Ma poi la strada inghiotte subito gli amanti,
per piazze e ponti ognuno se ne va,
e se tu vuoi, li puoi vedere laggiù danzanti,
che più che gente sembrano foulard…
[But then, the road quickly swallows the lovers,
everybody goes away to squares and bridges,
and if you want, you can see them dancing,
looking more like foulards than people...]

This is just an attempt to write something after such a long while. And since I have no words at this moment, I am using words from somebody better than me with that.

The blog goes on holiday for a while. Tomorrow I will somehow try to reach the Amsterdam-Schiphol airport, against the Dutch railways’ suggestion not to take the train due to the heavy snow that is being falling all over the Netherlands. And also hoping everything goes fine regarding the flight itself, as delays are predicted too on that side.

So, let’s cross our fingers and hope everything will be fine. Merry Xmas and happy new 2010 year to the (few) readers of this part-time blog.

Since yesterday, the entire Netherlands are under a very unusual snow storm. This morning it took 25 minutes by foot for me to reach the office (taking my bike wasn’t really a good idea due to the weather conditions): here in Groningen all the sidewalks are just undistinguishable, the roads are all full with snow, and this kind of weather is expected to last at least until Sunday. Obviously this is the day news here in the quiet Netherlands, since this is supposed to be one of the flattest countries in the world, and snow is therefore expected to be very rare here, and this exceptional snow storm naturally caused several trains delays and cancellations throughout the country.

Here are a few photos all through the country from the website of Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant.

Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.

A man who has verbally abused the 50% of Italian people for fifteen years, also refusing the obvious fact that our laws just apply to everybody, from the blue collar worker to a billionaire prime minister, should just not be surprised if some insane man decides to use physical methods at some points. And if this man still refuses to understand why he is so hated, then I think somebody should just bring him a recording of all his insults and attacks in these fifteen years.

So, I wish B. to recover quite soon, and I suggest him to take a healthy, relaxing 20-year break at some Caribbean island. Greetings from an Italian man who was defined “testicle”, “communist”, “anti-democratic”, “terrorist”, “sick with envy” from a prime minister that he finds unfit to lead his country.

People keeps on asking me if Italy is still a country where freedom, democracy, rights and honesty are still existing. Well, I am still convinced that democracy is still existing somewhere. The problem is that this lady Democracy seems to have hidden herself quite good.

But, let me say that, there’s one thing I will never be able to tolerate and accept, that is to stand having mafia inside of the Italian state up to its leadership positions, as we have today. All the people who used their ties with mafia for their power and business goals, spitting every single day on the graves of two legendary Sicilian heroes such as Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. There is no need to provide names, you know who I am talking about. Get the mafia out of the State!

In English this can be translated as “I have everything inside my head, but I just can’t say it”. The title comes from a very old instrumental song by Italian noise-rock band Afterhours. I just like that sentence, no reason at all; probably it’s just because it is a perfect synthesis of how I am feeling these days. Saludos.

“Oggi, un giudice come me lo chiede al potere se può giudicare. Tu sei il potere. Vuoi essere giudicato? Vuoi essere assolto o condannato?” (Nowadays, a judge like me has to ask the power if he can judge. You are the power. Do you want to be judged? Do you want to be acquitted or condemned instead?) (Sogno numero due, Fabrizio De André, 1973)

Doesn’t this remind you of somebody in nowadays’ Italy?

The act of writing some words into this blog, as rarely as it happens, is like meeting with a psychoanalyst. I just remove anybody else’s presence from my mind so I can get lost into my personal kind of automatic writing, then having a look at my words so I can smooth them to make it all look a bit more understandable to the foreign world – something that I often do not succeed in, by the way. Nothing different than what I do when I travel by train, and I take my favourite pen to sketch something on a piece of paper – words, drawings, whatever – in order to kill the time and see the ultimate effect of it. Also, when I take my guitar and close my eyes, leaving my brain and hands to make something out of it: some noise, musical grin, unconsidered vibration from my 12-string guitar.

In the end, all these things are just part of my personal attempt to understand who I am, what I want to do, where I want to go. Probably I’ll never be able to find it out in the end, but at least I can say it’s worth to give it a try. You can never know, perhaps one of these days something good will come out from it…

This weekend I’ve finally started my personal tour of the Netherlands, all around the major cities I still have to visit in this country. Maastricht was the first destination, and I’ve chosen it because it’s basically a very cosmopolitan old city bordering with Belgium and Germany; unfortunately, the trip lasted 5 hours and 30 minutes from Groningen due to a number of issues with the Dutch railway system, not to mention about the return journey that made me experience an additional hour of delay and seven different trains to take – and a bus too. But I can say it was worthwhile, because it is actually a very characteristic and pleasant town to visit, and also kind of different with respect to the rest of the Netherlands.

Pictures of Maastricht I made are available at my Flickr profile. The next destination is yet to be chosen (it might be either Rotterdam or Nijmegen, but we’ll see anyway), in any case it won’t happen before next February. Groeten uit Nederland!

My Dutch path can be basically defined as a continuous attempt to choose the next move and understand what I really want to have in my next future.

And, since my ideas are still very unclear, I still keep on repeatedly living weeks all the same way, waiting for something to happen. And letting myself being driven by events instead of holding the steering wheel myself and choosing my own path. It is slowly getting evident I am getting inured to life (and rain) in Groningen, and this will probably lead me to some kind of choice in the future. Well, I already knew I am completely unfit for “regular living”, with my story as a clear proof of it, so it’s just something unsurprising.

And anyway there’s still a long time coming, so for now I can just sit down and wait for the events…