Saturday, February 21, 2009

Drainage

This stone wall runs along the entire length of the Lungomare - to keep people from plunging off and landing down on the sharp stones below, basically. It is also a convenient place to lean or sit during a slow moment in your evening stroll along the seafront. It is often used as a community message board, in that people write all over it: both love and hate notes, phone numbers, indecent proposals, graphic representation of personal attributes or pretty flowers, you name it.

These openings in the wall are found at the end of each street that leads down toward the sea, meeting the Lungomare perpendicularly at the end of the road. There are no hills to speak of in Molfetta, but the land gradually rises as you go inland away from the sea. When it rains these openings and gravity work together to help the rainwater run down the streets and drain into the sea.

6 comments:

Juergen Kuehn said...

This photo attracting promtly my attention. The wall separate sea from sky and defies my eyes to look behind the wall.
Juergen

VP said...

A very simple and practical solution...

Hilda said...

Oh nice! Natural drainage! Love the stone too.

Your 'community message board' sounds interesting. Maybe you can feature it one of these day — with the rocks down below too! :)

I'm just catching up now after a couple of late nights out. Love yesterday's photo! You were married in a crypt?!

Lowell said...

There is something compelling about stone walls, especially when done as nicely as these. It also nice when they are functional as well as decorative.

xxx said...

This wall doesn't look very stable to me!

best wishes

Saretta said...

Juergen - I like that!

Poet - the best kind!

Hilda - I don't know if you want to see the community bulletin board, it's just graffiti! You can see the rock below in my post for Feb 18. Yes, I was married in a crypt, sound kind of Bride of Dracula-ish? Well, it was sunny and beautiful, I assure you!

Ribbon - don't worry, it's got big wire cable running through it (you can see them in the photo on the left), it's very stable!