#Province of L'Aquila

[unteriors]

Via San Rocco, Avezzano, Abruzzo.

[googlestreetviewz]

Abruzzo

[schismusic]

On abandonment, Lou X, the eternal recurrence of the same

Browsing through the people I follow (and my followers) I can't help but notice just how many of these blogs haven't been updated in literal years. That line Diane Venora has in Michael Mann's Heat comes to mind: "you live among the remains of dead people…".

The idea of neglect and disuse is a weird thing to me, in that I never registered it as an inherently negative thing - it's melancholic, sure, but not everything needs to keep being active and productive. In unrelated news I'm listening to Lou X as we speak, go figure. For my international followers, Lou X is a rapper from Pescara who made his last full record in 1998. It is called La Realtà, la Lealtà e lo Scontro and you could call it a conscious/gangsta rap record in Italian/Abruzzese dialect. Then he basically went off the radar except for maybe one feature or two on other people's songs and albums.

If you think about it Italy's greatest contributions to the culture of the past century mostly involve objects that either don't exist, are somehow crystallized into unserviceable forms, were abandoned years ago and have reached an absolutely dismal state that could only make them interesting as a work of art. Think about it: Neorealism in cinema (and maybe even the Realists' interest in decrepit/disadvantages rural realities, but that would be an overarching nineteenth-century European thing), Ennio Flaiano's Tempo di uccidere, the last writings of Cesare Pavese ("Tutto questo fa schifo. Non parole. Un gesto. Non scriverò più": what else here but the defeated realisation that nothing could ever change?), Italo Calvino's Le città invisibili, Luigi Ghirri's landscape photography work, CCCP and CSI even.

Europe is doomed to its binary division and therefore we are of course doomed to repeat stylings and "revolutionary" aesthetics in never-ending loops: Disciplinatha were smart enough to point it out, but like Whitehouse said: "grubbing job-hunting artists and art aficionados who prefer art that 'raises questions' are certainly as disgusting as those rubbered dilettantes who recognize that the answers are what you masturbate over". Whitehouse also had this to say, in the same context: "So better to just shut your fucking mouth".

Obviously mentioning a rapper from Abruzzo has implications for those of you who know anything about me. God knows there are very few places as left to their own devices as that region of Italy, and considering my violently antihumanist views regarding the Abruzzese people I'm inclined to say that the only reason this abandon should end is just so I can no longer hear these motherfuckers bitch and moan about nobody giving a shit about them or something. It's no big deal to be fair - people think Abruzzo is further down South than Rome is because it was added into the monetary help program for the South of Italy at the end of World War II. The Abruzzese people who have voted for Matteo Salvini in the past seem to have conveniently forgotten that if it didn't mean more votes to him, they would be seen as cannon fodder at best and shit under his feet at worst.

When the Amatrice earthquake hit in 2016 we knew that would be the end of the very little good things we had managed to get back after L'Aquila in 2009: the small towns in the province, which is unreasonably fucking big in L'Aquila's case but honestly what are we going to do, make Sulmona or Avezzano their own province like assholes?, anyway I'm getting distracted - my point being everything went even further to shit when that happened. A lot of the old people, some of whom not as old as you would expect, died in consequence to the quakes or went further down into some form of (if I had to guess) trauma-induced dementia. Happens even to the best of us - then, you can imagine how easily it happens to the average Abruzzese. I was setting up another band with some kids and if we had our way, honestly, I believe there would be no NUMBERS, simply because I had found people who really got me, in the typically effortless way that teens bonding through activities do, and I do believe I got them, too. When I meet them now, and I never meet them together because one of the two guys can no longer come to town now, it feels like I'm on a completely different wavelength. Yet I refuse to let go, because in true Abruzzese fashion I never fucking learn. We did manage to get a record out, though. Its only tangible effect was, likely, to stop NUMBERS and the Operators from playing the La Zona d'Ombra festival at Bronson, in Ravenna. Here in the future, everyone has their fifteen seconds of fame.

In relating to the theme of this post, I cannot seem to let go of this fucking post. I have been writing in circles for literal hours at this point because the idea of abandonment ultimately scares me, disproving what I said at the beginning. It's no surprise that the only things I can think of when they suggest to me the idea of abandonment are Burial, Forest Swords, Techno Animal, maybe some ambient music. No point in trying to prove at all costs that "I'm different" or that "I have something fundamental to say about it".

So better to just shut my fucking mouth.

[likurg-ever]

I wrote that, when I visiting various galleries and sites that present modern Italian photoartists, I involuntarily compare them with the great Gianni Berengo Gardin, to whom I devoted several large posts.

In general, it seems to me that all Italian photographers, to one degree or another, are influenced by Berengo Gardin.

Claudio Dell'Osa is no exception. However, I prefer his arthouse work, so let me use the term so freely. Still, no one can compare with Berengo Gardin in street art.

Claudio Dell'Osa has such an exquisite thing, but he did not put it in his official portfolio. In vain.

Claudio Dell'Osa was born in 1971 in Guardagrel, in Abruzzo. He spent his childhood and youth in Villamagna, a hilly village in the province of Chieti, then studied and lived in Rome, Milan, L'Aquila and Rimini, but eventually returned to Abruzzo, where he lives in the city of Ortona.

#photoart

[alisaineurope]

Province of L'Aquila (AQ)

Scanno, Abruzzo, Italy

(by paraluci)

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 1.13 (before 1940)

27 BC – Octavian transfers the state to the free disposal of the Roman Senate and the people. He receives Spain, Gaul, and Syria as his province for ten years. 532 – The Nika riots break out, during the racing season at the Hippodrome in Constantinople, as a result of discontent with the rule of the Emperor Justinian I. 1435 – Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement by the Spanish of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands who had converted, or were converting to, Christianity, is promulgated by Pope Eugene IV. 1547 – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, is sentenced to death for treason, on the grounds of having quartered his arms to make them similar to those of the King, Henry VIII of England. 1793 – Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, representative of Revolutionary France, is lynched by a mob in Rome. 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ends with the French vessel running aground, resulting in over 900 deaths. 1815 – War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state. 1822 – The design of the Greek flag is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus. 1833 – United States President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President elect Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis. 1840 – The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives. 1842 – Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. 1847 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican–American War in California. 1849 – Establishment of the Colony of Vancouver Island. 1849 – Second Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Chillianwala: British forces retreat from the Sikhs. 1888 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C. 1893 – The Independent Labour Party of the United Kingdom holds its first meeting. 1893 – U.S. Marines land in Honolulu, Hawaii from the USS Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution. 1895 – First Italo-Ethiopian War: The war's opening battle, the Battle of Coatit, occurs; it is an Italian victory. 1898 – Émile Zola's J'accuse…! exposes the Dreyfus affair. 1900 – To combat Czech nationalism, Emperor Franz Joseph decrees German will be language of the Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces. 1908 – The Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania kills 171 people. 1915 – The 6.7 Mw  Avezzano earthquake shakes the Province of L'Aquila in Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 29,978 and 32,610. 1920 – The Reichstag Bloodbath of January 13, 1920, the bloodiest demonstration in German history. 1935 – A plebiscite in Saarland shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to no more being a "region occupied and governed by the United Kingdom and France". 1939 – The Black Friday bushfires burn 20,000 square kilometres (7,700 sq mi) of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.

[bm2ab]

Man's Impact on the Environment . 11 December 2024 . Santa Maria della Pietà and Castle of Rocca Calascio

Credits: Santa Maria della Pietà, Abruzzo, Italy (by Maurizio De Luca)

The Castle of Rocca Calascio is a mountaintop fortress or rocca in the municipality of Calascio, in the Province of L'Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy.

At an elevation of around 1,460 metres (4,790 ft), the castle is the highest fortress in the Apennines. Built of stone and masonry exclusively for military purposes and intended only to accommodate troops and never as a residence for nobles, the fortress overlooks the Plain of Navelli at one of the highest points in the ancient Barony of Carapelle.

Construction of the fortress started in the tenth century as a single watchtower. A walled courtyard with four cylindrical towers at the corners around a taller inner tower was added in the thirteenth century. The lower half of the fortress is built with distinctively larger stones than its upper half. It is believed that this feature was to make its base impenetrable to invaders. The fortress was never tested in battle. However, it was badly damaged in November 1461 by the 1461 L'Aquila earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7 to 8 on the Richter Scale.[1] While the town of Calascio, which lies below the fortress, was rebuilt, the fortress was not.

The Castle of Rocca Calascio lies within the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park and alongside the high plain of Campo Imperatore.

Santa Maria della Pietà Near the fortress, at a slightly lower elevation, is Santa Maria della Pietà, an octagonal church built in the seventeenth century.

[wikimediauncommons]

file: Province of L'Aquila in 2013.32.jpg

[unteriors]

Via Cittadella, Roccacasale, Abruzzo.

[mscoyditch]

"Scanno is a small town in Abruzzo, Italy, with less than 1900 inhabitants. It is in the Province of L'Aquila, between the small Monte Genzana and Alto Gizio Regional Nature Reserve and the Abruzzo National Park. It is one of the most beautiful villages in Italy and known as the 'Photographers Village'". Source: Wikipedia.

Photo by Nelita Specchierla > Urban Street Photography

[sayitaliano]

Regioni, Province, Comuni

Italy is a Republic made of 5 constitutive elements: Regioni, Comuni, Stato, Province and Città Metropolitane.

The Stato Italiano (Italian Nation/Country) is divided into 20 Regioni, basically 20 big districts (see pic below): Valle d'Aosta, Lombardia, Piemonte, Liguria, Veneto, Trentino-Alto-Adige, Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, Emilia-Romagna, Toscana, Marche, Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzo, Campania, Molise, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, and the two big islands Sicilia and Sardegna.

Each of these Regioni has a Capoluogo di Regione (Chief place of the region/district), which generally is the most important city of that district (the most populated as well) in which there are the all the offices that control the whole area and connect it directly with the Stato's ones.

Here the Capoluoghi di Regione for each region:

Valle d'Aosta (Aosta), Lombardia (Milano), Piemonte (Torino), Liguria (Genova), Veneto (Venezia), Trentino-Alto-Adige (Trento), Friuli-Venezia-Giulia (Trieste), Emilia-Romagna (Bologna), Toscana (Firenze), Marche (Ancona), Umbria (Perugia), Lazio (Roma), Abruzzo (L'Aquila), Campania (Napoli), Molise (Campobasso), Puglia (Bari), Basilicata (Potenza), Calabria (Catanzaro), Sicilia (Palermo) and Sardegna (Cagliari).

There are 5 Regioni a Statuto Speciale (meaning that they can control themselves also in order to provide to the minorities on their soil. They basically can keep a bigger amount of taxes and can use it for school, health and other needs, while the other Regioni have to ask the State). These Regioni are Sicilia, Sardegna, Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, Trentino-Alto-Adige (also to protect the German speaking minority; btw it has the two Province autonome Trento and Bolzano as well, meaning those two are quite indipendent from the Region too), and Valle d'Aosta (also to protect the francophone minority - there's also a german minority as well here btw, on the part halfway with Piedmont: the Walsers).

Inside of each Regione, there are smaller areas/district called Province. Each Provincia has a Capoluogo di Provincia, which is basically, as the Capoluogo di Regione, the most important city of that small area (all this is made to control more easily and accurately each area). Check this:

The number of the Capoluoghi di Provincia, as you can see, can vary according on how big each Regione is.

In Piedmont, for example, we have 8: Torino (which has, as the other Capoluoghi di Regione, a "double job" let's say), Asti, Alessandria, Biella, Cuneo, Novara, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola (Verbania: the noun VCO is bc it's the whole area's name, the capoluogo is Verbania, which is made of two smaller city on the Lake Maggiore... yeah not easy to grasp but it's basically an exception and you don't have to remember it) and Vercelli.

Inside of each Provincia there are the Comuni: Comuni are even smaller areas, and are basically... infinite? I mean, there could be a hundred even in the smallest Provincia. Take this last pic and imagine to divide it all into even smaller parts. Some Comuni are so small, they're made of a few inhabitants, but if a place it's too far from another, it is better controlled by making a different Comune out of it (connecting the two could let you have a bigger amount of people together but that's not what we aim to do). We rather keep it small, let's say. Also to not mess up with the different identities on the territory (there could also be a different "dialect" spoken between two very close villages/Comuni).

Città Metropolitane: are some of the Capoluoghi di Provincia (but also di Regione) that have very important powers. They are all kinda big cities that are basically made of more different Comuni (districts) and work on them all as if they were one single thing.

The Città Metropolitane are Roma Capitale (Roma has often the noun "Capitale" in its name because it's Italy's capital city), Torino, Milano, Venezia, Genova, Bologna, Firenze, Bari, Napoli and Reggio Calabria, with the recent adds of Cagliari, Sassari, Palermo, Catania and Messina. (read here for more)

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 1.13 (before 1940)

27 BC – Octavian transfers the state to the free disposal of the Roman Senate and the people. He receives Spain, Gaul, and Syria as his province for ten years. 532 – The Nika riots break out, during the racing season at the Hippodrome in Constantinople, as a result of discontent with the rule of the Emperor Justinian I. 1435 – Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands by the Spanish, is promulgated by Pope Eugene IV. 1547 – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, is sentenced to death for treason, on the grounds of having quartered his arms to make them similar to those of the King, Henry VIII of England. 1793 – Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, representative of Revolutionary France, is lynched by a mob in Rome. 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ends with the French vessel running aground, resulting in over 900 deaths. 1815 – War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state. 1822 – The design of the Greek flag is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus. 1833 – United States President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President elect Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis. 1840 – The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives. 1842 – Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. 1847 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican–American War in California. 1849 – Establishment of the Colony of Vancouver Island. 1849 – Second Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Chillianwala: British forces retreat from the Sikhs. 1888 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C. 1893 – The Independent Labour Party of the United Kingdom holds its first meeting. 1893 – U.S. Marines land in Honolulu, Hawaii from the USS Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution. 1895 – First Italo-Ethiopian War: The war's opening battle, the Battle of Coatit, occurs; it is an Italian victory. 1898 – Émile Zola's J'accuse…! exposes the Dreyfus affair. 1900 – To combat Czech nationalism, Emperor Franz Joseph decrees German will be language of the Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces. 1908 – The Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania kills 171 people. 1915 – The 6.7 Mw  Avezzano earthquake shakes the Province of L'Aquila in Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 29,978 and 32,610. 1920 – The Reichstag Bloodbath of January 13, 1920, the bloodiest demonstration in German history. 1935 – A plebiscite in Saarland shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to join Nazi Germany. 1939 – The Black Friday bushfires burn 20,000 square kilometres (7,700 sq mi) of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.

[salantami]

Pacentro is a medieval village, among the most beautiful villages in Italy, located in the suggestive landscape of the National Park della Majella, in Valle Peligna, in the province of L'Aquila, in Abruzzo.

[ephemeriee]

A cross stands on a hilltop near the town of Rocca Calascio in the province of L'Aquila in Abruzzo, inside the national park of the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga, Italy |  Siegfried Modola 

[ghassanmk]

Cuore / Heart by Filippo Bianchi Via Flickr: Lago di Scanno is a lake in the Province of L'Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy