HANOI TRAIN STREET

HANOI TRAIN STREET

Sep 21, 2024 | JOURNEY FROM MUG TO MUG, WORLD, JOURNEY FROM MUG TO MUG, WORLD

Hanoi Train Street is something I discovered thanks to the TV showBeijing Express.

Unfortunately, I only ‘travel’ through others, thanks to the stories and images shared in several ways.

For this reason: images, I like Beijing Express.

Since it is broadcast on pay TV I have to wait for the free version, so only a week ago I happened to see Fru sitting at a table in a bar in Hanoi Vietnam for a coffee.

What could possibly be strange about that? It is true that I here celebrate the coffees of all those who give me the privilege of sharing, but why am I talking about a coffee seen on TV? 

This indeed wasn’t a coffee of the ones I like to call ‘calm.’

Train Street … the name leaves no mystery, but did you know that train tracks literally pass along a street in Hanoi just a short distance from buildings?

Hanoi Train Street

It was a discovery for me and so I couldn’t help but try to find out more.

The railway in Hanoi was built by the French in the early 1900s and buildings sprang up later in time.

In the second decade of the 2000s the narrow space between the tracks and the houses, also considering that the speed of the trains doesn’t particularly decrease as they pass through, became a tourist attraction growing to the point of being extremely dangerous.

The mania or perhaps we should say the urge to take pictures feverishly seizes many people and the Instagram wild created a risky as well as uncontrolled crowd.

This is why the authorities in 2022 closed access to tourists.

But you know: business is business.

Once upon a time, they used to say: ‘once the law is made, there’s always a loophole’ … so the buildings have been transformed into cafes that can safely accommodate visitors, with timetables and rules to follow.

So after telling you about The Happiness Trains we are now chatting about the Trains how? You tell me.

COFFEE ON THE ROAD

COFFEE ON THE ROAD

Aug 17, 2024 | JOURNEY FROM MUG TO MUG, WORLD, JOURNEY FROM MUG TO MUG, VIDEO, VIDEO, WORLD

Coffee on the road, can you tell me?

I hope you are one of those who are travelling to fantastic destinations these days.

How did you find the coffee?

Better? Worse? Long, short, black, macchiato?

With these words I always remind the scene from You’ve got mail. 

We are very sedentary and we only moved within our territory, but each time we’ve had a nice coffee.

You too?

If you could be inspired to send me a photo of one of your coffees, I would be HAPPY.

In the meantime, I will tell you about a virtual trip to places totally unknown to me thanks to Tomislav.

First of all, I congratulate him on winning the International Fiction Festival award for his Wonderful story about a girl with Papovka.

Caffè in viaggio

The first ten pages of his comic are published in the UK, then five pages in Macedonia in the magazine Devetka.

The comic will also be published in Serbia in the comics magazine Balon, in the magazine Strip Prefiks in Croatia, the first six pages translated into Slovenian will be presented by Supernova, the magazine Athanatik from Montenegro, and the publisher Koloseum from Banja Luka.

And the next target is the Bulgarian magazine Duga.

Tomislav told me about all these publications, accompanying them with a coffee for each of the places.

If you click on the words in bold you will find each of the links.

So starting from Serbia, here is the coffee in Niš Serbia and the Turkish-style spoon from in Niš.

Caffè in viaggioCaffè in viaggio

From Kikinda, also Serbia, I have no café but I was enchanted to see this wonderful tree-lined boulevard. 

Caffè in viaggio

Carpe Diem Cafe Zagreb Croatia what can I say? A perfect name.

Caffè in viaggioCaffè in viaggio

About Timișoara Romania we had already chatted, but can we give up these cappuccinos? 

Caffè in viaggioCaffè in viaggio

And finally Turkish-style Bulgarian coffee and Turkish sweets in the Balkan as Tomislav called them.

Caffè in viaggioCaffè in viaggio

Layla, on the other hand, was in Italy for six weeks studying in Orvieto and the photo in her story depicts Office Coffee – coktails. 

This is her video story 

Very nice, isn’t it?

What about you?

ABANDONED DISCOS

ABANDONED DISCOS

Apr 20, 2024 | MUSIC, MUSIC, VIDEO, VIDEO

Abandoned Discos is Max Pezzali’s new song for Warner Music. 

The title makes no secret of the subject, but what struck me was the video: a sequence of images depicting the crumbling remains of what were once places full of life and joyful moments, now inexorably abandoned.

The suggestion is made even more incisive by the succession of phrases by the Gotha of disc jockeys, see for yourself:

Have you ever been to one of these discos?

I used to like Friday nights at Celebrity: a discotheque near Novara that actually still exists, where my friend Daniela and I would literally spend the whole time dancing, and at the same time managing to chat 🙂

But it was at Vanità where I went to meet the man who later became my husband <3

The Vanità, the disco in Vigevano portrayed in the picture below the title, no longer exists: a mansion complex was built in its place.

This is also why I find that Max Pezzali succeeds in narrating by giving us the sensation of listening to words coming straight out of our own mouths.

It is definitely his trademark, as well as the secret of his success: simply being one of us.

I’ll never forget a summer evening before social media, before even mobile phones: the TV broadcasts the Castrocaro new voices competition and a Jovanotti introduced a duo.

They come in and sing Don’t bother me, I don’t understand what you want, you knew I wasn’t like you...

For me it was immediate and natural to stay in tune.

Soon the songs from the album Hanno ucciso l’uomo ragno (They Killed Spider-Man ) would be the soundtrack of holidays in Sardinia, Daniela was there too 🙂

1993: the following summer. Life has one of those difficult trials in store for my family: having to face destiny that bursts in to make it clear how from one moment to the next everything can collapse.

While I am in hospital watching my father struggle to live again after a haemorrhage, I receive a gift: the North South West East music tape.

Yes: the ‘cassette’ … Who remembers it?

The guy I went to look for at Vanità 🙂 gave me North South West East and North South West East gave us our song to sing embracing each other at the concert in the Pavia arena.

The days of the San Siro stadium were still far away, and the 883 sang at their home: Pavia, exactly, which is also a province in the broadest sense.

Their home, our home.

The days when the dream of the 883 would come true were also far away.

The characters of the Harley Davidson Pavia  staff are known to all those who followed the series Le strade di Max (Max roads), do you know it?

In case you missed it, you can have a good ride here. 

To get ‘on route’ let’s go back to 1994: when Mauro’s dream takes a different path …

On stage with Max are Paola and Chiara but also Michele Monestiroli and Daniele Moretto.

Thirty years ago.

And then?

And then life goes by and today we find ourselves in abandoned discotheques.

What did we miss?

EVIDENCE

EVIDENCE

Oct 29, 2022 | A COFFEE WITH, CULTURE

Evidence means the available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid.

Evidence is an audiovisual montage that crosses the work of Arthur Rimbaud, Antonin Artaud and René Daumal in their journeys to new horizons.

Stimulated by these metaphysical journeys, the music and sound composition of Perfect Vision is the starting point for this new multidisciplinary exhibition, collectively designed by Soundwalk Collective and Patti Smith for the Centre Pompidou.

Have you ever visited the Centre Pompidou?

According to this video, tourists don’t know about it …

Undoubtedly a nice way to promote yourself, anyway I guess if I agree.

I’ve been there every time I’ve been lucky enough to visit Paris, and I find it hard to believe that tourists ignore it.

Of course the gimmick of the QR code embedded is rather ingenious, or is it?

Especially when I think that we visited Paris following complimentary hotel maps with all the Metro lines … yes, it was just that couple of years and technological eras ago … 🙂

Incidentally, “chatting” through the comments with Olivia, I was just remembering our attempts to ask for coffee by repeating serré over and over again in the vain hope of drinking it as short as possible …

Also pictured is Patti Smith, portrayed by Annie Leibovitz, having coffee at Café de Flore, in Paris. 

Patti said in an interview that Evidence is about travel.

Smiling, I think of the Pompidou Center’s gadgets: inspired by the classic souvenirs commonly considered as a “proof” of travel to be carried as a souvenir to display at home, or as a thought for friends and acquaintances.

So what is the proof, that is, the gadget you purchased during one of your trips that you particularly cherish?

KCDC on VOYAGE MINNESOTA MAGAZINE!

KCDC on VOYAGE MINNESOTA MAGAZINE!

Jun 18, 2022 | ISN'T IT IRONIC?, JOURNEY FROM MUG TO MUG, WHO CARES

I sincerely thank all the staff of Voyage Minnesota Magazine and especially Camila, for contacting me and for the space they gave me!

I went browsing in Minnesota to discover Egg coffee and this virtual journey allowed me to discover interesting things I did not know, but at the same time someone else discovered me.

Unbelievable stuff, I know.

Yet here I am, with new friends and another story to tell.

The story of a project that I liked right away.

The story of a project whose thoughts are key words, which are also my own:

We also think that artists rock.

This is kind of the concept of Minnesota Voyage Magazine:
We love small business, mom-n-pop and holes in the walls. We’re not snobs, but we don’t love most chains. We think independent entrepreneurs, freelancers and other risk-takers make our cities exciting places to live. We cherish the rebellious spirit, we don’t think just a handful of big companies should control all of our commerce, and we think smore with vegan marshmallows are better than regular marshmallows. We respect people and organizations that take the road less traveled. We root for the underdog and almost never say no to pizza.

After all, how can one say no to pizza?

If you’d like, after pizza, you can find me by clicking on this coffee. 

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