Monthly Archives: November 2011

Bye Bye “Captain”

25 Friday Nov 2011

Posted by in American habits and customs, Uncategorized

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Do we all long to have a nickname?  I did, and when I was in grade school I tried to give myself one.  It didn’t take.  Since then I’ve always thought that nicknames must be chosen by others, people who have observed your particular peculiarities or, perhaps, find something amusing about your given name.

One of the Captain’s friends gave him a nickname when he was a boy – ‘Salad’ – harvested from the garden of his last name.  It didn’t stick though and no one other than this one friend ever used it.

A year ago the Captain filled out one of those endless forms we are given in Doctors’ offices.  One of the questions was simply, “Nickname.”  ‘Well,’ thought the Captain, ‘I guess everyone must have one. I don’t, but I would like to.  I’ve always thought of myself as ‘Speedy’ ‘ and he wrote that on the form.  It felt just right when the doctor breezed into the  examining room a few minutes later with a cheerful, “Hi there, Speedy.”

It’s hard to change your name when you and your friends have used the same one for, oh, let’s just say ‘many’ years; but the Captain, I mean Speedy, is persistent and has reminded all of us from time to time of his new moniker. I knew it was serious when he put his new nickname on his scooter.

Not too long ago he mentioned that he’d like not to be ‘the Captain’ any more in these pages, so join me in wishing that alias a fond goodbye and welcoming ‘Speedy’ to our midst.  Same great guy, new name, and one of the few people who’s ever had the satisfaction of choosing his own nickname.

Movin’ on

17 Thursday Nov 2011

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Photo courtesy of hannibalkennels.on.ca

Rapallo is making it very hard to leave. After the terrible rains and devastating floods the weather has become sunny, warm, in a word, perfect. But we know winter is coming, so it is time to pack up our gear and head to warmer climes. I’m just glad we don’t have to carry our home with us as the plains Indians used to do. Now that would be complicated.

We’ll report from the other side in a week or two. Meanwhile, I hope the sun is shining on you, too.

Sad Time for the Heron

13 Sunday Nov 2011

Posted by in Animals in Italy, Birds in Italy, Construction, Rapallo, Uncategorized

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This beautiful heron, or others of his kin, live somewhere near the Torrente San Francesco, which flows down our mountain to Rapallo.  He is frequently to be seen fishing in various spots along the Torrente, but has always especially favored this small dam, under which the little fish like to congregate in a sort of heron buffet.  I’m glad I took the above photo, because the very next day this is what I found when I came down the hill:

What a mess!  And gone is the little dam where the heron fished.

On a related topic, there is some talk of widening Via Bette, the narrow street that runs along the Torrente.  Closer to town than the section pictured above, the street is lined with shops on the non-river side. Frequently vehicles stop on the river side of the road (‘for just a moment!’) so people can do a bit of quick shopping; it can be a matter of some ingenuity to get two cars going in opposite directions past one another.  And when the bus comes: che casino!


(Note that there are pedestrians on the river side, walking in the street – it’s so much nicer to walk near the water, and people often do, not only putting themselves at risk, but further constricting the available space for cars.) What is distressing about the road-widening project is that it calls for covering over the Torrente.  That will eliminate not only more fishing for the heron (who, in fact, usually doesn’t fish near the shops) but also paddling and family-raising space for the many ducks who live there.

There are also proposals for two new tunnels – one from the Autostrada to Santa Margherita Ligure, and one from Via Bette to the Val Fontanabuona, the valley on the other side of our mountain.  I hope that the road-widening project, like the tunnel projects, will remain in the talking stage for many years.  It will be some consolation to the poor heron, who has lost his seat at the all-you-can-eat special.

All is not lost for the heron though.  The destruction in the top photo is the beginning stage of a new bridge across the Torrente to serve the houses on the hill above.  Fish like to congregate under bridges; maybe the heron’s smorgasbord will return.  I hope so.

New Math, Italian Style

05 Saturday Nov 2011

Posted by in Driving in Italy, Italian habits and customs, Uncategorized

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Some years ago speed limits came to the Italian Autostrada system, as they have to most major European highways (even most of the Autobahn!).  While this makes some people, the Captain amongst them, sad, it has proved not to be such a bad thing after all.  The limit on the Autostrada, unless otherwise noted, is 130 kmh, or 80.77 mph, which is not exactly crawling.

But leave it to Italy to monitor speed in a slightly different way.  Rather than waste endless fuel and manpower by putting police cruisers with radar and officers in chase vehicles on the roads, the Autostrada has installed a speed monitoring system called Tutor (because it’s supposed to teach you to slow down).  It doesn’t actually measure your speed at a given point, though.  What it does is measure how long it takes you to get from one Tutor camera to another, some distance down the road.  Stop for a cup of coffee between the two cameras and you can go as fast as you like while on the highway!  What a concept.  Of course if you don’t want to stop, then you have to drive at a speed that averages out to the limit or just slightly over.  But still, that leaves some room for testing the capabilities of your new Ferrari or blowing the cobwebs out of your original Fiat 500.

It’s all done through a sophisticated camera -> computer -> camera -> police computer system, which is explained (in English) on this web site.  If I understand it correctly. your car’s tags are photographed by camera 1, and stored in the server; they are then matched up with another photograph taken by camera 2, and the server figures out your average speed.  If it’s too high, you’ll receive a highly unpleasant piece of mail from the Road Police.

I’m making fun of this a little, but the system has proved to be effective. The Tutor brochure, thoughtfully provided by the Autostrada, has a compelling graph that shows a death rate in 1999 of 1.14 (per thousand? per km of total Autostrada? not noted on the graph, alas), which was reduced in 2009 to .32. That’s a handsome 72% decline.  Roads in general went from 1.38 deaths to .83 –  a not nearly so impressive 40% (but it’s all good).  In fairness it has to be said, too, that cars themselves are much safer now than in 1999.

As the above photo of stalled traffic on the A10 suggests, the Autostrada system gets a lot of use: 4 million people a day travel on the system; in 2008, 915 million vehicles used the roads.  Anyone who has ever driven on the Autostrada on any day other than Sunday will not be surprised to learn that trucks account for 19% of the vehicles and 24% of the kilometers traveled on the system (2008).  45% of the fatal accidents involve a truck.

Does it surprise you to hear that Italy has fewer road fatalities per 100,000 population (8.7) than the U.S. (12.3)?  Or, if you prefer, 12 fatalities per 100,000 vehicles in Italy compared to 15 per 100,000 in the U.S. It actually didn’t surprise me.  After living and driving in both countries I will take crazy Italian drivers over crazy U.S. drivers any day.  Italians drive fast, often, but they drive well, and while they may seem aggressive at times, it is usually a sporting sort of aggression (‘Let’s race! Isn’t this fun?’) rather than an angry aggression (‘Get out of my lane! I hate you!’).

What I have noticed more than anything here in Italy is a shared concern for safety; if someone stops on the side of the road he will follow the rules that require putting on a reflective vest and setting up a reflective warning triangle.  If there is damage on the road a warning sign is quickly put up.  One time the Captain and I drove back from Ikea with an oversize load sticking out the back of our car – we didn’t flag it correctly, and another motorist had something to say about that.  We snuck home with our tails between our legs (we didn’t know the rule at that time).  There is a sense of cooperation in road matters that I never feel in the U.S.  Here we have not ‘my’ lane and ‘your’ lane – rather we have ‘our’ road, and if one of us needs a bit of the other’s lane, well, that’s okay.  I’ll move over for you happily without getting all territorial about it.  I think in the U.S. we’re a bit more protective of ‘our’ space – maybe because we have so much more of it and can afford to be.

And speaking of sporting… the Autostrada, in its philosophy of full disclosure, wants you to know where the Tutor cameras are.  Warning signs alert you when you pass one.  And if you want to plan your coffee breaks to maximize your speed thrills on your journey, check out this site for a map of Tutor cameras before you leave home.

Buon viaggio!

Tutor map: http://www.autostrade.it/en/assistenza-al-traffico/tutor.html?initPosAra=3_4