Ship Amerigo Vespucci

2022

The Amerigo Vespucci is a sailing ship of the Navy built as a training ship for the training of officer cadets of the normal roles of the Naval Academy. The Vespucci was designed together with her twin Cristoforo Colombo (although of slightly different dimensions) in 1930 by the engineer Francesco Rotundi, lieutenant colonel of the naval engineers and director of the Royal shipyards of Castellammare di Stabia. The training ship was launched on February 22, 1931 in Castellammare di Stabia. She left fully prepared on 2 July for Genoa where, on 15 October 1931, she received the battle flag in the hands of her first commander, Augusto Radicati di Marmorito. Her task was to support the Cristoforo Colombo in the training activity, and she was placed in the School Ships Division together with the Colombo and another minor ship, making various training cruises in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic; at the end of the Second World War, due to the effect of international agreements, the Cristoforo Colombo had to be sold together with other units to the USSR, as compensation for war damages.

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Caves of Castellana

The Castellana Caves rise less than two kilometers from the town in the south-eastern Murge at 330 m a.s.l., a limestone plateau formed in the upper Cretaceous about ninety - one hundred million years ago. The tourist visit winds for 1.5 km but the longer itinerary takes two hours and develops for 3 km, between caves and chasms. The natural entrance consists of a huge open pit, about sixty meters deep, called the Grave. From the Grave to the Black Grotto or the Capitoline Wolf, after passing the Cavernone dei Monumenti, passing the Calza and then the Caverna della Civetta, crossing the Corridor of the Serpent, the Cavern of the Precipice and the Piccolo Paradiso, one runs along the long Corridor of the Desert also known as the underground Grand Canyon (of a reddish color due to the presence in this stretch of iron minerals) you reach the Cavern of the Tower of Pisa, the dripping pond, the Red Corridor, the Dome cave and finally passing by the lake of Crystals, we arrive in the bright White Grotto. All made up of stalactite and stalagmite concretions and galleries interspersed with the sudden opening of caves.

Molise, Mainarde. Sunset

Mountain range which, compared to the Abruzzo National Park, extends from north to south and whose crests delimit the border between Lazio (west) and Molise (east). Due to its importance both from a naturalistic and faunistic point of view, the mountain range was inserted by presidential decree in the Abruzzo National Park in January 1990. It includes high altitude peaks that are around 2000 meters: Monte Meta (2241), Monte Metuccia, Coste dell'Altare, Monte Mare (2020), Monte Cavallo (2039), Monte Forcellone (2030). The Mainarde, like the rest of the Apennine mountains, are very ancient and of limestone origin. On them the erosion of winds and waters has left clear traces in gorges, gullies and beautiful potholes of the giants, the latter very clearly visible by anyone who looks out from the viewpoint of San Michele. Covered by dense arboreal vegetation (beech groves) up to an altitude of 1800-1900 meters, the Mainarde - beyond this altitude - offer a spectacular turf, ideal habitat for particular types of endangered fauna such as the Abruzzo chamois the Marsican brown bear, the Apennine wolf and the lynx.

Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino. Interior view

The abbey of Montecassino is a Benedictine monastery located on the top of Montecassino, in Lazio. Since December 2014, the site has been managed by the Lazio Museum Center. It is the oldest monastery in Italy together with the monastery of Santa Scolastica. It rises 516 meters above the sea level.

Campania Felix. Glimpses

Ancient Campania (often also identified as Campania Felix or even Ager Campanus) originally indicated the territory of the city of Capua Antica in the Roman period, and later also the plains of the various neighboring municipalities. It was a very vast territory when compared with the other Italic cities of the Roman and pre-Roman periods. It stretched from the slopes of Mount Massico (in the north) to the south of the Phlegrean Fields and the Vesuvian area. Initially it also included the ager Falernus, then it was greatly scaled down from Rome due to the alliance of the city of Capua with Annibale. Thanks to the fertility of the soil also due to the presence of the Volturno river, it deserved the name of Campania Felix.

Assisi - Basilica of San Francesco

The basilica of San Francesco is located in Assisi, it is the place that since 1230 preserves and guards the mortal remains of the seraphic saint. Wanted by Pope Gregory IX as specialis ecclesia, it was awarded by the same Pontiff the title of Caput et Mater of the Minorite Order and at the same time entrusted in perpetuity to the same friars. In the complex history that marked the evolution of the Order, the basilica (and the adjoining Sacred Convent) was always guarded by the so-called "community friars", the group that later went on to form the Order of Friars Minor Conventual. At the sepulchral church of the Basilica where the altar on the tomb of the saint was erected, on November 19, 1585, the Franciscan Pope Sixtus V, with the bull Supernae dispositionis, established the Archconfraternity of the Cordigeri. In 1754 Benedict XIV elevated it to the dignity of patriarchal Basilica (since 2006 "Papal Basilica") and Papal Chapel. In the year 2000, together with other Franciscan sites in the district, the basilica was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Marina di Minturno (LT) - Sunset

Clouds in the sky. The wonderful spectacle of a sky full of clouds. Depth and three-dimensionality of a cloudy sky.

Papa Francesco 3 aprile 2023

Pope Francis, in Latin: Franciscus PP., in Spanish: Francisco, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is, since 13 March 2013, the 266th pope of the Catholic Church and bishop of Rome, 8th sovereign of the Vatican City State, primate of Italy, in addition to the other proper titles of the Roman pontiff

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