What are 25 dollars good for?

A cheap lunch. A mobile phone recharge. Four ice creams. Or:

- The fabrics Jacopo (Ecuador) and Cissy (Uganda) and Victoria (Bolivia) needed
- The poultry Samuel (Uganda) desired
- The calves Fortunata (Peru) and Nazokat (Tajikistan) whished
- The timber Hadijah (Uganda) required

All of them gave me back the money I lent them. What are now 175 dollars good for? Just give a look on Kiva !

Speak with the fire: talk to the Spirit.

The fire is the Spirit.
Speak with the fire: talk to the Spirit.
The fire shows you the way back to the Universe.
Talk to the fire: speak with the spirit.
What was energy from the Sun,
once trapped in the tree,
now goes back to the Sun.

The Spirit burns, both inside and outside.
The spirit moves, both in my hands and in front of my eyes.
The Spirit burns: and my sausages are ready.

Ticino I love you

We had 3 wonderful days in Ticino (CH) last weekend. A lot of sun, friendly people, astonishing panoramas and very good food. What could we ask more than this? Thanks to Luigi for giving us all the tips for this unforgettable holidays. To better show you the places we’ve seen, Lorana opened a Flickr account. In this way, you can enjoy our pictures in full size format … and much more. Below instructions on how to use the Flickr service:

Italian products from Campania far from being safe …

Click on this map and check if by mistake you bought some vegetables, cheese or meat coming from these places. This movie (click here to watch it) is only in Italian, but if you’ve some patience you’ll find that in the cities pinpointed in this map:

- water wells exploded because of bio-gas produced by illegal waste
- people are dying of cancer with a rate 6 times higher than in the rest of Italy
- sheep give birth to mutant babies because of high toxic levels of dioxin in the fields
- toxic wastes are used as compost (!) to fertilize agricultural areas
- shepherds have from 10 to 50 times higher concentration of dioxin in their bodies, and eventually die.

Pagate un corso di lingua inglese a Emanuela Di Pasqua!

Pagate un corso di lingua inglese a Emanuela Di Pasqua, subito!

Emanuela Di Pasqua (della bilancia, come tiene a precisare) e’ la “nuova” “giornalista” “scientifica” del Corriere della Sera. A leggere i suoi articoli sento la mancanza del mitico Franco Foresta Martin, che almeno prendeva la responsabilita’ di cio’ che scriveva. Emanuela Di Pasqua traduce articoli scientifici dall’inglese all’ italiano e per di piu’ sbaglia.

Bye bye Mozzarella di Bufala Campana :(?

You should be careful buying food originally produced in Campania region (Italy): soon a toxicity warning could come out. Sadly the above video is only in Italian. What is shown here to a group of European journalists follows:

- Sheep eat grass with higher than ever dioxin concentrations
- Soil mixed with industrial toxic materials is used to fertilize fields
- There are clinical evidences of higher tumor rates in Campania (in comparison to north Italy) due to polluted soil/food/air.

Inform yourself and don’t get polluted too!

You better run (with Polar) to burn your fat!

Christmas and holidays came to end. Your mama cooked very good and (!) a lot. You look like a little bit more piggy than before. The problem is now: how to get your body fit back again?

Don’t cry for Starbucks, Alessandraaaaa

[Starbucks] in Italia incontrerebbe una concorrenza serratissima [...] senza poter offrire prezzi competitivi. E la compagnia sostiene: «Se non siamo in Italia è per una questione di umiltà e rispetto. Non perché l’Italia non sia una priorità strategica» [articolo originale qui]. E allora sai che ti dico, Ale? Vieni di nuovo in Svizzera

eggs - and - bacon - and - salad - and - potatoes

Quite cold winter time here in Switzerland. The best day to eat fondue, but not only. Dear Wim and Julia, it is a long time we don’t meet, but every time the cold season approaches, we remember you cooking the famous Belgian farmer dish: eggs-and-bacon-and-salad-and-potatoes. We want to share this knowledge with other people, so we dare to write the receipt on-line. Let us know if something is wrong

Viva expovina!

In Zürich harbor you can drink good wine and champagne as much as you want for 20 CHF. Expovina is the wine exposition in Zürich. This year we took part of it and we will never regret it (it will be open until the next week-end)! We found many wonderful Swiss wines (like Cornalin and Houmagne rouge and many other no barrique wines), both white and red, and delicious French champagnes. People in the stands were nice but sadly we didn’t manage to visit all the 5 ferries where Expovina takes place. After the 4th ferry we couldn’t understand if we, the ferries or the whole Switzerland were rolling left and right, left and right ….