Ischia News ed eventi December 2013 Il Natale di Geoffrey e Kittredge
It was Christmas of 1930. Two young Anglo-Saxon people belonging to the middle class, Geoffrey Bret - Harte, half American and half English, 35, and Mabel Kittredge Spencer, American, both in love with the “Bel Paese” with the pleasure of writing, they get married in Naples in May of the same year and had decided to spend a year on their honeymoon on the island of Ischia, then little known in the international tourist circuits. In fact they discovered Ischia from Capri. “That beautiful island on the other side of the bay, what you see from the Piazzetta and ending with a high mountain peak”, asked the concierge of the Grand Hotel Quisisana. “Oh, you mean Ischia, you do not want to go there! Nobody goes to Ischia. No hotels, no foreigners, no entertainment”, was the reply. But Geoffrey and “Kit”, as the husband called his wife, did not hear him. They began to hire a motor boat with sailors and did carry on Ischia where they spent a whole year before staying in a small hotel on the Harbour and then in a nice house in Punta Molino (and it is still and called “the Araucaria”, from the tropical tree with prickly green leaves) owned by Colonel Buonocuore (probably Buonocore ).
Of that past year in Ischia - from May 1930 to April 1931 - they retained the impressions and memories in a notebook for Geoffrey and a diary for Kit that seven years later they released a book “Island in the Sun” in London by Hodder and Stoughton.
For seventy-six years this book has been forgotten and was not translated into Italian. Then a Milanese half-blood, Gina Menegazzi, translated and published it.
Our service is on pages................ of Our Magazine (Gina and the sense of life).
In December when came the cold Geoffrey and Kit had the problem of heating the home. There was not a fireplace. They wanted to build it at their expense, but the old Colonel did not agree. He advised a “brazier”. The maid Dominica took it newlyweds.
“It was lovely to look at - they write - like a big copper ashtray, which was in fact, the center of which was filled with burning coals of charcoal, covered with ash to prevent it burned too quickly. It was not made for heating rooms with high ceilings, but if you lean on it, the wind did not form more icicles, though, the desire to warm up, they are likely to remain asphyxiated”. But there came also a stove to heat the house that was preparing for Christmas.
“Ischia with its passion for religious festivals devoted a great deal of attention. Christmas is really the “feast” more important before the Passover”, they write.
“In the kitchen occurred mysterious things... for weeks continued to come by relatives of our domestic and Giovangiuseppe Dominica parcels decorated with special Christmas labels.... But the turkey came from Naples brought by courier Enrico “the honesty personified” that also changed the checks to the bank of the city.
“We were aware that we had the good fortune to live in a corner of the world so beautiful”, they write. Christmas morning was “memorable”.
“Not only our family but all of our friends on the island helped to make it so. The gate bell rang continuously and small street urchins, who acted as messengers, brought us baskets of fruit baskets, flowers and wine... the live rabbits... a cake made by her grandmother... Embroidery for Kit. In the afternoon the Island was “sleepy” because the islanders were busy celebrating in their homes”, and so the newlyweds went to lie on the beach and then returned home for a “rich tea”.
“We were completely happy and at peace with the world”, they write.
Who spent Christmas more or less like this or perhaps thus twenty years after Geoffrey and Kit is prof. Pasquale Balestriere, writer and poet, in his village of Buonopane - the service is available in the pages..... of Our Magazine (the Christmas Village) and observes that if time passes traditions remain.
“The island of Geoffrey and Kit there is still”, Gina Menegazzi told us and it is true.
Today we have a full calendar of events from December 6, 2013 until January 12, 2014 (the full disclosure is in the pages of our magazine....... and can also be found on www.ischianews.com ), especially in the towns of Ischia and Forio those of Waldimiro Frenkel, a Russian refugee who wrote a nice guide of Ischia in 1934, called “the two capitals”.
The charm of ‘Island in the Sun’ remains unchanged and traditions transmitted alive, like a relay race, from generation to generation that the change in surface but not in substance.
Truman Capote said so in 1949. Here the clock is not needed. This is a timeless island.
Ischia News ed eventi October in Ischia - Planet in an island
Alfred Rittmann (1893-1980) , the founder of modern volcanology in Europe to which was dedicated in 1987 by the academic world a mineral group of leuciti, typical of magmatic yellow rocks, called "rittmanite", considered the island of Ischia his "favorite" of all the places on Earth that he had seen and studied. He visited Ischia far and wide, and carefully walk for three years - 1927 to 1930 - and discovered the 'authentic geological nature writing a seminal text on the
“geologia dell’ isola d’ Ischia”. He returned to Ischia each year for increasing further research. With his assistant , Violetta Gottini , and photographer Gaetano Di Scala climbed Epomeo, the highest mountain of the island (788 meters), from all sides, from the east, from the north, south to discover that Epomeo "was not a rock formed under the sea but it is a tuff formed on the mainland and that covered a vast area that goes right under the Vesuvius and under the sea to Campi Flegrei". One hundred thousand years ago Ischia was more extensive of its 46 Km2 and came up to Ventotene.
‘Ischia is certainly, for volcanologists, a paradise because you can see things that nowhere else on earth I could see and I shot a lot and here are some amazing things", said Rittmann in a communication to the Centre for Studies on the island of Ischia on August 26, 1969 .
Here Rittmann found the planet in an island , his "paradise" on Earth , and he appreciated the inhabitants of an extraordinary cordiality because in every cellar he encountered in his explorations of the ravines and quarries farmer that tore the ground for the rock to plant the vine, offered him a glass of wine and a loaf of bread.
We went to see "La Mortella", the garden built by Sir William and Lady Susana Walton in Forio at Zaro. On an area of about 3 hectares, torn from rock , William - for about twenty years and Susanna for about 50 years - have made an extraordinary wanting to leave a touching testimony of love. There are 4 thousand plants from all over the world in what that Susana called "a giant vase of flowers carved into the stream of lava and then split by the earthquake, a basin of hard trachyte filled with 20 feet of solid humus". The Garden as wanted the designer Russell Page is "an expression of faith, the embodiment of hope, a song of praise". Nothing is left to chance and everything is placed with a meaning that speaks in the silence of nature.
But we tried to understand why and how did this Garden? How and why this couple - an English musician and a cultured young Argentinean woman - arrived in Ischia in a winter's day in 1949 and decided to live here and build a garden and then leave it to their death to the enjoyment of all, especially young musicians, so that everyone could know the love of a man and a woman, appreciate the beauty of creation, reflect on what Cardinal Martini called " the wonder of life." Everything is born "by accident or chance" would Lelouche.
But we went - for this October issue with which our Magazine "Ischianews & Eventi" closes the tourist season and will resume with the parenthesis of the holiday season in December and January – to see also recovered, after 100 years of neglect, the "vineyard of the thousand years" of lawyer Benedetto Migliaccio, his wife Giovanna and daughter Benedetta , in Serrara about 300 meters above sea level on the day of harvest and harvest the red grape from which the winemaker Andrea D' Ambra will release a fine wine.
We went down to sea level and between myth and peace seen and experienced Poseidon Thermal Gardens, one of the most beautiful spa parks of the world, with miraculous thermal water, hot sun of the month of October due to an exceptional microclimate .
We climbed the hills - almost to remind us of autumn - and went to explore the collection of mushrooms and chestnuts.
This and more is on ISCHIANEWS of October, however, which opens with a "Focus" on the problems of tourism policy with the conclusions of the conference organized by us on "Cohesion and Development in the island of Ischia" reflecting on the book by Carlo Borgomeo “ L’ equivoco del Sud” and the messages of the Minister for Territorial Cohesion, Carlo Trigilia and regional Councillor for Tourism and Cultural Heritage of Campania, Pasquale Sommese.
As if to say: we have a planet into an island of exceptional value and beauty in every detail that tourists from all over the world live and love and we all have a duty to defend it in while we're thinking about the economic and social development.
Ischia News ed eventi September 2013 A long Summer
It is the time of the autumn equinox on the island of Ischia. Ischia is the “climatic gem of Italy”, proved by prof. Cristofaro Mennella (1907-1976), climatologist and director of the Geophysical Observatory of Casamicciola and Chairman of the Centri Studi on the island of Ischia, in a very rare book published in 1958.
“Comparing with concrete data, the climate of the island of Ischia, both in absolute and relative terms, with one of the most celebrated places of the Peninsula, I came to the conclusion that the island of Ischia is a true gem in the shining crown of tourist and thermal and resorts”, he wrote.
There is a “happy coincidence” of many physical and landscape environments that make Ischia a “climatic gem”. September is the ideal month to live it all over, entirely, by sea and by land. It is the ideal time to discover the thermal parks, coastal inlets, confidentiality of beaches, under a summer sun. The summer here is long and lasts at least until the end of October.
In our September issue of “Ischianews & Eventi” we present this long summer especially from the land while in the August issue we focused on the sea. The September issue comes out twice with the supplement “Visiting wineries” with the story and the events of the great occurrence organized by Pro Loco Panza from September 15 to 18, and which is now in its sixth edition.
And the “heroic viticulture” of the peasants of Ischia – very ancient since Nestor’s cup of the eighth century BC - we have dedicated a report on D'Ambra Vini d' Ischia, the oldest winery of the island which this year celebrates 125 years and - for a right movement of the circumstances - has won this year the “tre bicchieri” of the “Gambero Rosso”, the most important magazine of the Italian wine industry, with its best wine, “Biancolella -Tenuta Frassitelli”.
But in the air of September with the story of all the religious festivals of the island we spent another service with particular attention to the feast of Santa Maria al Monte , on September 12 in the small church at 400 meters above sea level and that is for the islanders a “second Easter Monday” also lived with joy by hundreds of tourists and to that of St. Michael the Archangel in the village of Sant'Angelo which concludes at the end of the month, on Monday, Sept. 30 , with the evocative procession by sea.
We also present the rich calendar of events with its prestigious concerts by Fondazione William e Susana Walton at Giardini La Mortella and the beautiful cultural event “il contastorie” from September 12 to 22 with as the main host great actor Giorgio Albertazzi. Space also to local crafts with a story about the ancient art of packing wicker baskets and also a look at our history with the story of the tragedy of 70 years ago, on September 8, 1943, just when it was signed the armistice, it was bombed, perhaps by mistake, by a British airplane the town of Forio causing 43 deaths, all of them civilians including children and the elderly. But we do not forget the sea and its “institutional” problems and host a discussion on how to improve the Marine Protected Area that has become a resource for the islands of Ischia and Procida and not another attempt to administrative reorganization.As for the August issue also the September one contains the map with the paths of wine and typical products and reports the Marine Protected Area with the schedules of the maritime connections from the mainland to the island of Ischia and vice versa. And yet “Ischianews & Eventi” presence par excellence of the island of accommodation, catering services, with an indication of the places of interest worth seeing and the ‘chefs recipes’ to turn every tourist in chef who is inside each of us lover of good wine and good food.
Finally the bus timetables of public service run by the EAV bus, owned by the Region of Campania, and which are joined in drafting numerous phone calls of protest for problems. The terrestrial public transport is a must to improve the quality of our tourism.
This and much more, such as the discovery of Ravino Gardens and those of Aphrodite and still the park of the Nymphs Nitrodi on “Ischianews & Eveni” of September with the hope to live well this long summer.
Ischia News ed Eventi August 2013 Ischia to love...
How can it be lived and enjoyed the island of Ischia from the sea in this hot month of August when the Sun enters the Leo constellation for the classic period said Solleone? How to fully enjoy the charm of the sea? Where to go for the longest days of the year, choosing which beach resorts or spa parks, such as lunch or dinner in restaurants and choosing what to eat? Where to stay in the numerous and equipped hotels on the island? What to see, in moments of reflection, on this ancient island where civilized man has come since the eighth century BC and never went away? What to buy as a souvenir of an unforgettable holiday in art workshops both the ceramic or cosmetics or in the cellars where it gets one of the best wines in the world and August is the month of "Biancolella"? How to move around this island of 46 km2 that appears small but it is not, from one end to the other and use public transport that are never quite efficient? Finally the events: there are cultural interests. Ranging from Midsummer fires in the summer with the Assumption in Lacco Ameno to the manifestations of jazz and the nights of Negombo Night.
All this and more is explained in the issue of August / September 2013 of the Magazine "Ischianews & Events" directed by Enrico Deuringer with the co-manager Giuseppe Mazzella and the editorship of Tommaso Massimo Pilato. 95 pages in pocket format in Italian and English - the international language which is the official language of the European Union - is presented to the Italian and foreign tourist an island to love. The syllogism chosen for the cover headline - "Ischia d'A ... mare!" (Ischia to love) - is significant because it wants to invite the tourist to experience the island from the sea but ... also to love it. In English, in no uncertain terms, the imperative is categorical: “Ischia to love”.
The sea is the great metaphor for life, said a Lombard intellectual who was teacher for generations of high school students in Ischia, prof. Edoardo Malagoli (1928-2001), who taught Latin and history but also knew how to build boats called the "Rikki Tikki - Tavi" as the mongoose in Kipling's tales of the Jungle that wins its unequal struggle with the cobra snake as saying that the small boat was able to keep up with the more furious seas.
We went to interview the "diver-journalist" Franco Savastano that today is 78 years and fell down to the most interesting seas of the world to gather his emotions to 40 meters under the sea. What
happens down there? How is the living world with flora and fauna under the sea in Ischia?
We chose a beach for our summer, Maronti, the longest beach on the island with its three miles and we felt like Count Giorgio Corafà, General of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in the eighteenth century who built a road of 365 steps down from the district of Testaccio to Maronti. We can do that today much more comfortably with the driveway and we can use all the facilities of the consortium of operators. Sign of the times and Tourism for everyone.
We interview the minister of tourism of the Campania Region, Pasquale Sommese, which testifies the commitment of the region to consolidate the tourism economy of the most important areas of Campania and we try to tell our emotions seeing the sea from Ischia in our tour.
We present our topographical map of the roads of wine and typical products of the marine protected area of "Regno di Nettuno" to present in a nutshell the extraordinary peculiarity of the island of Ischia, which is "land" and "sea" to live , to enjoy but also to safeguard.
Finally, and it seems the most important, we have an invitation to ASL Napoli2Nord indicates that while the health services offered to tourists with all the contact details for emergencies, hopes "a summer of health" to all. An admonition to live the “sea, spa treatments, outdoor living and entertainment in a responsible manner”.
“Do not send on vacation common sense. Enjoy a summer really carefree, live a summer of health”.
Happy holidays to all!!
Ischia News ed Eventi June 2013Ischia between history and imagination
June, between history and imagination, a period that encloses Our time and helps us to project ourselves into the future by analyzing the past. Our time is the result of past choices, instead the future is in our hands, and together we can make the right decisions that will lead us toward a best future. The island of Ischia at the time of the Grand Tour, helps us remember the lost beauties, to re-appreciate the simple things, but not with nostalgia, even being full of strength and determination, optimism and clarity. The belle époque is a magical time for the island of Ischia, but mainly for Casamicciola, the spa town par excellence at the end of 900, which today is struggling due to lack of investment on land and the escape of local entrepreneurs. The cinema helps us to fantasize and imagine a best future making Ischia a tourist pearl in the '60s, the magic lives in auteur films with many scenes and unique places, but principally in the atmosphere that should be reported the everyday life of this enchanted land.
This year, our newspaper has a circulation throughout the country, with the inclusion of a new section on hospitality on the island of Ischia, corresponding to the section Welcome to Ischia on ischia.it, the newspaper is distributed in a total of more than 250 points on the island of Ischia, an achievement that fills us with pride and satisfaction, and that rewards the great work done by the entire editorial staff and contributors involved in our great project of communication and spread of the beauties of the island of Ischia. Thanks to the skill and mastery of Enzo Rando, Our official photographer for more than four years, every month we can get a picture on the cover of Ischia that strikes us, surprises, fascinates and intrigues, this month a magnificent view of Mount Epomeo above the town of Barano, with Capri and the Soerrentina Coast as background. This month is the time of the debut of a first insert to the newspaper, a map A3 to remove and use to move around the island of Ischia, going to meet the needs of tourists who move with difficulty on a territory so vast and full of treasures!
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