3 simple suggestions

After 1999 Oscar Prize won by Roberto Benigni "Life is Beautiful" (La vita è Bella), Italy won another one this year.
"The great Beauty" (La grande bellezza) managed to bring back the little golden Oscar after 15 years. In reality I am not a big Cinema fan. The last movies I watched were cartoons and I was obliged to go with my children but there's always a certain "Italian pride" when we win something regardless is a Football word championship or a friendly Curling match against Samoa Island (That, for obvious reasons, I hope we will win...).

But having a look a the two titles I think there must be a reason if in both cases the word "Beauty" is mentioned.
A movie coming from the "Bel Paese" the Beautiful Country as old poets used to call Italy winning the Oscar Prize must talk about Beauty. In whichever sense you can mean it.
Beauty of the place
Beauty of the arts
Beauty of the design
Beauty of the people
Even an ironic and often cynical showman like Jeremy Clarkson (I like him a lot though), always considered our cars and our places as among the best in the world.

I had already posted this link but I want to do it again... I am always touched when I see it.

So, being surrounded by all this Beauty, that is the normal environment for us make us losing the real importance of it.
The RESPONSIBILITY we have to preserve this and, possibly to improve it (see also my post People always get used to beauty though). This is a real responsibility, both for the country but also for the world as Italy has got the highest number of UNESCO world heritage sites.
That's part of the legacy, part of our DNA and culture that cannot be taken away unless we REALLY WANT TO.
It's our treasure that we are not fully exploiting, that we are even spoiling and ruining.

But we often do not realize that we have this incredible treasure and opportunity. We always look outside forgetting our beauty and not looking after this. "Bel Paese" is often used in ironic sense and used as an excuse to destroy everything.
STOP! Breath deeply and start looking around. Start looking outside and, with a clear and open mind, try to be objective.

THEN....
Time for the 3 points i would like to give to our colleagues managing our tourism to implement to try and go back to "beauty". It may look too simplistic but I am convinced that we should start from simple ideas and develop them.

1) COMMUNICATE!

I find incredible that in today's world, people cannot communicate in English. English has undoubtedly become THE LANGUAGE and not being able to communicate will simply cut you out of everything. If you do not tell people you exist, people will not know. And, most of all, nobody will listen to you. Everybody in Italy MUST learn English and be able to communicate.
This BLOG is the proof that, if you think you have something to say, you will find someone ready to listen.
Communication is making guest's life simple. Nobody wants to go where their life will be difficult.

2) PREPARE YOURSELF

It's like when you are dated, you must be prepared to always look GOOD and TIDY. We must have a plan to keep our treasures ok and always ready to be visited and appreciated.
Sad to say that, if we do not have the funds to do this (and I cannot really believe we do not have funds to look after what's extremely important for our country) we have to choose what MUST be looked after. It is better to have something great that everything bad.
Show people how to do things, where to do things and guide them. You are dating someone and nobody wants to end the story after the first date.

3) BE KIND WITH PEOPLE AND UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCES

Why people come here? Because they like Italy, a place that is DIFFERENT from where they live. The difference is the reason why they are here and if there was no difference they would simply stay home.
Difference is an opportunity, not a burden to be carried and pointed out every time you see things you do not understand. Listen and learn, you will be a better man afterwards.

Then you will be ready for that...

A presto
Have a nice week end 

People always get used to beauty, though.

I always thought that people get used to beauty. And today, surfing the internet, I found that also a good writer, John Green has the same idea.

And this is also what I thought last week, when, unfortunately , it was everything but a beautiful day.
It was raining and that was one of the typical days in which you start understanding that summer's over and now it is time to start wearing your raincoat.
We decided to go to a new museum. The MUSE in Trento.
Designed by a great Italian architect, Renzo Piano, this is part of a bigger former industrial area that has been completely transformed called Le Albere.

This is at the foothill of the mountains and, in its modern development, it is designed not to take the scene to the majesty of the Dolomites (the mountains that are in that area) but to properly mix with the nature thanks also to the high quality of the finishing that is minimising the consumptions.
It is using local materials, the same wood that you can use in the old houses built in that area. And the same wood that was used in the Paganini's violins and in this fantastic speaker set.

Everything was build with the same concept:

-use local materials
-create something that is not "shouting" but that is well placed in the environement.

Everything not to take the attention out from the natural beauty that is all around and that, after a while, people do not see anymore.

This is where I live. That's what I can see (almost) every morning. (Not today... unfortunately it's raining for the week end, again!)
There is no artifact, no human product that will be able to compete with the natural beauty of these mountains.
So, the only possibility is to produce, to build, to create things that are helping the natural beauty to be well appreciated.
This is normal for me. I often do not even see what's around as I am also used to that beauty.
But I am lucky enough to have guest from all the world and they are opening my eyes, often closed and looking at the daily problems.

And thank to the people that give respect to this natural masterpiece, people like me should remember that we need to always give the importance to this.

Is this art? It probably is. Not the art as we commonly think about but still art. Something that we must take inspiration from and not destroy.

And most of all, art that we must Always remember to properly appreciate.
This year is the 50th anniversary of one of the most tragic events that happened in this area. The flooding of a massive area on the Piave river. This is the tragedy of the Vajont Dam. You can have a look at the story clicking on this link.

On 12 February 2008 UNESCO cited the Vajont Dam tragedy as one of five "cautionary tales", caused by "the failure of engineers and geologists".

We should always remember this.

Never try to win the Nature. Just help the Nature being appreciated.


That's all for today. I just want to finish with a link to a TOP GEAR episode. This is my favourite one. Jeremy Clarkson is presenting one of the most Amazing Italian Cars. The ALFA ROMEO 8C. Pure art.