04 September 2009

From north to south in one month

In October I will travel to Bassano del Grappa (Northern Italy) and Taormina (on Sicily) to accompany Bruno to the presentations of his work as part of Wild Wonders. According to them, he is one of the 58 best nature photographers in Europe!

Bassano del Grappa hosts "Progetto Fotografia 2009" which will show the best work of photographers from the Veneto region. Bruno's work -15 great pictures from Tichà, Slowakia- will be shown there in the streets and his presentation will be on 7 or 8 October.
Bassano del Grappa is the city where, not surprisingly, grappa is from, the famous spirit made of grape pomace (the remains of grapes after the process of wine making). Unfortunately I don't like grappa at all!


Click Up 2009, a meeting for professional photographers, with exhibitions and of course the new photography materials exposed, takes place at the end of October in Taormina. As I am just a humble amateur in photography, and am bored quite fast with talk about camera models, lenses, etc., I will take this opportunity to once again explore the beauties of Sicily.
On top, its gastronomy. In Palermo I had fresh granita: the lemon one, not made with syrup but with freshly squeezed lemons and the coffee variety which consisted of just coffee and ice, yet somehow amazingly creamy. These granitas forever spoiled me as I now naturally prefer the non-syrup kind, which is very hard to find. The variety of citrus fruits found on the island will hopefully be available also at the end of October, maybe this will be my chance to find a chinotto fruit which is the basis for my favorite drink, chinotto....
From the fresh citrus to a mystery to me: fried food. It can become quite hot on Sicily, so the popularity of refreshing drinks and eats are easily explained, but what is it that makes Sicilians like heavy, creamy, fried food? Panelle, arancini, pasta alla norma and cannoli are all things which ask for a couple of hours of rest in the shadow to digest them. Or is that the answer to the question already?
I promise to eat as much as I can. Maybe Sicily can regain its first place again on my list of 'best food regions of Italy'. Now, Puglia holds a proud #1.
When not eating, I hope to visit the Etna, Sicily's active volcano, the beach of Taormina and of course the city itself. Who knows what Click Up 2009 will present me, it might even be interesting! I will let you know.

And today I like Bruno's bear pics!




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