Small boy loving engines

My son loves anything that has an engine and that roars. Even if it stands still! So when we take a walk, we always must stop where bicycles and motorcycles are parked and "ohhhhhh": we look at them (actually we examine them carefully!)!

This Vespa Piaggio was parked outside the Cathedral.

Pretty windows

Here are some pretty and particular windows of an old building in Concordia.

Have a nice Sunday!

Spring is here!

All the shops downtown are celebrating spring: a small tree, some flowers at every shops' corner. Very pretty!

Street art

In the street commonly called la stretta (roughly the narrow), there is this house with a wonderful graffiti: a real piece of art work. I saw the boy that made it, some years ago: high up on a ladder, the painter with a white apron and his colors and a paint-brush.

Water flowing lazily

This is my favorite place in Concordia: the river Lèmene. It is a quiet river, its water flows lazily towards the Adriatic sea (about 20 km from the town). I always wanted to live in a place with water, it is so relaxing and calming. Here I am, with both a river and the seaside quite close.

Apecar

An old man with all white hair uses this Apecar (ape in Italian means bee) to bring gas cylindric tanks to houses that still aren't reached by the methane pipeline (for cooking mainly). It sounds rather funny in year 2008, but this still happens in many small towns in Italy (not only high up in the mountains or on small islands, as you can expect it to happen).

Under the Cathedral

Another rainy day, what can we do? .... Let's go UNDER the Cathedral!

Under the Cathedral there is a whole incredible ancient world. The Cathedral of Concordia was built in 1466 on - I really mean ABOVE - two existing churches and a couple of Roman domus. The Basilica Apostolorum was built starting from 381 AC and it lays exactly underneath the Cathedral of Santo Stefano. Beside it, the Trychora Martyrum, a small chapel built remembering Concordia's Christian martyrs. I'll show you more soon, it is very interesting.

I went there with my daughter, 4 years and a half, and she was really excited and amazed. I think it is so funny how for children everything is so "natural": for her, growing in this small town makes it absolutely normal to walk among Roman ruins and Medieval coffins!

A place to rest, a place to chat

These benches are located in front of the Cathedral. On Sundays they welcome mothers with small children, grandparents with grandsons, elder people that rest after a walk, people coming out from the church stop by to have a chat, sitting and looking around. In summer afternoons and evenings, these benches are the best place to just sit and look around: children playing on the big square and trying their roller skates and bicycles.

It's a such a cold Easter that no one is there now ... hopefully soon warm spring weather will arrive.

Happy Easter

We just came back from our Easter lunch at my mother-in-law's house and here are my best wishes for a Happy Easter also for you!

See you tomorrow!

Today: white bins

The company that collects garbage here serves 12 towns. This past year, Concordia won the "best recycling town" award. Every family about 14 months ago got a white bin for plastic/glass/tin cans; a yellow bin for paper, a brown bin for organic waste and a green bin for all the rest. We have a calendar and every day we bring out on the street the right bin: the trucks that collect waste go door-to-door and empty all the bins.

It's easy .. and nice: according to the color of the bin I see on the street, I remember what day is it!!!

Towards Heaven?

Saint Peter holds the keys of Heaven and welcomes you in your heavenly life after your journey on Earth. Could there be a better name than via San Pietro for the street that goes from the Cathedral to the town's graveyard?

Which color for his house?

Trying to decide which will be the color of this house. I always wondered why in the exact center of Concordia, in front af the Cathedral, among old houses colored with shades of brown, red, yellow, white there is a light blu greyish house! Fortunately I found out that it is a temporary color and that the usual prove colore - roughly color trials - have been done.

Which color will win the contest? I'll let you know.

Piazza Celso Constantini

Piazza Celso Costantini: the most central square in Concordia. In older times the square was simply a big green grass field stretching out till the Cathedral's front door. It has been renovated a couple of times, the last reconstruction in 1999. In this moment it has been dedicated to Celso Costantini (1876-1958), priest in Concordia e then Cardinal.

Iulia Concordia alias Concordia Sagittaria

Concordia, or better, IVLIA CONCORDIA was founded by Romans in 42 b.C. at the crossroad of two very important roads: the Via Annia and the Via Postumia. The site actually was inhabitated already since the X century b.C..

In recent times, a second name was added: Sagittaria from the roman sagitta - in Latin it means arrow - because in Roman times it had an important arrow factory.

Walking in the streets of Concordia is always interesting: in many places you can see archeological findings that remind you about its ancient history.