Capricious

All the negativity of my previous post on Italy aside, I liked Capri a lot. It was really beautiful there, and CLEAN. I loved the bougainvillea that were growing on almost every wall.

(Click to enlarge)

I liked the villa of Axel Munthe (1857-1949) in particular, Villa San Michele, which is actually located in the town of Anacapri, higher up the island. The towns of Capri and Anacapri harbour some sort of enmity towards each other for some reason.

Munthe was a Swedish writer and a doctor. He designed his villa himself, and wanted it to be the embodiment of his visions that he had over the years.



When they started working on the site of the house, they discovered old Roman remains of columns and statues, and plaques with writing on them.

The locals thought it was all a bunch of rubbish, but Munthe used them to decorate his villa. He was farsighted, as now everyone can of course appreciate their aesthetic, let alone historical value.



He claimed to have found many of the sculptures through the visions he had.

He'd one day been sitting down by the sea, and got an overwhelming feeling that someone was watching him. He told his employees to go search the sea in a particular spot, and what d'you know, they found the head of Medusa.



Another time he wanted to find a sphinx to add to his furniture. He sailed to a random island, told his people to wait for 24 hours and if he hadn't come back by then they should leave. He did come back in time, with him a small statue of a sphinx.

He placed it on a terrace of a kind, and there it was laying on a balustrade and facing the rising sun. Nobody can see its face, unless they're willing to plummet to their death.

(Click to enlarge)

They're nice stories, but I strongly suspect that our Mr. Axel was a bit of a cuckoo.

I realize I haven't been posting any new paintings in a while. Anyone who discovers this site now must wonder how come it's supposed to be about painting and art. Yet I think all these photos look really good against this new layout, so I hope others can enjoy them from an aesthetic point of view like I do.

I got a little carried away with my recent encroachments on my other hobbies, and I haven't even posted about all of my new ideas yet. I think it's positive that I don't always have to blather about my paintings. Sometimes they really aren't that interesting, even to me.

(Pictures 4 and 5: http://www.capri.com)

Spindrifting

So I'm back from Italy.



The weather was torturous - it was nearly +40 celsius on Wednesday! It was unusual for this time of year, but it was the Sirocco wind from Africa that caused the hell's cauldron.



The hotel me and my mum stayed at was a four star hotel, had air conditioning, but they wouldn't turn it on! They only keep it on from 15th of June onwards! Make sense?

Didn't think so, but it fits the general Italian way of handling things. If you can do things clumsily, unhandily, annoyingly, non-punctually, in any way but well, you can trust an Italian to accomplish such a feat. To put it harshly and a little stereotypically, yet with a certain weight of truth to it.

I'm not a complete Italy hater. I've been there three times now. I've taken a course in Italian. It's a beautiful country, and there are some nice people there, but they're trapped in a vicious cycle where nobody really cares about their future, or if they do, can't really do much to improve it. One of every four Italians is poor, and the tiny elite owns about 40% of the land and wealth.



Every single building in Sorrento and Napoli, the cities I visited this time, was somehow broken, ugly or grumbling down. The traffic is a complete chaos. Anywhere you go, be it a restaurant or a shop, you can almost never pay with a credit or bank card. You always have to carry around a bagful of coins, so you can pay the exact price of something, and give tips in restaurants.



I understand the tips are necessary for most of the people who earn very little as actual wages. Their wages haven't gone up while all prices have since the coming of the euro. It's sad. To make it even worse, Italy has a very low birth rate: it's about 1,1 children per person.

That one child cannot move too far away from their parents, because they will need someone to look after them when they're old. The good thing about crappy jobs that aren't really necessary, like taking luggage from the front yard of the hotel to the guests' rooms, is that it helps keep people employed.



And what about the mafia? It's hard for a Finn to understand what it must be like to live under constant fear of something that you can't fight. I don't see how they can ever get rid of it. It's terrifying when you really think about it.

Edit: I got a comment from Amoena (personal communication) that she always thought mafia is a thing from movies, and old ones at that. So did I, until I visited Tropea two years ago. Tropea is a tiny town in southern Italy, very poor, but it has attracted some tourist activity over the last 10 years, thanks to Germans who discovered this beautiful little place.

While I was staying there, one small grocery store was burned one night. It happens that every now and then, shops and private facilities mysteriously catch fire during night time. Just because the owners did not or could not pay protection money to the mafia. It's horrible. Because the poor citizens cannot afford to tell the police due to concerns about retaliation against their property or even their life, the problem is very hard to solve.

The latest "European happiness survey" conducted by Cambridge university tells us that Italy rates very low in happiness among European countries. The Danes are the happiest, and the Finns are the second happiest of all! Italy came in at the 15th place.

The researchers attributed the high ranking of Finns and Danes to the well structured governmental and societal structures of their countries. Being able to trust the law and the government, as well as your fellow citizens, was also an important factor. It is a no brainer why Italians would feel so unhappy. However, even though they may rank low in such a survey, it doesn't stop them from being nice and friendly. At least when their tips are at stake.