A HeaRTFeLT MoMenT: August 2007

August 15, 2007

Negramaro - Estate

My favorite song from my favorite Italian group!! Lo amo questa canzone tanto!!

Negramaro - Parlami d'amore

This is my favorite Italian group - Negramaro. You just have to love them!! Siete bravi Negramaro!!!

August 13, 2007

In Rome, a New Ritual on an Old Bridge

In Rome, a New Ritual on an Old Bridge

By IAN FISHER

Published: August 6, 2007 on The New York Time

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/world/europe/06rome.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Built in 206 B.C., Ponte Milvio is Rome's oldest bridge. Locks with lovers’ names on a Rome bridge are a new rite, with some unusual results.

ROME, Aug. 5 — Love, in all its splendor and mess, found a fit expression on Rome’s oldest bridge last year. Inspired by a best-selling book, then the movie version, young couples wrote their names on a padlock. They chained their locks around lampposts on Ponte Milvio. Then they symbolically cut off escape by tossing the keys into the wine-dark Tiber below. But reality quickly set in, as it often does after passion. Thousands of locks and chains piled up. The lamps atop two light posts crumbled under the weight. Neighbors complained of vandalism. Politicians who tried to solve the problem were accused — and this is bad in Italy — of being anti-love.

Late last month, a solution was put into place. City officials set up six sets of steel posts with chains on the bridge, so now lovers can declare themselves without damage to the infrastructure. And so this city of monuments has just created another one, if at a cost: tossing a key off Ponte Milvio, some Italians complain, may soon be as touristy as flipping a coin into the Trevi Fountain.

“It’s less romantic,” said Costantino Boccuni, 28, a soldier who had just affixed a lock to one of the new spots to declare his love for his wife of six years, Daniela, 26. “It was more beautiful before. It was more original.”

“Now, it’s more like a fashion,” he said.

But still, as Rome’s distinctly lovely light faded into evening, they did it. And in the few days since the new posts went up, dozens of new love locks have been sealed shut on Ponte Milvio, in a perfect world, forever. (Though in practice, the city will periodically prune the locks just as they sweep the coins from the Trevi Fountain.) People are also being encouraged to use a Web site, http://www.lucchettipontemilvio.com/, where they can create virtual padlocks.

The story of how Ponte Milvio, north of Rome’s center, became the city’s symbol of love follows a particularly Italian script blending history, myth, truly ludicrous political posturing and the unexpected.

Built in 206 B.C., the bridge attracted lovers long ago. Tacitus, the first-century Roman historian and statesman, reported that even in his time it was “famous for its nocturnal attractions.” Emperor Nero, Tacitus said, visited the bridge “for his debaucheries.” (It is also the place where in 312, Constantine defeated his rival Maxentius. He became the first emperor to convert to Christianity, which to many Italians stands against the sort of love often found on Ponte Milvio.)

Last year, the writer Federico Moccia created the second installment of a story of young Romans called “I Want You.” Like many affairs, his hero’s starts with a lie: he convinces a potential girlfriend of an invented legend in which lovers wrap a lock and a chain around the third lamppost on the bridge’s northern side, lock it and throw the key into the Tiber.

“And then?” the girl asks.

“We’ll never leave each other,” he says, with no shame.

Mr. Moccia, 44, said he dreamed up the ritual. “I liked the idea of tying locks to love because it is more solid, tangible,” he said. The book sold 1.1 million copies, then the movie came out and soon life began imitating art.

Mr. Moccia said he was stunned when locks and chains appeared on the bridge, though he tied the craze to a lingering malaise in Italy, which is growing old, producing fewer babies and suffering from an economy that often keeps young people unemployed and living with their parents into their 30s.

“It is a precise sign of our times — there is a lack of dreaming,” he said. “We only hear bad news. There is no longer the smile of who we see from afar or near the dream. And that gesture of the lock on the bridge, of the feeling of the iron closing, it’s a promise. It’s beautiful.”

Soon beauty turned to menace. Lovers came from all over Italy, joined by some tourists. The ancient bridge, which also attracts not only lovers but drinkers and no small number of pot smokers, began to be covered in lovers’ graffiti, along with the overwhelming number of chains. This spring, the city cracked down.

Inevitably, politics intruded. In this nation’s long battle between left and right, right-wing parties accused the leftist mayor, Walter Veltroni, with a crime far worse than corruption.

“The left is against lovers,” one rightist city official, Marco Clarke, charged in February.

Fighting words. An artful compromise clearly needed finding. Thus the posts and chains.

Lovers can affix their locks directly to them (which seemed to be the case on two recent, very pleasant evenings on the bridge). Or if they insist on chaining them to the lampposts, the locks will periodically be moved to the posts and chains.

“We have used good sense, meaning we realize that it is about a primary and innocent feeling,” said Silvio Di Francia, a city official responsible for solving the problem. “However, if all the historic bridges had locks we would have a problem with the maintenance.”

So the tradition continues, if with some reservations about compromising on love. Some young Roman said that even before the new posts, the ritual had lost its appeal and gotten touristy. Indeed, two vendors sell locks on the spot for one to five euros. Families pose for cellphone photos.

“I would be embarrassed,” said Michael P., a 22-year-old who withheld his last name because he was smoking marijuana. “It’s a question of dignity. If I want to express love, I will express it in my way.”

But Gianluca and Federica recently declared their love with a lock, as did Ricky and Francy, Piti and Piti, and several Mirkoses with suspiciously similar handwriting. Anna and Philip Colletti, from Montreal, marked their 25th anniversary with a lock. Their children told them about it.

“Twenty-five years of marriage — it might freak out these young couples,” Ms. Colletti said.

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****P.S.

1) lucchettipontemilvio.com is only in Italian. It won't be too difficult to guess the meanings, even if you don't understand Italian. Or you could simply use the free online traslator (freetranslation.com). Just remember lucchetto ( lucchetti, plural) means padlock.

2) Love padlocks were pioneered by youngsters in Florence, who hang them near a statue of the sculptor Benvenuto Cellini at the Ponte Vecchio - the famous bridge over the River Arno. They then throw the key into the Arno. And now it's instituted a 50 Euro fine for the young lovers indulging in the custom.

3) In Guam ( an island of US territory in the Western Pacific Ocean), there is a place called " Two Lover's Point" where you could create your love padlock, without the 50 Euro fine!! ( http://www.twoloverspoint.com/ )

Guam Two Lover's point

4) Although it does sound romantic, have you thought how it would affect the environment, when you throw the key into the Tiber River, Arno River or the Pacific Ocean??

August 07, 2007

The island of Greece - Santorini (2)

The happy life ever is definitely possible in Santorini.

You be the judge, if the island of Greece - Santorini is worth for a visit!!

The island of Greece - Santorini (1)

A few friends asked me about Santorini lately. It has been a while. I can’t really recall the details when I was traveling in Santorini. But I never forget the magnificent views. I would definitely say it's one of the coolest places I've ever visited. Santorini, one of the most popular European holiday destinations. It's a small group of volcanic islands located in South Aegean Sea. It has been said that the sunset of Santorini is one of the best in the world. The breathtaking views from the cliffs perched village Fira, Oia and the famous red beach would make it an unforgettable journey. Santorini is listed in the 1000 places you “must” visit before you die. And there’re reasons for it. You be the judge, if the island of Greece - Santorini is worth for a visit!!

PS. Some of the pictures are taken by a cool friend of mine, Rocco. Thank you for the amazing pictures. You definitely have a better sense in photo taking than I have!!

August 05, 2007

Dormi Amore (lyrics)

Hey my dear special someone, Here's another song for you! It came to me after saying good night to you! Dormi Amore (Sleep, my love) !! Vieni qui vicino a me (Come here close to me) !! Se ti svegli sarò qui (if you wake up, I will be here)!!!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dormi Amore - Paolo Menguzzi

Stanotte voglio stare sveglio ancora un po’

Guardare mentre ti addormenti su di me

Mezzanotte se n’è andata ormai da un po’

So che sei stanca e crollerai

Vieni qui vicino a me

Sono qui appoggiati stringimi

Di me ti puoi fidare

E sogna il tuo futuro come tu lo vuoi

Dormi amore mio

Chiudi gli occhi su di me

La tua pelle sa

Di profumo di lillà

Buonanotte a te

Dormi bene vita mia

Tu sei dentro me babe

Ho deciso che sarai per sempre tu

E niente al mondo mi separerà da te

Nemmeno il freddo o le tempeste nella via

Sarò un riparo un posto al caldo

Stringimi

Ascolta il mio cuore

Battiti di te e di me

Fuori c’è un mondo senza pace

E sogna il nostro futuro come tu lo vuoi

Dormi amore mio

Chiudi gli occhi su di me

La tua pelle sa

Di profumo di lillà

Buonanotte a te

Dormi bene vita mia

Tu sei dentro me babe...

E sogna

Di correre su un prato felice

Senza alcun rimpianto

Lontano da chi non sa amarti

E sogna il tuo futuro come tu lo vuoi

Dormi amore mio

Chiudi gli occhi su di me

La tua pelle sa

Di profumo di lillà

Buonanotte a te

Dormi bene vita mia

Tu sei dentro me babe... babe

Dormi amore mio

Chiudi gli occhi su di me

C’è la luna che lenta passa su di noi

Buonanotte a te

Se ti svegli sarò qui

Tu sei dentro me babe

Tu sei dentro

Paolo Meneguzzi - Dormi Amore

I'd like to dedicate this song to my special someone!!

E penso a te (lyrics)

I'd like to dedicate this song to my special someone. Just want to let you know that "penso a te" ( I think of you) Io non dormo e penso a te ( I don't sleep and I just think of you)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Antonino - E penso a te