Obituary: Giles Watson Giles Watson lived in my city and he was the translator of the books of a journalist, Beppe Severgnini, that I always read ( he's probably the Italian journalist most red abroad; he also wrote on The Economist). So I have done this translation of the obituary on our local newspaper. A sudden illness and he fell on the ground to never stand up again. Giles George Watson, 61, a Scottish living in Udine, is dead yesterday for a heart attack in Lignano, where he was spending a holiday with his wife. Born in Scotland in 1954, Watson graduated in Cambridge in 1976 in Modern and Medieval Languages. For a few years he worked for a cloth company in South America, then he came back to the UK and set to teach english in a school in Liverpool. Here he met a teacher of Udine that he married three years later. After the marriage he moved to Udine where he worked for the local university, he directed the Oxford school and then he decided to be a freelance translator. "He have translated all the books of Severgnini, who was also a friend , and every day he translated an article for Corriere.it" his wife says. He loved his work and he was a specialist for translations concerning wine {my region produces good wine}. " He was accurate and careful, in our house there are dictionaries of all the language in the world", the wife add.

In Yemen/1 This a translation about a journey in Yemen made, not by me, in 1996. In this last months there are bad news from Yemen, and also back in 1996 the situation was messed. There were many tourist's kidnappings , fortunately not bloody ones. Usually the abducted were held to force local authorities to respect their promises, for example to build a school in a village. There was hostility against americans, but not really against italians also if in a couple of events... but I'll write later about this. We were a party of twelve tourist plus two drivers, with some old cross-country veicles. We reached Sana in the afternoon and the first thing to strike me was the dust. The city is crossed by a river, but in the summer is dry and it's used like a road so you can figure how much dust is floating around. The second remarkable thing was men's garment. There were few women around and I had already seen veiled women , but I had never seen before men clothed like this: buggy trousers, shirt and jacket, a foulard on the head, and a prominent bell holding the jambiya. This is a large blade knife , with a decorated handle. Not a few carried instead a sub-machine gub: everyone shows off as he can! After a short tour we gathered in a restaurant to have dinner, then we got to our small hotel ready for a good slumber. There we had another surprise, in Yemen they use no mattress, just a mat laid on the clay floor. We spent the next day touring the city and its many markets. What struck me more was the architectonics of the city, with its imposing buildings and its Middle Ages look. For example, there was no covered sewer and the WC dumped directly in the streets.

Journey to Mail /3 The trek starts in the village of Dorou , it heads NE and (it) ends in Yenodouma, where again we get in the van to reach Tombouctou. Just to have a general idea of the time you need: from Yendouma to Tombouctou it took us 12 hours and it's only 250km! 31th of December The sightseeing in Tombouctou disappoint me, there is not so much to see. Most of the buildings is dilapedated, only in a few you can go inside and also these are nothing special. It was more interesting to see ( another and better verb?) the tea house, where the Tuareg do not merely drink a beverage, they perform a ceremony. First of January We begin the new year changing travel route. For three days we will board a pinasse, a slender boat of about 20 meters with a cover in the central part. It goes downstrean with a sail and upstream by engine. All the Niger is navigable and the trade along it is an important part of the economy of Niger. In this three days we sail for 300 km to (until?) Mopti. The journey is slow and some of us get bored, but I appreciate this slow pace. Watching at the banks of the river there is a flow of images like in a movie: people washing clothes, people washing themslves, children that do not want to be washed, someone grinds grains, another build a clay hut, and so on. We cross other boats going upstream completely packed with people and goods. Sometimes in the daytime we have a short stop in poor village, approachable only by river, where people flock around us to ask for whatever.

Journey to Mali /2 Our trip in the city goes on and we go in the alleys, where we run into an open air coranic school. There the children, aged four years and up, get an education, but I think that the more important goal of the school be just to give them a decent meal. When they see us, they drop the wooden tabs they use to write on and they ask for some gift. I give a little boy a candy and he gives me back three nuts! The day has been demanding and tomorrow we move to region of Dogon from where we'll begin the trekking. We put in the backpacks as little as possible, the rest is delivered to the hamlet of Dovenza, the final point of the trip. While trekking in Dogon it's mandatory to be escorted by a local licensed guide, so we meet with Mr. Dolou. His explanations will be essential to understand lore, religion, architecture and everything else typical of the region. For four days, at night we camp in the villages, we eat the poor local food and we get in touch we the real local life. The only "touristic" thing we see it's a dance performed for us. Often the villages are built directly on some rocky slope, in the fashion of Indian pueblo in America, sometimes there are clay huts with the roof made of reeds. In both cases inside is much more fresh than outside. Another striking feature is that by drilling deep wells they can farm areas that are completely arid. If the government could help them they had a better life, there are a few international project , but that are literally few drops in the desert! Tipical of the northern part of the villages it's a low building, you cannot stand up but just sit, called Toguna. It's made by four pole bearing as a roof a large layer of bushes and it's pretty fresh. It's only for the elderly , women and children are not allowed to stay here.

A journey to Mali At the sunset we reach the ferry that cross the river Bani to get to Djenne and from far away we could already see the outline of its mosque. When we reach the city we set up our tents in a 'campament'. A campament is a facility to camp made up by several high platforms , similar to flat roofs, where you set your tent. This is made to stay clear of animals and maybe also to enjoy more the fresh night breeze. At sunset I get up early, while in the other tents all is silent e noiseless. I dress, I grab my camera and I get down from the platform. I reach the square in front of the mosque, in the ground there are the marks for the poles used to assemble the stalls. The first traders are beginning to prepare their stall and I cannot fancy/forsee how this big, empty, noiseless space will turn in a few hours in a clutter of people, colors, scents, stinks and goods of every types. A crowd from far-flung villages is going/is bound to come here in a few hours -- on foot, by boat or crammed in lorries. The stands will offer from button and tiny bags of seeds to goats and dried fish. After this short tour, I go back to the campement because there is one of the few chance to take a shower and I want not miss it. At 9AM we meet with two boys who are our guide to visit to mosque. Their role is a little dodgy because they explain to us that you need an escort to enter the mosque, but then they get us through the gateway in a sneaky way. The silence and the light filtering in really struck me and movie " The Sheltering Sky" comes to my mind. At the end of the tour we climb to the higher part of the building where we can watch at the whole market from above .

No scent of summer yet A puff of hot air is moving from north Africa to Serbia through south Italy. Here in Italy's NE after a sunny first part of spring we had a fortnight of rain. Now I hoped in taste of summer, but today we struggle for 25C and it's a lot humid. Some thunderstorm is forcasted for tomorrow and also the weekend could be spoiled by a front from Atlantic. Probably I get used too much to the sunshine, dry spell like in April are not common here.

A journey in Iceland/1 ( the journey it's not mine, this is just a translation) In 2000 I had the chance to make the journey that I longed from a long time. I could say it was a travel through time because the nature of that places remind places that could exist millions of year ago. If a dinosaur popped out it would not be out of place. As the name suggest in Iceland there is plenty of glaciers and between them the biggest in Europe... but it's less known that Iceland is dotted with volcanoes. Often they look just as hills but from the outline you soon realize that are something different.The geological activity is well far off, there is a seething of geysers, vapor vents, gushes and melting salts that dye the ground with every color. On a magazine I found out a travel agency that made me curious because they mainly arranged naturalistic trips focused on volcanoes. I came to know that they were a group of young graduated in geology and this for my idea of a trip in Iceland would have been perfect. In a hurry I called the agency and yes it was what we were looking for, namely not a tour close to the sea around Iceland but the crossing of the island through the central and often desertic central part, with accomodation in tents. We flew from Miland to Reykjavik where we met our fellow travellers then after a stop off in the city we flew in Egilsstadir. Here we had supplied and rented the cross-country vehicles then the actual trip started. Here I warn those willing to do such a journey that it's expensive but it would be even more expensive to use our own cars becuase the Iceland's tariff on foregn cars are outrageously high. Left Egilsstadir in the afternoon we went to the beach for a first glimpse to the seals. Later on we arranged to set up the tents in our first camp. This first contact with camping was harsh because the tents almost floated on the awash grass, but fortunately we had a stock of plastic sheets and we could insulate the bottom of the tents. The day after we moved to Dettifoss, a place famous for his waterfall and caves.

A meeting of the club of travelers Yesterday I attended the Travellers meeting. In my city there are many young people that after beginning to work now have enough money to travel. From some time a friend of mine invites travellers to speak about their experience. In this way they can help fewer experienced people to prepare for a journey or motivate to do it. The bigger part of the people attending such meetings work in the IT industry. Yesterday a couple spoke to us about their journey from Ukraine to Italy. They have nearly two months in Italy, moving from north to south. They have used the Couchsurfing service so they have met many nice people and spent nothing for the accommodations. I've never had such an experience, but it looks like the best way to discover the daily life of the country you are tripping through. It was difficult for us to find an accomodation in the big a popular city like Rome. So they spent a night in the Macdonalds of Rome. For sure this is non the best place to get to know Rome. They have advised us to look for accommodation in one of the smaller city in the neighboring areas around the bigger touristic city. I agree, also for me the most important thing is not to visit museums or crowded squares. There is a lot more beyond Colosseum or Piazza san Marco. Before the journey they hoped to hitchhike to move in Italy, but they did not go well. Often the police forbade them to do it. But they found out that the local trains are not too expensive and they work well enough. They concluded the trip in Agrigento. I am surprised to have known that this is the place where a video clip of Gianna Nannini has been shot. Ukraine's people have a strong desire to travel and discover new Countries. But also Ukraine has a lot to offer to travelers. I'll write about this next time.

A snowy weekend This year we had a disappointing winter with little snow. Spring is approccing so despite the poor snowcover one week ago I booked an hotel to spend this next week end in the Alps. Now the weather service says that I could have a twist of luck, a light snowfall is forecasted for saturday night and maybe a moderate one for sunday. I'll update you on monday, if I do not get struck in the snow and I can't come back to my city in the plain!