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Tag: Italy

European surprises (#4 in single-image teaser series: “white gold” & kitesurfing)

 

Italy’s largest lagoon is offshore from Trapani, running down to Marsala, on Sicily’s west coast.

”White gold” – salt – has been commercially produced here for literally thousands of years.

As well as its salt-extraction pans, the lagoon has open waters; shallow, flat, and reliably windy, they have become Europe’s premier destination for exponents of a sport/activity that only began in the last quarter of the 20th century.

The lagoon is also a globally significant waterbird refuge; a substantial chunk of it is RAMSAR- listed, and protected by the WWF since 1996.

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European surprises (#2 in single-image teaser series: archeology, Italian-style)

 

Smaller but wealthier than Pompeii, Herculaneum suffered the same fate: “destroyed” by the 79 AD eruption of Mt Vesuvius.

Whilst the volcano really did extinguish all human life in both places, its ash – which buried them – in fact made them the two best-preserved of all ancient Roman towns.

Their “secrets” are still being uncovered.

In Italy, even working archeologists can display an uncommon amount of “style”/ “attitude”/“flair”.

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European surprises (#1 in single-image teaser series: “normal”, entirely legal sign)

 

Perchance the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers happened upon the pictured sign, they’d likely have impulse-emigrated to Italy!

After having seen several such signs on the exterior walls of Italian bottle shops, I wondered whether something was being “lost in translation”….

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