying to convince you, especially those living in or visiting Rome, to come look at this jewel that so few Americans see but is an hour and a half drive from the Eternal City. I hope to be able to push the city like that again soon.

As always, to make sure things work in the long term it will be helpful that people keep on experessing, through letters and email, to officials in L'Aquila, in the Italian government, and in the U.S. government, the Press and other “piazze” in favor of rebuilding the city and not expanding it. Many of us have seen the result of the "modern urban suburbs" created, some never finished, after similar events, In the long term we hope that this group - and what may grow out of it, can contribute to the future of this city just as the world’s love for Assisi and Florence help their rebirth after natural disasters.

Thank you.


L’Aquila, April 16th

Joshua Lawrence
L’Aquila, Italy / Madison, Wisconsin.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=66535648631&ref=ts

giovedì 9 aprile 2009

Earthquake in L'Aquila (we are all fine - we were lucky, our prayers for the rest)

We woke up at 3.30 a.m Sunday night/Monday morning to a Earthquake that was 5,7 richter but brought down the entire antique city center, and, unfortunately, many new buildings as well. Me, my wife, daughters and extended family are all alive and unscratched. We were able to save the animals two days ago too. But almost three hundred people lost their lives, 1000 injured and tens of thousands are homeless, at least temporarily. I am staying with relatives almost 100 km away now where we can no longer feel the aftershocks. I thank everyone for their words, worries, prayers and offers of help. I've always believed in people, now I believe in them even more. Even if some "people" are the criminals who built the modern buildings that fell - Abruzzo is seismic but usually this magnitude does not bring down modern buildings if they were designed and built properly.

domenica 22 febbraio 2009

Galleons and Sloops in the Apennines.

The Garibaldi Caffè e Enoteca is another of my favorite little places in L’Aquila. It’s a neighborhood all-hours place kind of like the Bar Pasquino under my apartment in Rome. In other words, cappuccino, brioche and newspapers (in Italian only) in the morning, wine and spirits from aperitivo time until after midnight. Both have pannini and other simple but delectable food at lunchtime, but I’m always somewhere else then.

The place was tiny when I first stumbled in 10 years ago. The walls were lined with bottles, boutique chocolates and fake masterpieces up to the arched ceiling and stacked along a wall like in an art counterfitter’s hideaway. Davide and Daniele the two friendly and attentive young brothers who own and run the place also have a gallery that sells professional fakes of famous paintings. As I write this I have two enormous scenes of venice above me (Tintoretto, I believe) Klimt, Hopper, and Van Gogh above the wall of white wines and grappas in front of me, Renoir, Modigliani, Monet and Bottero to my left. When I first stumbled in back then were the model sailing ships among the wooden chess sets and humidors filling the windows. They also have a small but interesting selection of cigars and a nice little bench on the cobblestone street outside - no smoking in bars in Italy anymore.

Despite being on a medieval street 2000 feet up in the mountains the boats fit in because the place was tiny, lined with dark hardwood, the bathroom was tiny like those on sailboats and after a few glasses of wine the world might start to pleasantly sway. They have added another room since I first started coming here, but the lived in, slightly cluttered atmosphere is the same.

This evening as I’m killing time before I meet up with my eleven year old daughter who hanging out with friends in the main square (I’m sometimes jealous of kids growing up in Italy. Just me, a notebook, and a plate of olives, mixed cold cuts and taralli (crispy dried bread in bite sized curls) meant to dampen the effects of a glass of Pecorino, white wine from varietal native to Abruzzo that is undergoing a sort of Renaissance here. The music goes back and forth between Spanish jazz and Astor Piazzola inspired lounge.

The only thing missing is dinner, but recently Davide and Daniele opened up the Punto G - Piacere della Griglia grill (literally “G Spot - Pleasures from the Grill”) across the street. Strictly carnivores only.

But that’s another post.

carbonara.wordpress.com

domenica 1 febbraio 2009

Rosemary’s nose

Rosemary’s nose

The quick basics of Italian cooking: keep it simple and care intensely about the ingredients. Try to get them fresh and in season unless the preservation method makes them something better (sun dried tomatoes, for example, or spicy artichoke hearts or salt cod, the list a mouth watering few). I learned my first year here as a college exchange student in Bologna that one of the easiest ways to impress dinner guests is is baked potatoes and rosemary.
But you need fresh rosemary. Rosemary is a brush-like wooden herb that grows well even in cold corners of walls and outside windowsill pots. It’s a compulsory ingredient in Easter roast lamb and other early Spring dishes all over Italy, but especially in the mountains and the hills. Here around L’Aquila many people have a bush growing in a corner of their yard.
Cut the potatoes thin - whatever potatoes you like. I like them razor thin but have been known to cut them into thicker disks with the skins still on. Spread it out over oven paper or a pan slightly greased with olive oil. Sprinkle more olive oil, salt and a couple handfuls of fresh rosemary twigs. Bake away until they look as crispy as you like them. Open the oven a crack occasionally to free up the aroma of baked rosemary to fill the kitchen and tease the the dinner guests who are keeping you company. Bring them to the table warm, making sure that the plate gets passed around under everyone’s nose.
And if it smells good, it tastes good.

expatinitalia.blogspot.com
carbonara.wordpress.com

lunedì 19 gennaio 2009

Panzerotti

I just got back from a Friday business trip to Milan. The trip was a whirlwind of appointments but still, as I crossed through Piazza del Duomo on my way from one meeting to anther, I felt something familiar call out to me and draw me in for a greasy tasty pause: Panzerotti from Luini.
Even though the Luini bakery is tucked out of site behind the back entrance to Milan’s up-market La Rinascente department store, it is an institution.
Luini means panzerotti, and panzerotti mean deep fried pocket pizzas. Puffy and a bit chewy, the dough is slightly sweet and very addictive. The classic version is simple tomato and mozzarella, other seasonal versions (mozzarella and ham, pesto and cherry tomatoes) and so on give you enough variety to harden your arteries almost every day, and when I used to work nearby it was hard to resist.
Originally just a bakery, it’s now traditional stand up street food at it’s best. Their other specialty is focaccia pugliese and other traditional baked treats from the Puglia (Apuglia) region of Italy.


Via Santa Radegonda 16, Milano, www.luini.it

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