Archive for 2009
My new reflex: Nikon D3000
Finally, after long long time I was thinking to, I decided to buy a reflex camera: in the battle Canon vs. Nikon I decided to choose the second, since I had already a compact camera which made me very happy. My choice was the Nikon D3000: still have to learn how to manage the thousands features it offers, I am already happy by the quality of [...]
Victoria Falls’ Devil’s pool
I found out today something that really shocked me - and made me thinking to visit the Victoria Falls, considered one of the Seven natural wonders of the World. The waterfall itself is already amazing: more than 100 mt. high, they are one of the largest falls in the World, located in southern Africa on the Zambezi Riverbetween the countries [...]
Flickr “Your best shot 2009„
I decided to post one of my photos in the Flickr group Your best shot 2009: I did hundreds of photos this year, but I like very much one of them in particular. I took it while I was in Shio Mghvime, a monastery in Georgia. Here is my shot:
Funambol awarded as the best by MobileVillage
It is already almost 3 months since at Funambol we released the new AJAX demo portal, which I contribute to setup: the new portal offers a better user experience and a nicer look&feel and it's a 90 days free demo, allowing everyone to test the synchronization engine and the push email service. Funambol has been recognized as most [...]
Visiting Davit Gareji
The day is started in the most awful way: trip planned and stomach ache cannot be room mates; bot me and Mzia were feeling bad in the morning, but we didn't want to miss a nice trip: thanks to the holy medicines, we decided to face our destiny and go anyway, destination Davit Gareji. The monastery is a complex situated in the Kakheti region, on [...]
A day at the lake
Tbilisi has been little cold in the previous days, but yesterday the sun was going to come back in the sky; waking up quite late in the morning, without any plan in our minds, we decided to have a walk in the market to buy something. Not far from our house is Machakhela, probably the best place where you can eat good georgian food for very few [...]
A new trip to Tbilisi
I can't believe I'm sitting here, in such place, writing this post; yes, because from the very beginning, everything seemed to be going to be terrible - a sort of attempt by the destiny to avoid our trip to Tbilisi. It was long ago when me and my friend Anna decided to spend some time in my favorite country, sharing a flat and an experience [...]
Palio delle Contrade 2009 – the final result
Last Sunday the Palio delle Contrade has finished: the weekend was full of funny games, both for children and adults, and people preparing the decorations. Saturday evening was the time of the competition with the agnolotti and the dance competition. In the first game, one guy had to eat as more agnolotti as he could, but without using his [...]
Palio delle Contrade – first day
As in most of the Italian towns, also Portalbera is divided in districts, called contrade, which every year play some funny games to denote which one is the best. The contrada where I live is named Contrada dei Santi, the Saints' district, did not partecipate last year, but had a great return in the first day of the challenge. There are several [...]
A day at the hospital
Lazy day today, at home, listening music, having rest, preparing some lunch and looking the horrible hot outside the window: no way to go out with such weather, better to wait and have a nice evening then. And so it was: plan was to meet Mzika to give her some things and then go to pizzeria with some other friends. I had a nice walk in the crazy [...]
Shatili Shatili!
Day I The trip to Shatili didn't start in the best way: the initial plan was to go to another town on georgian mountains, Omalo in Tusheti, but for a series of reason we had to change our mind and Shatini, in Khevsureti region, was the choice. I've argued for many stupid organization problems with Mzika for long, especially the day before the [...]
On the Black Sea
The most famous thing that tourists like in Georgia are its beautiful mountains: the Caucasus are one of the most beautiful ones, according to many of the lucky, and brave, people who decided to breast them. But Georgia is also sea: located on the East of the Black Sea, it offers a series of nice towns where you can spend your time if you are, as [...]
Italian-georgian-english terrible dinner party
It's Friday evening and nothing is better than a dinner with friends; there are two options: an expensive evening at the restaurant or a funny and tasty dinner at home, and with our great cooking skills we decided to choose the second option. Since it was our first cooking experience together, me and Mzika decided the menu had to be [...]
The first day in Tbilisi
Malpensa airport, Milano, 4:25pm. More than one hour is missing to the flight to Istanbul, first step to go to Tbilisi. Nothing better than buying a book to read to avoid getting mad waiting and the Da Vinci Code is the choice. Actually, I've read it already, but in italian, so it will be a good exercise to improove my english. Waiting is not such [...]
Photo exhibition “sei volte nel caucaso georgiano”
Today I've been in Milano for a photo exhibition named "sei volte nel caucaso georgiano": you can see there the photos taken by Vittorio Sportoletti Baduel during his three trips in the georgian caucasus in 2001, 2003 and 2008. Compared with them are some shots taken by Vittorio Sella, who was also three times there, but one century ago, in 1889, [...]
Finally an update
I don't update the site since long time ago, so I'm finally back today, writing a very little update; I will try to keep the site more up-to-date. First of all, I want to wish an happy Easter to all the Catholics and a nice Palm's Sunday (hope it is called so) to Orthodox. Greetings to anyone else too, of course. I want to tell a particular [...]
Georgian hospitality part II
I always forget how far it is Chavchavadze ave. from my house in Saburtalo: I wouldn't have said to Tako “let's go by foot„ if it was so. We went there walking for some business at the Magti office and then she suggested me to try a good georgian restaurant for lunch. The place is called მაჭახელი (Machaxeli) and you can find [...]
Everybody wants to know Italian
I am not getting used of the georgian timezone at all: I still wake up quite late and go to bed in the deep night and today my day started in the afternoon. Using the bus to go to the downtown, in the famous Rustaveli avenue of Tbilisi, lets me save a lot of money: it seemed harder, but once you are able to read a bit of georgian the problems [...]
