Rocco Galatioto, nice photos and good food

Anything is preferable to this frigid, endless winter full of ice and snow. It's so terribly Northern and boring.

The valley of the temples [ la valle dei templi ] in Agrigento originally Agrakas, is one of those places that inspire and point to man's unlimited poptential. I return there often but these shots are from my first visit way back when. All shot on Kodachrome II with the canon FT. The color from these scans si amazing consider the age of the images. I always wonder what happened to the little girls walking between the columns. She was part of a wedding party. It is customary for wedding parties to have photos taken in the temples.  BTW, the best preserved temples and monuments in all Magna Grecia including Greece itself are found in Sicily.

The term late winter makes me hopeful. But this winter seems endless.

This wonderful view of the Tuscan countryside was from our room at the Hotel Ravizzi in Siena, Italy. Simply breath taking.

As I stated a two days ago,  that with winter's unyielding hold I turn to poetry to make  this ugly season bearable. " My heart leaps up when I behold"   My heart leaps when I behold     A Rainbow in the sky So was it when my life began; So it is now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old,     Or let me die! The child is father of the man; And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety By: William Wordsworth

This gem of a tourist harbor south of Genoa is absolutely gorgeous. We went in April, before the onslaught, so we could quietly enjoy it's beauty.

What can you do when the wind chill factor is 30 below zero and the damn polar ice caps refuse to melt? You can read poetry and dream of spring. "I wandered lonely as a cloud" I wandered lonely as a cloud   That floats high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous on the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in ever lasting line  Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced, but they Outdid the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed - and gazed -but little thought  What wealth the show to me had brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasu...

Yes indeed it's carnevale time and although this parade is not in Rio it does have it's charm. Both the participants and the spectators had a great time.