Parallelo zero: the reportage bank

Kenya - African Cape Canaveral

2010-08-21

The African Cape Canaveral? It's in Malindi, Kenya, a few degrees south of the Equator, amongst sandy white beaches and coconut palms. Here, in the Sixties, the first European satellites were launched into orbit and for more than twenty years, Italy continued launching rockets into space. Then the Europeans moved to French Guiana and the African base was closed. Until a couple of years ago, when Malindi was reopened. The base is destined to expand in the future. Because Kenya is strategically important, even fundamental, for the land control of European, Chinese and Russian satellites and expendable launch systems. Not only: Kenya is within Africa the ideal location for space rocket launches, and there's talk of Malindi becoming the future launch site for the rockets belonging to the emerging African powers.

Afghanistan - The seven thousand legs man

2010-07-31

Since 1990, Alberto Cairo, an Italian, has been running the International Red Cross orthopaedic rehabilitation centre. A team of 320 people who produce seven thousand artificial limbs each year, who distribute them to just as many war invalids, teaching them how they should be used and thus, offering a new lease of life. Not only: recently, the centre has also started a microcredit programme, which has transformed six thousand invalid beggars into independent workers. His patients, practically forgotten by the state, worship him. He's an angel they say. But he's got one defect: he's not Muslim.

Parallelozero's new workshops - Autumn 2010

2010-07-28

PROFESSION REPORTER. Next workshops will be held in the agency's new premises in Via Donatello, 19 - Milan, in the following dates: 18/19 September - 2/3 October and 23/24 October. This course comes out from our photographers' 20 years experience in the field of social, geographical, antropological and war photography. An advanced workshop for photographers who want to go deeper into the storytelling side of photo reportage. Main teacher: Sergio Ramazzotti. Cost: 300 Euros per person.
For infos and reservations please write: workshop@parallelozero.com.

TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY. Next courses will be held as well in our new headquarters in Milan, in the folowing dates: 11th/12th September and 9th/10th October.
This workshop, led by one of our award-winning travel photojournalists, will teach you how to move in harmony in unexpected and unknown environments, how to master photographic techniques useful in any situation, and every other trick to shoot a great travel story. Suitable for everyone. Lessons will be in Italian. Cost: 300 euros per person.
For infos and reservations please write to: workshop@parallelozero.com -

Sportweek - Italy - Surfing Gaza

2010-07-28

Il Venerdì di Repubblica - Kenya: space center

2010-07-21

Travel Photography Workshop - Cruising with Msc in the Mediterranean November 2010

2010-07-19

A unique chance to live a full immersion in travel photography and reportage together with some of our agency's award-winning photojournalists, who will be on board the Msc Orchestra ship during this Mediterranean cruise, leaving from Genoa on November 3rd, 2010. Seven full days of theorical and practical lessons, seminars, photographic excursions, field exercises, portfolio readings and shooting technique sessions, led by our experienced photojournalists. All in the perfect learning environment: during the navigation we'll analyze all the theorical and technical aspects of travel photography, while, during stops at the various ports, we'll get on the ground, divided in groups and assisted by a professional photographer, to take our photographs, which will be discussed together during the following days. Limited seats. Fares starting from 1,150 Euros all inclusive. Reduced fares are applicable to travel companions not attending the workshop. Workshop suitable for everyone. Basic digital camera equipment (with or without personal computer) suggested. Infos and reservations: Passatempo Tour Operator - Tel. +39.035.403530 – email: info@passatempo.it.

IO Donna - Italy - Kenya fishermen

2010-07-19

Palestine - Surfing Gaza

2010-07-18

I've arranged to meet the guys on the beach in the afternoon, once they've finished work. There's a baker, a builder, a sardine fisherman and a student from Al-Azhar University. They smile as they stroll with their surfboards underarm, as if they were in Biarritz or California. But we're in Gaza, capital of the World's most tormented strip of land. In any case, the waves are the same here as they are twenty kilometres further north, in Israel explain these young men from the Gaza Surf Club as they pass by with their old surfboards, held together with adhesive tape and shoe glue. The situation in Gaza is desperate, this isolation has cut it off from the rest of the world and the Palestinians in the Strip are prisoners in their own home. This is why surfing is our escape route they explain, the only way we can dream of freedom.

Iraq - Baghdad - The last supper

2010-07-16

I recently developed photographs of people I never met, all shot in the same place in Baghdad, in 2003. The place was a panoramic restaurant on top of Saddam International Tower. I went there a few days after the war started. The tower was intact, but the building at the base had been torn apart by bombs. In a room that must have been the restaurant´s official photographer´s, I found many undeveloped photographic rolls. I took a bunch of them and stuffed them in my pockets. In the photographs you could see all the good Iraqi upper-middle class. Judging by their smiles, the perspective of war was still far away. Yet, if the photographer had not had the time to develop the rolls, the first bombs had to have begun falling soon. Who knows for how many of them, that merry moment might have been the last supper out.

Parallelozero at the Savignano Immagini photo festival 10/12 September - Portfolios reading

2010-07-13

Parallelozero will attend the Savignano Immagini photography festival, that will open on September 10th in this beautiful village in east Romagna, with an event dedicated to young photographers. During the festival our agency will organize infact portoflios' readings in order to search for new talented pofessionals for its new Nominees section. The readings will take place in the village main square on the September 11th and 12th. For info and subcripitons please visit: www.savignanoimmagini.it

Travel Photography Workshop - Milan - September/October

2010-07-13

Travel photography is a cross-sectional art that needs an extraordinary capability to adapt, both professionally and personally, to an endless series of situations. First of all, it is vital to simply learn how to travel. Which means dealing with different people of all cultures and always bring the best out of them. And at the same time being able to move in often uncharted, if not hostile, territories and exploit all their photographic potential. It is necessary to study a lot, know and respect foreign countries and cultures and put a great deal of physical effort into the building process of the story. This workshop with one of our award-winning travel photojournalists will teach you how to move in harmony in unexpected and unknown environments, to master photographic techniques useful in any situation, and every other trick to shoot a great travel story.

Suitable for everyone. Own digital camera suggested. Next workshops will take place in the agency's new headquarters in Via Donatello, 19, Milan. Lessons will be in Italian. Cost: 300 euros per person. Dates: 11th/12th September and 9th/10th October, 2010. For infos and subscriptions write to: workshop@parallelozero.com

Sette - Corriere della Sera - Gaza daily life

2010-07-13

Palestine - Gaza daily life

2010-07-12

They want to turn us into victims. But after the bombings I rebuild, clean and put things back in place. I want life to go on in Gaza, always. Maamon Khozendar, 56, an industrialist, is the symbol of a wealthy Gaza which doesn't believe in suffering. A Gaza which doesn't feel sorry for itself and which notwithstanding the embargo and the injustices carries on enjoying itself, playing sports, and leading a good life. Passing each day in the most normal way possible is our way of escaping the despair explains Ahmed Ferwana, 20: I'm angry, this is certain, but here in Gaza I have everything I need to live well. During the 2009 bombings, Ammar Al Yazegi, 27, lost part of his business: I'm lucky, some people lost everything. But from my studies in London I've learnt one thing: behind every crisis there's an opportunity."

Parallelozero at Rome Photography Festival - September 23rd/October 24th

2010-07-12

Parallelozero will be present at FotoGrafia, Rome's international photography festival that will be held at the Macro Testaccio museum from September 23rd to October 24th, 2010, with two major agency projects. The first is a delicate feature by Alessandro Gandolfi, who photographed Gaza's Palestinians athletes (disabled by landmines and the Israelo-Palestinian conflict) training in different disciplines for the 2012 London Paralympic games. The second is a photographic book which, with an innovative graphic project conceived by Parallelozero's designers, depicts in 300 large-format pages a quasi-metaphysical journey made by our photojournalist Sergio Ramazzotti, who traveled undercover in North Korea. Other info on: www.fotografiafestival.it

Parallelozero's photographers at the Vsa Pour l'Image festival in Perpignan

2010-07-12

From August 28th to September 5th, the photographers of our agency will attend the Visa pour l'Image 2010 edition, the famous photojournalism festival that is held every year in Perpignan, France. They will meet up with partner agencies, international photoeditors and will show their latest reportages. For appointments please write in advance to: info@parallelozero.com

Parallelozero at the Open Wound Festival of Santo Stefano al Mare (Imperia)

2010-07-12

Parallelozero will be present at the Open Wound international photography festival, which will be officially opened on July 27th, 2010, in the Italian seaside town of Santo Stefano al Mare (Imperia), with the premiere of The Interpreter, Sergio Ramazzotti's latest multimedia reportage. The movie, set in Iraq, tells in 33 adrenaline-packed minutes the story of the last seven years of a young Iraqi's life, forced to survive and reinvent his existance every day in a country destroyed by the coalition forces' takeover. The multimedia will be shown in piazza Scovazzi, in the heart of town, at 9.30 PM on July 30th.

Profession: Reporter - Milan - September/October

2010-07-04

The basic rule to shoot a good story is in a sentence well known by reporters: “f 5.6 and be there”. Knowing how to get “there” and, once arrived, how to move around, to interact with the environment and the local people, to make your presence there seem perfectly natural: these are the necessary premises to take a picture that works and, more generally, to tell a good story. During a workshop with one of Parallelozero’s photojournalists, you will learn the planning of a reportage, how to use a camera and when it is better not to use it, how to get the best out of the available light, how to look for your subject when it doesn’t seem to be there, how to find the most effective points of view, how to get “there”. At the end, you will know why 5.6 is the best f-stop, but most of all, you’ll know how to tell a good story.

Suitable for photographers who want to go deeper into the storytelling side of photo reportage. Next workshop will be held at Parallelozero's new headquarters in Milan, Via Donatello 19, on 18th/19th September, 2nd/3rd October and 23rd/24th October. Main teacher, Sergio Ramazzotti. Cost: 300 Euros per person. Infos and reservations: workshop@parallelozero.com

D/La Repubblica delle Done - Travel special issue

2010-07-03

Parallelozero selects submissions for its new nominees photographers section

2010-06-28

Photojournalism agency Parallelozero will select portfolios for its Nominees Photographers new branch.The selected photojournalists will obtain a one-year contract with our agency. During this period, they will be fully syndicated by Parallelozero and its partner agencies worldwide. After 12 months, Parallelozero will reserve the right to admit the candidates in its roster of official photographers. You can submit your candidature for the Nominees Photographers branch by writing to: submission@parallelozero.com.

Please attach portfolio, bio, website URL, publications and ongoing projects description (if any).

Tanzania - An African Queen on Lake Tanganyika

2010-06-21

Lake Tanganyika is Africa's second largest lake and also the deepest in the heart of the Great Rift Valley. Burton and Speeke travelled its banks while searching for the source of the Nile River. The encounter between Livingstone and Stanley also took place here, where the famous phrase Doctor Livingstone I presume´ was uttered. However, the waters of this lake hold another part of Africa's history. The MV Liemba, built in Germany in 1913, disassembled in Dar Es Salaam and transported by rail to Kigoma, reassembled and put to work on the lake. She was sunk during the First World War then salvaged by the British in 1924. Since then, like a phoenix´ risen from the ashes, she is the only means of transportation which guarantees a ferry service for people and goods on the lake and is probably the oldest boat still in service in the world.

Nigeria - Africa International Film Festival

2010-06-21

In December, 2009, the ION film festival, an itinerant film festival, landed in Port Harcourt, capital of Nigeria's oil industry. The idea of the festival was to unite the World's three largest film producers: Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood, besides the aim to renew the image of the tormented Niger Delta region, infamous for the environmental deterioration caused by its oil activity and the presence of guerrilla groups demanding a fairer share of the oil wealth. Riding the wave of the festival's success, the governor of the Rivers State has decided to promote the Africa International Film Festival in Port Harcourt, an annual event which will be the showcase for Africa's film production.

Palestine - Paralympic dream

2010-06-18

Wahed discus throw lost a leg during the Cast Lead Operation. Omar 100 meters lost his sight during the explosion of a landmine a couple of years ago. Abdul swimming - lost his leg in a car accident. Mohamed javelin is a paraplegic from birth.s. Wahed, Omar, Abdul, Mohamed and ten other Palestinian athletes are getting ready for the next Paralympic games to be held in London in 2012. However, they don't know if they'll ever be able to take part. Because they live in the Gaza Strip, one of the world's most tormented territories, under embargo for the past three years and literally isolated from the rest of humanity. Like all those who live in Gaza, even the athletes can't leave. They can hope to get an (impossible) permission from Israel. Or to go illegally through the Egyptian tunnels...

World - Madonna World Tour

2010-06-13

God does not exist, but Mary is His mother wrote George Santayana. From Europe to the Far East, from Africa to America and the Muslim world, here is the stunningly cross-sectional image of the Virgin, on altars, printed on fabrics sold in African markets, on souvenir stalls, on monuments, on the windshield of a taxi cab. Thus the Virgin, also venerated by Islam as the mother of one of Allah´s prophets, or by the Chinese who in the past decade have embraced the Christian cult more as a Western fashion than a religious doctrine, appears in the most diverse contexts, some of which surprising and absolutely non-consistent, revealing all the global power of Her icon. And, maybe, some sense of humour among Her followers.

North Korea - Maternity in North Korea

2010-06-11

In North Korea the child death rate is between 60 and 90 per thousand, ten times higher than in Europe. Hospitals have no heating during the winter and no cooling in summer, when the temperature reaches over 40 degrees celsius. Windows and doors can hardly be closed. Worse still, there are no medicines. After the devastating famine of the mid-nineties the population is chronically undernourished, and is an easy prey for any kind of disease. According to official figures, 17 percent of women giving birth weigh less than 45 kgs, a condition labeled dangerous by the World Health Organization. Independent sources claim the percentage could be three times higher. A situation much worse than in Sub-Saharian Africa.

GEOLINO GERMANY - MUSIC IN AFGHANISTAN

2010-06-05

Ghana - The glass beads game

2010-06-03

For centuries, the glass beads made in Murano and other European cities where brought into Africa by the merchants who used them as an exchange of goods for gold, ivory and slaves. Today, mosaic glass can be found all over Africa, but one peoples in particular, the Krobo of Ghana, have turned it into a real cult. Every Krobo clan jealously guards its oldest beads which are only worn for ritual occasions. The main ritual is the Dipo festival, the initiation rite which marks the passage of the girls into adulthood. The climax of the festival is when the girls, adorned with the glass beads which represent the total wealth of their families, dance around the city, showing off their beauty and that of their glass treasures.

United States - An Italian teacher in the Bronx

2010-06-03

Luca Avellini was once a broker in the City of London. Luxury journeys, cars and hotels were part of his daily routine. Then, one day he had a Damascus Road conversion. He left his job and moved to New York to start a new life as a teacher in an elementary school in the Bronx, with 74% of Hispanic and 24% of Afro-American children. I figured that after the 11th of September, the only way to create a better and more tolerant world was through the children recounts Luca, who is now the fully-fledged teacher of a group of angelic-looking devils who are convinced that their city is divided into 5 districts: The Bronx, New York, New Jersey, Miami and South America´.

Dominican Republic - The South-West at Haiti´s door

2010-06-03

Faraway from the beaches turned into a concrete jungle and from the noise of the all-inclusive vacationers, there is a pristine and spontaneous land made of forests, lakes, waterfalls and stretches of beaches never touched by tourists. The nearness to Haiti is palpable: the powerful Afro-American traditions of the other half of the island permeate the culture of the Dominican South-West part, Haitians work in the salt fields and mines of Iarimar, trade with cross border villages is thriving. The Dominican Republic shows a hidden face.

VSD FRANCE - THE MARTYRS OF TIBHIRINE

2010-06-02

A photograph from Parallelozero story "Footballing Africa" chosen for the cover of Sports Illustrated

2010-05-25

Sports Illustrated, United States' most prestigious sports weekly newsmagazine, has chosen a photograph from Parallelozero's story "Footballing Africa" for its end-of-May cover. The story, which describes with an extremely delicate language the passion of African people for soccer, and is syndicated in the U.S. by our partner agency Aurora, is one of our several collective works, shot by five of our photojournalists all over the African continent during various assigments.

VSD France - Surfing Gaza

2010-05-24

Parallelozero at the third edition of Artèfoto festival

2010-05-24

Parallelozero is proud to be a significant presence at the third edition of Artèfoto Festival, one of the most prominent international photojournalism festivals in Italy, held from May 28th to June 6th in the stunning Castelli di Jesi, the countryside of Marche region. Our photojournalists will be hosting three events: Sergio Ramazzotti will present Afghanistan 2.0, his new photographic book out in September, 2010 published by Leonardo International. A video projection will be dedicated to Indian agency Trikaya, exclusively syndicated by Parallelozero in Italy. And our photojournalist Bruno Zanzottera will exhibit - and, on May 30th, personally guide visitors through - "Saharawi: the wall of shame", one of his latest works. For info on event schedule and location, www.artefotofestival.org.

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED USA - SOCCER IN AFRICA

2010-05-23

Italy - Surf in Milan

2010-05-21

Is it possible to surf a stone's throw away from Milan? It is. In Turbigo a town with seven thousand inhabitants and the Naviglio Grande canal which flows alongside it the thermal power station creates a practically perfect wave. A godsend for us exclaims Francesco Thilo Sili, official rider of the West Surfing company, who surf everything, even rivers. The Turbigo wave is generated by the strong jet of water which spurts from the dam and which over the past few years has attracted many sports fanatics, canoeists and local surfers alike. Giovanni Cucchetti is an example, he explains that here in Turbigo we can surf from April to the middle of September, whilst during the other months, the canal is emptied for maintenance work. As we're two hours away from the sea, Turbigo is an excellent practice ground for us enthusiasts.

Thailand - Zen and the art of being a sea gypsy

2010-05-21

In the Andaman Sea, on the border between Thailand and Myanmar, live the last seven thousand sea gypsies. Once upon a time they were a completely nomadic people, but progress is swiftly pushing them towards a sedentary life. The two countries in whose territorial waters they live and fish refuse to grant them citizenship. After the 2004 tsunami they lost many of their ancestral lands, where they dwelled in temporary stilted villages during the monsoon season: it was the perfect excuse for developers looking for pristine stretches of beach to build new resorts on. Despite the problems they are facing, though, sea gypsies still live in amazing symbiosis with the sea that surrounds them, and from which they could never think of parting.

Mauritania - My big, fat Mauritanian wedding

2010-05-21

Mauritania is the only African country where the tradition of gavage (literally, gobbling) still exists. When they turn six, girls are forced by their mothers to eat and drink enormous amounts of food, often for the whole night. According to the Health Ministry, at least one woman in ten has suffered the practice of force-feeding based on cous-cous, camel milk and sometimes hormone pills. The reason is to guarantee the woman a good marriage: for Mauritania´s muslim men, a decent woman shouldn´t weigh less than 100 kg.

Brazil - Que viva Quixadà!

2010-05-20

Quixadà is a small, isolated city in the Sertão, the most arid and underdeveloped region of Brazil. A two-hour drive from Fortaleza, Quixadà is afflicted by problems such as criminality, a high homicide rate, widespread alcoholism and drug abuse and extreme poverty. However, things have improved since an Italian Don Adelio Tomasin was made bishop in 1988. If Quixadà was an inferno back then, this enlightened priest has made it rise from the ashes. Setting up help and development projects, and even creating one of the best universities in Brazil. The university has led to development, the new hospital has become a reference point for the poor in the entire region, economy has grown and with it the standard of living of many inhabitants. Who now look to the future with more hope.

Senegal - Fight with Koran

2010-05-14

Traditional combat is practiced all over middle-west Africa. Rules originate from Roman-Greek combats: the first person to knock out his challenger wins. Wearing magic costumes full of fetish and amulets, the wrestlers enter the arena following the rhythm of djembè drums. The magical element is fundamental: an athlete would never begin a fight without having previously performed the necessary rituals. The djembè sound lasts during the whole event, acting as background music and at the same time encouraging the wrestlers. In Muslims countries, during the matches the musicians are followed by women reciting verses from the Koran. Traditional combat is much more popular than football and in Senegal the prize winnings for the national championship is many thousands euro a match. These pictures were taken in the Adrien Senghor arena in Dakar.

ADESSO - Germany - Carloforte Island

2010-05-12

Ramallah rebirth

2010-05-03

Ramallah is changing. In the West Bank's main city, money, invested by the Palestinian diaspora, is flowing. Shopping centres, restaurants and buildings, where an apartment can cost up to 12 thousand dollars per square meter, are springing up everywhere. Luxury cars have appeared on the roads. The artistic side of things is also in ferment, thanks to new bands, dance schools and the most avant-garde disc jockeys and graffiti artists. And all this in spite of the wall built by Israel, which surrounds the city and makes it, as its inhabitants call it, “an open-air prison”. Run by a very special mayor. A Roman Catholic. And a woman.

Saudi Arabia - Wind of change from the Oil Empire

2010-04-29

Slight signs of change are beginning to be noticed in this traditionalist oil empire. Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, the Saudi king who came to power in 2005, is attempting to open the Nation to outside, 'infidel' eyes. Aware of the fact that a wealth based solely on oil extraction will not last forever, the enlightened ruler is steering his subjects towards a greater economic dynamism in order to make Saudi Arabia a modern state, modelled on the small, yet extremely active, Arab Emirates. As a result, even the princes, who up until now were only interested in squandering the oil proceeds, are turning into entrepreneurs, investing in different areas, amongst which the flourishing tourist industry. At the same time, a few unique reforms are slowly taking shape, such as the appointment of the first female minister.

Brazil - The forgotten Sertão

2010-04-28

It's the other Brazil, the anti-Amazon, the poorest and most arid region in Latin America. The Sertão, the Brazilian outback, is twice the size of England: part sea, part desert and part steppe, where life is hard and poverty is rife in the streets. Half of South America's poorest inhabitants live here, in the Sertão, a forgotten corner of Brazil. A land of toil, of farmers and breeders who cross their fingers each year, praying for the absence of two natural phenomena: the drought, then the deluge of rain. Fifteen million sertanejos live in this humble and underdeveloped land, but this has done nothing to dampen their spirits. Over the years, Sertão has become an epic metaphor, in literature as in real life. A metaphor of battle against death, of resistance against isolation, of an obstinate wish to build a future.

Great Britain - Liverpool 1960. The birth of the Beatles

2010-04-27

50 years on, the tale of the four lads from Liverpool has no intention of dying out. Every year, at the end of August, tens of tribute bands copying these famous Liverpudlians, assemble in their home town. In the city's many clubs, amongst which the renowned Cavern Club (demolished and rebuilt under public pressure) which was the stage for the Beatles first performances, we can meet numerous Johns, Pauls, Georges and Ringos from all around the globe, as they endlessly repeat their idols' repertoire. Some bring their fans from as far as Japan, complete with kimono, others take along their parents who launch themselves into frenzied rock 'n rolls, reliving their Beatles era. All mixed up with gigantic drinking sessions and vintage ambience.

West Papua - A Babel on the edge of the world

2010-04-27

Over the past 500 years, about half of the world´s languages have disappeared without us even noticing. 4% of the population speaks 60% of the World´s languages and these small linguistic islands are mainly clustered in tropical regions. Within this scenario, the large island of New Guinea stands out as a real Babel, with about 860 languages spoken by just 4 million inhabitants, a ratio of 1:5,000 between languages and people. If this ratio were to be reproduced in the United States, it would mean 50,000 languages being spoken. Every inhabitant of New Guinea speaks an average of 5 different languages and this is a guarantee of survival for a linguistic biodiversity which, under many aspects, is in danger. This reportage studies the Asmat, Dani and Yali tribes.

FINANCIAL TIMES DE - ANTOINE BERNHEIM

2010-04-26

Algeria - Tibhirine monastery, Life after Terror

2010-04-26

May, 1996. Near Medea (Algeria) the discovery of the severed heads of seven Trappist monks, kidnapped from the nearby monastery of Tibhirine by the GIA three months earlier. A massacre which is still shrouded in mystery, notwithstanding the fact that the French government has recently decided to declassify important documents. In spite of the weight of such a tragedy, the monastery still exists the only one in a country like Algeria which is exclusively Muslim thanks to the work of a French priest, Jean Marie Lassausse, who continues to toil the land with the help of the same people who worked with the monks. A sign of loyalty to that place and that which it symbolises: the possibility of contact and dialogue with the Muslim world, which occurs via simple, everyday gestures, such as work and prayer.

India - Sufi, the Mystics of Islam

2010-04-26

Between India and Pakistan, in the forgotten region of Kashmir, the sufi sect keeps alive some of the most fascinating traditions in the Islamic world, dating back to the Muslim conquer of the region, in 14th century. Before and after prayer, the sufis, devout Muslims, have the habit of reciting endless mantras based on the Qu´ran´s suras, entering a state of semi-trance that should help the communion with Allah. This mystical practice, derived from the Hinduist mantra recitation, is regarded with suspicion by the orthodox Muslim community. Yet in Kashmir, where the population pays the high price of a crisis which has been going on for almost sixty years, it seems to be the most effective way to heal the spirits.

Saudi Arabia - Ancient cities in the Arabian deserts

2010-04-25

Even though oil wealth has changed the face of this nation, where Islam began its quest to conquer the world, Saudi Arabia has remained tied to its most ancient traditions, found in a population of Bedouins born and raised in the desert. Its territory is marked by vast deserts of sand, such as the notorious Rub´ al-Khali, the Empty Quarter´, linked to the English explorer, Thesiger, and alternated by the spectacular sandstone canyons in the Hisma Valley. Amongst the sand and rocks one can discern the ruins of ancient cities which once flourished thanks to the incense trade. Cities such as Hegra, southern outpost of the Nabataean kingdom, and places which have a more recent location in time, such as the train stations and old locomotives along the Damascus-Medina railway line, famous for the constant attacks by Lawrence of Arabia's troops

Brazil - The Dendè coast

2010-04-20

The southern bahia coastline, that gets his name from the millions of palm dates (elaeis guineensis) from which is possible to extract a very precious oil, used both in beauty products and in food cooking, is an unreal country, delicate and surprising, made out from the best natural southamerican coincidences. The whole coast - 400 chilometers of forests, beaches, fishermen villages and natural reserves touched by the Atlantic, is a magnificent subregion. Canals and small rivers flows from the North East Sierra towards shining bays and lagoon where the ocean meets the jungle. A liquid frontier which runs from the outskirts of Salvador de Bahia down to Ilheus, fading along the Todos os Santos gulf.Itacarè, Maraù, Camamù, Ilha de Tinharè, become the tropics quintessential.

Myanmar - Karen: sixty years of war

2010-04-18

For fifty years a war has raged in Southeast Asia. A brutal battle between the ethnic Karen hill tribes and the powerful army of the Burmese Junta has left the Karen badly battered. The Karen, through sheer determination, have managed to hang on.  The seven million Karen in Burma are descendants of the earliest settlers of the country, migrating from Mongolia. During the British colonization, the Karen sided with them against the Burmese. After the British departure, the Burmese authorities went on the rampage against the enemy´ Karen.  In the past 20 years, with the complete military takeover of Myanmar's government, the Burmese Junta has conducted campaigns to exterminate the Karen. The Karen´s ongoing struggle is of little concern to the outside world. It may not be much longer before the Junta has eradicated an entire race of people.

India - Kurava's sacrificing

2010-04-18

In the post-modern world, our secular culture has lost the notion of the sacred. The Kuravas are one of those communities who view much of life as sacred: conception, birth, death, hunting, dreams, harvests, kinship etc. Ritual is an intersection of the profane and the sacred. The ritual of animal sacrifice serves to create a sense of community among its member participants, reinforcing their communitarian values´ which they believe hold the community together. Kuravas's one of the most ancient nomads in India, they are migrated to the Tamil country from the western part of India in the 7th Century. Their caste system and their ceremonies differ very much from the common practices in Tamil. At the time of the 'ritual' the priest and the head of the family drink buffalo blood. The Kurava people get blessing from the blooded priest

China - Old Beijing blues

2010-04-17

China, Beijing. Furniture has been moved out of buildings doomed for demolition in Long Fang Toutiao. In the rush to modernise the city, Qianmen or Front Gate, once Beijing's heart, has fallen to destruction. Many streets and hundreds of courtyard houses have been demolished, two four-lane roads have been built, tens of thousands of residents, have been displaced, giant strips of land have been cleared. The center of the city during the last imperial dynasty, this old commercial, entertainment and residential district, home to merchants, tea houses and Peking Opera, saw his main street converted back into what it once was, a shopping street lined by traditional Chinese buildings, a Beijing's replica of itself. But the 'renovation' is not completed, the distruction still goes on.

India - Curfew in Kashmir

2010-04-12

Fertile are the plains of Kashmir. Fertile are the sightings of blood and massacre in the memories of its people. Almost as fertile as official reports´ that attribute all the violence in the past 18 years of military occupancy by the Indian Army and Paramilitary forces to incidental causes, while Kashmiris all around are bursting into protests against their armed protectors´. Ideally, the only justification of a war is that it ends in peace. But the conflict between India and Pakistan over the issue of Kashmir has led to a new war- that between the people and the Indian military over the grave stakes of freedom. While the authorities use sophisticated artillery, the civilians fight back with the only weapons they know of: stones from their native soil and impassioned cries for Azadi (freedom).

China - Beijing after dark

2010-04-12

Nights are long and crowded in Beijing. Two decades ago, the only opportunity for nighttime entertainment was either heading to the opera or watching acrobatics. Today the 'beautiful people' can choose among live music, disco and karaoke, while the poor living in the few surviving hutong have to be satisfied with a walk and a chat; the transsexual and ''drag queens'' meet in their secret rooms while in makeshift hairdresser shops young prostitutes are waiting for the next client.

Bangladesh - Commemorating Imam Hussain

2010-04-12

Each year the Ashura commemorates the "martyrdom" of Imam Hussain, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, who was killed in the desert of Kerbala by the Sunni Caliph Yazid. For Shi'ite Muslims, rituals and observances on Ashura consist primarily of public expressions of mourning and grief and the display of the tazia (ta'ziyah). This is intended to connect them with Hussain's suffering and death as an aid to salvation on the Day of Judgment. In Bangladesh it is observed by the Biharees, the stranded Pakistanis who used to live in Bihari province before '47, and also by some Bangladeshis. Many Shi'ites make pilgrimages on Ashura to the Mashhad al- Hussain, the shrine in Karbala, Iraq, that is traditionally held to be Hussain's tomb. Hussain's martyrdom is widely interpreted as a symbol of the struggle against injustice, tyranny, and oppression.

China - Little Miao go to school

2010-04-11

Schooling in China is almost free, but in remote areas like the Great Miao Mountains, in the Southern Guanxi Province, also the little expenses known as miscellaneous fees are enough to keep thousands of children out of school. A few of them are able to get a basic education thanks to the program of foreign NGOs. The area is inhabited by the Miao and Dong ethnic minorities. The Miao, nine millions all over China, and the Dong (2,5 millions) have been left behind by the economic growth of the last decades and adults often migrate farther South to Guangdong, where they provide cheap labor to the booming Chinese industry. Most of the families here live on subsistence farming and they prefer to keep their sons and daughters working in the fields.

India - Bhiwani Boxing Club

2010-04-11

Bhiwani used to be one of many towns in northern India, undeveloped, paved in dust, with mud roads and plenty of potholes. Now, after the Beijing Olympics, the town is hogging the spotlight. Four of its boxers were sent to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and three of them made it to the quarter-finals. Vijender Kumar bagged bronze, while the other two, Akhil and Jitender Kumar, were proud quarter-finalists. For small town boys, this was a grand leap. Not that they are strangers to the jubilation of winning: Vijender Kumar is also a Doha Asian games medalist, Dilbagh Singh and Jitender triumphed at the Asian Meet earlier on. Undoubtedly, it´s their passion for boxing fanned under the tutelage of their dynamic coach and pugilist Jagdish Singh that offsets the lack of a sophisticated training to churn out a steady stream of victories.

Africa - Footballing Africa

2010-04-09

Soccer in Africa isn't just about sport and leisure. It also represents a different perspective for your own future. Media are all focused on African soccer stars, whose success and popularity are often bigger than those of political leaders. Following these dreams of glory, millions of youngsters run after battered footballs on improvised dust fields, while from Cairo to Capetown, important matches may paralyze entire nations. A strong passion that is inversely proportional to the money Africa can afford to invest. That's why African football is forced to share the same destiny of the Black Continent: raw materials export. Nowadays African soccer is a gold mine that produces champions and sport fairy tales. But also disappointments and ruthless failures.

Afghanistan - Italy at war

2010-04-01

Three thousand men from the Italian Army garrison one of the most dangerous areas in Afghanistan: the valleys of Musahi, Farah, Bala Baluk and Bala Murghab, strongholds of the Taliban movement. Officially they're on a peace mission: but the truth is that, in order to keep the peace, or just simply to support the Afghan army busy with the distribution of humanitarian aid, it's often necessary to shoot in order defend oneself.

Western Sahara - Saharawi, the wall of shame

2010-03-25

Peoples without land, a State without a nation. And a wall, 2,700 km of sand and stones, which for the past 35 years has kept a territory (Western Sahara) from its people (the Saharawi). This wall of walls is like a jagged scar: four, five, six piles which run parallel to each other in the Sahara Desert, strewn with more than five million landmines and controlled by 160,000 Moroccan soldiers. It was built in the Eighties to block the attacks by the Sahrawi militants and the return of the refugees. Today, this group lives in exile for the most part, just like its government. A mess caused by the Spanish decolonization, followed by the Moroccan invasion. The 200,000 people who fled from their homes in 1976, have been living for years in overcrowded refugee camps in the Algerian desert. Without water, food or adequate medical facilities.

United States - South Carolina, in the land of Gullah

2010-03-20

The last true African Americans live in a damp corner of the United States, straddled between Florida and Africa. They're the Gullah, descendants of the South Carolina slaves who escaped into the swamps and gave life to an African style society. The Gullah community has integrated with the rest of the nation, but has remained tied to its native heritage. The Gullah festival, conceived by 92 year old Rosalie Pazant, historic memory of the Gullah culture, enlivens Beaufort in May. Up until the Eighties she explains only anthropologists and linguists were interested in us Gullah. Then in 1986 I came up with the idea of the festival and today more than seventy thousand people come to take part each year.

Gioia - Italy - Istanbul

2010-03-15

YACHT CAPITAL - CHILE SEAWEED HUNTERS

2010-03-10

Little Big Men

2010-03-02

The last time they were in the news was due to the atrocities committed a few years ago by Jean-Pierre Bemba's militiamen, the protagonists of horrendous cannibalistic acts in the Congolese region of Ituri. The victims, the Bambuti pygmies, still live in the remote and impracticable tropical rainforests in the heart of the Congo. A life in the balance, between the forest and the roads, between customs and habits, which are the result of an extremely ancient wisdom and the forced contact with a “modernity” which is often transformed into abuses and exploitation. The call of the forest still remains strong however: a world of shades and life, where the pygmies blend instinctively and admirably with nature. And from this, they draw all they need to live. Even tree bark, upon which they paint geometric designs.

Lufthansa Magazine - Italy - Cremona

2010-03-01

CHRISMON GERMANY - SKATING IN KABUL

2010-03-01

China - Three shift construction workers

2010-02-27

Most are semi-legal, many are illegal, all of them are underpaid: they are the millions of migrant workers coming from the desperately poor countryside to build the new Beijing, the city that in 2008 has hosted the Olympic Games. They are working day and night in the 8.000 construction sites of the capital. When the construction frenzy will be over, they are bound to go back to their villages - and to poverty.

Spain - Pilgrimage along the great Andalusian river

2010-02-20

In the sixteenth century, the Guadalquivir river was the centre of the World and Seville was the stopping point for hundreds of ships loaded with gold from the New World. The Arabs named it such, Guadalquivir, wadi al-Kabir, the great river. The backbone of Andalusia, at Seville the Guadalquivir turns sharply south and from here, down to the Ocean, there is 80 km of navigable river. By following its course, in this flat, metaphysical land, amongst brackish swamps, paddy fields and large estates still in the hands of the local nobility, one is given an insight into Spain's stall and cellar, the region south of Seville, inhabited by fishermen, vintners, and anarchical Andalusians who breed the finest bullfighting bulls. And by the faithful who take part in Spain's most famous pilgrimage: that of the white Virgin of El Rocío.

Tunisia - Africa's Roman heart

2010-02-19

Travelling on the train from Sousse to Sfax, the Colosseum suddenly appears between palms and sand dunes. The El Djem amphitheatre is just one of a number of Roman sites which can be found in Tunisia, the ancient imperial granary, the location in Proconsular Africa where war veterans came to spend the winter and where caravans from the heart of the Dark Continent would meet. After having annihilated the menace of Carthage, the Romans founded majestic cities all over Tunisia, such as Bulla Regia, Sbeitla, Dougga, Utica and Bizerte. Surrounded by large estates, embellished by underground villas decorated with breathtaking mosaics, today housed in the Bardo National Museum in Tunis.

China - China Islamic Frontier

2010-02-15

Stretching from Taklamakan desert to the peaks of Pamir, Xinjiang is the biggest and the most diverse of China's provinces. Inhabited by the Uighurs, a Muslim, Turkic-speaking ethinc group, its vast natural resources include oil, coal, gas and uranium. From the other provinces, millions of migrants came to China "wild west" and in many areas Han Chinese are today the majority, while the nine millions Uighurs are a minority in their own land. They are concentrated in west Xinjiang around Kashgar, a border town that once was a major oasis on the Silk Road. Many complain that they have been marginalized and are unable to benefit from the rapid development of the province. Despite the region's wealth of natural resources, Uighurs are some of the poorest in China.

Dem. Rep. of the Congo - Kivu, the war continues

2010-02-13

Fifteen years of war, violence, tension, instability. Four million, three hundred thousand dead. And an endless list of abuses, injustices, hypocrisies. Today, Kivu continues to be a land of death and exploitation. Never-ending misery and vast resources. Poor because it's rich. It's just one of the many contradictions which characterise this eastern region in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the fate of a large slice of Africa is being decided (and many world interests are concentrated here, including the West and China). A reportage from the heart of tortured Africa, amongst miners and exorcists, traffickers or jailbirds, and shanty-town inhabitants who, with courage and obstinacy, still find the strength to go on. And survive. Despite and against everything.

China - Nanjie, Communism is back

2010-02-12

As the rest of China struggles with mounting social problems brought on by two decades of economic reforms, Najie, a village of 3.000 in central Henan province, has chosen to go back to the old times. In the era of market and privatiziation, it has found its fortune in restoring the stern rules of maoism. Fancy restaurants, karaoke bars, music clubs, and mahjongg are all forbidden, but the real secret to its collective well-being is capitalist: two dozen village enterprises manufacture all sorts of things - noodles, beer, pharmaceuticals - and a local tour operator is succesfully promoting 'red tourism'.The workers of the locals factories are guaranteed a lifelong healthcare and a small house but their salaries do not reach 30 dollars a month. Communism is the official ideology and an onnipresent Chairman Mao remains the presiding deity.

Palestine - Ramallah rebirth

2010-02-09

Ramallah is changing. In the West Bank's main city, money, invested by the Palestinian diaspora, is flowing. Shopping centres, restaurants and buildings, where an apartment can cost up to 12 thousand dollars per square meter, are springing up everywhere. Luxury cars have appeared on the roads. The artistic side of things is also in ferment, thanks to new bands, dance schools and the most avant-garde disc jockeys and graffiti artists. And all this in spite of the wall built by Israel, which surrounds the city and makes it, as its inhabitants call it, an open-air prison. Run by a very special mayor. A Roman Catholic. And a woman.

Northern Europe - The Amber Road

2010-02-09

About 50 million years ago, gigantic conifers covering the area around today's Baltic Sea, began a slow fossilization process. Huge quantities of resin were fossilized along with the wood, giving rise to a semi-transparent glassy material with particularly warm tones. This fossil resin was given the name of amber and immediately began to fascinate man, who attributed supernatural powers to it, even from the Pleistocene era. The mesmerising influence of amber continued over time, and amber jewellery was worn by the Assyrians, Egyptians, Etruscans, Greeks and Romans. It was precisely due to the importance of this fossil resin in history that the trade routes crossing the Baltic countries, where the amber was collected by dredging the shallow lagoon beds or combing the beaches after sea storms, acquired the name of Amber Road.

Middle East - The incense route

2010-02-08

From Tutankhamun's mummification, to the rites honouring the god Baal in the Assyrian tombs, from Sheba's offerings to Solomon, to Poppaea's funeral, where Nero burnt more than Arabia could produce in a year, incense has always been favoured as a means of communicating with the gods. Frankincense resin, extracted from the Boswellia sacra, a bush which once grew wild in the Dhofar region of Oman, was then transported over the 2,000 km of caravan routes. The control of these commercial routes and the monopoly of the traffic, made a series of South Arabian kingdoms very rich, and whose wealth was exalted by the historians of the era, such as Pliny the Elder. Today we can follow this ancient Route, led by the aroma of that incense which once made the ancients dream, so much so that it was one of the most important gifts presented to Jesus.

Eritrea - Train of desires

2010-02-02

In 1897 the Italians began building the railway to connect the Red Sea city of Massawa with Asmara, located at an altitude of 2,400 m. To overcome the steep gradients, 20 viaducts, 65 bridges and 30 tunnels had to be built. In the Seventies the railway was dismantled and rails and sleepers were used to build bunkers and trenches. After the liberation, the old railwaymen tried to reopen their beloved railway, which had become a symbol of national pride. Thanks to a huge collective effort, the tracks were repositioned and 4 vintage steam locomotives made serviceable, as well as the famous 1935 Fiat Littorina. As a result, it's now possible to travel on board the old train, but the government is planning to reuse the railway for the transport of goods from the port of Massawa to the capital.

Brazil - Orishaswe're waiting for you

2010-02-02

During the celebrations for Black Awareness Day in north-eastern Brazil, rites and possessions by spirits flourish. In the Quilombo de los Palmares, the epic deeds of Zumbi are honoured, a former slave who led the resistance against the Portuguese in the 17th century, creating a great state of freed people, a Promised Land for the many slaves fleeing from the sugar cane plantations. Zumbi was finally captured and beheaded in Recife in 1655, but became a symbol for all the inhabitants of African origin, especially for the followers of Umbanda and Candomblé. During this time of year, the worshippers of these faiths, born from the syncretism of African religions and Catholicism which were vetoed by the land owners in order to annihilate the slaves, even at a cultural level, gather in Zumbi's historical locations for great celebrations.

Geographical UK - Zanskar

2010-02-01

GEO Germany - Zanskar

2010-02-01

China - Beijing Empty Icons

2010-02-01

In the months before the 2008 Olympics, Beijing went through a building boom that filled a once gray communist capital with architectural icons good for the covers of glossy design magazines. In August 2008, while the all world was watching, Husain Bolt run and Michael Phelps swam. Unfortunately, when the Big Party was over, most of the new venues turned into commercial disasters. Unlike cities such as Sydney, which used Olympic structures and publicity to create a longer-term flow of tourists and business traffic, Chinese leaders adopted a "build it and they will come" attitude, not giving much thought to what to with the venues after the Games. The government spent $43 billion for the Olympics but many of the venues proved too big and more photogenic than practical.

Adesso - Germany - Siracusa

2010-02-01

Alessandro Gandolfi wins the National Geographic Magazine Best Edit Award

2010-01-31

Alessandro Gandolfi's reportage covering the archaeological site of Hierapolis, published in the February 2010 issue of National Geographic Italia, has won Best Edit Award, a recognition given by the Washington National Geographic editorial office to the best reportage amongst all those published in the numerous local editions of this prestigious American magazine. In the Roman archaeological area of Hierapolis, Turkey, restoration and research has been in the hands of an Italian mission for the past fifty years. “Thanks to the kindness of professor Francesco D'Andria, head of the expedition – explains Alessandro – I was given access to the site and was able to photograph hidden corners of the archaeological area, where tradition says that Philip the Apostle is buried”. www.nationalgeographic.it

A new born agency from Iraq

2010-01-30

Starting this month Parallelozero has signed a representation agreement to syndicate in Italy, the work of the Metrography group of photographers, the first and only Iraqi photography agency covering all 18 of Iraq’s governorates from Al-Basra to Zakho. As reporters they use local photographers who give unrivaled knowledge and access in every region of the country. Their 65 contributors come from all the different regions of Iraq and speak Arabic, Kurdish, English, Assyrian, and Turkmen along with dozens of local dialects. They cover everything from News to Features, Sport, and Publicity and are ready for assignements as well. Parallelzoero has decided to represent them in Italy - as an exclusive- to give everybody a chanche to know better the local stories and territory covering on the spot any kind of event that may occur.

3 new international agencies represent us in the world

2010-01-29

Aurora in the United States, EK Pictures in Poland and Contacto Photos in Spain, starting from this month, has begun to distribute Parallelozero's work, signing an important cooperaton agreement with our agency. Reportages, stock and features produced by our photographers, will have a prestigious new selling channel in those three new markets.

Nigeria - Stories of ordinary slavery

2010-01-26

Every year, at least 50,000 girls travel from Nigeria (mostly from Benin City, one of the country´s poorest cities) to Europe. A trafficker, with the help of a voodoo, or juju, priest, managed to convince them that a decent job awaits them in the promised land. The journey is often nightmarish, trying to reach the coast of Italy or Spain on a precarious rubber boat. Many of the girls die of fatigue or drown at sea before reaching their destination. Those who make it, soon realize that the promised job does not exist: after their papers are seized by the traffickers, they are sent on the street as prostitutes. Meanwhile, in Nigeria, the government and an Ngo run by nuns are fighting to set these 21st Century slaves free: from their masters, as well as from the naivete that makes them so vulnerable

Colombia - Medellin reborn

2010-01-26

Seven years ago Medellin was still under the influence of the drug lord, Pablo Escobar: dangerous, corrupt, uninhabitable. And now? Everything has changed, mostly thanks to the efforts of an enlightened mayor, a mathematician turned politician, who has transformed this city into one of the most progressive and pleasant in South America. Medellin the city of eternal spring, nestled in a valley at an altitude of 1,500 metres - helps its needy by building metrocables, community centres, schools and libraries. And tourism has also flourished as a result.

Colombia - Cartagena in love

2010-01-26

A UNESCO World Heritage site and a popular location for those wanting to get married in South America, the city loved by Gabriel Garcia Márquez is a world apart. A fairytale, magical city, completely transformed compared to how it was a couple of years ago, when the political situation made travelling in Colombia treacherous. Today, that which was once the most important Spanish port in the New World, has newly restored historical hotels to offer, top quality restaurants, locations for Hollywood productions, Caribbean beaches and a totally new entertainment district Getsemani packed with clubs where one can while away the evening drinking mojitos and listening to excellent live salsa. Mingling with the ever smiling, happy locals.

Saudi Arabia - Bye bye petroleum

2010-01-26

What will the Saudi Arabia of the future be like? The reformist and open-minded Arabia of King Abdullah, sovereign for the past four years, or the austere and conservative Arabia of the Muslim Ulema? I tried to imagine it, travelling from the capital,Riyadh, to the desert of the Nabataeans in the north, and down again to the Tel Aviv of the Red Sea, Jeddah, one of the most cosmopolitan cities on Earth. Here, a different Arabia is being experimented, more tolerant and less attached to the oil economy. The black gold will soon deplete itself and the future of our country lies in tourism a functionary from the Royal Household explained to me, for this reason Saudi Arabia must open itself to the West even more. The king is aware however, that any changes here must be negotiated with the religious powers.

United States - Newyorkland

2010-01-26

New York is a masterpiece of postmodernity. New York disorientates, it never sleeps, it rushes by without stopping, chasing its souls. Each subway stop reveals the many faces of a city where the foreign minorities have become the majority. New York is the capital of the empire, it dominates the fascinating worlds of art, advertising, publishing, highbrow cinema. In this paradoxical city without industries, everything is conceived, produced, launched and exported on a worldwide scale. Many of the wonderful things you can do in New York are free says a friend who lives here. As Tom Wolfe cites, this is a city which lays its foundations on emotions: walking through Central Park, browsing in the flea markets in Union Square or getting on the ferry which sails to Staten Island every half hour, are emotions which don't cost a single cent.

Maldives - Cruising the archipelago

2010-01-20

The islands still embody the ideal tropical island dream, with perfect beaches, palm groves, lagoons and postcard sunsets. However, landing in Male today, waiting to migrate onto one of the 90 islands set up as tourist villages, or before setting off on one of the cruises which now offer countless itineraries between the island's 26 atolls and 1,200 islands, also means coming to terms with the huge transformation it's undergoing. The capital is at collapsing point: it's a crowded, frenzied urban-marine entanglement which hosts more than 80 thousand people. So much so that works are underway to build Male 2 and Male 3, whilst some are already talking about moving to other parts of the globe. It's much better then, to quickly set sail for more peaceful shores, in order to enjoy the bliss of the equatorial silence. Until it lasts

Quì Touring - Italy - Seychelles

2010-01-20

Aids in Malawi - Our Images on exhibition in Rome with the National Geographic Magazine

2010-01-20

Alessandro Gandolfi is one of four Italian photographers who have been chosen to display their work at the National Geographic Italia exhibition “Il nostro mondo” (our world), at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, from the 6th February to the 4th May, 2010 (free entrance; open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays from 10 am to 8 pm, Fridays and Saturdays from 10 am to 10.30 pm). Gandolfi's photos were taken in a hospital in the Malawian capital during a reportage on AIDS problems which afflict this African country and which portray babies suffering from the virus. The exhibition “Il nostro mondo” wants to narrate the life of human beings via unpublished images by the best National Geographic photographers, highlighting situations which characterise their existence: the human family, city life, man and nature, work. “These 48 photos – explains Guglielmo Pepe, director of National Geographic Italia and curator of the exhibition – besides letting us observe, also help us to understand, share, participate and show our solidarity. These photographs open our eyes to the world and make us feel nearer to others, in good times and bad”.

Nigeria - A new era in the Delta?

2010-01-12

The Niger River Delta is the capital of Nigeria's oil extraction. Due to the terrible conditions of the territory caused by pollution and the total lack of reparation for the local populations, over the past few years, MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta), has begun a series of military operations against the oil multinationals and the Nigerian government. In this way, the organisation has continued the work of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the poet who raised his voice in order to defend the delta peoples and hanged in 1995 on false charges of terrorism, transforming it into an armed opposition. Over the past couple of years, the federal government, together with the delta states, has launched a plan to get the inhabitants more involved in the oil proceeds, building a series of facilities such as schools, health centres and roads.

Afghanistan - Mens sana in corpore afgano

2010-01-12

Lacking other facilities, the athletes in Kabul train in the Olympic Stadium, infamous for having being used for public executions during the Taliban regime. In the structure where adulteresses were stoned to death and opponents of the regime shot, athletes from different events now take turns to share the few available spaces. Football features amongst the various sports, women's too, but, as a kickboxing trainer points out, it's not as popular as in Europe: we Afghans prefer events which foresee a physical confrontation. And even the women fight: recently, the Afghan Olympic committee has started to train a dozen young women, hoping to transform them into professional boxers.

Ethiopia - Dancalia, in the devil's land

2010-01-12

The vast Danakil depression marks the beginning of the Great Rift Valley, the largest, longest and most prominent fault in the Earth's crust. Here, the underlying magma lies nearer to the surface than any other place on the planet. In the middle of the depression, the Erta Ale volcano appears like a large lava lake in continual eruption. The northernmost part is covered by a thick salt crust, the residue of an ancient sea which once covered the entire region. On this totally flat surface, covering hundreds of kilometres, several hundred men break up salt slabs with pickaxes and poles, just like their neolithic ancestors in the past. These are the Afar, a race of nomad warriors greatly feared by the majority, and the only ones capable of working in these infernal conditions, where the temperature often exceeds 50°.

Chile - The seaweed hunters

2010-01-11

In the Strait of Magellan, one of the World's most treacherous seas, the fishermen's prey is an alga: the Gigartina Skottsbergii, from which a precious substance used in the food and cosmetics industries is extracted. Unfortunately, the Gigartina grows on the rocks on the seabed, and as a result, the Chilean plunderers must immerse themselves in the Strait's freezing waters in order to tear it away from its habitat, using makeshift equipment, rickety boats and no technical preparation regarding the physiology of underwater diving. A desperate hunt, to the extremes, to earn a few coins with which to get drunk in the rare and solitary days spent on dry land.

Vision

2010-01-07

Parallelozero stands out in the international market with reportages shot by our experienced photojournalists all over the world. In photojournalism documenting areas of crisis, as well as in geographical and anthropological photography, the narration of places is deeply linked to the people who live there, to urban dwellings, social communities, and the private lives of individuals: in one world, to stories. Parallelozero was also among the first editorial companies producing multimedia reportages.

“The medium is the message” wrote Marshall McLuhan. A concept that fits perfectly into Parallelozero’s multitasking vision. Our in-depth, documentary-style reportages are made with texts, pictures, video footage and soundtracks. They are communication products in which our core business, the photographs, maintain all their visual and expressive force, that of an instant frozen in time, but are immensely enriched by the fluidity of video and the emotional power of sound.

Mali - Griots, african legacy

2010-01-05

Just like the aoidos (bards) in ancient Greece, they narrate the exploits of heroes. They call them griots, the aoidos of Black Africa. A caste who create magic with words, sounds and songs. Masters of a strictly oral tradition handed down from father to son. Instead of narrating episodes from the Odyssey, they sing the saga of Sundjata Keita, the “Lion King”, founder of the Mali empire. Sundjata didn't conquer Troy, but he won the battle of Kirina in 1235 B.C., against the evil sorcerer king, Soumaoro Kanté, thus creating one of the vastest and richest African empires in history. The importance of the griots is summarised in the famous quote by the historian, Amadou Hampâté Bâ, ‘Every griot who dies, is a library which disappears’.

Falcons against the Mob

2010-01-05

Naples, the city with the highest level of criminal activity in Italy, counts seventy homicides, four thousand armed robberies, mostly with tourists as victims, and thousands of thefts a year. In order to combat the criminal elements, who are often secreted in the intricate lanes which don’t allow vehicles easy passage, the police force has created the Hawks (Falcons), a squadron which is practically unique: plain clothes agents who patrol the street in powerful off road motorbikes, their mission: to control and where possible prevent criminality. This is a risky mission which not occasionally brings them encounters with the Camorra and which makes them as they as they define themselves “moving targets on two wheels”.

Mali - Historians with drums

2010-01-05

Instead of a zither they use a 12 string instrument, the kora. Just like the aoidos (bards) in ancient Greece, they narrate the exploits of heroes. They call them griots, the aoidos of Black Africa. A caste who create magic with words, sounds and songs. Masters of a strictly oral tradition handed down from father to son. Instead of narrating episodes from the Odyssey, they sing the saga of Sundjata Keita, the Lion King, founder of the Mali empire. Sundjata didn't conquer Troy, but he won the battle of Kirina in 1235 B.C., against the evil sorcerer king, Soumaoro Kanté, thus creating one of the vastest and richest African empires in history. The importance of the griots is summarised in the famous quote by the historian, Amadou Hampâté Bâ, Every griot who dies, is a library which disappears´.

Parallelozero's new site

2010-01-04

New editorial contents and graphic design for the 2010 version of our website. From now on you can look at multimedia free-to-consult products, cooperaton with international agencies, reportages of new photographers that are starting to distribute their work trough us, monthly workshops held by one of our photographers in Italy and a section where one can search for some of our several publications on the worldwide media market.

Cult_Anti_Cult prints for sale

2010-01-04

After the success of Sergio Ramazzotti's exhibition Cult_Anti_Cult, held in Milano at Micamera gallery in October, 2009, fine art limited edition c-prints of the exhibition are for sale on the gallery's website. Each subject has been printed in a limited series of 10. The series chosen for the prints is that of Saddam Hussein's portraits, defaced by Iraqis in the most creative ways after the 2003 invasion, and photographed by Ramazzotti all over the country.

Parallelozero and Apeiron photos

2010-01-04

From January, 2010 Parallelozero and Apeiron Photos have teamed up to distribute Parallelozero's stories in Greece. The most important ellenic photojournalistic agency will be our representative in the Greek market.

Ethiopia - Rimbaud, a season in Hell

2010-01-03

'My daytime is done; I am leaving Europe. The air of the sea will burn my lungs; lost climates will turn my skin to leather.... 'A Season in Hell' In 1880, Arthur Rimbaud renounces poetry and leaves for Africa, where he dedicates himself to the trade of coffee, skins and weapons, in a vain attempt to become rich. It's this gesture which still continues to scandalise us today, even more than his poetic works or the affair with Verlaine. The idea that a poet could muffle his voice and turn his back on his muse in the exact same moment in which she was opening the doors towards the heart of poetry, is something unimaginable. We will follow the stages of Rimbaud's African period: from Harar, where he was a coffee merchant, finishing along the Cercer mountains, then unknown to any European, travelling with the explorer, Jules Borelli.

Days Japan - Parallelozero Portrait

2010-01-01

Dubai - The fall and rise

2009-12-20

From zero to 828 metres in a little more than one century might not seem much of a speed performance. Yet, if the metres are vertical and express the height of a skyscraper standing where once were only sand dunes, the matter begins to look quite different. It is the synthesis of the last one hundred years of history of Dubai, the emirate managed by the al-Maktoum dynasty like a family company: from the poor and meaningless village of pearl fishermen to the Manhattan of the Persian Gulf. Or its Montecarlo. In economic terms: a miracle, financed by money made not with oil, but with more money. And, exactly for this reason, brought to its knees in a few days by the global financial crisis.

DIARIO ECONÓMICO PORTUGAL - KABUL CITY TOUR

2009-12-01

National Geographic Italy - Aids in Malawi

2009-12-01

Adesso Germany - Naples

2009-12-01

Bucher - Germany - Literature workshops

2009-12-01

Germany - The Wall's voices 20 years after

2009-11-15

For years, Berlin was the nucleus of the Cold War between the West and the Communist world. The Wall, which divided the city from 1961 to 1989, became the symbol of the drama suffered by the German population after Nazism and the tragedy of the Second World War. The year 2009 sees the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Wall. We went to meet those who lived the history of the Wall first hand: from the artists who painted kilometres of it, creating one of the most extensive collective works of arts, to the 'mauerspechte' (wall woodpeckers) who rushed to knock down parts of it after the fall, the radio presenters who commented the day of the opening, and East Berliners, victims of political persecution or those who had rented houses near the Wall. Each of them with a story to tell

Focus - Italy - Historians with drum

2009-11-01

Glimpses of hope

2009-10-31

Three decades of conflicts. Millions of refugees. Fifty thousand war amputees. Tens of thousands of widows and street kids. Ninety-four percent of world heroin produced within its borders.
Afghanistan’s future doesn’t seem any brighter than it promised after the fall of the Taliban. Yet, here and there, there are some very dim glimpses of hope. Something that makes you think about the possibility of a future, and thus not to yeld to desperation. “Desperation” as a philosopher wrote “it is not to have nothing. It is to expect nothing.”
These are six stories from Afghanistan in 2009. Six dim glimpses of hope. Six reasons to believe that not everything is lost. All six of them are the consequences of its past. And, at the same time, the foundations of its future.

Dem. Rep. of the Congo - Cops and Robbers

2009-10-20

The prison of Bukavu, capital of the province of southern Kivu, suffers the evils of many African prisons, and not only, overcrowding, horrific hygienic conditions, practically no food (if not provided by the prisoner's families) and so on. But that which makes the situation in Bukavu so strange, is the prison guards' living conditions. Conditions which are practically identical to those of the prisoners. Measly wages which often never arrive. Dwellings made from rags and plastic sheets, hoisted by ropes under the roofing of a barn which often floods during the rainy season. The guards live here with their families amongst the wrecks of military vehicles, waiting for the charity of a few nuns. In fact, one could ask oneself what it's better to be in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: a cop or a robber?

Italy - Cremona and the Po violins

2009-10-19

Every morning, Andrea Mosconi walks up the steps of the city hall, opens the window overlooking the cathedral and plays a violin. Any one, it doesn't matter which, either Stradivari's 'Cremonese', Nicolò Amati's 'Hammerle' or Giuseppe Guarnieri's 'Quarestani'. He plays it for seven minutes and the notes float around the sleepy square. This is how Cremona wakes up, with the music from these ancient string instruments for which this Lombardic city is a refined production centre. Yet Cremona founded by the Romans two centuries before Christ - is, and remains, a busy, active agricultural town. Populated by farmers who resemble those depicted a thousand years ago in the cathedral's friezes, and by able violin craftsmen who come here even from afar, to study as apprentices and who then remain.

GEO Italy - Africa: The glass beads game

2009-10-01

Courrier Japan - Masai ecochic

2009-10-01

Mongolia - The breathlessness of a nomadic nation

2009-09-28

"We could hear the wrestlers' panting wrote Luigi Barzini Junior in 1938, "the thud of their bodies as they hit the ground, the slap of open palms against flesh. These were the champions of Naadam, the three games of men, the nomadic Olympic Games which are the sublime representation of hunting, war and its arts (wrestling, horse riding, archery). It was probably the same Genghis Khan who invented it in Naadam, to welcome the summer and forge invincible warriors. The same who, in the thirteenth century, whilst little Europe was consuming itself in futile power battles, were creating an empire which ran from the Black Sea to the China Sea. After a generation or so, Mongolia went back to being res nullius, the land of nomads and endless pastures.

Iran - Veils, smiles and blue contact lenses

2009-09-28

Behind the religious regime lies a lively, young, curious world, which looks to the future. Sometimes with optimism. This is perceived as you travel from the capital, Tehran a metropolis crammed with restaurants and luxury cars to the Persian Gulf in the deepest south. You notice it in Isfahan, where teenagers watch big screen football and the girls walk by in their Western make-up, a light veil covering their backcombed hair. In Yazd, the land of Zoroastrians, wedged between two deserts, where the fresh air is still captured by tall bagdir, watched over by youths on their motorbikes. In Mahan, in the mausoleum of a Sufi dervish, where veiled girls wear coloured contact lenses. Or in Bandar-e Abbas, where the Persian world mixes with the Arab, amongst the lights of the new shopping centres and the shop assistants inviting you to chat.

Albania - Shqiperia 2.0

2009-09-23

Albania is at a turning point. Following the recent general elections, won by Berisha's democratic party after a close run with the success reaped by Rama's socialists, the country needs to find economic drivers, social stability and an image overhaul. For the moment, the days of rubber dinghies overcrowded with illegal immigrants making their way to Italy are over, as Albania attempts to enter Europe and NATO not without internal dissensions but with a dose of civility and resources without precedents. Its southern coasts, lapped by an incredibly clean sea, are ready to become the new Croatia, even if services, hygiene and organisation are still lacking, whilst Tirana revamps itself, with its elegant night-life and dreams of becoming a proper European capital. Visit it now, to see what's going on.

Peru - Choquequirao, the new Machu Picchu

2009-09-22

After a three days hike, Choquequirao can be sighted on top of the mountain, preceded by steep terracing: tens of balconies which spring up here and there, and one immediately understands that the archaeological site is still covered by jungle for the most part. Since the 90s, about 30 percent of this small city, perched on top of a ridge at an altitude of 3,000 m, has been brought to light. It once hosted part of the Inca elite and subsequently was the last bastion of Inca resistance against the conquistadores. Hiram Bingham visited it in 1909, but discovered Machu Picchu two years later and forgot about it. Choquequirao continued its solitary isolation until a few years ago, when the Peruvian government decided to begin excavations. Today, this new Machu Picchu can still only be reached by foot, a five days trek there and back.

Dem. Rep. of the Congo - Little big men

2009-09-22

The last time they were in the news was due to the atrocities committed a few years ago by Jean-Pierre Bemba's militiamen, the protagonists of horrendous cannibalistic acts in the Congolese region of Ituri. The victims, the Bambuti pygmies, still live in the remote and impracticable tropical rainforests in the heart of the Congo. A life in the balance, between the forest and the roads, between customs and habits, which are the result of an extremely ancient wisdom and the forced contact with a modernity which is often transformed into abuses and exploitation. The call of the forest still remains strong however: a world of shades and life, where the pygmies blend instinctively and admirably with nature. And from this, they draw all they need to live. Even tree bark, upon which they paint geometric designs.

Oman - Amongst the Gulf Germans

2009-09-22

Forty years ago, Oman rid itself of Said bin Taimur, a despot who had vetoed sunglasses, cigarettes, radios and telephones. This corner of land, wedged between the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, was cut off from the rest of the world and its only hope lay in young Qaboos, Said's son. Qaboos had studied in England, but once back home, his father shut him up in the palace of Salalah. He managed to dethrone his father with the help of the English and proclaimed himself sultan. And to think that Oman was the homeland of Sindbad and heroic sailors who even managed to reach China in their wooden dhows. Today, the new Omani middle class travels the world by plane, surfs on internet and uses satellite phones. They're so orderly and precise they tell me that they call them the Gulf Germans.

India - First class Deccan

2009-09-22

In Maharashtra, history mingles with legends. Such as that regarding Shivaji, India's Alexander the Great, who drove out the Muslims from Deccan in the 17th century, uniting the region. Deccan is a plateau which spreads extensively into the State of Maharashtra (which means south and used to indicate the vast territory south of Delhi) and I'm travelling through it on board the Deccan Odyssey, one of India's most luxurious trains. From old Bombay, the Deccan takes you into the heart of the subcontinent, amongst Kolhapur wrestlers and farmers in western Ghati, amongst Kuchipudi dancers and priests in the Hindu temple of Swayambhu. Up to the Ellora and Ajanta caves, which preserve statues and paintings of gods and winged horses, tormented love stories and adventurous shipwrecks.

Italy - Swordfish blues

2009-09-22

Scilla, Calabria. In front of the Strait of Messina the last 16 passerelle in the world go backwards and forwards from May to November: special boats used to catch swordfish, equipped with a twenty metre high pylon used as a viewpoint and a forty metre gangway at the bow. The fish are harpooned by hand by expert throwers, using the same technique described 2,200 years ago by the historian, Polibio: hunting, as they call it here, and not fishing. A profession which is slowly dying out, which doesn't permit one to earn a living, but which condemns the fishermen at the same time, who, unable to do anything else, and are forced to continue until the end of their days.

Afghanistan - Zero dollar baby

2009-09-18

Even women are beginning to fight in Afghanistan. The Afghan Olympic committee has started to train a dozen young women, hoping to transform them into professional boxers and send them to the Olympics. Two former Afghan boxing champions supervise the training, which is held twice a week in a small and poorly equipped gym near Kabul stadium, once used by the Taliban for public executions. Both these trainers are male, but a woman from the Olympic committee is always present to make sure that the athlete's headgear doesn't become too loose during the heat of the training.

Peru - Journey to the Amazon's Timbuktu

2009-09-12

When the sun shines, the Delfin's hull merges with the olive-coloured waters of the Amazon River. As the boat sails through this corner of Peru, you lose count of the tributaries and the long canoes on their way to Iquitos, the Timbuktu of the Western Amazon. A labyrinth of rain forests which the diplomats in Lima used to call endless dark zones and the Peruvians, more simply, La Selva. Half of Peru is forest and there isn't any other way to enter it, if not by water or air. This is why three percent of Peruvians (nearly a million people, natives for the most part) live in this region, which is nearly double the size of Italy. And before the airport was opened, the easiest way to get to Iquitos was to sail down the Amazon River from the Atlantic. Iquitos is an island they tell me because it floats on the Amazon's green sea.

Cape Verde - Santo Antao Tropics

2009-09-10

The Cape Verde archipelago has undergone amazing tourism development over the last 5 years, especially on the islands of Sal and Boa Vista. Tourist resorts, European charter flights and impressive real-estate investments are radically changing the way of life, the economy and the appearance of these islands, which rise 500 kilometres off the coast of Senegal. Santo Antao is no exception. Even if it still preserves extraordinary geographies with amazing volcanoes, enchanted valleys, fishing villages, black beaches and breathtaking coasts the echo of a new wellbeing and economic boom has arrived here too. A new resort in Porto Novo, a small road tunnel which links the two sides of the island. The island is quickly evolving. Today it's still a place to be explored on foot, on an off-road vehicle or by feet. Tomorrow who knows.

Iran - Medieval highway rest stop

2009-09-10

If the Silk Road was the greatest highway of the past, the caravansaries were its rest stops. The huge camel caravans thousands of animals which could carry as many goods as a large sailing ship here could find stables, accommodation for the night and safe shelter from plunderers. There was water in plenty and solid walls which offered respite from the heat. But the karvan-serai (literally the caravan palace) was mainly an inn, a place where cultures could meet, a babel of faces, languages, customs. Many of these caravansaries still exist, standing along forgotten commercial routes. Some are marked by just a few stones, others have well preserved walls; and some have been transformed into first class hotels where travellers can still eat and rest.

Italy - The Similaun transhumance

2009-09-10

It's one of the Alps' most important events: the sheep transhumance in Val Senales, which in June (during the climb up to the summer pastures) and September (for the return to the valley) involves flocks, shepherds and hundreds of onlookers. Archaeological finds show that the transhumance has been practised for at least 8,000 years, that is, since sheep were tamed and sheep farming became a way of life for those hunters, who, after the last Ice Age, wandered for centuries amongst the mountains, in the search for food. Such as Ötzi, the so-called Similaun man, the mummy discovered in 1991, precisely in these mountains. The routes towards Val Senales and Val Venosta started off from Lake Garda, crossing the alpine divide and descending to the upper pastures of the northern Alps: in summer they are more humid and have lusher, fresh grass.

Italy - Langhe, the king of wines

2009-09-09

They call them the king of wines. They're the noble Piedmont wines, whose history goes back to the era of Camillo Benso of Cavour and Giulia Colbert. 150 years ago, together with the help of French wine experts, they transformed the poor Barolo wine, sweet and sparkling, into a dry red, similar to a Bordeaux, much appreciated at Versailles and the other European courts: an elegant wine, with a strong personality and refined wood tannins. Today, Langhe and Roero viticulture has become an itinerary between aristocratic, modern, wine-making techniques which are linked to the House of Savoy. From the cellars of Fontanafredda, to those of Asinari di Grésy in Martinenga, from those of the Marchesi di Barolo, managed by the Abbona family, to the Monfalletto estate belonging to the Cordero di Montezemolo

Dem. Rep. of the Congo - The Exorcist

2009-09-09

Father Riccardo, a Saverian missionary, is 67. For the past 37 years he's lived in Congo and for the last 20 he's been carrying out a very special job: as an exorcist. Ever since that night, when the bishop of Bukavu, hit by a sudden and passing blindness, entered his mission to break the news that he would have to take care of the many people who believed themselves to be possessed. Father Riccardo accepted out of pure obedience. He had no wish to get involved with spirits and devils, even if he was aware of his unique charisma... From that day, thousands of people frequent his home, receiving free advice and care. Since then, Father Riccardo has many stories to tell: from houses burnt to the ground but with the image of the Virgin still intact, to scissors extracted from a patient's vagina.

Italy - The heroes of the Cinque Terre

2009-09-09

The inhabitants of the Cinque Terre are totally strange! Coastal mountain dwellers who live like heroes, because who if not a hero would have the courage to plant vines on the edge of a ravine? To work 2,000 hours to cultivate a hectare of land, when on the plain you need just 200? To come down from the hills balancing baskets weighing 45 kg on your head, barefoot, six times a day as Tonio Pasini used to, and who still looks after his vines overlooking Riomaggiore every day. Do you understand now why wine is so expensive in these parts?. These are farmers who are able to lower themselves down from precipices or transform a vertical piece of land with infinite terraces, which, if placed in line, would reach India.

Mongolia - Hunting with eagles

2009-09-09

A legend says that the Kazakh people were created together with the eagles. ' There are also a great number of eagles, all broken to catch wolves, foxes, deer, and wild goats ' writes Marco Polo in his Travels, describing the great hunting expeditions which took place in Cathay. Once diffuse in the whole of Asia, today eagle hunting only survives in a few regions of Central Asia, where it's relegated to little more than a tourist attraction. Only one group proudly continues this tradition, putting it on par with an elitist sport, and in some cases as a true profession with which to support one's family, the Kazakhs and the Altai Mountains. Only female eagles are used for hunting as they are larger than the males, their wingspan can reach more than 2 m and they are considered to be more aggressive.

South Africa - Western Cape

2009-09-09

During the winter, thousands of huge Southern Right Whales swim up from the freezing Antarctic waters and come to give birth in the quiet bays of Western Cape, for the delight of whale watchers the world over. In Hermanus and the neighbouring areas, the whales come so close to the coast that it's not even necessary to go out to sea to sight them, one can sit comfortably atop the cliffs and admire them as they swim with their young. However, the Western Cape region doesn't just signify whales, the sea is also the kingdom of white sharks, sea lions, gannets and African penguins. In Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve, all the known species of South African protea can be found. West of Cape Town, the spectacular Cederberg sandstone formations hide wonderful rock paintings, work of the San peoples ancestors.

Australia - Journey in Victoria along the Great Ocean Road

2009-09-09

Having returned home from the First World War, three thousand soldiers from Victoria suddenly found themselves jobless. Someone came up with the idea to hire them to finally build a road to connect inland Australia with the coast. This road still exists today and is considered to be one of the most scenic in the world: it's the Great Ocean Road, which from Melbourne descends along the western coast. One drives amongst kangaroos and the ferns in the Otway Range, arriving up to the Twelve Apostles, huge rock stacks west of Cape Otway, visiting seaside resorts such as Lorne, Apollo Bay and Torquay, one of the world surf capitals. Torquay is the birthplace of companies such as Rip Curl and Quiksilver, and houses the best surf museum (Surfworld) and it's here that one of the most important surf competitions is held every year, the Rip Curl Pro

Brazil - Iguaçu, the snake's falls

2009-09-05

Kings, queens and princesses. Presidents, prime ministers and assorted celebrities. Plus a million or so tourists. Every day the Iguaçu Falls, the largest series of cataracts in the world, are on display between the river of the same name and the magnificent forests which span Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. The park has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1986. Water. Lots of it. In these parts, water is the true protagonist. You walk in it, as it's misted by dramatic waterfalls and mossy rocks. You sail on it, with dinghies and kayaks. And you fly over it, with a helicopter service, to enjoy the sight of the river as it falls from 275 different cascades along a horseshoe-shaped front, amongst rainforests and eternal rainbows. 10 million litres per second in the heart of the Brazilian Paraná.

Kyrgyzstan - The quiet before the storm

2009-09-03

Kyrgyzstan is on fire. Yet, despite the recent bloody uprising, this remains the land of tapestries, of shyrdak carpets and yurts, the round tents which defy the winds. The land of nomads who love fermented mare's milk and those felt hats which noted Colin Thubron - lent them a doltish gaiety. Kyrgyzstan is the land of the nomads from the Issyk-Kul, a lake 170 kilometres long, at an altitude of 1,600 metres, with perennial warm currents which never make it ice over. Here the Soviets designed new naval weapons and here, centuries ago, Tamerlane camped out with his riders. Their exploits were celebrated in the Manas the Iliad of the steppes, a huge epic cycle a thousand years old.

Italy - Bologna, the fat and learned

2009-09-03

Fat because learned, or learned because fat? Bologna, who willingly accepts these two adjectives as synonyms of good living, basks in this dilemma and looks ahead. The fact that it has hosted the oldest university in the Western world for the past nine hundred years, and that it's the tortellini capital (and of a hearty, robust, wholesome cuisine), are elements which are closely linked to each other. Students came to Bologna because the food was good, but one ate well because the students enriched its gastronomy. Thus, in the most porticoed historical centre in Italy (nearly forty kilometres under cover) one can still find postcards which praise the three local T's: tits, towers and tortellini. That is: beautiful women, wonderful architecture and an excessive cuisine. Like its inhabitants.

D/La Repubblica - Jamaica Skype

2009-09-01

Geo Italy - A teacher in the Bronx

2009-09-01

Espresso - Afghanistan - Folgore

2009-09-01

GENTE - ICRC KABUL

2009-09-01

QIKAN CHINA - GOLD

2009-09-01

Marie Claire Malaysia - Gabon Paradise Regained

2009-09-01

UAE - Persian Gulf Funfair

2009-08-29

There's a lot to be learnt whilst navigating in the Persian Gulf, amongst emirs, air conditioning, shopping malls, refineries, sand banks, ancient kingdoms, petrol platforms and routes. And if this experience unfolds on-board a floating, 300 metre long funfair, together with three thousand people (between cruise passengers and crew), then everything becomes more interesting. Almost a social phenomenon, amongst tight bikinis, suntan oils, futuristic skylines, kilometres of pizza and overcrowded Jacuzzis. A half-serious logbook of a cruise between the Hormuz strait and the Arabian peninsula, together with local holidaymakers, amateur sailors and shopping addicts.

Afghanistan - Death costs 30 cents

2009-08-17

The building near Kabul University was once the seat of the Soviet Cultural Centre. Today, half-destroyed by thirty years of bombings, it's the residence of nearly two thousand drug addicts, who live in the most appalling conditions. In this country it's easy to get caught in the drug spiral: a dose of heroin only costs a third of a dollar. For some time now, the government has been making empty promises to close the building and help its desperate inhabitants. Yet, the only tangible action has been taken by the United Nations, who has launched the pilot project of a drug rehabilitation centre in the capital. In the meanwhile, the cultural centre still hosts its spectres, practically inhuman, who await their next fix and death.

Mozambique - Gorongosa, dot-com nature

2009-08-16

Gorongosa, in central Mozambique, was one of the first nature reserves to be created in Africa. In the Sixties, the variety of its fauna was such, that the Portuguese called it the place where Noah landed the ark. The civil war, fiercely fought right within its boundaries, wiped out the animals: the soldiers killing them for food. Today Gorongosa, with its incredible biodiversity (there are 50 different ecosystems), returns to life, thanks to nature's amazing regeneration abilities, but thanks also to the 40 million dollars invested by a former American dot-com entrepreneur, who has decided to restore the park to its original splendour.

Abu Dhabi - Arabian miracle

2009-08-06

Before the discovery of oil in the Seventies, Abu Dhabi was a modest fishing village surrounded by desert dunes. In just over forty years, the Emirate boasts one of the most modern cities on the Arabian peninsula, and overall, the highest percentage of public open spaces, obtained thanks to the desalination of frightening quantities of seawater and the slave labour of thousands of immigrants, especially Pakistanis, Indians and Bangladeshis. However, the dynasty of Sheikh Zayed, the visionary emir who planned and built the city as it is today, wasn't tempted to build useless cathedrals in the desert.

Mexico - The navel of Baja California

2009-08-06

'So, is the story about the song true?'. The woman in the Hotel California maintains that the Eagles never even passed through this area, but why ruin the myth? Todos Santos, a sleepy village cut in two by the Tropic of Cancer, enjoys an exceptional microclimate, but its success is also due to this fascinating hotel. Not only, okay: the laidback lifestyle, the colonial houses, the dusty roads and the deserted beaches all helped transform Todos Santos into the new San Diego South: the (discreet) residence of artists, idea men, producers and musicians who come here, in the extreme south of Baja California, to relax as often as they can. Living side-by-side with decrepit American hippies, surly Mexican taqueros and artists from the world over who have transformed the straight roads of Todos Santos into their privileged ateliers.

D/La Repubblica - Bangladesh flash

2009-08-01

Yacht Capital - Il popolo dei gommoni

2009-08-01

Afghanistan - The skate runner

2009-07-17

Kabul, five in the afternoon. A group of children wait for Mister Olly. When his van arrives, they greet him joyfully: their daily skateboard lesson is about to begin. Mister Olly, real name, Oliver Percovich, born in Australia and here in Afghanistan by chance, unloads a dozen skateboards which the children eagerly grab. Astonished passers-by stop to watch this sport, totally unknown to them. Skateistan, the open-air skate school founded by Percovich for fun, in just a few months has become a roaring success which the whole city is talking about. It's also a terribly important activity, which has recently turned into a NGO, helping to save more than one child from a future of beggary on the capital's streets.

Mozambique - Quirimbas Time Machine

2009-07-06

Forgotten islands off the northern coast of Mozambique, once flourishing and crowded, the nerve centres of the Swahili kingdom, the province of the Islamic empire, then of the slave trade and the Portuguese colonial administration. Today they're abandoned to themselves, the colonial architecture slowly succumbing to the attacks by sea-salt and ficus roots. And they're suffering with a backwardness which, to our eyes, could seem poetic, veiled by a gentle sadness which a Portuguese would define as saudade, crystallised in time like a clock without hands.

Turkey - Istanbul, Prince's Island

2009-07-06

Inhabited since ancient times, due to their strategic position at the mouth of the Bosphorus, the Princes' Islands owe their name to the Byzantines, who exiled here the troublesome members of the imperial families. A custom which was perpetrated by the Ottoman sultans. In the XIX century, the islands were chosen by the Istanbul bourgeoisie to build palaces and holiday homes, but their tradition as a place of exile continued with the arrival, in February 1929, of Trotsky, who had just been banished from the Soviet Union. Today, the Greek-Orthodox monasteries, the ancient wooden buildings, and especially the use of carriages as the only form of transportation, give the island a romantically retro atmosphere, perfect for a nostalgic seaside holiday.

GENTE - WOMEN AGAINST AL QAEDA

2009-07-01

Italy - Apulia, Ostuni kasbah

2009-06-18

Ostuni is a dazzling oasis of traditional architectures which stands out white against the spring sky. It resembles an Arab casbah: cobbled streets, dry stone walls, washing hanging from the balconies, dialects spoken from house to house, the scent of freshly cut grass and spotless plaster which covers the walls of palaces and dwellings surrounded by age-old walls which protect the historic centre. Try to imagine Greece's Santorini without mules or fishing boats. The old city is an island, an Apulian hill with Saracenic reflections. Walking through it, in the first light of summer, becomes a journey into Mediterranean chromatism. Alongside the terraces decorated with bougainvillea, roses and succulent plants, there are stretches of green olive groves and tidy lands which gradually slope down to the beaches of Pilone, Villanova and Marina.

Seychelles - Maia Resort

2009-06-18

An emerald peninsula nestled between two enchanted beaches. A woody hill covered in flowers and palms. Thirty enormous villas, hidden amongst the bougainvillea and the sea, enveloped by the scent of lemon grass and frangipani. The residences all have a private swimming pool, panoramic jacuzzi and a butler available 24 hours a day. A Balinese style spa and two yachts are also at the guests' disposal, in order to relax and escape to the neighbouring islands in total solitude. Maia is one of the world's most exclusive resorts, frequented by sheiks and actors, Middle Eastern royal families and sports stars. All services are 5-stars. Every wish is fulfilled in style. Overlooking Anse Louise and less than thirty minutes from the capital, Victoria, Maia Resort, on the island of Mahè, is the quintessence of luxury, privacy and relax.

Italy - Capri glocal

2009-06-14

Dancers amongst the archaeological ruins of Damecuta. Teams of sculptors, painters and artists in a walk-about amongst the island's schools and woods. Trendwatchers sitting in the Piazzetta to study the foreign holidaymakers as they walk by and choreographers in search of inspiration on the rocky promontories overlooking the Mediterranean. Contemporary music. Festivals and the jet-set. Italy's most famous island transforms itself this summer, turning into an open-air art and culture laboratory for the first time. The newly founded Fondazione Capri, a cultural and artistic brainchild which finally reunites local entrepreneurs (but with an international air), regional institutions, Capri's art exponents (but of global inspiration), and the mayors of the two municipalities, will attempt to relaunch the island's glory once for all.

Focus Italy - Africa: Hadza hunters

2009-06-01

Cuba - El Che vive

2009-05-29

The Cuban revolution maybe trickling to a halt and the regime is becoming less popular each day that passes, but the Cubans finally have the permission (but often not the money) to buy a mobile phone or a computer with an Internet connection: Cuba is changing. Yet there's a icon, symbol of the revolution, which remains immutable, omnipresent and, notwithstanding everything, sincerely loved by the majority of Cubans: it's the image, or rather, the querida presencia of Ernesto Guevara, known as the Che.

Peru - Chaccu, the day of the Vicuňa

2009-05-28

An entire day on the Andes at an altitude of 4.500 meters. A complicated rite that involves hundreds of campesinos and dozens of villages scattered around the plateaus of the Pampa Galeras, on the road to Cuzco, 90 kilometres up from Nazca. Guitars and drums, hot soups and early morning treks, masks and costumes: everyone joins in for the vicuňa shearing. A traditional gathering which takes place in various Andean areas of South America, in order to obtain the world's finest fibre. In particular, there's a entire private reserve here, just outside the Reserva Nacional de Pampa Galeras, managed by Loropiana, one of the leading companies on the international scene in the production of high quality fabrics, in collaboration with local communities. A successful glocal experiment.

India - Rajasthan, Land of Kings

2009-05-22

Rajasthan has always represented the most symbolic and emblematic idea we have of India. Every traveller has this stereotype of the Indian subcontinent fixed in his head. Deserts and elephants, sumptuous palaces and maharajahs, sounds, colours, sacred yet profane atmospheres. Lakes, temples, saris and turbans, poverty, destitution and exaggerated luxury: extreme socio-economic groups who share the same dust, the same crystalline sky. Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpuir, Udaipur and Pushkar evoke literature, history and legend, in other words, the quintessence of textbook India. Yet, the Land of Kings preserves the country's true romantic soul. And today, even if the country is rife with political passions and diverging ideas, Rajasthan remains India's calm essence, nestled between the Thar desert and the verdant south-eastern hills.

Indonesia - Flores, wonder island

2009-05-21

An hour and a half by plane east of Bali, in the archipelago of Nusa Tenggara (Lesser Sunda Islands), two thousand kilometres from Java, Flores is an enormous tongue of volcanic sand which smells of vanilla and chocolate. Endless bamboo forests, lava plateaus, emerald green paddy fields, mountain lakes, uneven roads and timeless atmospheres blend with ancestral traditions, turbulent waters, smoky volcanoes and silent banana plantations. Practically no-one comes here on holiday. Yet Flores is enchanting. It has a choreography of natural wonders and an important cultural identity. It has crescents of white sand to offer, crystalline lagoons, fleets of wooden fishing boats, dragons, thermal springs, scented coffee and spice plantations, coasts indented by inlets and solitary bays, and mountain villages inhabited by ancient ethnic groups.

Italy - Falcons against the mob

2009-05-19

Naples, the city with the highest level of criminal activity in Italy, counts seventy homicides, four thousand armed robberies, mostly with tourists as victims, and thousands of thefts a year. In order to combat the criminal elements, who are often secreted in the intricate lanes which don´t allow vehicles easy passage, the police force has created the Hawks (Falcons), a squadron which is practically unique: plain clothes agents who patrol the street in powerful off road motorbikes, their mission: to control and where possible prevent criminality. This is a risky mission which not occasionally brings them encounters with the Camorra and which makes them as they as they define themselves moving targets on two wheels.

Russia - Moscow war and peace

2009-05-09

On one side the rich, on the other, the poor. The former, the oligarchs, spend bucket loads of money without depleting their resources, and it's not always clear how these immense fortunes are made. The poor struggle along as best they can, and often haven't access to two square meals a day. Surprisingly however, it's the oligarchs who need a psychoanalyst at ten thousand dollars per hour to cure their depression. The poor, on the other hand, seem to accept their destiny with a totally Zen serenity, and with the proverbial Russian patience. Moscow: a chaotic, frenetic, repulsive city. 20 million inhabitants: who, amongst these, is at war, and who at peace?

Jordan - Little Ranias grow up

2009-05-06

They're women between 20 and 40 years of age, who live in the cities and don't wear the veil, those who visit coffee shops and shopping centres. They call them the Rania Generation, because they'll go to any lengths to resemble the queen, copying her clothes and her hairstyle, her natural make-up and those refined manners which have guaranteed her long-standing position in the list of the world's most glamorous women. You can find them in the restaurants of the progressive Amman districts, where a mixed clientele is more common. Such as the Blue Fig Café during the weekends, when the tables are full, and groups of girls gossip amongst themselves. We admire her emancipated image above all, that of a free and independent woman explains one of them as she sips a cocktail

National Geographic Italy - Cinque Terre

2009-05-01

Tanzania - The true Kilimanjaro heroes

2009-04-20

Each year, thousands of excursionists put themselves to the test in an attempt to reach the peak of the Kilimanjaro, the highest African summit, and have their photo taken under the sign which indicates Uhuru Peak at 5895m, as if they were heroes. Each excursionist takes along at least two porters to satisfy his every need: from food to tents, from luggage to... lavatories. Each porter carries up to 20kg on his back, with a gradient of 1000m per day. These are the true heroes of this mountain, young men who, for a small wage and an occasional tip, continually climb and descend from 1500m to 4600m where the last camp is located, with inadequate equipment, forcing their body in a continual acclimatization

India - Harijans: Sons of the God

2009-04-18

They pick up our garbage, sweep our streets, clean our gutters. They are achuta, or untouchable; member of a particular caste that sits at the very bottom of traditional Hindu community. In India, Mahatma Gandhi gave the name Harijan´ or the son of God´ to this community of untouchable people who work as sweepers and cleaners to our public place. In 1853, after the Great Indian Peninsula Rail Company established the first railway system through the continent, the British colonial authority lured these untouchables of having better job and facilities in railway stations and provincial government offices. But eventually they were made to do same things as before. Though, most of them have no other way except being a sweeper as they are politically, socially and economically isolated from the mainstream community.

Liberia - Equatorial Ground Zero

2009-04-14

Bulletin of one of the most devastated African countries. The American freed slaves founded it in 1847, in a territory which the US government had bought to distance them and to take up an option on the gold, iron, natural rubber and diamonds of which the country is extremely rich. Today, Liberia is a republic which has been razed to the ground by 14 years of civil war, with 4 billion dollars of foreign debt, with no running water nor electricity, an economy at rock-bottom, and 90% unemployment. It´s protected by 15 thousand peacekeepers from the United Nations, appointed to complete the disarmament of the militia and to guarantee public order. And yet, under the presidency of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the country seems on the slow road to recovery.

Australia - Tropical North Queensland

2009-04-03

ueensland is one of the most forgotten states inside the nation. Within its borders, the Tropical North is one of the most forgotten regions inside the state. In the collective imagery of the rest of Australia, it's an underdeveloped territory populated by snakes, crocodiles and uncouth farmers. The locals, with a discreet sense of humour, say exactly the same thing. And in the meantime, one after another, they're transforming the sugarcane plantations into resorts. And, thanks to the money brought in by the tourists, they can face the cyclone season on board a Rolls-Royce.

D/La Repubblica - Jamaica: One Love, No Love

2009-04-01

Bangladesh - Bangladesh Flash

2009-04-01

In Dhaka a man sums up his life story: I was born in India in 1944, at three I became an East Pakistani, today I'm a Bangladeshi. I'm a practising Muslim, but once, and just once, I got blind drunk. It was in 1971, when the country declared its independence and became Bangladesh. That evening, out of sheer elation, I drank a whole bottle of whisky. Yet, today, I don't know if it was worth it. This is Bangladesh: a young country, a troubled past, a present like the past (many regions resemble the East Pakistan of fifty years ago), a future which few feel like betting on.

Tunisia - Tabarka's red gold

2009-03-31

Moktar's seven girls work the coral in complete silence. Hands on drill, gaze fixed on the small red branches. Lots of water is needed explains the jeweller otherwise the coral turns yellow.... Moktar's shop is a kiosk in Rue Bourguiba, which can be reached by following the narrow Tabarka streets, leaving the fisherman's hangout, the Café des Andalous, to your right. Raw Tunisian coral is transacted each week, in front of a hookah. We call it the red gold coast he explains, it stretches from the Algerian border to Bizerte; here one can still harvest the best coral in the world. For a couple of centuries, even a colony of Ligurians fished coral in Tabarka, becoming the first Christian enclave in North African territory. And today, as a reminder of those years, it's still the solid Genoese fort which dominates the port.

Israel - Israeli daily life

2009-03-30

"They water the plants, bring up their children, and dream of buying a new car or house writes Amos Oz. They argue with the bank, gossip about their neighbours and go to the dentist. The everyday life of the Israelis five million Jews and a million and a half Arabs, Muslims for the most part often rolls by normally, in spite of the tensions and the wars. In the Kibbutz gardens, young mothers cradle their children, girls from the North go to the Dead Sea to have fun, in Haifa, one works hard in the docks and in Jerusalem, Arabs and Jews try to live together peacefully in the capital of religious monotheism. In the hope that one day, they really can live in a Middle East made up of sovereign states and a normal, pleasant everyday life.

Morocco - Trendy Marrakech

2009-03-23

Today, Morocco is testimony to a series of investments without precedents in the tourism market. Building yards are changing the appearance of both the Atlantic coasts and the surrounding areas of the Marrakech medina. Large groups of tour operators and hotel chains are building resorts, spas, residential areas and shopping malls all over the place. And Marrakech is experiencing a veritable boom. This city, which aims to host three and a half million visitors within the year 2010, is organising itself to satisfy every sort of style and taste in terms of hospitality. The fusion between traditional elements and modern design, is everywhere. Bold combinations appear via colours, forms and materials in the restructured riads, the kasbah hotels and fashionable restaurants. For a really trendy city.

Turkey - Istanbul, memories by Orhan Pamuk

2009-03-23

'Istanbul', the latest book by Orhan Pamuk, the noble-featured novelist from a good family, has become a must-have on the counter of every bookshop around the world. 'Istanbul' is an autobiographical novel, it talks about his life, but it's also a trip into ancient Constantinople. Istanbul is the city where he was born and grew up, which mapped out his future, in a continual game of superimpositions. The Istanbul which emerges from his pages is nostalgic, far from the lights and the desire for modernity which pervades Turkey today. A city of old districts with wooden houses and paved alleyways. An intimist city, like a night time vision in front of the Blue Mosque during a snowstorm. A city of soft hues, or better still, as he himself writes I experienced the Istanbul of my childhood as a place with two colours: black and white.

Belgium - Comic-strip Brussels

2009-03-21

In recent decades, the house façades in Brussels have been the canvas for stories harking back to our infancy and adolescence. Blow-ups of comic-strip sagas blend with the urban scenery, creating amusing images between real and painted people (today there are more than 40). Belgium has a great tradition of comic-strip artists, Hergé, the creator of Tin Tin above all, and the year 2009 will be totally dedicated to them. The city is setting up exhibitions in various locations, and opened the display with a grand parade of huge helium balloons in the shape of famous cartoon heroes. A parade which will be put on every year.

Mali - Recycling wizards

2009-03-13

In Bamako, the capital of Mali, there's a very special district, a place where hundreds of people are busy in a sort of percussion concert with a perfectly synchronised, insistent rhythm. This isn't a music school however, but the district of blacksmiths and tinkers. African blacksmiths are a scorned caste, yet feared at the same time, a caste of magicians who are able to tame fire in order to make weapons and utensils. From their hands and under the heavy blows of a hammer, car wrecks, old oil drums, food cans and tins find new life in the shape of ploughs, charcoal stoves, trunks, pails or ladles. In the Western world, where waste recycling is much discussed, we don't realise that in nations such as Africa, people do this everyday out of necessity. Organic waste is the animals' prey, the inorganic takes on a new lease of life.

India - Zanskar - Walking on the frozen river

2009-03-12

Zanskar is a remote valley in northern India, wedged between Ladakh and Kashmir, through which runs the Indus river tributary of the same name. In winter, the numerous villages in the valley would be totally isolated from the rest of the world, if it wasn't for the river, which, freezing over in the coldest months, permits the inhabitants to walk on it. It's a fascinating journey which winds amongst seventy kilometres of gorges, where, at night, one has to shelter from temperatures of -30° inside caves created by the erosion of the soft sandstone. The inhabitants of Zanskar still use the frozen river to transport butter, which is particularly fragrant and appreciated, to Leh market (the capital of Ladakh)

Italy - Milan on water

2009-03-05

I'm the Jack Sparrow of the canals. I can pass through the lock in via Torricelli with just three centimetres to spare. Do you want to see?. Roberto drives the Navigli Lombardi boat which carries tourists every day along the waterways. The toponym, Milan, derives from mid-land, middle-earth, the same as the Lord of the Rings... blares the loudspeaker, whilst a young woman captures everything on her camcorder. It's true, one can navigate in Milan as on the Tevere, the Grand Canal, or on the gracht in Amsterdam. Because Milan is a paradox, far from large rivers, yet extremely water rich. The city rises between the Adda and the Ticino, which delimit a damp territory, drenched with water, rich in springs and irrigation ditches

Riders Italy - Kabul

2009-03-04

Croatia - Sailing the archipelago

2009-03-03

Circumnavigating the island of Bievo towards the east, it's possible that one may sail into peaceful Porat bay, where the silence is broken only by the squawking of the seagulls, right around lunchtime. Thus, under the spring sun, one can find oneself sitting in the shade of an olive tree, eating bread, cheese and sardines with a group of fishermen, drinking white wine and munching on black olives, observing the Adriatic from the east. There isn't even the hint of a breeze, but the air still carries the scent of wild fennel, rosemary and myrtle. The water is as crystalline as the Maldives and the surrounding hills are ablaze with yellow flowers and prickly pears. Dalmatia has more than a thousand islands. There are no roads or cars down here. Only 'gozzi' and fishing nets to be mended

Vietnam - In uncle Ho's North

2009-03-02

In the Sixties, American soldiers had the following engraved on their Zippo's: when I die I'll go to heaven because I've spent my time in hell: Vietnam. The war ended in 1975. Twenty years later, the United States lifted the trade embargo against Vietnam and today, the country which defeated the White House, is invaded by dollars, internet and Coca Cola. Our fathers freed us from the Americans, but now it's time to forget this story that making money is a crime, say the teenagers outside a disco in Hanoi, in the north of the country. The North is the true cradle of Vietnam. It's here that one can meet men with three live pigs tied to a bicycle, or women who emerge from the fields with their conical hats, or students who salute the bust of Bac Ho with a bow, Uncle Ho, as the Vietnamese affectionately call Ho Chi Minh

National Geographic Italy - Milan on water

2009-03-01

Italy - Occitania, the invisible country

2009-02-26

Does Occitania really exist? A country with this name isn't recognised by world diplomacies, yet its flag (the Cathar cross) hangs in various European town halls, its history goes back thousands of years and its provinces run from the Spanish Pyrenees across Gascony, Languedoc and the Camargue, down to the Piedmontese valleys. An invisible country, where thirteen million people speak (or understand) an ancient and noble language: Occitan or the Langue d'oc, the ancient Provençal which basically was the equivalent of the English language in the 13th century. In Italy, they number two hundred thousand, scattered in a dozen valleys between Imperia, Cuneo and Turin; it's the vast area of the Maritime Alps, a curious name which is almost an oxymoron, the place where sea and mountains meet and smile at each other.

United States - Elvis lives!

2009-02-03

Legend has it that Elvis is still alive. That he didn't die on the 16th of August, 1977, in a bathroom in Graceland, his Memphis residence, but that he voluntarily chose exile. No matter how things went, from that day on, Graceland became the true temple of rock, a destination still visited today by hoards of fans and the curious, who with their visits (paid exorbitantly) fuel a booming business. Elvis's home has become a lay sanctuary, preserved exactly as it was thirty years ago, embellished with memorabilia and common objects, stage costumes, gold discs, posters and original guitars, cars and even planes. To visit Graceland is to pay homage to a contemporary music legend, but it's also a trip into the iconographic exploitation of Elvis, who can find his face stamped on socks, medallions and even thimbles

Czech Republic - Kutna hora, bone Architecture

2009-02-01

The Kutná Hora ossuary is the only monument of its type in the world: its interior is entirely embellished with human bones. The chapel, which dates back to the 14th Century, has uncertain origins: it's known that the cemetery which surrounds it was already a coveted burial place in the 13th Century, due to the fact that a local abbot, on his return from a trip in the Holy Land, scattered here a handful of earth taken from Christ´s tomb in Jerusalem. The first information regarding the overcrowding of the cemetery dates to 1318. In 1870, the chapel's owner commissioned the carver Frantisek Rint to create the present decoration. Which, somehow, gives a second life to many of those who, over the centuries, sought eternal life in this modest country necropolis.

Revu Magazine - Falcons against the mob

2009-02-01

Israel - Mediterranean style

2009-01-26

These are the ports which linked Europe to the Middle East. Akko, Caesarea, Haifa: symbols of a northern coast that of the State of Israel which over the centuries has hosted Roman legions, Venetian merchants, Christian monks, German colonists and, today (when the Katyusha rockets aren't sent over by the Lebanese Hezbollah to mess things up), busloads of tourists deposited onto the beaches overlooking the Mediterranean. They arrive from Akko, the old Acre, with its impressive walls and underground Crusader city. They dine in the small restaurants of the German colony in Haifa, whilst admiring the fabulous gardens of Baha'i. They move on to that which remains of the port built by Herod the Great, the legendary Caesarea

Bulgaria - Gypsy rhythm

2009-01-20

After the interlude of true Socialism, the younger generations in the Bulgarian capital have gone wild, thirsty for the West and eager for fun. They move from free climbing competitions under the stern gaze of the soldiers on the Red Army monument, to breakdance contests, in the austere building which was once a military base. However, in the nightclubs, modern beats and fashion shows often blend with frenzied Balkan melodies, along with belly dancers and gypsy singers. Not forgetting the old Soviet songs sung in unison by the patrons in full nostalgic revival. In short, it's not possible to get bored in the capital of a State which was once one of the most faithful supporters of Socialist austerity

Sweden - Lapland, the Big Chill

2009-01-20

This corner of northern Sweden, still virgin for the most part, has recently become the paradise of accessible and alternative adventure tourism. From an inhospitable, wild, barren land, the home of reindeer and icy hills, it has transformed itself into a vast recreation ground, where travellers arrive, attracted by the boundless spaces and extreme nature. They're all looking for the big chill, but don't want to tackle the lack of comforts, costs and dangers of an expedition. On the contrary, they want to travel, even in these secluded lands, with all the possible luxuries: fast snowmobiles, polar equipment, helicopters for alpine skiing or ice fishing, 5 star refuges, natural reserves full of wild animals. And the Sami, the Lapps, have prepared themselves, evolving from semi-nomadic herders into perfect tourist guides

Bangladesh - Ship eaters

2009-01-09

Chittagong, Bhatiary seafront, south-eastern Bangladesh: a laid-up ship arrives on a beach in the Gulf of Bengal to be dismantled. Like ants, hundreds of men, often adolescents, attack it to take it to pieces: a supertanker, weighing 20 thousand tons, literally disappears in four months. It produces iron, but also asbestos, mercury, hydrocarbon residues, acids and poisons, which devastate the coastal ecosystem and cripple the fishing activities. This business, however, is one of the country's main earners, and the Government turns a blind eye to environmental catastrophes, the illegal asbestos trade and the conditions of near slavery in which the ship eaters are forced to work

Dominican Republic - Los Dominicanos

2009-01-02

We know little about the Dominicans. We frequent their beaches, amongst fields of sugar cane and Spanish castles: we try their specialities at the restaurant, we awkwardly attempt to follow the rhythm of the merengue. At Cabeza de Toro, south of Bàvaro, we can have small plaits done like theirs for 60 dollars. But who are the Dominicans and what do they really want? Marcelo is a street barber, Romano lives in the gallera and bets money on the strongest cockerel, and Magdalena, who comes from El Bonao, is little more than a child: her father glares as she practices the movements of the bachata with her friends, too many obscene movements in this dance he mutters. But not all Dominican girls have had such an attentive father: in the brothels of Bàvaro and Punta Cana, girls just a little older than her wait night and day for clients

Israel - The new Jerusalem wears a Fedora

2009-01-02

Jerusalem isn't just Me'a She'arim, the Jewish quarter where time seems to have stopped. Today, upon entering this city of 700 thousand inhabitants (a third of whom are Arab), one can find the new Calatrava bridge. To some it resembles a ship's bow, to others King David's harp, to others just Ehud Olmert's ambitions: actually it isn't anything else but the symbol of an unstoppable modernisation and building expansion. However, if Tel Aviv has remained a provincial city, cynical, sometimes overstated, Jerusalem proves itself to be more mature and cosmopolitan. Not only: since the end of the second intifada, the capital has rediscovered its usual verve, with a bustling nightlife and new fashionable districts, and even amongst the same Orthodox members there are those who stay out until all hours. With an elegant fedora tipped to one side

Venezuela - Llanos, the flooded world

2008-12-11

The Llanos are vast alluvial plains which stretch for more than 300,000 square kilometres between Sierra Nevada de Mérida and the course of the Orinoco river, in the heart of Venezuela. They represent a geographical, cultural and historical frontier, epic and terrifying at the same time. They occupy no less than a third of the country's entire surface, but are inhabited by less than five people per square kilometre, for the most part herdsmen, landowners and indigenous survivors from the wars of conquest. A cross between the western American prairies and Argentinian pampas, a seasonal liquid universe which resembles the Brazilian Pantanal, with the same herding saga (the Llaneros are expert and melodramatic cowboys, more than the 'Pantaneiros' or their American cousins), perhaps with just a slightly more modest naturalistic profile.

Libya - Acacous, the painted desert

2008-12-11

Southern Libya is an enchantment of volcanoes, rock arches, dunes and geological rarities. One of the most extraordinary locations in Africa. In these parts, geography and prehistory blend amongst canyons, dune piles, uplands, valleys, oases, graffiti and spectacular rock formations. The entire Acacous archaeological park is accessible in off-road vehicles. One moves in small, well-equipped convoys and sleeps in fixed and mobile tents, exploring the entire protected area. The Ghat oasis is the entrance to a parallel world which survives off small nomad villages inhabited by Tuareg and herding communities, camel transhumances, groups of adventure tourists and open-air museums which hide priceless petroglyphs.

United States - Is there just oil in Texas?

2008-12-09

Cowboy hats and oil. But also guitars and Cadillacs, canoes and Formula One, and why not, works of art and symphony orchestras. Because the Texas we imagine intolerant, ultraconservative and a little bigoted, the place where the greatest number of death penalties are carried out in the USA- doesn't just mean oil wells and J.R. from the old TV series, Dallas. In this vast state, twice the size of Italy, the only one to have annexed to the Union when it was already an independent state (in 1846), life is good and ever more people are settling down here. Taxes are low and job opportunities high, the climate is usually pleasant and houses don't cost much. Because, belying what people think, Texas is a multicultural state. And above all, because it's beautiful. A special, unique beauty

Colombia - Providencia, treasure island

2008-12-08

You arrive here either by chance or by word of mouth. Recently, the island has turned into a sort of 'buen retiro' for artists, writers and unemployed adventurers, where time goes by divergently. A strange land. A stone's throw away from Nicaragua, but lying more than 800 kilometres off the Colombian coasts (to which it belongs politically). It's a transverse universe made up of volcanic sand, primary forests, emerald green lagoons and coral reefs. It's uncomparable. Populated by dark, morphologically Caribbean, short-tempered, surly half-castes, the descendants of buccaneers and smugglers. These offspring of English and Dutch pirates, puritan colonists and African slaves, now take it easy, as they watch life roll by along with the clouds. They play dominoes and bet on the horses. Today the residents are less than five thousands.

Nicaragua - Fish'em before they eat you

2008-12-04

When you are born son of a fisherman on Nicaragua´s Atlantic coast, the future gives you one possibility and three different roadmaps. The possibility is to become a fisherman. About the roadmaps, you can choose to risk little and earn close to nothing, risk your life and earn a bit more, or risk between 30 years and a life sentence in jail and (maybe) get rich. In the first case you fish lobster, in the second sharks, in the third floating packs of cocaine (the ones abandoned by the traffickers intercepted at sea by U.S. antinarcotics patrols). Whatever your choice, the life awaiting you is one of resignation and hopes thrown at sea like fishing nets. Those who chose to fish sharks have, at least, the pride of doing a very macho job, which is exatcly what is expected of a men at these latitudes

Brazil - Nordeste easy chic

2008-12-02

It was a clear afternoon with oceanic sky-blue hues and ochre-coloured cliffs: there were dozens of 'jangadas' sailing along the horizon. We drove the dune-buggies like madmen through wind and waves up to Morro Branco and its labyrinth of cliffs, 70 kilometres further down. At times we could only see dunes and it really felt like being in the middle of the Sahara. Only the camels were missing. We spent entire days amongst the beaches of Lagoinha, Fleixeiras and Mandù before heading back to the capital. Today Fortaleza looks like Miami, with skyscrapers balanced alongside the ocean, music on the beach and pretty girls jogging along the seafront. Cearà is a land of sand and Atlantic, colonial architecture and grand hotels

French Polynesia - Tamurè and independence

2008-11-26

In Oceania, work is a thing unknown wrote Pierre Loti in 1872 and the years go by for the Tahitians in an absolute indolence.... It was these words which excited Paul Gauguin, a penniless painter with a great desire to leave France. He was finally convinced by a brochure found in Paris: The Tahitians it quoted are a magnificent race and the women are perfect models for a sculptor. Tahitians and Polynesians in general are still a magnificent race, a hospitable and pacific people, tied to traditions, tamurè dances, local celebrations and the art of body tattooing. However, this is also a proud people which has never stopped thinking of complete autonomy from France. And which reveals a strong personality, sometimes rebellious, but far from postcard stereotypes just the same

French Polynesia - Marquesas - Tropical fiords

2008-11-20

The southern seas that you don't expect. The violent ocean and the tangled forests. A metaphysical paradise, amongst low clouds, stone effigies and epic voyages. The Marquesas, six main islands plus a bunch of reefs for a total of one thousand square kilometres of land above sea level, inhabited by less than ten thousand people, are the antithesis of the common idea we have of Polynesia: there are no marvellous lagoons, nor coral reefs. The beaches are black, due to the volcanic sand and the climate is unpredictable. The earth stagnates, decays and regenerates with the rains, the seasonal waterfalls and the huge oceanic tides. The people, with regards to the future, for the most part just shrug their shoulders and stare at the ocean.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available on commission)

India - Pench National Park

2008-11-20

A magnificent teak forest. A calm river. Watering holes and decaying savannahs. Elephants, Jeeps and safaris, just like Africa. India's green heart is a rich land in full evolution. Mowgli's forest 300 square kilometres of protected land is located within one of the most beautiful Indian natural reserve, the Pench National Park in the state of Madhya Pradesh, where it's been possible over the last few months to stay in a luxurious 5 star lodge built and run by Taj Hotels in collaboration with CC Africa, one of the most famous adventure and environmental conservation organisations in Africa, determined to export its know-how even in Asia. On the back of an elephant or on a 4WD in the search for tigers, leopards, antelope and monkeys, under the protection of Krishna and Vishnu.

Great Britain - Manchester, radical chic

2008-11-20

Above suspicion. As colourful and lively as a Latin-blooded city, Manchester today is a cauldron of ideas, fashions and festive atmospheres, even more than its big sister, London. Great Britain's second most important city has restyled its look over the last few years. Many industrial areas have been transformed into art galleries, restaurants and shopping centres, whilst musicians, artists and entrepreneurs have ridden the wave of the city's cultural revival, investing, together with the City Council, in the redevelopment of abandoned and degraded urban areas. Warehouses, foundries, old railway stations, textile factories and dormitory districts have been turned into museums, music halls, lofts, studios, bars and night clubs, where the Mancunians experiment with stylistic evolutions and where, above all, they have fun

Uganda - The green heart of Africa

2008-11-13

Emerald-green hills, scorched savannahs and sky-blue lakes surrounded by volcanic chains and rain forests as dense as honey. Endless tea and banana plantations, audacious agriculture and sleepy villages suspended on the equator, poised between the dramatic historical vicissitudes of twenty years of dictatorship and a possible prosperous future as tourist destination, organised and safe at last. Natural parks, mountain gorillas, friendly, musical peoples. Expanses of bamboo, lodges overlooking lagoons and canals: a way of life nestled in the centre of the continent, in Africa's greenest heart

South Korea - Yin-Yang Land

2008-11-05

A double-sided country: on side A, the modernity of the metropolises, the frenzy of the third millennium, technological development, an obsession for fitness which counterbalances the ever-present junk food with which an ever more westernised society nourishes itself. On side B, the refinement of Confucian traditions, the meditation in the Buddhist temples, the indelible imprint of ancient Asia. United by the feeling of ambivalence towards North Korea, sister nation, yet enemy at the same time. Side A and B live side-by-side within the same boundaries, like Yin and Yang who endlessly pursue each other on the country's flag

Angola - A sand tiger between the desert and sea

2008-10-22

Having emerged from a long war which for many years made it off limits to foreigners apart from mercenaries and traffickers, Angola is ready to reveal its treasures to the rest of the world. A tiger's coat of tall, yellow dunes streaked with violet mineral dust, overlooking an Atlantic Ocean so violent as to submerge the isthmus of the Baia dos Tigres, condemning the ancient Portuguese city to ruin. This is the southern part of the country with the continuation of the Namib desert, which from the Kunene river valley descends towards the sea. A territory which has maintained intact all its wild beauty and an extraordinary ethnographic patrimony.

Italy - Apulia, Daunia Mountains Hills of wind

2008-10-17

Halfway along the coast between the Tavoliere delle Puglie (Apulian Table) and the Campania Apennines, flow woody crests, hill chains and quiet villages: an extraordinary agricultural and Medieval enclave. Here, farmers and herdsmen live amongst tradition and technology. They discovered the clean energy business a while back and practically every landform exposed to the wind hosts ultramodern wind turbines and electric lines scattered amongst high pasture grounds and faith paths. Today, Daunia is a geographic mystery, an underrated sub-region on the border of well-trodden tourist routes, made up of 29 foothill municipalities in the western province of Foggia. A real spacetime frontier, a no-man's land suspended between Roman history and the near future.

China - Canton the red and the black

2008-10-14

It's a modern, bustling city in continual growth: one of the most representative examples of New China. However, in the shadow of the crystal skyscrapers, where the financial institutions are based, can be found another Canton which seems immune to change: that of the alleyways where people play mahjong, the markets which sell scorpions, snakes and tiger bones, the people's parks, where the afternoons are spent reading the tazebao and practising the ancient art of tai-qi. Canton is the city of the red and black, where Imperial China and that of the future live together side by side, the one ignoring the other

El Salvador - Surfing El Salvador

2008-10-09

It's a surfer's paradise in Central America and offers some of the best breaks in the world. El Tunco, Palmarcito and El Zonte are beaches well known to anyone who loves riding the waves, locations revered not only by Salvadorians, but also by Europeans and Americans who follow the coast down from the capital, San Salvador. To surf, to have fun and follow a bohemian lifestyle which still exists here. With little money, between beach bars and parties held to the rhythm of cumbia and reggaeton, hostels available for a few dollars and getting up at ungodly hours to catch the best waves. Here, in La Libertad, everything revolves around surfing, from those who repair surfboards to those who offer paying lessons, from the champion who exploits his image to the worker who surfs in the early morning before going to work. For pure passion

Italy - The Matera labyrinth

2008-10-08

A Unesco World Heritage Site since 1993, Matera is a wonder of underground passages and caverns dug into the rock. Its two famous districts, the Sassi, practically uninhabited until the Seventies, have slowly been restored to their former splendour. Today the city has lost a little of that neglected look and has become a tourist centre of primary importance. Museums have been opened, various films shot (not just Mel Gibson's The Passion) and many others are in the pipeline. Matera attracts directors with is archaic and legendary beauty, but it is also that which surrounds it which seduces the visitor: breathtaking ravines, crevices and gorges in a calcarenite land which is 800 thousand years old, terribly brittle and for this reason reconverted, in distant times, into some of the most beautiful places of worship in the region

Spain - Extremadura conquers the world

2008-10-08

A frontier region, Extremadura (which means land beyond the Douro river) is one of the most depressed areas in Spain. However, it's also one of the most attractive, with its vine and tobacco cultivations, the rivers which flow towards the Atlantic, the arid sierras and the grasslands used for pasture. Today, many snob it and cross it quickly on their way to Andalusia or Portugal. But those who stop are seduced by its history. That of the Romans, who left behind roads, bridges, aqueducts and amphitheatres (the Mérida Roman Museum is one of the most important outside of Rome). And that of the Extremaduran conquistadores, pig breeders who left to conquer the New World. They came from Plasencia, from Cáceres, from Trujillo. Their names? Hernan Cortés, the Pizarro brothers, Francisco de Orellana, Nuñez de Balboa and Pedro de Valdivia

Japan - Tokyo, manga city

2008-10-08

Ancient capital of a shogunate, in 400 years Tokyo has become the largest urban conglomeration in the world. The capital of a country which in 50 years notwithstanding the scanty resources has managed to pass from a humiliated empire to the largest creditor on the world scene. Tokyo alone has a GDP equal to that of Spain; a growth which isn't hindered by the imperceptible seismic tremors which are registered each day. Rebuilt after the 1923 earthquake and the Second World War bombings, Tokyo has grown pragmatically, paying little attention to design and following the new railway system. A Manga city, as it's been called: highly competitive, efficient and of brief duration, rapidly built and rapidly demolished when necessary. Throwaway, just like Manga comics

France - French Basque Country, the other side of the South

2008-10-06

It's the city which mocks Pamplona by letting cows loose in the street. It's the city which gave shelter to Spanish Basques fleeing Francoism and Jewish chocolate makers running from the Inquisition. This is Bayonne, the capital of a different Southern France, harsh and Atlantic, which has nothing in common with the refinement of Provence or the Cote d'Azur. It's the France of the Basque Country, a slice of Aquitaine which from the Ocean rises up to the Pyrénées, homeland of a mysterious people called the Euskaldunak, but whom everyone knows as Basques. The Parisians love passing their summer months here, in this French California, amongst the wild beaches of Anglet, or in the sophisticated and exclusive Biarritz

Angola - Ethnic mix

2008-10-05

The southern area of Angola is inhabited by a range of peoples who were isolated for a long while. They are small ethnic groups who, for the most part, live off stock farming in a semi-nomadic state, moving their kraal across a vast territory north of the Cunene river, which marks the boundary with Namibia. Many are grouped into exogamous tribal societies based on matrilineal descent. The women's role is very important, as the transfer of livestock property (fundamental for herding societies) passes through the mother's brother. The women are also responsible for the magical rites which communicate with the ancestral world

D/La Repubblica - Australia West Coast

2008-10-01

D/La Repubblica - Lima Lifestyle

2008-10-01

Spain - Percebes or death

2008-09-27

The percebe (gooseneck barnacle) is a highly prized mollusc much appreciated by gourmets: it grows along the rocky coast of north-western Spain, near Fisterra, and only in the precise point where the Atlantic waves break against the cliffs. In one of the most treacherous stretches of sea on the planet, a few hundred professional harvesters risk their lives each day in order to supply the market with percebes. They lower themselves down the rocks like mountaineers, with makeshift equipment, and toil to snatch this treasure away from the coast, with one eye always pointed towards the sea: because in any given moment, that wave, which for many of them in the past has signified death, could wash them away

France - Between surf and pelota

2008-09-26

It's midday in Espelette and two children are throwing a ball against the town fronton: they're playing pelota, a Basque sport which loses its origins in the labyrinth of time. Not far from Espelette, along the river Nive, huge yellow dinghies descend from the Pyrénées, defying the rapids at a breathtaking speed: on board are tourists with crash helmet, experiencing real rafting for the first time. The Nive nearly flows into the Atlantic, where every day, hundreds of teenagers arrive to catch the best waves in Europe. The long stretch of beach between Anglet and Saint-Jean de Luz is France's California, with thirty excellent locations, and where in 1957 Peter Viertel, the American scriptwriter, introduced surf into the Old Continent for the first time. In a region, that of the French Basque Country, which is decidedly sports oriented

Italy - Valtellina, heroic wine-growing

2008-09-24

Valtellina hosts the largest terraced area in Europe. Along the valley from Ardengo to Tirano, 2,500 kilometres of dry stone walls can be found: they hold up small plots of land where masterpieces such as the Sassella, Inferno and Sfurzàt wines grow and imagine what an effort is needed! Everything is still done by hand, walking up the slopes and pruning a few rows of vines at a time; some still descend with a pannier on their back, others have spent a lifetime keeping the walls intact. However, since the beginning of the century, the terraced land has diminished by three quarters. Here in Valtellina say the experts vines no longer represent a viable economic sustenance. That's why we've decided to propose the terracing as a Unesco Heritage Site. An attempt to save the last heroic wine-growers who still hold out on these hills

Belize - It's a country for old men

2008-09-23

As vast as Sardinia but with less than 300 thousand inhabitants, Belize abounds in pensioners who alone, in small groups or in communities come to live here more or less definitively. They are snowbirds, those who migrate south when it's cold in the north. Thanks to the white beaches and the constant warm climate, but thanks also to the government, which has decided to gamble on this type of enduring and profitable tourism. They call it the the retirement industry. Those who are chosen by the Belize Tourism Board (you must be over 45 and have a minimum pension of 2,000 dollars) become qualified retired persons and from that moment on, their privileges are covered by the 1999 Retired Persons (Incentives) Act, a law which, amongst other things, grants the possibility to transfer family, cars, boats and even aeroplanes into Belize.

Russia - Swimming, Kamasutra style

2008-09-21

It's strange enough for one person to throw himself into an icy river with a blow-up doll. For 600 to do the same thing is frankly worrying. Yet, this is what happens each year at the end of August in Lesovo, a rural village near Saint Petersburg. It's a competition called the Bubble Baba Challenge. The rules: to swim for nearly a kilometre along the Vuoksa river rapids, to come out alive and most importantly, not to lose your companion, a blow-up doll. This is the testimony of one of the craziest, yet extremely demanding, sports competitions in the world

Italy - Naples, coral capital

2008-09-18

Many call it the coral coast. Amalfi was already exporting it to Syria in the IX century. Naples handled the markets for centuries and Torre del Greco, whose fishermen would venture up to the African coasts, has today become the coral capital: the best craftsmen in the world can be found here, who work ninety percent of the coral harvested in the Mediterranean. Naples has always been associated with coral because here it is collected and, above all, here it has been worked for centuries. This red gold can be found in the city's churches and museums, in fashionable boutiques, worn by a greengrocer under form of a crucifix, or around a lady's neck as she walks down via Toledo. These small branches of calcium carbonate haven't lost their charm and many still believe in their special powers. One above all? The business

Italy - Those bluesmen along the Po river

2008-09-17

The Po river like the Mississippi, Brescello and Correggio like a Po valley Memphis. Concerts held on barges which resemble Clarksdale juke joints or the Louisiana dives. Because, between Parma and Modena, in that flat stretch of land which lies between the via Emilia and the great river, lives the largest community of Italian bluesmen. Musicians who have embraced a philosophy, a style, a sound of the soul sums up Luciano Ligabue not caring about fashions, trends or the road to success. There are those who have created strange nicknames for themselves and others who go to concerts on horseback, those who cradled an acoustic guitar once and never let it go, and those who teach the harmonica whilst navigating along the Po. The bluesman? He plays that which he is declares Oracle King and he doesn't try to resemble anybody else

Italy - Sulcis, Sardinian eco-chic

2008-09-15

From the sensational dunes of Porto Pino up to the limestone hills of the Iglesiente pitted with dozens of old mining sites can be found a little frequented and somewhat wild Sardinia. A territory which is aiming for a strong international relaunch both at a tourist and environmental level, thanks to various upgrading and transformation plans for the vast sites once dedicated to the working and extraction of its minerals. An ambitious plan to transform a wild and scenically extraordinary part of the island into a sort of new Emerald Coast, surely less snob, but with an eco-chic style. For now, it remains a relatively downscale holiday resort, almost homely. A province rich in history, nature, gastronomy and traditions, to be explored by bike, perhaps, or on foot

Japan - The art of thanking a cashpoint

2008-09-15

A man walks through Akihabara, the largest hi-tech market on earth. Suddenly, he enters an alleyway, opens a door, moves the curtains, undresses and lowers himself into a tub of boiling water. Yude-dako! he exclaims smiling, I'm a boiled octopus. There are two types of Japan. There's the computer-based, efficient, frenetic one. That, which as some would say, modernized itself without becoming Westernised. And there's the traditional Japan, unchanged over the centuries. The one which wears a kimono and is moved by a cherry tree in flower, or thanks a cashpoint with a bow. The Japan of he who passes with naturalness from total chaos to the tranquillity of a warm public bath, the sentō, or goes in search of perfect hospitality with a tea ceremony. A Japan which exists, one just has to look for it

Canada - Red Autumn

2008-09-10

Every autumn, a phantasmagoric show of foliage goes on display throughout the woods of Quebec. The maple trees, like victims of the whims of a flamboyant painter, begin to take on colours which turn from yellow to orange up to the more intense tones of red. But if the poets worship this season 'bittersweet...perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter' (Carol Bishop Hipps), the scientists make us come back down to earth, explaining that it's only chemistry and that the plants don't turn red just to make us happy, but due to a modified relationship between soil, leaves and daylight, thus producing useful anthocyanins in order to get through the winter

Mauritania - Sand and caravan crossroads

2008-09-09

Ouadâne is decrepit and proud, once the crossroads of Western Africa. Here gold is bartered for Granada silks wrote Alvise da Ca' da Mosto in the middle of the 15th century, and many other articles from Sudan, the Niger, Sicily and Portugal are traded. In six centuries Mauritania hasn't changed. Today, as in the past, notwithstanding the colonialisms, the droughts and the coup d'ètats, a wonderful crossroads of cultures remains. The meeting point between the Berber Africa of the Maghreb and the black Africa of the vast Sudanese empires. Of course, the commercial caravans no longer exist. The country is underdeveloped, it has few internal connections and the unforgiving sand erodes ten kilometres of grazing land a year. But its rugged beauty, its fishermen, its libraries in the desert, are still able to enchant the traveller

Canada - The Sea River

2008-09-06

The Saint Lawrence River, which measures 1,200 km from Lake Ontario to the Atlantic, with an average discharge of 10,400 m3 per second and a drainage basin covering 1 million km2, is at the centre of the life and the history of Quebec. The first European to adventure here was the Frenchman, Jacques Cartier, who in 1535, ventured as far as the present day Montreal, where he came up against insuperable rapids. 50 years ago, a system of locks and canals made it possible to navigate into the heart of America. But the river's history is that of its inhabitants: sailors, fishermen and lighthouse keepers, not forgetting the huge cetaceans who come to replenish themselves with plankton and the snow geese who follow them during their annual migration

Nepal - New year dance in the Tibetan refuge

2008-09-05

They call it little Lhasa but it's the Buddhist's Vatican above all. In February, Bodhnath, suburb of Kathmandu, celebrates the Losar, the Tibetan new year. One of the few places on earth where, after the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959, one can still come into contact with a Tibetan culture which is free to express itself. At new year, the pilgrims arrive from all corners of Nepal and descend from the Himalayan regions to take part in the lama's masked dances, the ceremonies, the purifications. For the merchants who cross the Himalayas, Bodhnath has always been considered a point of arrival, the door to Kathmandu. At the end of the trip, they have always gathered around its stupa to thank the divinities. And even today, those who prepare to climb the mountain, still stop here to light a candle, in the warm Kathmandu plains

United States - Birthplace of the elitist guitar

2008-09-03

What do B.B. King, Frank Zappa, Eric Clapton, Slash and Keith Richards have in common? They´ve all played a Gibson. The wildest guitar in the world. It´s the most esteemed, for its first-class handcrafted quality (they´re all handmade), the exclusive use of fine woods such as mahogany and maple for the legendary Les Paul model and a decidedly high price. A legend, that of the Gibson, born over a hundred years ago, when Orville Gibson, a lute-maker, began to make mandolins in Michigan. His company was the first to market electric guitars in 1936, but found market contention at the beginning of the fifties with the arrival of its greatest rival, the more economic Fender. Which has never managed, however, to equal the Gibson´s quality. And its myth, which still permeates the company offices in Memphis, Tennessee

Asia - Teheran to Istanbul on the road

2008-08-21

What remains of the ancient Silk Road is now scattered between China and the West, along hyper-busy routes, violated each day by lorries and endless lines of cars. Highways and motorways now cross the whole of central Asia from Peking to the Dardanelles, following the historical thread of an ultra-modern caravan route. Of course, traces remain of that which once was: unreachable mosques, castles, royal palaces, isolated villages, shepherds and atmospheres worthy of Marco Polo. But one must search very, very carefully in order not to be disappointed. From the Iranian capital to Turkey lie about 4 thousand kilometres of history and progress, social disasters (Kurdistan) and natural wonders. We went by Land Rover to discover the new Mesopotamian rhythms.

Canada - Québec, eight dogs and a sledge

2008-08-20

Saguenay is rural Quebec´s heart of independence , a cold royaume, where in winter the thermometer drops to minus forty degrees and the snow covers everything. Ever done dog sledding? smiles Dirk when I arrive in Chicoutimi. It´ll be easy, wait and see. A couple of hours later and my six dogs are running like mad behind the sledge of David, the guide. They brush the edges of paths which resemble bob runs, passing under tree trunks bent over like arches by the snow, and, after having jumped a couple of ditches, we find ourselves on a flat, whitened table. It´s one of the many frozen lakes which can be found in this area: Study the map, you´ll see that we´re on the edge of nothing. The road ends here and for 3,000 km north, there´s not a living soul....

Yemen - 7th Commandment: thou shalt not steal (in God's garden)

2008-08-13

Like a garden of Eden or a land of Avila, Socotra is a hidden secret not to be gathered, with its trees of knowledge and life, unique species which here have mythical names such as Dragon's Blood or Desert Rose. Socotra is a botanical jewel south of Yemen, isolated for thousands of years in the middle of the Indian Ocean, whose powerful monsoons makes it inaccessible for six months a year. Virgin and unexplored, it is slowing opening up to tourism and investments from the Arab Emirates will soon arrive. For now, Yemen is doing its best to preserve its uniqueness: botanists on a recent international mission, for example, were subject to rigorous controls, in the fear that they could export the fabulous seeds of the Socotra plants along with the specimens. God's garden is here, and here it must remain!

Peru - Arequipa, the city of white tuff

2008-07-24

Manuel, 35, is down in the canyon breaking up rocks at 6 in the morning. Casimiro, 63, rolls up a wad of ash and coca and pops it into his mouth, in order to better support the fatigue. It's a job which is handed down from father to son explains the man. If all goes well, at the end of the day he will have earned 15 sol, a little more than 3 euros. Manuel, Casimiro and all the other miners excavate sillar from the volcanic quarries north of Arequipa, the spectacular white city in the south of the country, which owes its name to the colour of the tuffaceous rock which has shaped its churches and buildings. At an altitude of 2,000 meters, surrounded by volcanoes (such the famous El Misti), Arequipa has often been destroyed by earthquakes and eruptions, but has always risen again from the ashes. Thanks to the white stone in its mines

Afghanistan - Mozart vs. Taliban

2008-07-20

A little while ago, the Afghan National Institute of Music opened in Kabul, in a half-destroyed building which is currently being restored. Its founder, Ahmad Sarmast, a famous Afghan musician (and son of the national anthem's composer) returned from exile in Australia with the precise intention to make his ambitious initiative come to life, backed by the government and the World Bank: to create a school which will shape a new generation of Afghan musicians, who no longer exist, ever since the Taliban wiped them out or sent them fleeing. Many of the students are street children who Sarmast has saved from a life of beggary and taken out of orphanages. Giving them a future in music, he says, means giving a glimmer of hope to the country.

Afghanistan - Misplaced paradise

2008-07-20

Band-e-Amir is a mountainous region 170 km west of Kabul and about 50 km west of the Bamyan valley, where the colossal Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban mortars in 2001 could be found. Here, a series of natural travertine dams have given origin to crystal-blue lakes, creating one of the country's most spectacular landscapes. Since the fall of the Taliban, Band-e-Amir is one of the most popular weekend retreats for the few Afghans who can afford the uncomfortable and costly ride from the capital. And, as from May 2009, it's officially become the first Afghan national park. A paradise which, unfortunately, is still surrounded by hell.

Italy - The long voyage of the glass beads

2008-07-18

The Venetian glass production has roots in antique traditions tied to roman glass production. In 1764 the Muranese glass production produced 19.00 kgs. Of beads a week, almost exclusively reserved for exportation, in particular to the African market where the glass beads became an important merchandise of exchange which many African populations used as a currency. Every factory had its own antique recipes which constituted the cultural patrimony of the glass works, where the secret of the mixes to obtain coloured transparent and opaque glass were jealously guarded. Recipes which even today are still securely conserved and utilized by today´s master glass makers, to render their glass unique and inimitable

Afghanistan - The Last Kabul Jew

2008-07-17

His name is Zabolon Simantov. He lives in poverty in a two-roomed flat not far from Chicken Street, with its antiques shops. Every week he turns on the lights of the synagogue next door: its a ritual he wants to keep alive, even if in vain, because there are no more Jews in Kabul for whom to conduct the Shabbat service. Simantov is the last remaining Jew in Kabul, and probably the whole of Afghanistan too. He mourns for the Najibullah era, when the Jewish community was welcome in the country. Miraculously, he has survived the Taliban and has never given in to the temptation to emigrate to Israel: Here I was born he says and here I want to die.

Peru - Natural Style

2008-07-11

Forget Cusco, the buses packed with tourists and multicoloured markets. Instead, the heart of Peru is a green universe, silent, made up of unexplored jungles, isolated villages, meandering rivers, imposing volcanoes and stunning agricultural plateaus. Peru boasts 8 national parks, 11 reserved zones, 8 protected reserves, 6 natural sanctuaries and 10 national forests. About 10% of the state-controlled territory is today safeguarded. A wealth which makes Peru one of the most bio-diverse countries in the world. Equatorial forests, coastal deserts, semi-Antarctic islands, mountain lakes, steppes and savannahs make up no less than 84 different ecosystems. A record, considering that those classified on our planet at the present time are only 104. A world to be explored on foot, with a 4x4, by boat or on a mule. For a journey, natural style

Iran - On the shopping island, where Iran has fun

2008-07-01

Kish is a flat island twenty kilometres from Iran. It has five mosques, a hospital and a prestigious university. But these numbers don't convey the full picture. Kish and the nearby Qeshm are the two pearls of the Persian Gulf, and for the Iranians they represent what Hawaii is for the Americans or Sardinia for the Italians. A paradise just a stone's throw away from home, offering white beaches and a clean sea all year round. With a difference: Kish is a free trade zone. A huge duty-free where everything costs less; where one can pay indifferently in euros, dollars, rial or dirham. And where anyone can get in without a visa, obtaining a two week permit on-the-spot. Kish is a laboratory for the new Iran to come; a moral free trade zone where the veils worn are less heavy than in Teheran and shopping borders on western excesses

Tuvalu - Welcome to Atlantis

2008-06-17

Tuvalu: nine atolls, 26 square kilometres, 11,000 inhabitants. The fourth smallest state in the world, lost in the middle of the Pacific, almost on top of the date line. In 2050, according to the UN report on climatic change, it will have completely disappeared, engulfed by the ocean, whose level is relentlessly rising due to global warming: and the Tuvaluans, suddenly frightened by the sea on whose shores they have always lived and in the desperate search for a new homeland, will become the first climatic refugees in history

Liberia - Madam President

2008-06-13

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has been president of Liberia since January 2006 and, at nearly 70, is the first woman in the history of Africa to be elected head of state. They call her the Iron Lady, the black Thatcher: without exaggeration. Sirleaf is a self-made woman, thanks to her tenacity and integrity. She was director of The World Bank, Minister of Finance, president of the African sector of the United Nations development programme, she´s been accused of high treason, imprisoned, forced into exile. Today, on her shoulders lies the responsibility to rebuild a country devastated by 14 years of civil war, from scratch. And to restore hope, not only to Liberia, but the whole of Africa

Nigeria - The black Hollywood

2008-06-01

In Nigeria, the cinema is an industry worthy of the highest respect, not least for the fact that it lies in fourth place in the economy of the world´s eighth largest oil exporter. Some figures: about two thousand films produced each year, two hundred million DVDs sold in Africa, Europe and America, twenty thousand actors, a turnover estimated by defect of half a billion euros. And a name: Nollywood. After Hollywood and Bollywood, it´s the third largest film colossus in the world, specialised in impossible love stories, the gangster genre, and a touch of neorealism. There´s also the night of the stars, the unmissable, self-congratulatory moment of a money machine which produces ten percent of the country´s gross domestic product

Iran - Zurkaneh, holy wrestling

2008-05-29

The Zurkhaneh, a typical Iranian discipline, is a sport, but also a dance, a public display of physical ability and a collective religious rite, born with the cult of Mitra and today revisited in favour of Shiite Islam. The athletes respond to the master's exhortations, who beats time with a drum and recites verses from the Koran. Moving in time to the rhythm, the men launch themselves into wild pirouettes. Next, they grab the large wooden clubs, throwing them up into the air and catching them as they fall. The drumbeat changes, it becomes faster, and the men dance, swinging the heavy chains. The spectators don't pay to watch. Everything is for our own benefit say those who practice the Zurkhaneh, and that of God.

Peru - Iquitos on the verge of a nervous breakdown

2008-05-29

Iquitos is the capital of the Loreto region, in the Peruvian Amazon, and is considered unanimously to be the noisiest, most chaotic and unbearable city in the country. The reason for this record is a diabolical machine known as the motokar. It's just a simple three-wheeled motor-taxi, but what makes it lethal is its numbers: in Iquitos, a city of 300 thousand inhabitants, there are more than thirty thousand motor-taxis in circulation. In 2008, not knowing what other measures to take against the din, the municipal committee of Iquitos turned to the children: high school children were asked to paint murals regarding this theme on the house façades. The result is a city covered with bewildered, suffering faces, hands covering ears, mouths twisted into a shout of: Enough!

Jordan - A river in pain

2008-05-29

The most sacred river in the world is in danger: throttled by dams which draw from its bed in Syrian and Israeli territory, downstream from Lake Tiberias, the Jordan, which marks the border between Israel and the Kingdom of Jordan, is a pathetic muddy trickle, the waters heavily polluted by sewerage and industrial systems. Yet, along its entire course down to the Dead Sea (also in danger of drying up), it's the main water source for the Jordanian farmers, as well as a place of pilgrimage for Christians the world over, who come to Bethany, Christ's baptism site, unaware that they are immersing themselves in a river which is filthier than the Ganges.

Australia - Along the Murray River, Australia's Mississippi

2008-05-25

The Murray is the greatest Australian river, rising from the Snowy Mountains and flowing for 2,600 kilometres down to Adelaide. But it's not just a mere watercourse: in these regions, in a dry land unlike few others in the world, the Murray represents life. For years it was the continent's only highway: when Mark Twain visited it at the end of the nineteenth century, the American writer compared it with "his" Mississippi, struck by the number of paddle steamers navigating in its waters. A world made up of sabotages, ruthless competition and great riches which was the fortune of river ports such as Echuca, Wentworth and Mildura. Today the barges no longer transport vegetables, wool bales and lumber, yet they are still visible: carrying tourists who want to relive the adventure of navigating the river which made Australia.

Yemen - 13 Women against Al-Qaeda

2008-05-22

In Yemen, thirteen veiled women, dangerous and armed to the teeth, have chosen a life of battles. The enemies are two, terrorism and prejudice, the weapons to combat them, different: for the first, an assault light machine gun, for the second, to exist is enough. For the Yemeni society, chronically chauvinist, the thirteen women (or rather, girls: they are no older than twenty) in question are the equivalent of a revolution or, depending on one's point of view, a disgrace: they form part of the special police antiterrorism squad, one of the country's most prestigious military corps, and they don't have any intention of leaving.

Jordan - Eco adventures

2008-05-21

The most peaceful and restrained of all middle eastern countries is at a marketing crossroads. Should it just be famous for its beautiful queen, Dead Sea salts and the popular city of Petra, or should it carve out a new eco-chic market for the community of globe-trotting travellers? In terms of environmental resources, Jordan is one of the richest countries in the neighbouring east, and is characterised by a unique biodiversity: in just a few kilometres one passes from the desert to mountain oases, from coral reefs to canyons, from the northern wetlands overflowing with bird life, up to the Alpine habitats in the west-central regions. The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, in collaboration with the government, has the duty to protect these extraordinary natural habitats scattered between Israel, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

El Salvador - La Ruta de la Paz

2008-05-20

Transmitiendo desde algun lugar remoto de El Salvador, esta es Radio Venceremos, la voz del pueblo para todo el pueblo.This is how the guerillas forming part of the Farabundo Martì National Liberation Front (FMLN), who from 1981 to 1992 fought against the extreme right wing Salvadorian regime, began their radio transmissions. Today we have returned to visit the locations which were the settings for some of the most shocking and appalling war actions, such as the slaughter of 800 civilians and 400 children in the village of El Mozote, carried out by special army units trained by the Americans. We return to tread an imaginary Ruta de la Paz (Road of Peace) to discover a country which is slowly trying to forget its darkest years in order to start living again and display its cultural and naturalistic wonders.

Poland - The Free City´ of Danzig

2008-05-08

Danzig appears to be a city of tragic fate. An important Baltic port since the 16th century, the city was the setting for some of the most important events which occurred during the 20th century. Contested by Germans and Poles, the city was declared Free City after the First World War, and placed under the control of the League of Nations. In 1939 its occupation by the Nazis marked the start of the Second World War. At the end of the war, all that remained was a heap of rubble and its inhabitants began reconstructing the ancient Medieval houses one by one. In 1980, the struggles by the Solidarność movement in the Lenin shipyards led to the collapse of the entire Communist block.

Brazil - Salaam Brazil

2008-05-07

In the Tres Fronteras region between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, the lingua franca is Arabic: on both sides of the Paraná and Iguazú rivers, which define the boundary between the three countries and which host a flourishing smuggling trade, live tens of thousands of Lebanese Shiites, Sunnites and Christians. The majority of them are traders and they exploit the Paraguayan free port of Ciudad del Este for their businesses. But some of them, according to the authorities, finance Al Qaeda, or, in some cases, are active members of international Islamic terrorism, who, aided by police corruption and the frontier´s penetrability, here have found a quiet corner where to plan their activities

D/La Repubblica - Cape Town voices

2008-05-01

Italy - Apulia, rediscovering the rupestrian churches

2008-04-30

It´s midnight in Ginosa and the congregation of confraternity members is preparing a torchlight procession towards the Mother church. Tonight there´s the vigil of the patronal festival, an appointment not to be missed, which fills the city with lights and stalls. The real protagonist is the church, splendid with her geometric facade overlooking a craggy ravine, abounding in ancient presences, places of worship carved into the rock which go back into the mists of time. Southern Apulia teems with such locations and these marvels are worthy of a tourist revival. Many of the rupestrian churches are embellished with well preserved frescos which probably date back more than a thousand years, to the era of Byzantine domination, when Basilian monks fleeing from Cappadocia. But there are those who maintain that the phenomenon goes back further.

Dominican Republic - Santo Domingo´s black soul

2008-04-28

Everyone considers Santo Domingo one of the most popular Caribbean all-inclusive holiday village locations. But Santo Domingo is more than this. Within its boundaries there is an extremely active Haitian community, a slice of Africa in the Caribbean. The Dominican Republic Haitians carry out all the most strenuous and worst paid jobs: from cane sugar cutters, to salt collectors, from miners to prostitutes. They´ve also brought traditions and beliefs into this country, such as voudou and witchcraft, imported directly from the African slaves and transformed into different forms of syncretism.

Cuba - Revolution 2.0

2008-04-27

In the year of the revolution´s fiftieth anniversary, Fidel has left the limelight and winds of change are blowing throughout the island. His brother Raul has taken over and immediately popular technology has become legal all over the country. People in Havana are queuing up to buy mobile phones, microwave ovens or DVD players. Computers and LCD televisions are appearing inside shopping malls alongside electric bicycles and modern washing machines. There´s less fear to show the money inside socialist pockets. Fashion shows and rock concerts are being held, there´s better food on the tables and benefits allowed if one works for a foreign company, while Obama and the Usa are completely re-thinkng their policy on Cuba.

Brazil - Florianopolis, Eurobeach

2008-04-21

Florianopolis, state of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil. Or, better still, Europe: this is the first impression that the city and the beaches which surround it, give to those who arrive here. Santa Catarina, colonized as from the start of the XIX century by waves of Italians, Azoreans and Germans, is the most European state in the federation, both in its exterior appearance and in its inhabitants´ way of life. As for the Brazilians, incurable pro-Europeans, the sea around the island upon which Florianopolis rises, is the chichiest holiday destination.

Peru - Ayahuasca: a hallucination will cure you

2008-04-07

Pisaq, Peru. Twenty American citizens arrive in this isolated locality in the sacred Valley of the Incas, ready to take, under the supervision of a shaman, that which is universally considered to be a drug. It´s name is ayahuasca, an Amazonian root which is used for the preparation of a strongly hallucinogenic decoction, which promises (and in fact produces) a profound psychological experience: a couple of hours of self-awareness which many agree is the equivalent of ten years of psychoanalysis concentrated in one night. Amongst these Americans, enticed here by skilful marketing which is turning ayahuasca into an international business, there aren´t only old beat generation groupies, but also doctors and scientists, convinced that the root´s active principles can cure drug addictions and numerous psychopathologies.

Tunisia - Tunis : old postcards from the medina

2008-04-04

Tunis is one of the most modern and European cities in Africa, but its core reveals inevitable contrasts. Its medina, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is undergoing important restoration works to restore the old palaces to their former splendour. But in the more working-class area, a couple of hundred metres from the roads trodden by groups of tourists in search of free exoticism, survives a world made up of markets, small cafes, old hammamat, artisans and sordid brothels. A world which refuses to conform with the globalization which is invading the whole planet. The photos in this reportage have been taken today, but, if we eliminate just a few details, they could have been taken many years ago.

Mali - Living inside a mud sculpture

2008-04-01

In the basins of the Niger river and lake Chad, today known as Sahel, we can find a wide diffusion of bancò (raw clay) houses with particularly refined shapes. Even religious and social buildings such as mosques, or saho (common houses where the youths Bozo live) are made from mud, notwithstanding their imposing dimensions. Further south, other peoples build houses with anthropomorphic shapes, such as the Kasena and Lobi, who live between Burkina Faso and Ghana, whilst the Somba/Tamberma, who live between Benin and Togo, construct fortified houses like Medieval castles, all rigorously made from mud. Even in Mauritania, the city of Oulata, and the region populated by the Soninkè, abound in mud houses decorated with geometric designs tied to the Islam. At the moment UNESCO is taking care of the restoration of some architectures.

D/La Repubblica - Peru: Amazonas.com

2008-04-01

Eritrea - Meskel, the bonfire of plenty

2008-03-28

Do you know that Christianity arrived in Eritrea by chance? explains father Abraha as he watches the Meskel parade. It disembarked with a group of Syrian merchants who were shipwrecked along the coast of the Red Sea on their way back from India. Today, at least half of the inhabitants in Eritrea profess to be Christians, Coptic-Orthodox for the most part. The festivals falls in mid September: the Meskel, during which the retrieval of Christ´s cross by Saint Helen, mother of Constantine I, in the Holy Lands is celebrated. According to legend, it was the smoke from a bonfire which indicated where the remains of the cross were buried. The same bonfire which today, in Asmara will reveal the future of the country if the pyre falls eastwards.

Indonesia - Dancing amongst Javanese volcanoes

2008-03-27

They call it Kejawen, the religious mix which in Indonesia has merged together Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and ancient local beliefs. The island of Java as vast as Greece, 130 million inhabitants dominates the archipelago from all view points: political, economic, social. However, especially in the central area, amongst paddy fields at sunset, majestic temples and the royal baths of the Javanese kings, the tofu producers of Sawahan and the villages where dancers perform to the rhythm of the gamelan orchestras, Java still has wild corners, traditional, of rare beauty. Where the unpredictable gumung api, the volcanoes, which bring destruction, but also life (the ashes make this terrain one of the most fertile on earth), are tied to spiritual divinities. To be honoured periodically with dances, prayers and offerings, even money.

Libya - Ghadames, invisible oasis

2008-03-26

Finally, 600 kilometres south of Tripoli, appears Ghadames, one of the best preserved Saharan cities. 45 thousand palm trees, a profile marked by varying levels of flat roofs, ochre coloured walls embellished with swallow-tailed merlons (against the evil eye) and cloud-white minarets. The hypogeous oasis is still extraordinarily intact. A homogeneous accumulation of mud and lime brick buildings with palm tree beams, the result of centuries of additions and modifications, always following traditional models and plans, essential, harmonious and coherent. Since the city develops nearly entirely under cover, to defend itself from the heat and wind, it´s also a perfect example of natural bio-insulation. That's why Italo Balbo, used to fly there for the weekends on his three-engined Savoia Marchetti airplane.
(Text by Renato Scagliola)

Brazil - Two wheels, one ambulance

2008-03-23

São Paulo, one of the most chaotic cities in Brazil: 11 million inhabitants, six million vehicles, hundreds of accidents and episodes of violent criminality which leave casualties on the streets every day. The terribly congested traffic makes it impossible for a conventional ambulance to reach an emergency scene within an acceptable time lapse. Thus, the fire brigade, which also runs the mobile accident unit service, has found an ingenious solution: it has transformed motorbikes into ambulances. Here´s a typical day of the Praça da Sé fire station team.

Niger - The narcissists of the savannah

2008-03-14

For the nomad Woodabe cattle-herders who live in the torrid expanses of the Niger Sahel, there are only two important things in life. The cow, real object of devotion (and nourishment), and beauty. Each year, between September and October, when the Sahel grasslands permit the assemblage of a large number of herds, the young cattle-herders, who for the rest of the year wander with the bovines in the search for a tuft of grass, know it´s time to meet for the Gerewol, a festival where the girls dress-up, and parade in songs and dances with slow and sinuous rhythms. It´s a fleeting moment, to be at one´s best in order to win the heart of the girls, who will choose the handsomest man in the festival.

Italy - Volterra, no way out

2008-03-12

Tuscany, Volterra: a maximum security State prison inside a 13th century fortress, where Count Ugolino, mentioned by Dante in the Divine Comedy, served his sentence. Today it hosts 140 prisoners, many mass murderers, none with a sentence of less than twenty years: many of them pass part of their hour´s recreation in the gym or in the ancient courtyard fitted out for body building. They do it to keep fit, to have the advantage in a possible fight. And mostly, so as not to go crazy.

Eritrea - Return to little Rome

2008-03-11

Asmara is a seventy year´s jump back in time. In the Italy of Odeon cinemas and beveled mirrors, of Tagliero garages and pensioners in colonial straw hats enjoying an ice-cream at the small tables of the bar Impero. The Italians transformed a small shepherds village at an altitude of 2347 meters into that which was to become Little Rome. Today, Asmara should be seen from above. One can see the Catholic cathedral, the Coptic one, then, to the east, the Jewish synagogue and right behind it the large mosque built by the Italians. Because here the Christians are in the majority, but all the major religions are represented and respected. There was a mayor once, after the liberation, who loved exclaiming Friday I pray in the mosque, Saturday in the synagogue and Sunday in church. One God is bound to help me sooner or later..

Italy - Cheers, Oltrepo Pavese

2008-03-10

Uncork a bottle of Barbacarlo wine and raise a glass to the sky. It´s the best way to explore the Oltrepo Pavese, perhaps on the steps of the sports journalist and Italian writer, Gianni Brera. Explore the Oltrepo, glass after glass, tavern after tavern, tableful after tableful (of friends). Brera was born on the left bank of the Po, in San Zenone, and from Milan he enjoyed returning frequently to visit this fertile, genuine land, a damp corner of Lombardy wedged between Piedmont and Emilia. He also returned to visit his friends, such as the legendary Lino Maga, the only person to produce the real Barbacarlo, a frothy wine obtained from a few vines amongst the Broni hills. Or Mario Musoni, the king of the risottos as he used to call him, the chef who was elected the best cook in Lombardy during the The Thursday Club evenings.

Eritrea - Save Massawa

2008-03-06

With easy mooring, Massawa is without a doubt the loveliest port on the Red Sea noted the Italian delegate, Ferdinando Martini, in 1896. Massawa is the other side of Christian Eritrea, a city, which with its arches, its arabesques, its labyrinth of narrow alleyways, looks towards the Islamic East. Of course, violated by bombings, Massawa is no longer the pearl of the Red Sea, the largest port along the east coast of Africa. Once, the most important commercial routes passed through here, and this is the reason why Arabs, Turks, Portuguese, and then French, English and Italians fought for this location. Today some progress is being made, travellers are returning to walk these dusty streets and a few entrepreneurs are starting to invest money here. But more is needed: the old city is falling apart and nobody is doing anything to help.

Israel - Sixty years of solitude

2008-03-06

Israel turns sixty: an age which urges human beings to take stock of their life, and which is usually the prelude for a period of serenity. But not in the case of this Middle Eastern State: just like the day after its birth in 1948, Israel still feels isolated and under siege, in a condition which is anything but peaceful. And it suffers (or perhaps in some way benefits) from the vast contrast between the ultra-Orthodox side of society, unerringly tied to religious traditions, and the more lay and progressive side, for whom the Shabbat isn´t the sacred day for resting and praying, but an excellent opportunity to try out a new surfboard.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Lithuania - Vilnius, the Uzupis Republic

2008-02-28

The Republic of Uzupis is one of a kind artistic enclave, with peculiar ideas and specific cultural projects. A proper Art Inkubator, as today is usually remarked. Until yesterday it was no more than a political paradox located in the heart of Vilnius. A brilliant idea, socially helpful, which tried to transform a degraded area, enclosed by the small Vilnia river bends, into an ideal micro-state linked to the rest of the world by seven bridges only. Uzupis was a weird idea born as a joke on april the first in the year 2000, conceived to conquer again the soul of the area, turning that ugly world into a creative place where life can be taken easy and where bohemien dreams can be lived freely.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon request)

Malawi - The warm heart of AIDS

2008-02-28

The warm heart of Africa cite the brochures. Yet Malawi is also one of the poorest countries in the world and has been associated for 20 years with the worst acronym of the new millennium, AIDS. During the British protectorate there were two hospitals in the capital, Lilongwe, one for the whites and one for the blacks. The white hospital, the Livingstone, was on the top of a flowered hill. The black hospital, called Bottom, was only a step away from a stagnant river. Here, they´re still hitting rock bottom: in 19th century buildings which are falling to bits, no medicines and just enough staff, can be found the unfortunate maternity ward. Why unfortunate? Because in Malawi, 15% of the women who give birth are HIV positive. And the transmission of the virus from mother to child represents 30% of all the new cases of HIV in the country.

Indonesia - Sumba, in the island of the spirits

2008-02-27

As vast as Corsica, 400 kilometres east of Bali, Sumba is not just one of the 18,000 islands which make up the Indonesian archipelago. It´s isolation has preserved all the best it has to offer: slow rhythms, a life based around agricultural cycles, virgin beaches and ancient megalithic tombs. And, above all, one of the most fascinating and mysterious cultures in the whole of Indonesia. Here, there are still bloody clashes between tribes for a question of honour, and all carry a parang, the sharp bladed knife. But that which is of primary importance in Sumba officially ninety percent Christian is the veneration of the dead, whose tombs rise up in the middle of the villages: according to the animist Marapu cult, it´s the ancestors who protect the living in this life, and only a worthy funeral can make their spirit ascend into the sky.

Palestine - A day in the life of the West Bank

2008-02-21

Driving from Ramallah to Nablus a continual alternation of Palestinian villages and settlements of Jewish colonists is like covering a chessboard, not as a king, but as a simple pawn, knowing that you can´t step on other squares, only those of your colour, and that in no case is it permitted to cross the borders. The wall built by Israel, as high as a three storey building, has condemned an entire nation to an open-ended imprisonment, without a trial and with the collective charge of terrorism. The Palestinians aren´t in a cell, they´ve just been enclosed in a large yard, a sort of lifetime hours´ recreation: in whatever direction they walk, sooner or later they´ll come up against the wall. Provided they get there: before, there´s an Israeli army checkpoint, and no certainty to pass beyond it. Yet, life goes on.

Chile - Santiago boom boom

2008-02-19

When Pedro de Valdivia founded it in 1541, he drew inspiration from the frontier. From that Santiago de Compostela which was the furthermost territory before an unexplored ocean. Thus, Santiago de Chile was born, then a humble village in a valley at the foot of the Andes, today a huge city and Latin America´s real financial capital, where the most powerful multinationals on earth have decided to locate their South American bases. Here, in Greater Santiago, which also includes Valparaiso and Concepción, lives one Chilean in three. Nevertheless, the city is liveable, elegant, with its crowded but dynamic Paseo Ahumada, full of parks and museums, yet refined, with Liberty houses and colonial residences. Such as the Palacio de la Moneda, where the old mint was located and where President Allende tried to hold back Pinochet´s army.

Yemen - Ex Arabia felix

2008-02-19

Ancient Arabia Felix, called thus by the Romans, is today a country with practically no vegetation, underdeveloped and strictly tied to Islamic law, where, away from the large cities, every self-respecting man carries a light machinegun slung over his shoulders. The only remains of Arabia Felix are imposing and crumbling vestiges, which the Unesco interventions have saved, but often defaced. And, unique to the Islamic world, the tradition of dedicating at least three hours a day to chewing qat: a local drug, which, considered sinful by the more Orthodox Islamic fringe groups, has up to now prevented the Yemen forming part of the Arab League.

Australia - Waltzing Matilda

2008-02-18

Waltzing Matilda is a popular Australian song, a sort of second national anthem. It tells the story of a swagman who steals a sheep and, to escape from the police, drowns in a billabong, one of the many small isolated lakes in the Australian outback which are the remnants of a dry river. The Australian swagmen were roving workers, mainly sheep shearers, who travelled by foot for the most part, carrying a swag with them, a rolled-up blanket containing all their possessions, slung over their shoulders like a rifle. Today it simply means to travel around the outback with a sleeping bag and an off-road vehicle, on a walk about and along personal songlines. A universe of adventures and dreams in the heart of Down Under.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon commission)

Africa - Botswana & Zambia

2008-02-18

Two perfect countries for a safari, where savannahs and alluvial plains, parks and nature reserves, luxury lodges and five star service become the African universe par excellence. Zambia and Botswana have infinite and exclusive itineraries, a far cry from the mass stereotype safaris of Kenya and Tanzania. Between the Kalahari Desert and the Chobe River, for example, there are thousands of square kilometres of nothingness where it's easy to meet communities of bushmen or migratory paths, sensational panoramas and atmospheres of ancient Africa. In Botswana, water safaris are organized on the innumerable canals which form the Okawango Delta, teeming with elephants, hippos, antelope, lions, gazelle and countless bird species. Walking safaris and luxurious bush camps, on the other hand, are very popular in Zambian national parks.

Mexico - Maya on the road

2008-02-16

Dust, archaeology, sea and forests. On the roads of Northern Mexico one goes far in time, following the traces of the Maya. From Merida to Palenque, from Uxmal to Xpujil, one lives on the road across the Chiapas region, Quintana Roo, Riviera Maya and the Yucatan peninsula. The Caribbean Sea is never far away: but with a little common sense one can ignore the hundreds of all-inclusive resorts which invade the coast and discover a world made up of silences, jungles, extraordinary ruins, villages, islands, agaves, cacti and biospheres. All you need are 4 wheels, a map and a good history book. A jump in the cenotes, a swim in Punta Allen, a tour of Chiapas and a night under the stars of Tulum sounds pretty good

Chile - The Atacama festival

2008-02-14

It takes place at summer´s end, when the heat is bearable and the pilgrims follow ancient desert paths at an altitude of 3,000 metres. All are headed for Ayquina, an Andean village along the Rio Caspana valley, which attracts hundreds of believers with its festival dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe. Here, people pray, eat and dance in the streets before the start of the processions which mix Andean outfits with costumes inspired by the conquistadores. Just to participate in the celebrations, the locals leave their Andean homes, and walk for days through the driest region on Earth. We´re in the heart of the Atacama Desert, Southern Chile, amongst barren lands, geysers at over 4,000 meters and salt lakes populated by pink flamingos: in some parts of this inferno it hasn´t rained since the Spanish invasion took place five centuries ago.

Africa - Flying safari

2008-02-14

Welcome to the austral hemisphere, an aeronautical paradise where the moon hangs upside down, the skies have no limits and airplanes are used instead of taxis. Flying over Africa is marvellous. One circles in-and-out of boundless spaces, clouds and lights, hedgehopping over golden savannahs, clayey lands and herds of stampeding buffalo. The Cessna becomes a Land Rover with wings, a magical bus, a sky-bike upon which to race without stopping amongst the wind and the geological eras. The plane shortens distances and permits inaccessible locations to be reached in every season. However, in particular, it reveals a new, spectacular dimension, mapped out by natural geometries which would otherwise be invisible. Rivers become snakes of infinite lights, the guiding paths seem unnatural and the geographical references become perfect.

Cuba - Fishermen and dancers

2008-02-12

There are those who hope that Fidel Castro will soon lose control of Cuba, and those instead who wish him a long life. Political questions aside, under the ideological veneer lies a beautiful and vibrant island which every day hobbles along as best it can. A pleasant, enchanting people to be discovered, starting off perhaps from one of the most ancient cities born in the New World: Havana. A population of fishermen who pass the mornings on the Malençon, of dancers who perform at the Tropicana every evening, of young and old people who crowd the Habana Vieja. A population of students, of farmers met along a country road, of children who play baseball in the street and well dressed girls who happily celebrate their entrance into society.

Czech Republic - Prague

2008-02-12

Forget Kafka, autumnal mists and ideas on post-communism. This is all old stuff. The most westernised amongst all the cities from the ex-Soviet bloc has now become one of the liveliest and modern European metropolises. Prague is hyper-cosmopolitan: avant-garde designers, ethnic-chic restaurants, models, tourists from all over. For a trendy long weekend with a 19th century air, explore the emerging districts full of clubs, such as the Zizkov area, or walk up to Petrin Hill to survey the roofs of the Old City. Go shopping in the old boutiques in the Jewish quarter which have recently been refurbished, drink a surrealist coffee inside the Czech Cubism Museum, discover the breweries in the Old City and stay in the newly opened Mandarin Oriental Hotel, which even boasts one of the country's best spas

Africa - Flying above the Sahara

2008-02-11

An aerial ride over the most beautiful regions of the Sahara. A flying meridian travelled from south to north along routes of sand and wind. Geographic splendours, from Mali to Egypt, across five thousand kilometres of dust, sand, rivers, acrobatic agriculture, archaeology, ghosts towns, volcanoes, geological patrimonies and spectacular nature. From Bamako to Timbuctoo along the Niger and its internal delta. Next, southern Algeria with the wonders of the Assekrem and the Tadrart: dunes, lava, striking wadis and mutable orography. The Libyan Acacus and the circular Messak cultivations precede the grandeur of the Erg Murzuq, one of the most incredible dune clusters on Earth. We can then find the Waw en Namus volcano and the nothingness of the Libyan-Egyptian border. Finally, the Mediterranean, the beaches of Marsa Matrouh and Alexandria´s

Malawi - The land of great water

2008-02-10

Since the 17th century, explorers had been talking about a huge lake in central Africa, but no one had ever seen it. One of the first Westerners to arrive here in 1859, was a Scottish missionary, whose great passion was exploring the Black Continent: David Livingstone. But the banks of the Malawi Lake the 3rd largest in Africa, nearly as big as Lombardy have been inhabited by man for at least a hundred thousand years. Men, who today still live in harmony with their Nyasa, great water in the Chiyao language, living on its shores and catching the colourful cichlids using ancient traditional techniques: many of these fish are eaten, and just as many are destined for European aquariums where they are particularly appreciated. In fact, there are hundreds of species, and like a sort of aquatic Galapagos, they can only be found here.

Chile - Patagonia express

2008-02-10

The Chilean Alaska, with its fjords and glaciers appears suddenly south of Puerto Montt. It´s the harsh region of Aisén, the Chilean Patagonia´, once populated by the Chonos Indians and for many years forgotten by the Europeans: a desolate and arid land noted John Byron, grandfather of the more famous poet, which didn´t have a very benevolent aspect. The antithesis of the Argentine Patagonia: the flat, barren and steppe-like lands are substituted here by tall peaks and inlets where the icebergs of Campo de Hielo Norte offer unforgettable sights, and where the isolated communities (less than 100 thousand people live in the area) were founded in the past by pioneers. Travel connections are difficult and the Camino Austral wanted by Pinochet a road which should have joined Puerto Montt with Punta Arenas remains more or less a dream.

Libya - The forgotten Roman Empire

2008-02-10

The sea whitens towards the north-east, whilst the seagulls fly low over the colonnades and statues stacked in the agora. Capitals, bas-reliefs and cipolin marbles are illuminated one last time before the twilight and the sudden tempest. It´s a storm about the history of Rome, electric, ozonic, which produces surreal effects amongst the Greek-Roman architectonic splendours which surface, now and as at the time of the empire, on Libya´s beautiful soil. Leptis Magna, Sabratha, Apollonia, Cyrene, Ptolemais can be found along the Libyan coast between the Tunisian and Egyptian borders, and even today, they are legendary testimonials of the Great Empire. Epic vibrations are still transmitted from the beaches of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. They constitute a patrimony which is worthy of Pompeii, Athens and Rome itself. Open-air museums immersed in incomparable natural settings, just a step away from our peninsula.
(Texts by Davide Scagliola available upon commission)

France - Gypsies, Roma and cowboys of the Camargue

2008-02-08

Before the rampages of the Barbary pirates on the coast that separates the Mediterranean from the Rhône delta, history and legends mixed up. Jesus had just been crucified when, in Palestine, a group of Christians and the mothers of two apostles, Mary Jacobe and Mary Salome, took a boat up to the shores of Provence. Each year since then, the 'Gardiens de Camargue' parade carrying the statue of the two Marys in procession. Later, the figure of Sarah the Black was placed alongside the legendary Marys, which has never been clarified by official historiography. The gypsies, call her 'Sarah-la-Kâli', the 'gypsy' or the 'black' and made her their patron saint. They began to arrive from all over Europe to the church of the Saintes Maries to take her in procession on the 24 th of May.
( Text by Bruno Zanzottera available upon request).

Canada - British Columbia, the Great Rainforest Coast

2008-02-08

This part of British Columbia is a microcosm of mixed waters and evergreens, giant lichens, glaciers and continual rain. A lost nature, primordial, made up of crystal-clear skies, majestic mountains (snow-capped even in August), emerald lagoons and extremely deep fjords, to visit by boat, seaplane or, where possible, on foot. The forest is enchanting, not hospitable, but beautiful: at these latitudes it´s unthinkable to find such a dense and varied tangle. To walk through it is practically a tropical experience. Take an alpine wood, fill it with moss, orchids, enormous leaves and every sort of botanical oddity which comes to mind and stick in on the sea a few steps away from snow-covered peaks, waterfalls and Indian reservations.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon request)

Mali - Cow is beautiful!

2008-02-07

You don´t deserve to die with the cow, you do not have any love for the cow, when it is cold, you lie by the fire; when there is milk, you drink six spoonfuls, we drink only one´ so goes a passage from the epic poem of Silâmaka, a sort of Peul Odyssey, in which one can find the behavioural model of the noble nomadic shepherd: knowledge of his livestock, symbiosis with them, environmental resistance and self-discipline. For each of them, the only imaginable good in life is the herd and to be able to walk proudly in front of the cows is one of the few important things which matters. During the annual transhumance, the Peul cross the fields of the internal Niger delta with hundreds of thousands of heads of cattle. These days are also marked by celebrations: festivals, weddings, trade agreements.
(Text by B.Zanzottera available)

World - Geocosmetics - Global beauty

2008-02-01

The naked body gets adorned by a drop of sweat, a pearl of dew, or, if you are Marilyn Monroe, by a puff of French perfume. At the ethnological level, the beauty of women and men is concerned with deformation: skin cuts, hairdos, tattoos, elongated heads, induced strabismus, giraffe necks, razored hair, wigs, masks, penis sheaths, lip plates, crippled feet. It´s global cosmetics, baby, in the whole world and into all bodies. Man is a bio-cultural being who models his body in order to clearly separate himself from a terrifying Nature. The human body is soaked with kinship nexuses, personality, social relationship...

(Text by Alberto Salza, anthropologist)

Mexico - Chipilo, polenta and venetian dialect

2008-01-31

Chipilo is a town with three thousand inhabitants, a few kilometres from Puebla, which resembles a corner of the Veneto transplanted in Mexico. In 1882, seventy families from Segusino, in the province of Treviso, departed from Genova by ship, the Atlantico, and disembarked in Mexico after a month. The government threw them into the worst territory, but in a few decades of work and sweat, they were able to transform the same land into the most fertile in the whole country. Here, today, at an altitude of over two thousand meters, they still play bowls, burn the Befana in January, eat polenta and minestrone with pancetta. They still use the same Venetian dialect spoken by those first immigrants, whom the natives called cuah´tatarame, the strong and sturdy giants´.

Venezuela - Aeronautical adventures

2008-01-29

Venezuela is a world of water, clouds, grassy plains, ancient rock and explosive scenery. It reveals a wonderful nature made up of deserts, meandering rivers, powerful deltas, rainforests, coral islands, geological feats and an extraordinary humanity. From north to south, one passes from the wild coasts of Caracas, which run for hundreds of kilometres in front of sandy peninsulas and prosperous archipelagos (Los Roques, Las Aves, Isla Tortuga and Isla Margarita), down to the central plains which lead to the Gran Sabana (the region of legendary mountains and tablelands, the tepuy) and finally to the Amazonian forest. From the Columbian border, the peaks of the Andean Cordillera, land of Indios and mountain civilizations, tower over the Caribbean Sea and the Orinoco Delta.

Australia - Flying over the West Coast

2008-01-29

A coast to coast amongst the clouds and Australian skies. That is, from Perth to Darwin on board a small, private airplane, to discover the wonders of the western coast of Australia from up high, thanks to an aeronautical adventure of five thousand kilometres. A flying safari which starts off in the extreme south of the continent and follows the whole coastline up to Darwin, just a stone´s throw from Indonesia. Under the wings of the twin-engined plane flow interminable beaches, intricate river deltas, amber cliffs, ancient meteoritic craters, deserted archipelagos and tiny Aboriginal communities surrounded by the nothingness of the outback.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon commission)

Panama - In the capital of the Chinese speaking canal

2008-01-29

Panama is an incredible mix of races, and one can understand why by visiting the Panama Interoceanic Canal Museum. To build it, more than 70 thousand men arrived from 97 different countries, and their descendents never left. Opened in 1914, the Panama Canal is one of the greatest works of civil engineering, a bridge spanning across two worlds, the umbilical cord of the Americas. However, sitting on the stands of the Miraflores locks, one is struck by a peculiarity: many of the passing vessels are Chinese. They are the real masters of the canal explains a guide, the Chinese own the two Ocean ports. They were purchased by the Hong Kong based Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, the colossus belonging to Li Ka-shing, one of the ten richest men on earth.
(Text by Alessandro Gandolfi available upon request)

Panama - The many souls of America´s Switzerland

2008-01-29

Panama es mucho más que un canal..., cite the tourist brochures. The word, anama, in South American Indian, means abundance. Here we have everything that God needed to create Paradise wrote John Le Carré. In Central America, Panama has the highest middle-income per capita, whilst the skyscrapers of Punta Paitilla are evidence of its Yankee soul, devoted to profit and expenditure. Panama is the Switzerland of the Americas, but it doesn´t only have banks and a famous canal: it has volcanoes and equatorial forests, national parks and unique ethnic groups such as the Kuna, who live on the islands of the Sun Blas archipelago. And the Darién, on the southern border, called the plug: it´s such a wild and inhospitable place that the Pan-American Highway ends here, in a small town called Yaviza, dashing the dreams of a road which could unite Alaska with Patagonia.
(Text by Alessandro Gandolfi available upon request)

Egypt - Rommel's beaches

2008-01-29

The Mediterranean you weren´t expecting. A new Egyptian Riviera still in development which will become, according to the plans of the tourism investors, the alternative to the Red Sea, which is now passé and overcrowded. From Alexandria, in Egypt, up to the Libyan border, runs a sandy and semi-deserted coast 400 kilometres long, lapped by transparent, tepid waters. On the trail of our historical past, one can still hear the echoes of the Second World War. Rommel with his Panzers, Cleopatra and Julius Caesar´s love affairs, the bloody battles, the memorial sites and the new travel economy mix in and around Marsa Matruh, amongst solitary beaches, old lighthouses and lagoons swarming with Cairene families.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon commission)

Kenya - Nairobi, art in arrival from the shanty towns

2008-01-25

Nairobi is a sprawling metropolis where some of the biggest and degraded shanty towns in the African continent can be found. However, amongst the shacks of these cities made of sheet metal, barbed wire and rubbish, some interesting artistic realities are developing. We can find painters, musicians, actors and other artists who are developing creative routes in difficult situations, were it´s much easier to turn into a criminal rather than an artist. Some are beginning to enjoy a certain fame in Kenya, whilst others are still unknown, but the important thing is the attempt to try to escape from the situation of utter squalor in which the inhabitants of these places live.
(Text by Claudio Agostoni disponible sobre pedido)

China - Red star, white houses

2008-01-25

In China, the era of the pagodas has ended: the latest architectural trend is inspired by a garish neoclassical style which exalts the new xenophilia of a nationalist people, but who want to live in a house decorated with Corinthian capitals and statues of Zeus. King of this trend is Li Qinfu (one of the 100 richest men in China) who has constructed a replica of the American Capitol on the outskirts of Shanghai for his textile manufacturing company. In Hangzhou, in the meantime, someone has decided to reconstruct a perfect, full-scale replica of the White House, exact in every detail, right down to the objects on the President´s desk, and to turn it into a theme park where tourists come to have themselves immortalised at the Oval Room desk.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Madagascar - African Sea

2008-01-23

The botry sail between the tortuous Madagascan coasts and the sandy landing-places of Nosy Be. Groups of men and women unload bunches of bananas, chickens, and all kinds of merchandise. It´s market day in Hell Ville. Three hours, with a favourable wind, are needed to reach the nearest port of Grand Terre. Sailing amongst the islands which surround Nosy Be, one risks an indigestion of beaches, coral reefs, rocks, groves and watery corners in which to enjoy a tropical swim without comparison. One minute it seems like you´re in the Maldives, next, the Seychelles.

Croatia - Dubrovnik Dreaming

2008-01-16

A city-state, fortified island, Mediterranean vision. Its stones sparkle brightly under the Croatian sky. After centuries of marine history, it´s now time for Dubrovnik to rest, having become one of the most popular international tourist locations. Seen out of season, perhaps at night, far away from the bustle of the restaurants and bars, its walls turn into surreal stages to be trodden under the light of the moon, with the red roofs as theatrical wings. Perfect forms, architectural stories to be studied from the sea and the surrounding hills. A real star, seen for once, with a special eye.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon commission)

United States - Las Vegas views

2008-01-10

A non-place above all others, the triumph of kitsch and reconstructed locations, the city of entertainment par excellence has now become a scaled-down Disneyland for families. One gambles, goes on wild shopping sprees, eats cheaply and is amazed by the special effects created to the sound of poker dollars. Photographic plates at 180°, for a capital of vice which has become sweeter, but ever more bright.

Mali - A journey to Fatima's hand

2008-01-07

The pilgrimage to the Hand of Fatima begins in November and ends in March. To reach the Main de Fatma, the most imposing granite spires in Africa, one must climb. It is a lay pilgrimage, silent, made up of long hours in buses and days passed on the rock faces. The Hand of Fatima: five sandstone fingers, smooth and compact, five pillars in the middle of a savannah whom all call the African Dolomites, in an area north of Mopti which resembles Monument Valley and which up until a decade ago couldn´t be entered. Fault of the rebel Tuareg, and the conflict which sees them opposed to half of the West African states. The last truce goes back to the autumn of ´99: since then, in the north of Mali, there is no more shooting. And the Aiguilles de Garmi (or Grami Tondo in the local dialect), with its 600 metres of cliffs, and which really does resemble a hand, attracts rock-climbers from the world over

Canada - On America's iced top

2008-01-07

The voyage across the Rocky Mountains follows the legendary 93, the Icefields Parkway, 230 kilometres which run over the frozen roof of America. Along this road, in the last three centuries, tales of men and exploits have intertwined, the sufferings of the natives and Hudson´s Bay´s dreams of commerce, the conquests of the railway and the birth of a pioneering tourism with a European feel. Here, today, straddled between Alberta and British Columbia, can be found some of the finest protected areas in Canada. The Jasper National Park, the variegated Kootenay, and the Yoho with its marine fossils: the proof that millions of years ago here there was a sea. But the oldest of all is the Banff National Park, where wolves and bears can avoid the automobiles, thanks to expensive bridges camouflaged as paths.

United States - The Berkshire art mill experiment

2008-01-07

'In North Adams, Massachusetts, in the heart of the Berkshires - say their web site - a former historic mill building known as the Eclipse Mill, with over 125,000 square feet of floor space, has been converted into forty artist live/work studio loft condominiums. These are large open space units with high ceilings where an artist can both live and work in the same space'. All these artists-residents (painters, writers, photographers, sculptors, illustrators, musicians, dancers, potters, weavers and filmmakers)escaped from big cities to refugee in Berkshire's hills, and all of them are now expected to contribute to a sense of community, and invited to participate wherever possible in artistic events held throughout each year.

Mali - Following the Niger river

2008-01-07

It´s one of the most spectacular festivals of Western Africa: the Niger herd crossing, a transhumance towards south, where ancient laws decide the entrance of the bovines into the water, the search for new, green pastures and the longed-for return of the Fulani herders who, isolated for months on the edge of the Sahara, return to the Niger each year with their herds, crossing the mighty river in the search for fresh grass. The crossing will take weeks and will involve other villages, but it´s in Diafarabé, a tiny village along the Niger banks, where, in December, the first cow will jump into the water and start the procession, and where the festival which welcomes the return of the young Fulani men to their women will begin.

United States - New England, Europe on the other side

2008-01-07

The United States was born in New England on a cold day in 1620, when a ship called the Mayflower docked at Cape Cod. On board were a couple of hundred wretches from England: they called themselves pilgrims, and were searching for a new Jerusalem and believed to have found it here. Four centuries later, New England a together of states in the north eastern corner of the country: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont is still the most European amongst all the American regions; the most enchanting during the autumn months, when the leaves turn to gold and the voyage becomes a homage to the hills of Vermont, the clippers on the Mystic, Boston with its merchants and intellectuals. But the real New England can be found on the New Hampshire car number plates: live free or die is their motto. Because this isn´t America they say it´s New England above all.

Italy - Slovenia - Gorizia, the lost border

2008-01-07

Gorizia: a city halfway between Berlin and Athens, Madrid and Kiev. A city of borders and thresholds´, historically the meeting point of the three great European cultural and linguistic families: Latin, Germanic and Slavic. A meeting point which the city has retained, even if the 1947 peace treaty sliced it in two, creating a Slovenian sector (Nova Gorica) and an Italian one. A partition emphasized by a small wall, 50 centimetres high and dominated by a wrought-iron mesh fence, which fell last December with the entrance of Slovenia in the Schengen area. Up until the fall of the Berlin wall, on one side of the Gorizia wall there were the lights and the contradictions of the West, on the other, the shadows and the fears of real socialism. The symbolic location of this urban rift was the Transalpina, the Nova Gorica railway station, recognizable for its characteristic, early 20th century, secessionist style.
(Text by Claudio Agostoni available upon commission)

Cuba - Havana Pop

2008-01-07

A visionary city, defragmented in its urban character and structure. A non-place full of icons and secrets, lively and chaotic in its social and metropolitan weave. It´s an impossible feat to try to describe the Cuban capital. One has to start from a single family in order to discover the roots, the tribal structure, the mysterious adhesive which keeps the whole island united. In the moment of maximum transition, between Castro´s era and that which will happen straight after, Havana will be Cuba´s mirror, the navel of the world for the Cubans, who will probably face the most decisive year regarding their future. With the usual nonchalance: cigar in mouth and dreamy gaze.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon commission)

Perù - The Incas' Masters

2008-01-07

When the Spanish, led by Francisco Pizarro, conquered Peru in 1535, capturing the Inca emperor, Atahualpa, they didn´t even realize that they had destroyed a fully-developed civilization. The Incas however, were only the last to arrive in these territories. Their empire was formed around the 13th century and was preceded by many other kingdoms. Starting from the 17th century BC, the date that marks the birth of a historical epoch with the Chavin civilization, various populations, amongst which the Lambayeque, Moche, Chimù, reached an extremely high level of refinement from which the Incas, much coarser, but militarily evolved, took inspiration after having conquered them. Today, the archaeologists who work in the excavations in Northern Peru, are making ever more new discoveries regarding these ancestors who we could call the Incas´ masters.
(Text by Bruno Zanzottera available upon commission)

Nepal - The ancient kingdom of Lo

2008-01-07

It is obvious that we are on the boundary of one culture and that another is about to begin´. Thus wrote the expert on Tibetan culture, Giuseppe Tucci, as he left Nepal and entered Mustang. The Kingdom of Lo, as its inhabitants call it, is a portion of Himalayan territory at an altitude from 3,000 to 6,000 m amongst the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri mountain chains. A corner of Tibet where the monastic structure, as it was before the Chinese invasion, still survives. Its capital, Lo Manthang, can be reached only after several days walk, and, during the month of May, the Ti Ji is celebrated, the kingdom´s important religious ceremony, where the monks dance a long series of Cham (sacred dances) to represent the struggle between the god Palchen Dorje Chono and the demon, Tharpa Nagpo Rutha.
(Text by Bruno Zanzottera available upon commission)

Slovakia - Bratislava, eurozone, capital boom

2008-01-06

Bratislava didn´t even exist as a capital before the secession from the Czech Republic in 1993. Before low-cost flights, few considered the city as an holiday destination. But now, between foreign investments and ambitions for tourism. it dreams in style. From the Castle one can see the new urban structure. On the northern side, in the historic city centre, the old, aristocratic districts. On the other side, the buildings from the Soviet era seem to belong to lost communist world. But it´s only an impression: the river division is an illusion. Even on the poorer bank, new shopping centres, Multiplex cinemas and residential areas for the nouveau riche have sprung up, which are decentralising the wellbeing and interest from the overcrowded city centre.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon commission)

Canada - Québec, artic safari

2007-12-19

An extraordinary journey with Huskies along the frozen mouth of the Saint Lawrence River, amongst six metres of snow, woods, timber refuges, ice hotels and subpolar surroundings. A race through the forests north of Quebec City, around the village of Saint David de Falardeau, not far from Lake Saint-Jean and the Saguenay fjord, as well as the Atlantic coasts of Eastern Canada covered by white cedars, firs, birches and pines. The dense undergrowth, where the dead pine needles on the ground form the sapin, a fragrant and insulating carpet, becomes a spectral universe, kingdom of reindeers, moose, stoats, otters, foxes, wild rabbits, wolves, beavers, caribou. Dogsledding is a tough passion. Forget getting behind a sled and enjoying the ride.

Caribbeans - Grenadines, the wind archipelago

2007-12-19

Once they were epic sperm-whale hunters, unbeatable naval carpenters and, before still, pirates under the pay of Capt. Kidd, now the majority of the inhabitants of the smaller islands of the Windward arc live thanks to sailors from the world over, who from December to April flock to the stunning berths of St. Vincent, Bequia, Canouan, Union Island, Mustique, Mayreau, Grenada, St. Lucia, Martinique and the Tobago Cays, to explore the tranquil seas, enchanted lagoons and flourishing coral reefs. A paradise for all sailors, the archipelago has nearly 100 islands which make up the arc of the Lesser Antilles. Territory of whalers, ex English colony, theatre of legendary feats and battles, today these waters have been blessed by nautical tourism.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon commission).

Romania - Bucharest, eastern endless nights

2007-12-19

An all-round portrait of the Romanian capital. After the entrance into Europe, the urban economy has radically changed. The upper middle classes have exploded, the nouveau-riche are on the rampage and the dozens of new hi-tech clubs, restaurants, discos and casinos are all the rage. The capital is one of the last places on earth where the borders which divide Stalinist heritage and capitalist opulence coexist in total harmony, at least on the surface. Trends are born and cultures metabolized. The result is a fun and contradictory chaos, full of surprises, unexpected enchantments and surreal beauty.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon commission)

Mali - Muddying up the castle!

2007-12-12

The city of Djenné was for centuries one of the main cultural and commercial centres for the kingdoms which developed within the territory of Mali. Its huge mosque, made of banco (bricks of mud mixed with straw), is one of the most important buildings to be found in sacred Sudanese architecture. Razed to the ground in the 19th century by the puritanical fanaticism of Cheikh Amadou, head of a theocratic state opposed towards any kind of decorative element which could distract one from prayer, it was reconstructed in 1907. Each year, the building is covered with a new layer of mud to defend it from the rains which erode its walls. This is the occasion for a vast public ceremony which involves the whole city.
(Text by Bruno Zanzottera available upon commission)

United States - Montana, Sitting Bull's land

2007-12-11

He fought for the freedom of his people, and to defend them, fled to Canada, can be read on a granite marker in Plentywood, Montana. The inscription refers to Tatanka Iyontanke, better known as Sitting Bull, the great Sioux chief, who, after years of flight and exile, surrendered to the American army in the precise spot where the granite marker is found. It was the 16th of July, 1881. His odyssey was played out in a tight corner between Montana, North Dakota and Canadian Saskatchewan. The Americans still call it Sitting Bull´s land, a land of prairies and hills shaped by the withdrawing glaciers, broken up by the waters of the Missouri and whipped by a warm wind the Chinook which the Indians used to wait for in winter as a gift from the Great Spirit. A piece of Frontier which the pioneers at the end of the nineteenth century used to call the big sky.

United States - Lexington, like a battle in a film

2007-12-11

The sun still has to rise over Battle Green, yet hundreds of onlookers are lined up along the road. The photographers inside a barrier on the edge of a field, the re-enactors who are ready to enter on the scene, the police to make sure that everything runs smoothly. It´s not a Hollywood production, but it could be, considered the effort, the attention to detail, the passion of the actors who will shortly come into play. In the bucolic village of Lexington, in Massachusetts, a few kilometres from Boston, it´s the 19th of April, and like each year, the armed conflict of 1775 is commemorated re-enacted in the tiniest details. It´s not an ordinary battle, but the first battle of the American Revolution, fought by the rebel colonists against His Majesty´s British soldiers.

United States - The indian revenge comes from art

2007-12-06

Tammy is a Tafoya, she works in a huge shed behind her house and carves bronze pieces of the most mysterious beauty. Marcus is a Choctaw, and sitting on the sofa of his living room, he dedicates part of the day to the creation of armlets and bodices using the tiniest pearls. Diego, on the other hand, paints pottery, mixing old designs with postmodern life scenes. What do Tammy, Marcus and Diego have in common? To start, they all live near Santa Fe, in New Mexico. And their works of art, displayed in the most important American art galleries, are sold for tens of thousands of dollars. They are friends, some even went to the same schools, and by expertly merging Indian style with contemporary art, they have managed to create a truly artistic phenomenon. Which, on the one hand, turns to tradition and on the other, is decidedly business orientated.

Jordan - A history of stones

2007-11-24

The millenniums of Jordanian history speak to us through the stones: the biblical, water-eroded valleys which saw the passage of Moses during his wanderings towards the Promised Land, the necropolises of the Nabateans, the Roman propylaea, the castles of the Crusaders. Wherever you are, in the Middle Eastern country of the Hashemite dynasty, you will bump into a rock which has a story to tell.

Benin - Voudou, the oldest world religion

2007-11-24

Voudou, which literally means 'spirit', or even more literally 'unconscious sign', is an African religion with a strongly esoteric character. Modern Voudou is the derivation of one of the most ancient religions in the world, present in Africa since the dawn of human civilisation. Some historians believe that the ancient Voudou religion even dates back ten thousand years. Widespread in many areas of the Black Continent, the profound philosophic wisdom of Voudou then spread throughout the Americas, as a consequence of the deportation of black slaves to the new colonies. Today, Voudou is practiced by about sixty million people worldwide, and has recently gained the privilege of being recognised as an official religion in Benin and Togo, where it is organised in a church frequented by the majority of the population.

China - Shenzhen, Deng Xiaoping's masterpiece

2007-11-24

In 1980, Shenzhen was a village with 20 thousand fishermen. It was then that Deng Xiaoping decided to transform it into an enclave based on the principles of the open market. Today, Shenzhen is a metropolis with 12 million inhabitants and an annual economic growth of 20%. However, in spite of the immense development, the city represents an exemplary urban model, not just in China, but in the rest of the world, to the point that the International Union of Architects awarded its city plan in 1999. For the future, the municipal party committee wants to further transform Shenzhen into a modern high-tech logistic centre and a high profile cultural-ecological city. This is what´s happening.

Cuba - Que viva Harley!

2007-11-24

According to an unofficial census, there are about a hundred Harley-Davidson´s surviving in Cuba. From the day of the revolutionary triumph in 1959, they are prisoners on the island, left to their own devices and forced into a subsistence regime by the commercial embargo which doesn´t allow the importation of spare parts from the United States. They are looked after by a handful of enthusiasts - or maniacs, pioneers and nutcases as someone has called them who share the same destiny and who would willingly, and sometimes have, gone hungry, in order to keep their motorbike on the road. Amongst these is a very special figure: the eldest son of Ernesto Che Guevara.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

China - Yunnan, the Disneyland of the ethnic groups

2007-11-24

It´s the Chinese province where the majority of the country´s ethnic and tribal minorities are concentrated, 26. The territory extends from the snowy northern mountains to the border with Tibet (today renamed Shangri-La), to the central valleys where the Yangtze river curves into its first meander and where, in the medieval stone villages, the matriarchy of the Naxi women still survives, to the palm forests of the south, on the border with Laos and Burma. Peking has decided to exploit this ethnic and naturalistic patrimony in order to turn it into a sort of amusement park for the use and consumption of domestic tourism, with surprising and sometimes questionable results.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

North Korea - Inside the utopia

2007-11-24

An exceptional reportage from the heart of the impenetrable kingdom of Kim Jong Il, the absolute dictator of the most totalitarian state on the planet, completely isolated from the rest of the world, anchored to a rigid pseudo-socialist ideal and founded on the most maniacal cult of personality which the human mind has ever been able to create. In the immense cities and deserts, in the woods, in the ancient villages, the people try to survive the scorching summers, freezing winters, hunger and famines but without neglecting their duty as good citizens: to honour the sacred name of their Great Leader every day of the year.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

India - Mumbai, Indian Vespa

2007-11-24

The Vespa has been, and continues to be in some way, the motor of economic development in India. In the Seventies, Piaggio, the patentee, handed over the production lines of the illustrious scooter, protagonist of la dolce vita, to a Bombay company, and the Vespa found a new lease of life in the Indian subcontinent, where it became the most popular scooter. Here it is today, more fashionable than ever, in the streets of the country´s economic capital, renamed Mumbai in the meanwhile.

India - Pondicherry, nostalgia for France

2007-11-15

In Tamil Nadu, the former French colonial enclave of Pondicherry, for nearly thirty years an autonomous state of the Union territories, founds its existence and a consistent part of its economy, on faith. In the city, Catholicism, Hinduism and the cult of the guru Aurobindo are practiced, whose followers dream of a Utopian city which will probably never be completed. Outside the temples, the population, like the rest of India, curses the local Government. Surprisingly, however, it looks back with nostalgia on the good old days when the French used to govern us.

Italy - Sardinia, Shepherds´ wrestling

2007-11-15

In Barbagia, in the wild heart of Sardinia, survives an ancient millenary tradition. Its name is S´istrumpa, a sport which lies halfway between Sumo wrestling and a tribal rite of passage. In this harsh land which lives off sheep farming, where demonstrating one´s physical strength and courage is still the only way to obtain society´s approval, traditional wrestling is the most widespread pastime amongst the inhabitants. Every man worthy of this name is, or has been, a gherradore, the term with which the wrestler is designated. It is precisely from here that the most famous gherradore comes from, former Mister Universe, close friend of Arnold Schwarzenegger, today resident in California: Franco Columbu.

Equatorial Guinea - Beautiful and damned

2007-11-14

A miniature country in lesser known Equatorial Africa, once a Spanish colony, governed by a totalitarian dictator which the European Union supports underhand, whilst some non-governmental Spanish organisations fight to save the unique forests from the assault of the timber and cacao industries. Chronicle of the ordinary madness of a regime in the shadow of the palms, amongst monkey hunters and the stories which inspired Frederick Forsythe´s best-seller The dogs of war´, and which gave Mark Thatcher, son of the former British Prime Minister, the idea to attempt a coup at the head of a group of mercenaries, in order to overthrow the dictator in power.

China - Xinjiang, Chinese Far West

2007-11-14

This province in the remote north-west of China faces Mongolia, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. 5,000 kilometres from Peking, it´s a medieval world which lives far from the winds of change: the only winds here are those which blow across the Taklimakan desert, or the gusts which come down from 7,000 metres from the Tian Shan massif. A voyage in China´s furthermost frontier, rich in oil which the pipelines carry towards east, depriving it of profits and condemning it to a calculated poverty for which Peking is responsible, so that the nationalist forces can´t take root. Here, the Uigura, a Turkish ethnic group, writes in Arab, prays to Allah and is a powerless witness to the cultural colonisation which will change it forever.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

North Cyprus - Neverland

2007-11-14

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (recognised only by Turkey with this name), declared such in 1983, has been under international embargo since 1974, year in which the Ankara troops occupied it. Today, Nicosia (Lefkosha for the Turks) is the last city in the world divided in half by a wall which cuts the houses in two. Since the Greek-Cypriot sector of the island became part of the European Union, the wall has also become the ideal border between Europe and Turkey, in a certain sense. Meanwhile, the northern part of the island, surrounded by a splendid sea and oppressed by diffuse poverty, tries to survive and save the monuments, legacy of three thousands years of history.

Jordan - Amman, Los Angeles of the Middle East

2007-11-14

One and a half million Palestinians. A million Iraqis. The Jordanians in the minority. A city which stands on 19 hills. A complex traffic system which calls to mind Los Angeles, just as much as the ethnic and denominational mosaic into which its population is broken up. A unique sociological experiment in the Middle East: a community of refugees who have fled from the wars in neighbouring countries, not bringing a baggage of poverty and desperation with them, but, on the contrary, contributing to the cultural wealth, economic prosperity and lightning development of that, which half a century ago, was little more than a provincial town.

India - Sikh: the Punjab lions

2007-11-12

The Sikh are the protagonists of hundreds of jokes which depict them as clumsy and slow-witted. They always carry a weapon in their belt and they have a long history of battles and bloodshed, because fighting is their reason for living. Sikhism is a religion and even if its followers don´t assemble in barracks or battalions, their past is steeped in blood. The turban, the long beard and the name which unites them (Singh, that is, lion) which they gave themselves five centuries ago, were, even before being professions of faith, a declaration of war against the Mughal invaders, descendents of Tamerlane, who entered northern India from the Afghan steppes to bring terror, destruction and Allah´s word. And, in some way, in modern India they continue to be so.

Martinica - The Yole tour

2007-11-11

On the island of Martinique, the most famous in the French Antilles, a unique competition takes place. The Tour of the island with the Yoles Rondes. These are sailing boats with a maximum length of 10.5 m, endemic to Martinique, derived from gommiers, the traditional Antillean boats made from dug-out tree trunks. Over the years, the competition, which is carried out in 7 legs around the island, has become so important so as to transform the yoles into powerful sea machines and to supplant the carnival as main event of the year. The regattas are followed by practically all the inhabitants, who go wild with frenzied dances at the end of each leg.
(Text by Claudio Agostoni available on commission)

South Africa - A man, a woman and the rhinos

2007-11-11

Clive Walker lives in the remote South African region of Waterberg, today a UNESCO world heritage site. In his garden can be found a black rhino bull and a white rhino cow. Together with his wife, Conita, he is attempting to reintroduce, with a certain success, black and white rhinos into the parks of southern Africa. These animals, which were on the road to extinction due to merciless hunting they suffered for their horn, used in Chinese pharmacopoeia and erroneously considered to be an aphrodisiac, are now returning to populate the African savannahs also thanks to the efforts of the Walker family. Clive, however, is also a painter and rhinos are naturally amongst his favourite subjects.

(Text by Silvana Olivo available on commission)

Russia - Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave in the heart of Europe

2007-11-11

Kaliningrad is a Russian enclave embedded between Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea; with its widening in 2004, it now borders with EU member states and is located in the geographical centre of Europe. With the name of Königsberg, it was the capital of the Prussian State and the Order of Teutonic Knights. The city was bombed during the Second World War, razed to the ground and conquered by the Red Army. The few surviving German inhabitants were expelled en masse and substituted by Russian populations. The former cathedral, previously in ruins, was only restored after the fall of the Berlin wall and is one of the very few historical buildings in the city. In Kaliningrad, amongst other things, can be found the largest amber deposit in the Baltic.

West Africa - How much? 10 shells

2007-11-11

Cypraeidae or cowries are shells which are endemic to the Indian Ocean. They arrived in Africa under the form of ballast in the European sailing ships which began to sail the oceans around the 15th century. They immediately met with a huge success and many African kingdoms adopted them as currency. They were used for centuries in this way and only the colonization of the continent around the end of the nineteenth century reduced, but didn´t eliminate, their use. Today the cowries are still used in certain rural areas of West Africa for small purchases and for ceremonies, where they are given to the families of the deceased, to newlyweds and musicians. Furthermore, the cowries are a decorative element for sacred masks and headdresses for initiation rites. They are one of the items used by fortune-teller during their divinatory sessions.

Italy - Comacchio, the eel marsh

2007-11-04

Today, the Comacchio Valleys are a paradise of water, made up of canals which are the destination of keen birdwatchers. But at the beginning of the twentieth century, this territory of lagoons and marshes was a hostile place where malaria reigned sovereign and men survived only due to their fishing and eel conservation and processing abilities. The eels became the symbol of Comacchio, and in the Delta Park, fishing is still carried out with the traditional lavoriero´ method, a sort of large arrow point on the surface of the water which blocks the exit mouths of the valleys. A couple of years ago, the ancient Manifattura dei Marinati was reopened, where the eels are cooked in the huge fireplaces, just like they were over a century ago.
(Text by Massimo Calvi available on commission)

India - Puri, the temple city

2007-11-01

In Puri, one of the four holy Hindu cities, in the state of Orissa, life revolves around a huge temple dedicated to Jagannath, one of the incarnations of Vishnu, whose curiously primitive appearance is an enigma which has never been completely resolved. The temple, visited each year by millions of pilgrims, and whose access is barred to non-Hindus, is the city´s main economic cornerstone: it creates work for about twenty thousand people, who, in the internal hierarchy, are divided into 97 castes. In the area of Puri are some of the most impressive monuments of Hindu art to be found in the whole subcontinent, as well as the sacred crematoriums which work nonstop, and where every Hindu aspires to be cremated.

India - Kashmir, the conquest of paradise

2007-11-01

For more than half a century, the problem of Kashmir, debated by India, Pakistan and local independence groups, seems without solution. Even today, after the peace talks between the two Asiatic countries seem to be on the right track, the region, of Muslim majority, which in the past was the cradle of Sufism, an Islamic mystic movement, still remains under military garrison like no other place on earth. Notwithstanding this, it´s a paradise which retains its decadent charm, as all forgotten places do, where Islam, at times, still feels like magic.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Afghanistan - Kabul City Tour

2007-10-31

In Afghanistan, the first tourists are returning before the peace, on the initiative of Great Game Travel, a travel agency founded by two courageous Americans. They have about a hundred clients a year, they are curious, willing to travel without comforts, someone demands to visit the caves of Tora Bora, scene of one of the most bloody battles between the American army and the Taliban forces. We followed a group of twelve Americans from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon, during the excursion with which they start (or end) all the journeys in Afghanistan: the tour of Kabul.

United States - Flying over the Wild West

2007-10-23

In flight over the most scenographic areas of America. Gliding and circling over the all-American national parks in the south-west, to discover the real skin of the United States. Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Texas and Arizona seen from the clouds: canyons, geysers, artificial lakes, surreal cities, enchanted bays, windmills, famous bridges, deadlands, national parks, natural graphisms and ecstatic visions of the most spectacular territories in the whole of America. Few Indians in this Far West. No cowboys. But lots of sacred ground in Manitou land.

Tunisia - Green Maghreb

2007-10-23

The green side of Tunisia. Far from the clichés, the southern desert, the mountain oases and the touristic folklore, lies a country which is trying to relaunch the protection of its natural patrimony through a more precise management of the national parks and the nature reserves which are found in the northern part of the country. An important step towards a greener Tunisia, a complement to the investments in mass tourism which subsidize the greater part of the Maghrebian economy, but which often ignore the environment. A voyage amongst oryx, marshes, avifauna, perfumed woods and surprising panoramas. A piece of green Africa embedded between the dunes and the Mediterranean.

Namibia - Savannah, clouds and dreams

2007-10-23

The hatches of the small aircrafts allow a fantastic bird-eye view of the Namib Desert, the dunes of Soussusvlei, the Kunene River, the Kaokoland and the Skeleton Coast, just to quote the most famous places in Namibia Watching the wildlife from up above is surely a strong emotional hit, just as good as taking the usual 4x4 car tours and follow the animal tracks on the grounds. Overflying colourful Himba villages or the majestic Namib Rand, amongts prairies, dry mountains and savanas, is a rare opportunity that will surprise everyone. Take a look at the extraordinary orography of Namibia from a distance, and then land in a peaceful bush camps to sleep in 5 stars lodges and discover the people, the animals and the great beauty of Africa Australis.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon request)

Jamaica - One love, no love

2007-10-23

Jamaica is often presented as a Caribbean paradise, but beyond the walls of the luxury resorts it presents a profoundly contradictory face. The rural society, incredibly fragmented from a denominational point of view, lives in semi-poverty on a fertile land. Kingston, the capital, is a chaotic, degraded city, afflicted by rampant criminality. The lush coastal region of Hellshire, declared a national park, has been left abandoned. And a peoples, who, impassioned by the proclamations of the Rasta religion, seem to nurse a constant grudge against the West, the same West whose way of life they attempt to reproduce in the large towns.

India - Ladakh, when oracles and shamans meet Buddha

2007-10-22

A little after the start of the Tibetan new year, 2 inhabitants from the village of Stock and 2 monks from the Matho monastery repeatedly fall into a trance and make prophecies on religious questions as well as bestowing blessings to remove obstacles and bad luck. The chosen oracles, called lu-yar (body lenders), prepare for the event with a long hermitage where they meditate and make offerings to the Dharma guardians before the Rongsten Karmar divinity takes possession of their body. When this occurs, the oracles exhibit themselves with a series of Cham (sacred dances) inside the two monasteries. All these ceremonies originate from the shamanic tradition found in Ladakh before the arrival of Buddhism into which it was then introduced.
(Text by Marco Vasta available upon request)

Mongolia - The Olympics of the steppes

2007-10-16

The Naadam, three manly sports, is the festival of all united Mongolia: a nomad Olympics which unites thousands of athletes from the four remote corners of the country. A sublime representation of hunting, war and its art (wrestling, horse racing, archery), probably invented by Genghis Khan to welcome the summer and mould invincible warriors. The giants of wrestling invoke Khan when, having beaten the opponent after a match which seems to have no rules, they jump around, miming with arms open wide the devekh, the dance of the eagle. The cry which accompanies the best archery shot is also dedicated to him, as well as the fixed gaze of the small horse-rider as he runs towards the finish.

India - The Mughal inheritance

2007-10-15

They arrived from the north, across the mountains of Afghanistan. They were young, fanatical Muslims and they were armed, and in a few years, fired by their faith and their swords, they conquered two thirds of the country. They killed, burnt and pulled down the anthropomorphic idols of the infidels, they built mosques on the temple ashes and imposed Islamic law, until the day when a western imperialist power, with no scruples and fitted out with infinitely more modern military equipment, marched on them and quashed them in the name of their god and economic profit. No, they weren´t the Taliban: they were the Mughals. Unlike the Mullah Omar´s militiamen, they brought the Renaissance to India. And this is what remains of their passage in the north of the subcontinent.

Egypt - Hollywood of the Middle East

2007-10-15

Cairo is still the Hollywood of the Middle East: 90 percent of the films destined for the Arab market are produced here.... Nabil Osman allows himself a cigarette whilst he looks over the two million square metres he can see from his office. This is the size of the Empc, the Egyptian Media Production City, a type of Cinecittà constructed ten kilometres from the pyramids. These studios are the largest after Los Angeles and Bombay points out Mubarak´s ex spokesman. Cairo has been the capital of Middle Eastern cinema for some time now. Its films are distributed from Morocco to Turkey to the Gulf States, reaching a public of 300 million people. It´s also for this reason that the Egyptian dialect is understood in all the Arab world.

Cameroon - Mandara, the mountains of the Moon

2007-10-14

Close to the Nigerian border, the extreme northern region of the country, where the plains dotted by volcanic peaks offer a scene beyond this world, where the Kapsiki ethnic group, strictly animist in a predominantly Islamic area (the Muslims use the term kirdi, that is, infidels, with reference to the Kapsiki) keep alive some of the most extraordinary and delicate traditions of darkest Africa.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Malaysia - Prayer and torment

2007-10-12

Thaipusam is the most important Hindu festival. A sort of Thanksgiving: the occasion to repent one´s mistakes, to atone for one´s sins, to show gratitude to the gods, or to ask them for a new favour. However, the nations in the world which accept its cruelty are few. Proclaimed barbarous and uncivil in India, where it was born more than 1,400 years ago, the Thaipusam festival practically survives only in Singapore and Malaysia, preserved by the Tamils who were taken here from the south of India by the English. In Kuala Lumpur, a million people meet in huge caves for three days of prayer and to fulfil vows, which foresees complicated forms of torment and group self-torture.

South Africa - Cape Town voices

2007-10-11

It´s one of the most beautiful cities in the world, as well as being the location where geographical Africa ends. Cape Town is changing, growing. Waiting for the next World Cup. In the meanwhile it´s becoming trendy. We gave voice to musicians, writers, artists, trend-setters and chefs to try to understand exactly what´s happening in the small and sparkling South African metropolis. Five interviews, a sidelong glance, no comment. Only a personal, grandiloquent view. Voices from a fun and relaxing city, surrounded by stunning nature and its aura of un-dispersible frontier. A non-place which has nearly totally subdued the post-apartheid social tensions and which looks to the future in the pursuit of a harmonious development.

Mali - Liquid Africa

2007-10-11

The periodic overflow of the Niger, which runs from southwest to northeast through the whole of Mali, for several months each year transforms the entire region into an unreachable water world. Unique graphic elements and colour tones flow between Bamako, Mopti and Timbuctoo, along the internal delta. Thousands of canals flood the plains, transforming dozens of villages into snow-white islands, surrounded by a blue-green sea made up of grass and fens. The main artery, on the other hand, is busy with punts travelling between the desert and the capital. The markets of Djennè are in turmoil whilst the taxi boats between the villages work nonstop. The fords are impassable, Africa becomes a universe of water with muddy borders. The dust disappears amongst extraordinary lights, calm navigational reflections and Malian silences. The Sahara blends with black Africa.

Canada - Toronto, the multiethnic challenge

2007-10-11

An extraordinarily lively city, born under the emblem of multiculturalism, where 85 different ethnic groups live together in harmony. A noteworthy example of a multiracial society, a city which continues to experiment with architecture, a constant open-air stage for street artists from the world over.
(Text by Melania Mazzucco available on commission)

Honduras - The pirate coast

2007-10-10

The story goes that in the September of 1779, the notorious Welsh pirate, Henry Morgan, led the attack on the fortress of San Fernando de Omoa, which the Spanish had just finished constructing, precisely in order to protect from buccaneers and pirates, the territories and riches plundered from the locals. Actually, Morgan, who died of cirrhosis of the liver on the 25th of April, 1688, was the protagonist of many abominable feats, but he certainly couldn´t have taken part in a battle a whole century after his death. His image of able pirate has, however, captured the imagination of the Hondurans, who have transformed him into a sort of national hero in a war against the loathed conquistadores.

Yemen - Chewing Paradise's flowers

2007-10-10

Illegal in many Arab nations, qat is the national drug´ of states such as Yemen, Djibouti and eastern Ethiopia. In Yemen, the cultivation of this plant has practically supplanted that of coffee, of which it was one of the world´s major producers. In Yemen, about 80% of the adult population chews qat and on the qat market stalls of San´a, slogans such as Chew and relax, success will arrive on its own stand out. Here, qat dictates the rhythm of life, all offices are closed in the afternoon when all the inhabitants, women included, are busy in the chewing rite. Around mid-morning, the men get on the phone to decide where to meet to chew, and consequently go to buy qat, all vying to demonstrate that they are connoisseurs.

China - Shandong: Buddha, Bath and Beyond

2007-10-10

The north-eastern province of Shandong, say the Chinese, is the only province in the country which can boast four seasons: this means that the economy is mainly agricultural. However, the government tries to exploit the mild spring and summer climates by attracting tourists here: and for them for the most part Chinese has created beaches, restored monuments, and constructed imposing Buddhist complexes from scratch, transforming the scenery forever.

Cameroon - Amongst the Kapsiki, where dying is a party

2007-10-10

In the Mandara Mountains region, in the extreme north of the country, near the Nigerian border, live the Kapsiki ethnic group, strictly animist in a predominantly Islamic area (the Muslims use the term kirdi, that is, infidels, with reference to the Kapsiki). The Kapsiki keep alive some of the most extraordinary and delicate traditions of darkest Africa. Amongst these are the funeral ceremonies, unique in the continent, during which the deceased takes part in the dances, duly dressed up, balanced on the shoulders of the masters of ceremonies. This is the extraordinary document of one of these very rare ceremonies.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Bolivia - The cloud people

2007-10-10

Here are the people of the tablelands, the people to whom president Morales wants to give all power. One of the forgotten populations of Latin America, people left to their own devices and the daily struggle with Mother Nature, with an impossible climate, hard, dry terrain which produces little fruits, with an oxygenless air at five thousand meters which burns the lungs. For these reasons they are a hardened people, proud, strong, who live life with their heads held high, walking with the slow but sure step of mountain dwellers, and who are always ready to reveal a smile.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Azores - The Wild West of European Union

2007-10-09

Lost in the Atlantic, the archipelago of the Azores is located on the extreme westerly border of the EU. Nine volcanic islands, hard, ferrous earth, yet covered in a luxuriant vegetation which manages to survive on bare stone. A unique climate which permits the cultivation of oranges, passion-fruit and tea on the same hill. A nation which feels abandoned by Europe, accustomed to battling against nature, snatching every metre of land from it, day after day. An exceptional architectural patrimony where the stylistic phases of Portuguese baroque are the common denominator in hundreds of churches. An incurable passion for festivals, which always finish at midnight with the inevitable fireworks.

Tunisia - Amongst the oases of the inland sea

2007-10-09

It´s coming down from the Berber village of Chebika that one begins to glimpse the flat depression of the Chott el-Jerid. An immense white slab which sparkles under the sun, an arid tract which the winter rains animate with tiny waves. There was a sea here in the past, and in the nineteenth century someone even had the idea to fill it again. An impossibility. But even today, a thin crust of crystallized sodium alternates the depression together with mud, clay and marsh. Crossing the lake has always been dangerous and the road which divides it in two is the most spectacular in Africa. It´s the road which introduces south Tunisia: the attractions of Tozeur and Nefta, the oasis of Ksar Ghilane, Matmata, which was the setting for Star Wars, and the magnificent dunes of the Great Eastern Erg.

Brazil - Bahía, where the gods make love

2007-10-08

Salvador de Bahía is Africa transplanted in Brazil. A colonial city unique in its genre, with 166 churches, 15 forts and three thousand animist temples where candomblé is practised, the syncretic, sanguine and sometimes violent religion which arrived on the western coast of the Atlantic three centuries ago, together with the slaves from the Gulf of Guinea. Amongst the alleyways of the city, where baroque gold coexists with the favelas, white magic with Catholicism, African traditions with Creole folklore, it´s impossible to hide from the magic, the witchcraft, the soul of Black Africa which permeates every corner and every instant of everyday life.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

China - Shandong, the apple kingdom

2007-10-07

In the north-eastern province of Shandong, two million hectares of land are used for apple cultivation by small, independent farmers. The apples are Fuji, the most highly regarded variety. From the ports of Yantai and Qingdao, the Fuji apples depart to conquer the world markets: every year 88 billion apples are shipped abroad, 12 apples for every inhabitant on the planet. We followed the journey of a Fuji from the tree to its port of embarkation.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Australia - Northern Territory: Not Today, Not Tomorrow

2007-10-05

From Alice Springs towards Arnhem Land, the Northern Territory is another Australia. Considered by the other states as a sort of useless appendage of the country, it´s a place where life goes by more slowly, regulated by the rhythms of nature which here rule over man, expressing their power with landscapes of rare beauty. Surprisingly, the Northern Territory is also where some of the model Aboriginal communities can be found, such as those of the Tiwi Islands, as well as the most striking examples of Aboriginal entrepreneurship, which is not just found in the usual art galleries: in Alice Springs, the Aborigines own an airline.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available on commission)

Australia - Melbourne, the experimental city

2007-10-04

It´s absolutely the liveliest and most progressive in Australia, the only metropolis of the country born from the gold rush and not from a penal colony. It was no accident that it was chosen as seat for the first federal parliament in 1901. It has nearly four million inhabitants from more than eighty different ethnic groups. In the city there is the world´s largest Greek community outside of Greece and an Italian community of more than half a million people. There are Italian, Greek, Portuguese, Chinese, Middle-Eastern, Maghrebi, Central African districts, and none of these gives the idea of being a closed ghetto. Melbourne seems to have created the golden formula of a multiethnic community better than any other city.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Argentina - Football: no, thanks, I prefer polo

2007-10-04

Created in Persia in the fifth century B.C., polo is the most ancient team sport in the world. Amongst its fans, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Tamerlano, who had the habit of using the heads of his murdered enemies instead of balls. For many, modern polo is an exclusive sport and surrounded by an aura of snobbishness. It´s true, but not in Argentina. Here, where the image of a man on a horse seems much more natural than elsewhere, polo is a sport just as popular as football, and a championship final is able to fill a stadium with twenty thousand places.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request; the same reportage is available in color)

Africa - Wings over Africa

2007-10-04

Nearly 10,000 kilometres across the whole of Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope to the Mediterranean Sea onboard two Cessna 210´s. A stunning adventure across 10 countries, 2 tropics, 26 different airports in 25 days of journey. 55 hours of total flying and 3,400 litres of fuel consumed from South Africa to Egypt.
A bird´s eye view over the spectacular landscapes of the black continent. An incredible safari on wings over archaeological wonders, national parks, herds of animals, unspoilt wilderness, hidden villages, tribes and natural masterpieces. A summary of Africa not to be missed, which is now open to other travellers thanks to an Italian tour operator who has opened the way amongst the African skies, from the Atlantic Ocean to the pyramids.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available on commission)

Armenia - In the shadow of the Ararat

2007-10-03

A small, almost ignored country, isolated at the feet of mount Ararat, Armenia hasn´t been in the news for a long time. Today, after more than fifteen years from the independence from the former Soviet Union, its population, which has not forgotten the genocide carried out by Turkey at the beginning of the last century and which has never been recognised by the international community, is trying to find its identity. The young want to live like Westerners, and subconsciously seek approval from the same West which seems to have forgotten them. At the same time they are rediscovering the Christian faith of which Armenia was the cradle.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available on commission)

South America - Lima-Rio on the road

2007-10-03

Seven thousand, five hundred kilometres from Peru to the Brazilian coasts, across the Andean cordillera, the Titicaca Lake, the Bolivian tablelands, the Pantanal forests, the never-ending plains of the San Paolo state and the sensational coast of Rio. Twenty-five dusty days on the road on buses, trains, pick-ups and boats, travelling from one end of South America to the other, following an invisible and very personal imaginary meridian between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn, from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. In search of the real day-to-day Latin American continent.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon request)

Afghanistan - The Chinese of Kabul

2007-10-03

Since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, the Chinese have been the protagonists of a real invasion of Afghanistan: they have arrived in their thousands to capitalize on the reconstruction opportunities created by the end of the conflict. Today, the bazaars of the capital overflow with Chinese products, the motorcycles built in Guangdong are the most sold, Chinese restaurants spring up like mushrooms (and, in defiance of the law, serve alcoholic beverages) and Chinese technicians are busy everywhere in the construction of new buildings. But, in Kabul and many other cities, numerous guesthouses have opened, which are really only brothels in which the young Chinese prostitutes, many of whom are illegal immigrants, entertain their clients. Drugs bound for China, and then the rest of the world, often pass through here.

Namibia - A wonderful dry garden

2007-10-02

It has the world´s oldest desert and the tallest and reddest dunes in existence. It has green plains kissed by the pale dawn sun, tablelands which slope down towards the foggy coast and suddenly rise up into spectacular cliffs, the same cliffs which offered shelter to the first men on Earth. The beauty of Namibia is such that it takes ones breath away; a coarse beauty which seduces over time, which captures you with its largeness and its silences. A solitary tree growing in a white and motionless lake, a small straw-coloured flower which has managed to sprout from the dry earth, branches and tree trunks like spirits condemned to live under the sun. It´s in this way that Namibia, only apparently dead, has learnt to seduce the world.
(Text by Alessandro Gandolfi availabe on commission)

Italy - Amongst the Tabarkini of Carloforte

2007-10-02

Squeezed in the south-western corner of Sardinia, San Pietro is one of the most beautiful and interesting Mediterranean islands. For one reason, most of all: its history, closely tied to that of the Tabarkini community. A group of Genoese coral fishermen emigrated to the island of Tabarka, along the northern coast of Tunis, in the 16th century, but were forced to leave two centuries later because of pirate attacks. The community found shelter on the island of San Pietro and the Tabarkini have lived there ever since. With their ancient 16th century Ligurian language, a cuisine which is a curious mix of flavours and a historical centre that of Carloforte, the capital whose architecture resembles that of the Genoese quarters.

Lithuania - Crossing the rebel country

2007-10-01

On a train travelling to the Baltic Sea. Three hundred kilometres from Vilnius to Klaipeda, to explore this (small and flat) country, which in 1990 was the first to rebel against the Soviet empire. The capital, Vilnius, captivates with its decadent baroque style, its proud and pleasure-loving air, the lively clubs. But one just has to leave the city to observe the slow lifestyle of the countryside, the farmers at work in the fields, the tranquil canals immersed in the green vegetation, the low hills and the forests where hidden nuclear bases lie abandoned. Klaipeda has a Prussian air and once, permission from the KGB was required to enter it. Today, its bars attract cruise tourists who, the following day, will visit the Curonian Peninsula: to come here asserted the philosopher von Humboldt is just as necessary as visiting Spain or Italy.

Lithuania - Journey to the sand peninsula

2007-09-30

The Curonian Peninsula, also called the ''Lithuanian Sahara'', is a strip of sand a hundred kilometres long which overlooks the Baltic Sea, five thousand years old and part of the Unesco world heritage since 1991. Once, Soviet politicians used to come here on holiday; today, the peninsula is still a tourist attraction, the fishermen still live along the coast and many of their cottages have been turned into splendid guesthouses. Travellers from all over the world come here to see the sand dunes by the sea, to visit the parks (like ''witch´s hill'' with its folklorist wooden statues) and to buy the famous jewellery made from Baltic amber.

Australia - Opal predators

2007-09-21

Coober Pedy, in the South Australian outback, is the world´s queen of opals. In no other place on earth are so many of these precious gems extracted, formed tens of millions of years ago when here there was a huge internal sea and not the desert there is now. From above, Coober Pedy is a vast Gruyere, with more than 250,000 holes a metre wide and twenty deep which are the result of 90 years of excavations. Some have found fortune in Coober Pedy; many others have wasted years in the search for a gem which is not easy to find at all. However, there are those that are still trying, continuing to live in dwellings carved out of the rock (to combat the heat) and frequenting the town´s historical society.

Algeria - Back to the Assekrem

2007-09-19

Thirty years ago, Algeria was one of the most popular Saharan destinations of the entire Maghreb. The Tassili National park, the Hoggar mountains, the orographic wonders of the Assekrem, the dunes and the pinnacles of the Tadrart Acacus, the Djanet oasis, Timimoun and Tamanrasset, or the holy cities of Ghardaia, were the settings for expeditions and amazing adventures, amongst the Tuareg, off-road vehicles and sand. Then, the arrival of Islamic extremism, the attacks, the terror, the civil conflicts, razed the country´s foolish ambitions of touristic development to the ground. Today, on the contrary, the whole southern region, which hosts the most beautiful areas of the Sahara, is finally peaceful and safe. The first travellers are returning, tent camps are reopening, the oases are repopulated with tourists. A full-scale return, even if with a couple of physiological difficulties, to the splendours of the past.

Cuba - Feather-weight revolution

2007-09-14

We entered into Havana´s state boxing schools, veritable sanctuaries where its practically impossible to be admitted and where the secrets of a pure method of training are jealously guarded; training based on anger and the wish for revenge more than on technique. The gyms are in disrepair, with makeshift equipment. Elementary-school children and teenagers work-out barefoot or wearing old leather shoes, with rag gloves and a punching-ball made from tyres, in the name of the socialist revolution and with only one aim in mind: winning.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Australia - The Great Australian Cattle Drive

2007-09-14

A few years ago, a group of seasoned cowboys put it into their heads to revive the age-old custom of droving, which once used to drive thousands of heads of cattle for hundreds of km across the grasslands and the deserts of South Australia. For some time now, the herds are moved on board of road trains, and the cowboys began to think that the old art of droving the herds, would be lost. Thus, the idea of a Cattle Drive was born, which every 2 years sees expert drovers and young cowboys drive a large herd and a numerous group of tourists towards the new, winter pasture lands. The route winds its way between red sand dunes, salt lakes and tiny, isolated villages, following the Old Ghan trail, the legendary train which used to cross the continent from south to north.
(Text by Bruno Zanzottera available on commission)

Ghana - Beware, Beware, the witches are back

2007-09-12

Gnani, in Northern Ghana, seems like a classical African hut village, but instead it´s a special village, a village of witches. The thousand or more people who live there are all elderly, for the most part women, accused by their families of having used their powers to carry out crimes of different sorts. Many firmly deny to being witches, but some proudly admit that they possess magical powers. In Africa, every manifestation of nature encroaches on the supernatural. Here, mountains, rivers and rocks are living beings, able to interact with man. Animals are the incarnation of spirits, and a life which ends prematurely is the work of an evil spirit, working under the guise of a village inhabitant.
(Text by Bruno Zanzottera available on commission)

India - The crazy Bombay nights of the rich

2007-09-12

The high society hates Bombay but couldn´t live anywhere else in India writes Suketu Mehta in his Maximum City. In Mumbai, frenzied metropolis where soon, there will be more people than in the Australian continent, the filthy streets merge with the clubs which vividly resemble Soho. Here you can meet the industrialist, the young actress, the famous artist and Monica, brilliant descendent of a Rajpur royal family, well inserted in high society and able to open every door in Mumbai. She guides us in this night-time tour to discover the new mid-upper class made up of rich young people, educated abroad, who wear Prada, drive BMW´s and go to discos where entrance is at the discretion of the management.

Ghana - Ashanti, the gold religion

2007-09-12

For Africans, gold is the metal of metals, unchangeable and eternal. As a living being, gold does not live in nature but moves around the earth. It can make itself visible and invisible. The Ashanti gave the Sacred Stool, a golden artefact, the task of uniting the peoples and creating a great kingdom through the priest Okomfo Anokyie, who made it fall from the sky into the arms of king Osei Tutu. Since then, the Stool is the Nation´s symbol and is only shown during important ceremonies. Ashanti festivals are the externalisation of the rituality expressed through the gold which, worn in abundance, the king shows to his subjects as a sign of power and authority. In fact, it´s with gold that the secret pact between king and religion is sealed.
(Text by Bruno Zanzottera available upon request)

Great Britain - London on the ball

2007-09-11

London has a dozen professional football clubs, each with its own stadium. The reportage crosses the city passing from one ground to another to discover a city which differs from that of Piccadilly Circus or Regent Street. Every stadium is inserted in a quarter and very often its history is the photograph of who lives there (a snobbish quarter will historically have a snobbish team, and vice-versa). It´s no accident that the pubs around the stadiums are frequented by fauna which differs greatly amongst itself. Furthermore, the London teams represent the new social realities of the city (Arsenal is the team most loved by the Africans, Chelsea permits itself a digression on how the east European nouveau riche have landed in London).
(Text by Claudio Agostoni available on commission)

Algeria - Algiers, back to life

2007-09-11

The city begins to live again after the dark years of Islamic extremism. In particular, the young and the women represent one of the vital elements of this new cultural ferment which opposed the fundamentalist obscurantism with all its might. Today the people are trying to forget in every way the years of gratuitous cruelty, perpetrated by both sides in a mortal combat for power. Artistic and cultural movements are being revived, where the attention is drawn to the West in the tradition of a lay and tolerant Islam.
(Text by Andrea Semplici available upon commission)

Tanzania - Ol Doinyo Lengai, God´s volcano

2007-09-10

Ol Doinyo Lengai is a unique and extremely fascinating volcano situated in the Great Rift Valley. It´s the only volcano in the world which erupts carbonatite, a very fluid lava which is much colder than balsaltic lava (510° C, compared with the normal 1100° C). This lava emits an orange light during the night, but isn´t incandescent during the day; the majority of the flows resemble very fluid black oil, or brown foam rubber. Its name means God´s mountain in the Masai language, who venerate it as a sacred place and who climb it now and again to offer sacrifices to the volcano´s god. On its slopes can be found the Natron lake, rich in soda deposits with the characteristic pink-red colour and nest-building area for flamingos.
(Text by Cristina d'Antonio available upon commission)

Bolivia - Where the earth touches the sky

2007-09-10

From Sucre to Potosi, to Uyuni, to Tarija, Latin America rises up to dizzying heights, until it touches the sky. At five thousand meters in the motionless air, the earth offers visionary views from a metaphysical painting: landscapes from another planet, abandoned mining towns which tell the story of the silver epic, the huge salt desert of Uyuni, steam trains like archaeological ruins crystallised forever and a curious museum: that which contains the remains of Butch Cassidy, who came up here to hide from the law, and who found his death under this sky.
(Text by Sergio Ramazzotti available upon request)

Ireland - People from the Emerald Island

2007-09-03

A peoples which has a harp as its symbol couldn´t have been born anything less than poets. A nation which loves to recite songs and poems, which erects statues to its most famous bards, which organises tens of musical festivals to a tradition which the English never quite managed to repress, well, a similar nation couldn´t be anything but happy. Fun, extrovert, cordial. There are those who say that the Irish are like this because of their natural inclination for smiling, but also because of all the sufferings which they have had to overcome in the last centuries. A series of disgraces and tragedies which they have learnt to scoff at and laugh over. 'The heart of an Irishman wrote Shaw after all is none other than his imagination'.

Tunisia - Tunisi Lifestyle

2007-09-02

Beside the suq, the Medina and archaeology, Tunis is evolving into a modern and pleasant metropolis. With new residential districts, skyscrapers, elegant seafronts, art centres and avant-garde nightclubbing. Truly a city of the new Africa, a country which is changing and growing, thanks to important investments, clever politics and a new cultural and economic shadow world. In the hands of young yuppies and the middle and working classes, who snub European fashions and styles, as well as the Western markets. Far from extremisms but never forgetting their traditions.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available on commission)

Jamaica - The Love Republic

2007-08-30

The two Hedonism resorts are situated in Jamaica. They allow all guests to wander around completely naked and have sexual encounters more or less where and when they feel like. Single guys, girls and couples seeking new thrills may enjoy a free independent Love Republic where almost everything is permitted. A full photo chronicle of ordinary craziness set in a tropical and modern Sodom. Please note: all pics have been shot in Jamaica inside the Hedonism II and III and all models and guest appearing have signed a privacy release.
(Text available on commission)

Brazil - Bahia Sound

2007-08-28

In Salvador de Bahia, the 'blackest' city in Brazil, one can listen to the low beat of a corner of Africa transplanted amongst baroque churches and architecture. It starts from the Pelouriñho, pulsating heart of the historical centre, and radiates everywhere. It's a widespread creativity nurtured by music, religious rites and pride in one's roots, carried in chains across the Atlantic.
(Text by Claudio Agostoni available on commission)

Perù - Lima Lifestyle

2007-07-10

Unexpectedly, over the past few years, the Peruvian capital has become a trendy metropolis. Thanks to a revisiting of the traditional cuisine in a fusion key and kitchen stars such as Gaston Acurio, Lima is experiencing a moment of fashionable popularity without precedents. It´s even transforming itself into a development model for other South American cities. The newborn gastronomic culture even seems to be prodding the identity crisis which has always pervaded Peruvian society, by revaluating the importance of Andean traditions. Mountain produce, (potatoes first and foremost, there being about 3,500 varieties), is invading half the kitchens in the country and ends up on the tables of the capital´s respectable scions, spurring on the leisure culture. New clubs, lounge bars, chic restaurants, fashion ateliers and trendy parties are the must-dos of the new Peruvian lifestyle.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon commission)

Tanzania - Hunting with the prehistoric man

2007-07-05

They are called Hadzabe and are amongst the very few genuine hunters and gatherers left on earth. Except for a few details, they live in the same way that mankind did for about a million years, before discovering agriculture, pastoral farming and the various forms of social and political organisation. An encounter with them is the same as coming face-to-face with our origins, the way we were before undergoing a multitude of cultural and technological conditionings. They live around Lake Eyasi in northern Tanzania, not far from where Louis and Mary Leakey discovered the fossilized remains of the first Hominidae which proved the African origins of man.

Uganda - The King of the Rains

2007-06-28

At 5,109 meters, the Rwenzori is the 3rd highest mountain in Africa, but forms part of the most complex and intricate African mountain chain. It has 6 different peaks, each with its own glacier, which represent an enormous fresh water reserve, also able to nourish the Nile basin as Tolomeo asserted more than 2,000 years ago. Its name means rain maker and its peaks are perennially surrounded by mists which enhance its beauty and mystery. The massif was linked with the legendary Mountains of the Moon, whom explorers went in search of, hoping to find the source of the Nile. Because of its unique ecosystem, it has been included as a UNESCO world heritage. It was conquered on the 18th June, 1906 by Luigi Amedeo of Savoia, Duke of the Abruzzi. (Text by Bruno Zanzottera available upon request)

Australia - The gold which shook the continent

2007-06-27

In 1851, gold was discovered in Australia. In less than a month the continent was shaken by a rush which drew in sailors, clerks, judges, shepherds, ex convicts and immigrants from the world over. Gold was also discovered in Western Australia; it was then that the isolated Australian region up until that time only inhabited by prisoners condemned to hard labour opened itself to the world. Coolgardie, Leonora and Kalgoorlie were born in those years: the extracted gold was taken to Perth, shipped worldwide or processed in local mints. Today, Coolgardie and Leonora are ghost towns; but not Kalgoorlie, which remains a typical frontier mining town where this precious metal is still extracted and where miners like to have fun in the evening.

Europe - Iron Curtain Trail

2007-06-27

An aboriginal walk about along a chaotic Middle-European route. An on-the-road between two seas; the Baltic to the Black Sea across an old continent, still surprising, beautiful and devastating, a modern yet 19th-century country at the same time. Perhaps, more simply, a historical and generational circle to be closed, with eyes glued to the road and shutters drawn: to smell the brackish coastal air, the woods´ resin, market fragrances and, alas, smog of endless lorries. A modern caravan route from the Baltic Republics across Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria, following part of the ex-Soviet frontier, the Danube´s course, the Romanian countryside, the Bulgarian steppes and the Macedonian mountains.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon request)

Venezuela - Yanomami - The aesthetes of the forest

2007-06-27

These images gather some testimonies of the extraordinary sign culture which still rules the complex tribal society of the Yanomami Indians. Today the communities are semi-nomadic and frequently controlled and protected by missions and research institutes. They still have, however, an extreme appearance. Every comma which appears on their backs, every smudge, circle or ochre serpent which adorns their bodies has a precise significance. Red and brown are colours representing joy and friendship. Black and dark shades mean war. White demonstrates the wish for peace. In this way we enter into the world of the ekurà, the forest spirits.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon request)

India - Pushkar, peace after the storm

2007-06-26

Pushkar is famous for its camel fair, held each winter in the heart of Rajastan, which transforms the holy city into a chaotic, frenzied place, where pilgrims, tourists and tradesmen live together for a few days amongst dust and general fervour. After the huge festival, what remains of the ghats´ holiness or the magic atmosphere at sunset as the light slides silently down the hills cutting in two the temples and the buildings on the holy lagoon? Behind the curtain of Middle-Eastern hippies, profane commerce and internet points, the village still retains a surprisingly special aura which makes usual Indian visions disappear. Dismantled the circus tents of this famous eastern fair, Pushkar still pulses with ascetic solitude and secret energy.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon request)

Maldives - Surf in paradise

2007-06-26

It´s not easy to associate the archipelago´s relaxed atmosphere with the surfing adrenaline. Nevertherless tribes of Japanese, Australian, American, Hawaiian, Portuguese, South African and Brazilian lads arrive here every springtime, searching for the perfect wave amongst the world´s most beautiful islands. Even if talking of rollers in the Maldives, after the tsunami seems like a tasteless joke, there will still be good waves and bad. The archipelago´s president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, relates that waves have always been good friends to the Maldivians. He recalls how children have always surfed from time immemorial, with wooden, improvised boards, learning how to deal with sea currents and tides before becoming fishermen and oceanic navigators.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon request)

Myanmar - Mergui Islands - The hidden archipelago

2007-06-26

The Mergui are a paradise hidden amongst the folds of politics and time. Eight hundred islands spread over a vast stretch of sea, 36 thousand square kilometres in front of the coasts of Siam. A string of coral, tropical forests, atolls, stacks and cliffs, scattered over the north-south axis of the Burmese coast, untouched for fifty years, from the time when the English colonisation ended. Little lake dwellings can often be found amongst the islands, or communities of Moken and Selong fishermen (language family tree: Malayo-Polynesian) who still live following ancient customs and traditions.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available upon request)

Africa - Walking Safari

2007-06-26

Use your own feet in Africa. Safari in Swahili simply means voyage. Once, leaving meant getting a move on and walking to the sea, a train station or simply to the next village. Instead, today, going on a Safari means hours in a pick-up inside national parks and reserves which are more or less wild and crowded, trying to see and photograph as many animals as possible. The low rumble of the pick-ups is usually constant as are the bone-breaking potholes which accompany the thousands of wildlife watchers up and down the savannah. In southern Africa, it´s been possible for a while now to leave those mechanical noises behind and observe lions, elephants and giraffes in the best way, that is, on foot.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available on commission)

India - Bishnoi - Patrons of the trees

2007-06-26

The Bishnoi are a very peculiar ethnic group living in a restricted area of the northern Rajastan in India, situated mainly between Jodhpur and the Thar desert. These rural communities try to live following 29 supreme rules that are very protective of the environment and nature. Bishnoi men and women for instance, do not kill animals or cut trees for any reason and they fight against any violence to the ecosystem. Around their villages it´s easy to observe hundreds of Indian gazelles (chinkaras) living safely in peace. Nowadays Bishnoi still survive and stand for nature and peace trying to continue the ancient tradition of protecting the wilderness.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available on commission)

Gabon - The Lost Eden

2007-06-20

Gabon has two main resources, wood and oil. The Gabonese are rich, probably the richest in Africa in proportion. With the independence from France and the arrival of the large extraction and cutting companies, the economy of the country quickly changed. Great flows of hard currency invaded the coffers of the state. An environmental disaster. However, in 2002, the President, Omar Bongo Ondimba, during the Johannesburg environmental conference, surprised his African colleagues by declaring that his country wanted to change its ways by lowering the wood cutting quota and creating no less than 13 national parks simultaneously. More than eleven percent of the territory.
(Text by Davide Scagliola available on commission)

Mexico - Holbox, secret beaches

2007-03-21

Five years ago, this Mexican island was practically unknown, a place off the beaten track. Up to now, the two thousand inhabitants (there are even about thirty Italians who have opened restaurants and pousadas), have lived more or less in blessed peace, welcoming a couple of hundred freak travellers each year. However, the development plans are frankly alarming. The road, which from the junction of the Cancun-Merida motorway leads to Chiquila, the embarkation port for Holbox, is being renovated and seems ready to welcome the big Riviera Maya buses. The beaches and the lands to the east, the wild Ensenada, are in the sights of the allotters and the hotel companies. It is rumoured that even Fox, the former president, has bought a large slice of palms and sand on the farthest point.
(Text by Davide Scagliola upon commission)

Mexico - Who says that mexican wine is crap?

2007-02-05

In the land of tequila and beer, wine has never been a success. Up until the only Mexican wine region began to make a name for itself. In the Guadalupe Valley, between Tijuana and Ensenada, the climatic conditions are similar to those of Southern France, and the wineries, housed in ancient Dominican missions, are reaping successes thanks, above all, to the work and professionalism of Italian and French wine experts. In Mexico, wine consumption, with respect to other spirits, is increasing, and even the Americans have noticed this phenomenon, crossing the border by coach in ever growing numbers to taste the multi-awarded wines from Monte Xanic, Casa de Piedra, Bodega Santo Tomás or L.A. Cetto. But we don´t want to turn into a new Napa Valley a local producer has declared, there, the tourist has become more important than the wine!.

D/La Repubblica - Gabon, Paradise lost

2006-11-01

Parallelo zero: the reportage bank

Kenya - African Cape Canaveral

Afghanistan - The seven thousand legs man

Parallelozero's new workshops - Autumn 2010

Sportweek - Italy - Surfing Gaza

Il Venerdì di Repubblica - Kenya: space center

Travel Photography Workshop - Cruising with Msc in the Mediterranean November 2010

IO Donna - Italy - Kenya fishermen

Palestine - Surfing Gaza

Iraq - Baghdad - The last supper

Parallelozero at the Savignano Immagini photo festival 10/12 September - Portfolios reading

Travel Photography Workshop - Milan - September/October

Sette - Corriere della Sera - Gaza daily life

Palestine - Gaza daily life

Parallelozero at Rome Photography Festival - September 23rd/October 24th

Parallelozero's photographers at the Vsa Pour l'Image festival in Perpignan

Parallelozero at the Open Wound Festival of Santo Stefano al Mare (Imperia)

Profession: Reporter - Milan - September/October

D/La Repubblica delle Done - Travel special issue

Parallelozero selects submissions for its new nominees photographers section

Tanzania - An African Queen on Lake Tanganyika

Nigeria - Africa International Film Festival

Palestine - Paralympic dream

World - Madonna World Tour

North Korea - Maternity in North Korea

GEOLINO GERMANY - MUSIC IN AFGHANISTAN

Ghana - The glass beads game

United States - An Italian teacher in the Bronx

Dominican Republic - The South-West at Haiti´s door

VSD FRANCE - THE MARTYRS OF TIBHIRINE

A photograph from Parallelozero story "Footballing Africa" chosen for the cover of Sports Illustrated

VSD France - Surfing Gaza

Parallelozero at the third edition of Artèfoto festival

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED USA - SOCCER IN AFRICA

Italy - Surf in Milan

Thailand - Zen and the art of being a sea gypsy

Mauritania - My big, fat Mauritanian wedding

Brazil - Que viva Quixadà!

Senegal - Fight with Koran

ADESSO - Germany - Carloforte Island

Ramallah rebirth

Saudi Arabia - Wind of change from the Oil Empire

Brazil - The forgotten Sertão

Great Britain - Liverpool 1960. The birth of the Beatles

West Papua - A Babel on the edge of the world

FINANCIAL TIMES DE - ANTOINE BERNHEIM

Algeria - Tibhirine monastery, Life after Terror

India - Sufi, the Mystics of Islam

Saudi Arabia - Ancient cities in the Arabian deserts

Brazil - The Dendè coast

Myanmar - Karen: sixty years of war

India - Kurava's sacrificing

China - Old Beijing blues

India - Curfew in Kashmir

China - Beijing after dark

Bangladesh - Commemorating Imam Hussain

China - Little Miao go to school

India - Bhiwani Boxing Club

Africa - Footballing Africa

Afghanistan - Italy at war

Western Sahara - Saharawi, the wall of shame

United States - South Carolina, in the land of Gullah

Gioia - Italy - Istanbul

YACHT CAPITAL - CHILE SEAWEED HUNTERS

Little Big Men

Lufthansa Magazine - Italy - Cremona

CHRISMON GERMANY - SKATING IN KABUL

China - Three shift construction workers

Spain - Pilgrimage along the great Andalusian river

Tunisia - Africa's Roman heart

China - China Islamic Frontier

Dem. Rep. of the Congo - Kivu, the war continues

China - Nanjie, Communism is back

Palestine - Ramallah rebirth

Northern Europe - The Amber Road

Middle East - The incense route

Eritrea - Train of desires

Brazil - Orishas we're waiting for you

Geographical UK - Zanskar

GEO Germany - Zanskar

Brazil - Orishaswe're waiting for you