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Happy World Book & Copyright Day
Happy World Book & Copyright Day to all!To celebrate, share and spread the love and respect for books and reading, OyezBooks is having a limited time promotion starting from 22-24 April with 20% off ALL Oyez titles AND in addition, they are also throwing in their World
Book Day poster (of a cute anteater reading books) for FREE!Just enter WORLDBOOKDAY in the Coupon Code upon checkout – www.oyezbookstore.com.
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Happy Earth Day!
Happy Earth Day, everybody! Earth is home to billions of people and we share it with millions of species of plants, trees, and animals—from the smallest bee to the biggest whale. We rely on earth for everything we need; food, water, and oxygen. Respect the earth.
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Verona, Italy; City of Romance
I was not planning to visit Verona at all, but a friend told me that it is good to visit as Casa di Giulietta (Juliet’s Castle) is located there, and so I visited the city with some of my friends.
We visited the so-called castle and there’s a bronze Juliet statue in the courtyard. Most all of the tourists seemed to be wanting to be photographed with the statue while groping its breast. For good luck in love, they said. I was not too keen and I refuse to belief the myth.
Juliet statue by Nereo Costantini (1905-1969).The area was too full with tourists and we couldn’t even breathe, so we opted walking outside the castle, along the old street, that looks more enticing.
Verona tends to bring out the romantic in everyone who made the trip to see Juliet’s castle, balcony and statue, which in reality are just a good bit of marketing strategy to market Verona to tourists. Historians said there is nothing to link the house to Shakespeare’s tragic love story but however, archaeologists unearthed skeletons believed to be Romeo and Juliet outside Mantua, 25 miles south of Verona.
But anyway, despite the romantic fiction, the town is full of artistic, historical and cultural histories. Some of the places we visited was Castelvecchio, Piazza Brà and the Roman Arena.
Castelvecchio (Old castle) with its amazing fortified bridge, represent a military monument of the Scaligera (the Scaligera was the noble family, also called “della Scala”, that governed Verona) dominion. The castle housed Verona’s principal art gallery.
We visited Piazza Brà, a large open square where the town’s most remarkable sight, the Arena, is located. The main part of The Arena is well preserved, though an outer ring of arches is almost lost. With a total length of 139 meters and a width of 110 meters, it is one of the largest amphitheatres in the world and, after the one in Rome.
Here are some photos of attractive buildings around Piazza Brà.
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27th Macao Arts Festival
I am always interested to find out about Arts Festival around the world. I recently found out that Macao will be having its 27th Macao Arts Festival (MAF) and the line up of programmes looks very interesting.
Themed around “Time”, MAF will kick off under the slogan “Reshape Your Imagination. Experience the Spirit of the Times” conveying the message that classics always go hand in hand with our lives.
MAF will be orchestrating 27 fascinating programmes, divided into seven distinctive categories: Thematic Highlights, Groundbreakers, Cross-Disciplinary Creations, Family Entertainment, Quintessence of Tradition, Concerts and Exhibitions. The shows and outreach programmes, more than 100 in all, are set to satiate each and every spectator through an encounter with the soul and essence of culture and arts alongside a taste of beauty and sorrow in the passage of time.
As this year marks the 400th anniversary of the death of the western world literary giant William Shakespeare and of Ming Dynasty’s famed Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu, MAF will present a number of their works in tribute to the two virtuosos.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
MacbethThe cultural spectacular will kick off with Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream rendered by the Shakespeare Theatre Company, and Macbeth, presented by Third World Bunfight from South Africa. It will be seasoned by a rewritten and adapted score originally conceived by Giuseppe Verdi.
I am currently into Shakespeare and read some of his plays (read each one over and over because of the Early Modern English that was written in a rhythmic poetic iambic pentameter), and since I have yet to read both plays above, I thought it will be interesting to watch. Yay, yes, I am attending the festival!
The Legend of the Purple HairpinTwo of Tang’s tours de force will be staged: local Cantonese Opera maestro Chu Chan Wa and a number of professionals will interpret Tang’s widely admired The Legend of the Purple Hairpin. Meanwhile, The Peony Pavilion, recognised as one of the Four Great Chinese Classical Dramas, will delicately portrays bittersweet love in the form of Yue Opera excerpts.
Krapp’s Last TapeOther highlights include renowned 20th century playwright Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape interpreted by consummate U.S. director Robert Wilson in person. To debunk stereotypes of disability and theatrical experience, a group of mentally challenged persons will perform in the Disabled Theater with their homespun bodies. Tao Ye, a talent in contemporary dance circles, will pilot TAO Dance Theater through “6” & “7”, presenting minimalism in dance. All these shows, among others, promise immense excitement.
The Cultural Affairs Bureau of Macao is dedicated to introducing tremendous international productions to widen audience’s horizons and to encouraging local artists as well as offering arts education, thereby accumulating a profound and sustainable element to Macao’s culture.
If you happen to visit Macao between 30th April – 29th May, you might want to attend and check out MAF’s programmes: 27th Macao Arts Festival.
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Me at BICBF!
I spotted myself making a sketch in this video by BolognaFiere, so I thought I just embed it here for my reference. You can watch too if you like. 😀
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Things Cinque Terre
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Cinque Terre travel tips
Vernazza, Cinque Terre.Cinque Terre is a beautiful place to visit. A well-planned trip can allow you to save time and cost of travelling as well as place to stay, thus I am writing to share the tips on how to plan for your travel.
Cinque Terre consists of 5 villages; Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso al Mare. Browse the Internet to get insights on which village that suits your preference.
When to visit – It depends on your preference. Most travellers prefer to visit in the summer to get the best weather for swimming and lounging on the beach. I visited Cinque Terre in early Spring ( a bit rainy, I have no choice as I took the chance of visiting the terre after the book fair), and and I wasn’t planning on swimming at all. When traveling with a group of friends, it’s a fantastic idea to stay in a beach villa for rent to enjoy privacy and comfort.
Airports near to Cinque Terre – The closest airports to travel to Cinque Terre are Pisa, Florence and Genoa. I did mine from Bologna as it was my base during the book fair. Consider adding a touch of elegance to your travel experiences by booking a Belmond train Peru tour for a luxurious adventure.
Transfer to Cinque Terre. From any airport above, get to the nearest train station (Centrale) and buy ticket to the village of your preference. Bear in mind that, you have to change train more than once. In my case; Bologna-Parma-La Spezia-Corniglia. My train ticket fare from Bologna to Corniglia was €19.15. Ticket from Florence – Pisa – La Spezia – Corniglia for €14.90. If you take a train from Pisa Centrale, it will be just around €11.40, above an hour ride with route Pisa-La Spezia-village of your preference.You can check train schedule and fee at Trenitalia website and buy online. You can either print your ticket or just use your mobile phone and show your booking code to the ticket inspector. More info here on ticketless purchase. If you are not buying online, you can still use the schedules to plan your itinerary.
Reminder: train ticket must be time-stamped in a machine at a station before you get on the train. If you do not time-stamp the tickets, you could just keep on using them for many journeys, so there is €100 fine for travelling without the ticket having been validated. However, this only applies to ticket that could be used on more than one train (regional train). If your train ticket is for a specific date and time with an assigned seat, you do NOT need to validate it at all, since it can’t be used again anyway (city train/fast train).
Place to stay. I use booking.com because I like to change my mind a lot. I always opt for room that I can cancel in case I found cheaper room, and opt to pay cash.
Online connection. I bet you would want to share your photos online. I bought a WIND local sim card; that cost me 30 Euro, with 5GB data plan. It worked fine around Italy but however, the network did not work while in the La Spezia region. My network got disconnected after La Spezia station and only got it back after leaving La Spezia two days later. My advice; get a room with free Wi-Fi connection. Or you can buy Cinque Terre Card to get WI-FI internet connection in the Park’s Hot Spots. If you get to Vernazza, you can buy the Wi-Fi from Internet Point shop at Via Roma (the main road). If you get to Corniglia, free Wi-Fi can be obtained easily at any cafe around the square. You just need to dine-in or have coffee and ask for the password.
Things to do in Cinque Terre.a. Taking photos is a must. Just be prepared with a good camera/smart phone. Make sure you bring along extra battery, charging cable and plug adapter. Do wake up early to capture the sunrise and do not forget to capture the sunset too.
Views from a terrace at Corniglia.b. Hiking any of the trails is a popular thing to do while visiting Cinque Terre. Some of the trails might be closed. These are the available trails during my trip: Corniglia – Vernazza and Vernazza – Monterosso. Check updates on the trails here.
c. Before you go on hiking, you need to buy Cinque Terre cards from the Info Counter at the village train station or at Information Center at La Spezia Train Station. There are 2 types of card: Cinque Terre Trekking Card and Cinque Terre Card Train Multi-Service. Check Cinque Terre National Park website for more information on the cards.
If you prefer not to buy the train card, it is OK too, you can just take the train to next station for 1.80 Euro (one way) and explore the village.
d. And oh, do not forget to bring a good hiking shoes. And lots of water. I saw many of the hikers using hiking stick, you can bring that one too if you like.
Places to eat – For Muslim, there’s no halal places, Pakistani or Arab restaurant/cafe around Cinque Terre. You can opt eating seafood or vegetable pasta or salad. Or you can buy breads and spread, and eat it in your room or pack it in your bag. Here are some Italian words that can help you in selecting your food; verdure – vegetable, pollo – chicken, manzo – beef, insalata – salad, pane – bread. Do install translation apps on your smart phone for easy translation on the go.
So there you go. Happy planning!
