Komatsubara Claus

Oh well! Few months have passed since my latest appearance on Waratte KoraeteWaratte Koraete (the name of the show in Japan), but it's been worth waiting!
First of all because in the era of trilogies, this is gonna be a duology and I'm happy it all happened and took place during some special holidays in a very perticular time of my life.
And second, because watching these two episodes I can finally scream to the whole world and the net that I'm proud of my family.
Some people might think it was kind of a show off posting on my blog such intimate moments (and it actually was, since it doesn't happen all the time to end up on a national japanes channel while taking a walk downtown Rome), but this is the proof that having a positive attitude and being surrounded by special persons sharing and being part of that positive way of looking at life make everything happen.
I'm glad all my relatives had the chance to live such an experience, and I hope in the future we'll all be able to look at those events like something that could have happend just because of a moltitudes of circumstances.
Thanx mom and dad for being such open minded persons...I hope one day you'll be proud of me as I am of you.
Enjoy.

Dolomiti...what a beauty!

Waiting for episode 2 of the world famouse Japanese series "Daniele San", here's another post about the endless beauties my country has to offer.
From unspoiled beaches to soft hills, from majestic mountains to secluted islands, Italy has got it all and this time I went visiting an area of my country I've never been before: the Dolomiti mountains.
This time it was me, my sweet E and our amazing friends from Molenhoek (Holland) Pieter and Manon and we were all based in Levico, a thermal, shiny and quiet location set on the Levico lake just 20 minutes from Trento. It was the perfect location for an healty vacation, giving us the chance to do pretty much everything, from skiing, to trekking, to visit museums and ancient castles...everything!



As a matter of fact, after settling our stuff at home and enjoying the first evening with good food and grappa, the day after we all woke up with a great need of high altitudes and very cold air, so we all packed our equipment and headed to the Panarotta peak (2002 mt above the sea level) to rent some ski and face the steep slopes. I'm not a great fan of skiing after I broke my ligaments few years ago playing soccer, so I waved at everyone after they bought their ski passes and looked around for the highes peak to reach. With a map in my hands (the paths here are very well shown with signs) and an amazing will of sweating my ass off, I looked at the time and realized I could reach the Fravort peak (2300 mt high) and come back on time for a warm grappa with my friends. And so I did!!! The sky was blue and the sun was hiting so hard that I didn't even realize how long that walk was, and by the time the sun was going down I met everyone at the hut as planned to get buzzed with some local spirits!
The day after we were all a little bit stiff and with a little hang over to repeat the sporty day, so we decided to have an easy trekk through the Sella valley and visit Arte Sella. In the middle of nowhere, there's this quite impressive piece of land settled in the woods all surrounded by masterpieces some artists created afetr being invited by the owner of the land in change of a three week stay in their place. It's quiete useless to say that you can breath peace and cretivity all over, and once your tour will be over (there's two path you can follow: one is about 40 minutes long and the other a couple of hrs...we did both) you will feel reborned and with a sense of freedom...definatly a place to go!



To make a long story short, the remaining three days waere made of walks (we took a whole tour of the Levico lake one day, and went visiting Trento and the Pergine castle another one) and some culture (we couldn't miss the chance to visit the Rovereto Museum of Modern Art, totally worth a look!). In less then a week we tried to get the best of our staying, without forgetting to rest a little bit and just taking it easy enjoing our passion for food and good living.
For the food lovers, as a matter of fact, don't forget to visit the "Crucolo" hut and taste their world famous "Parampampoli". We loved it so much that we ordered through their site four bottles...already gone!
Cheers.