Sunday, February 28, 2010

Monthly Theme Day: Passageway


Last night's full moon shot in a cloudy sky seems to create a passageway to the universe.

The first day of each month is Theme Day at the City Daily Photo community. This month's theme is Passageways.
Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Blue

A freighter glides past Molfetta Vecchia (the town's historical center) on its way into the commercial harbour.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Trani Pigeon

Not only vampires, but mutant pigeons can be found in Trani! This specimen has a suspiciously intelligent, and vaguely bloodthirsty, look in its eye...perhaps it's a vampigeon!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Trani Old Town

These are a few photos I took while walking through Trani's Historical Center. The photo above is a detail inside a courtyard.

This wall encloses another courtyard.

Love this gentleman exiting the Demarinis Salumeria (delicatessen) and the shiny red bike, but darn that car for getting in the way!

This is a capentry shop filled with dust and worktables.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Trani Cathedral

To follow up on my vampire insinuations of the other day, I decided to visit the Diocesan Museum in the town of Trani. Housed in this museum is a bust of Monsignor Davanzati, Archbishop of Trani in the early 1700s and author of a Dissertation on Vampires, which was not a novel, but the most exhaustive analysis of the vampire phenomenon ever written. It has chapters with titles like "On the Power Delegated to the Demon" and "Which Physical Causes Could Produce Vampire Appearances."

Unfortunately, the museum is closed for restoration for three months, so I spent some time in and around Trani's magnificent cathedral, completed in 1143, reputed to be the finest example of Apulian-Romanesque architecture. This style is known for its lack of adornment, sort of the opposite of Baroque.

The photo above shows the backside of the church. The front is being restored and is covered with scaffolding, but if you are curious to see it, click here. I think the dark and gloomy sky here sort of gives it a vampirey feeling!
This is the altar in the uppermost level of the church. Below this level are two crypts and even further down a hypogeum, or underground, pre-Christian temple or tomb.

This fellow was industriously holding up one of the columns along the side wall of the church.

A fresco and altarpiece in the upper of the two crypts.

A statue of Saint Nicholas the Pilgrim, for whom the cathedral is named, is located in the lower crypt. This is not the St. Nick of Christmas lore (he is the patron saint of Bari, the capital of this region), but another Nicholas altogether. He came from the east to meet the Pope, but only made it as far as Trani before starving to death, according to some, or being assassinated, according to others, in 1094.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Blooms in the Rain


I hope you don't mind another photo of the same tree as yesterday, but I just love the movement in these branches. They remind me of a Japanese ikebana flower arrangement. The tree is either a peach or a plum, I'll know for sure when the flowers turn into the fruit!

Check out the link on my sidebar Likely Links to a new site on Molfetta. It is called I Love Molfetta and is available in English, Italian and Spanish. You can see more photos and videos of Molfetta, including some amazing snow scenes.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Buds and Blooms

Despite the grey skies and the rain...spring is on its way!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Parrocchia San Giuseppe

The steeple of St. Joseph's parish is crisscrossed by the lines and wires located along the train tracks which pass close by. See that blue sky? I love it!

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Twilight

No, not *that* Twilight! Just the plain old time of day "twilight." We have no tradition of vampires here in Molfetta. If you're looking for those, you'll have to travel two towns up the Adriatic coast to Trani, where they have a long tradition of vampire lore and even have archaeological "proof" of their existence!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Church Spire and Laundry Lines

Seems fitting that this church should be located at the corner of Via Paradiso and Via Immacolata.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

After the Parade


Carneval has gone, making way for the much more sober period of Lent, but not without leaving its mark!
(photo by Fulvio)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Ice Cream Cremeria

What better to lift your spirits on a cold and wet February night than a stop at the Ice Cream Cremeria's new locale. Not only do they have a wide variety of delicious ice cream flavours, made fresh each day, but they also make various frozen desserts and treats.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Molfetta's 51st Annual Carneval Parade

It's Carneval time again and these are three of the four floats in this year's parade.
I was lucky enough to find them parked and waiting for today's parade early this morning before I went to work. Lucky because otherwise I could never have shared them with you because I refuse to go to Carneval parades.

I am a cold weather wimp and just cannot embrace any sort of activity that forces me to be outside in the evening in the nasty cold and bone-chillingly damp climate we have here at this time of year. Plus the whole crowd scene...I do not handle crowds well!

I'm not sure what they mean - this type of float generally has some sort of political satire behind it, but just as I met one of the event organisers, my train pulled into the station and I had to dash off. I'm just hoping the one in the first photo, entitled "Career Women," has some deeper meaning to it...if I find out, I'll let you know!

Monday, February 15, 2010

Can't Find the City Dump?

...then just dump your junk under this handy bridge. I'm sure no one will notice or mind. And someone else will come clean it up. What a perfect solution for dealing with your large refuse! Or not...

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Dirty Dogs

Found outside the tobacconist's shop on Via Baccarini:
PLEASE
DO NOT
LET YOUR DOG
GO PEE-PEE
ON THIS CORNER
MANY THANKS

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Come a Little Bit Closer...

...you're my kind of cat!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Cold and Wet


It was one of those windy, rainy, cold kind of days here in Molfetta this morning. People were all bundled up with hats and gloves and scarves and umbrellas (which is "ombrelli" in Italian, don't you just love it when a word is sort of the same in another language?). And Saretta was distracting herself from the unpleasant meteorological conditions by taking surreptitious photos of peoples feet and backsides...

Monday, February 8, 2010

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Wedding at City Hall, Continued

The wedding I showed you two posts ago continued yesterday with a lunch held at a beautiful restaurant on the sea at Polignano a Mare, located about an hour's drive south of Molfetta.
Let me introduce you to the groom today. His name is Fulvio and he is from Molfetta. He works as as a certified public accountant. He has good taste in women and restaurants, because Katja is a doll and the lunch was absolutely delicious, all seafood from the hors d'oeuvres on.
This is a view of Polignano from the window of the restaurant. Sorry if it's a bit blotchy, but the window was covered with sea spray. Polignano is famous for being the birthplace of Domenico Modugno, one of the most famous Italian singer/songwriters of all time.

Here's one of his most famous tunes...


Saturday, February 6, 2010

Vittoria Facchini, Artist

Vittoria Facchini is a Molfettan artist and is pictured here in her studio. In addition to painting, she is also an illustrator of children's books and has published a few books of her own. One of these is an illustrated version of the traditional Molfettan Christmas song, the Santa Allegrezza, which was released in December. To see a couple of photos about that event, click here and here. In the photo above she was discussing her "Pin-Up" series, which is inspired by 1950's pin-up calendars.
Her studio is a colorful and crazy collection of a thousand different odds and ends, plus two cats who crawl all over everything. I couldn't get a photo of them because they just wouldn't sit still. Vittoria wasn't all that easy to stop either!

Friday, February 5, 2010

Wedding at City Hall

A wedding at the City Hall is much simpler than a church wedding. A city functionary reads the bride and groom the obligations that marriage implies (for example: cohabitation, support of the family by both the husband and the wife, supporting any children and guiding them into the career of their choice). Then both the couple and their witnesses sign a lot of papers and presto, bingo, they're married!
What a beautiful bride! Her name is Katia and she is not from Molfetta, nor even Italian actually. She is Bulgarian, studied to be a beautician in Germany and works in the tourism industry here in Apulia. She speaks Bulgarian, Russian, German, Italian and English...pretty impressive!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Pink and Blue

Big, fat, fluffy, pink and blue clouds hang over the sea.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Ferrovie Appulo Lucane

This is the main train station of a transportation company that runs trains and buses through the Apulia and Basilicata regions. This station is located in the center of Bari and I think it's interesting that the tracks are raised. Below the tracks you see here on the right are shops and offices. I imagine they have noise and vibration issues!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Citrus Fog


I was searching for a bit of color in a gray and foggy day when I spotted these trees: oranges on the right and tangerine on the left, growing amidst the olive trees. Bright orbs that seem to promise that sun will return.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Monthly Theme Day: Wood

Olive trees can live to be hundreds of years old and have amazing patterns in their bark.

This one is a tree with a view!

Today is Monthly Theme Day in the City Daily Photo community. Our theme this month is "wood." Click here to view thumbnails for all participants