A Jewish heritage route in the Italian city of Pesaro will be operative this summer, as in past years, every Thursday afternoon through September.The route includes the old Jewish quarter, the synagogue, whose complex includes a mikvah and a matzo oven, and the Jewish cemetery.
The synagogue, probably dating from the early 17th century, is noted for its beautifully decorate vaulting, is on via delle Scuole and will be open from 4-7 p.m. .The cemetery is nearby on the San Bartolo hill, and will be open from 5-7 p.m.
For information, call +39 0721 400858, or +39 335 1746509
For Italian speakers, here's what the newspaper Il Resto di Carlino says:
Collocata nel cuore dell’antico quartiere ebraico, la sinagoga sefardita (o di rito spagnolo) è uno degli edifici storici più suggestivi del centro che risale alla metà del XVI secolo. E’ questo un periodo d’oro per Pesaro che vede il suo porto ampliato, per boicottare quello di Ancona, da Guidubaldo II Della Rovere. In città accorrono molti ebrei portoghesi che hanno l’esigenza di continuare i propri studi mistici.
Infatti la struttura in cui è inglobata la sinagoga (o scola, termine con cui un tempo si indicava appunto la sinagoga), ospitava anticamente le scuole di studi cabalistici, di musica e materna. All’interno dell’edificio, perfettamente recuperato, si possono ammirare ancora oggi gli elementi architettonici legati alle funzioni che quel luogo svolgeva per la comunità, come il forno per la cottura del pane azzimo o la vasca per i bagni di purificazione.
Accanto alla sinagoga, anche il cimitero ebraico (strada panoramica San Bartolo c/o n. 161), è aperto da giugno a settembre il giovedì dalle 17 alle 19 (info Ente Parco Naturale Monte San Bartolo 0721 400858, 335 1746509). Adagiato sulle pendici del colle San Bartolo, fino a metà novecento lo spazio appariva come una scoscesa pendice campestre con rade alberature; nel 2002 è stato poi recuperato dalla Fondazione Scavolini che ne ha reso possibile la fruizione.
June 18-19: Buenos Aires-Lima-Bogota (6,000km, 1 stop-over, 8 hours)
After a delayed start (we were supposed to fly on the 17th in the early morning, but our oldest daughter Edie got sick so we had to postpone our flight for 36 hours), and a mostly pleasant flight via Lima, we arrived in Bogota around 01.00am Saturday morning, June 19.
Getting off the plane and walking through the airport, one still feels the remainders of Colombia’s recent past; military are predominantly present, you feel you are being watched and controls are thorough. The lady at the money exchange is most definitely not the nicest person in the world (but who would be sitting there at that time of night) and in order to change 60 USD, one needs to fill in a form as if applying for a US visa, including hotel address, personal signature and fingerprints.
But that is just one side of things. Overall, people are friendly, very friendly. Most Colombians we encountered are genuinely happy with the fact foreigners come to see their country now; that they can show what they have. They do not only try to make you feel at home, or make sure you are safe; they are open and direct, honest and reality-driven. And on top of that, they are funny. Colombian humor, though black at times, seems to be what has pulled this nation and its people through its darker recent times. I am sure we will have a great time here, this time, and all the times in the future when we will come back to visit, and set up our office.
Colombia makes me think of Peru 15 years ago. Leaving behind a long period of civil unrest, the country is cautiously opening up its doors to the outside. People go out of their way to make sure you know you can travel here, that you should be careful, but not worry too much about safety; that the safety situation these days is similar to that of most countries in the continent. Hotels in Bogota still have small warning pamphlets in the rooms and the streets are crowded with police and military, but the atmosphere is joyful, busy, aimed forward. It is obvious this country is ready for a new era, an era of peace and connectivity with the rest of the world.
The capital, no, the whole country seems to be under construction; roads are blocked everywhere, not because of safety regulations, but because they are being repaired, widened, improved. Colombians are traveling outside the safety of their immediate environment and most of the streets in Bogota, and the main roads in many parts of surrounding Colombia, are teeming with traffic. All the work being done means delays at present, but soon traffic will be able to flow freely through a country that has been waiting to be explored for so long.
June 19: Bogota – Villa de Leyva (180km, 4hs)
We drove To Villa de Leyva yesterday afternoon, some 4 hours by car from Bogota. Only 180km separate the two towns, and most of it is (going to be) 4-lane highway, but due to uncountable road construction sites and the above mentioned traffic we hit an average of 50kmph, more or less. No problem at all of course; we are exploring Colombia, at last! First impression is that Colombia will make an excellent driving country, but for now this will be restricted. Car rental companies are mainly small and operate locally only; drop off fees do not exist or are forbiddingly high. Next to that hardly anybody speaks English and the recently introduced Satellite Navigation Systems do not have the maps of the country properly loaded yet. This will all change soon, no doubt, but for now we feel Colombia is a great country to visit either in a group with a bilingual tour conductor, or individually with a private guide and driver.
Villa de Leyva is a colonial dream town set in magical, cloud-forest-covered mountains and surrounded by numerous national parks home to geological, natural and historical treasures, most of them still inaccessible to the average visitor.We stay in the quaint, colonial style Hotel La Candelaria, on the northern end of town, an old mansion recently converted into this beautiful, 8-room boutique hotel.
June 20, Villa de Leyva
The main thing that made this trip, and our ten-year dream of opening an office here, feasible is Colombia’s newly found safety, wrought by leaving president, Alvaro Uribe, and his government of the past eight years. Today is Election Day and we talk to local people in the town of Villa de Leyva about who they will vote for.
Something truly phenomenal is happening here in Colombia. After decades of complete political uncertainty and lack of proper leadership, eight-years ago Alvaro Uribe came along, and ever since has been busy putting the country back on the geo-political map. Today, thanks to an absolutely fantastic, worldwide rebranding campaign, foreigners know Colombia as the country where “the only risk is that you’ll want to stay”, something opposite to its reputation in the recent past. Traveling here I can understand why this slogan was chosen. However, it would never have gotten hold had the country not been truly reorganized, safety returned to its streets and hope and trust restored in its people. I came to Colombia for the first time in 1992, at the end of the same 4-month trip that took me to Peru as well. Both countries were in similar circumstances then. Peru emerged from terrorism and uncertainty in 1995-96, when the Shining Path was largely silenced and its leader, Abimael Guzman, captured, by then president Alberto Fujimori. From that moment on, Peru slowly opened itself up to the outside world and, as mentioned before, our experiences there in those days have many similarities to what we see and hear in Colombia today.
Another impressive feat for a country so freshly back on track is the fact that today Colombians have the option to choose between two outstanding candidates for the Presidency: former Defense Minister and Uribe’s favorite, Juan Manuel Santos, and former Mayor of Bogota Antanas Mockus, preferred by the country’s students. Both candidates have a formidable political agenda, are very well prepared for the job and most countries’ people in this continent should consider themselves proud and very lucky to have the opportunity to choose only one of them. How Colombia managed to produce the political strength and vigor it shows in its current president and the two candidates to follow him, requires a deep political analysis, that has no place (yet?) in this story, but the mere fact earns Colombia and its people a lot of credit and respect. It also shows that Colombians are done with the past and ready for change, ready for a future that is in their hands - exciting times, for sure.
June 21, Villa de Leyva – Bogota
Pfff, seems the time difference is affecting the kids more than normally. They keep waking up around 4.30-5am, which even when corrected to their natural clocks (2 hours later), is very, very early. Must be the clean mountain air or something… Bueno, at least it gives me some time to write until breakfast is served. Let me finish where I left off yesterday:
The end of Election Day showed another interesting feature of Colombian thinking. After Mr. Mockus had initially sprung up in the polls to potentially win the elections, the first round showed a favorable position for Mr. Santos, something that was confirmed when the majority of the votes were accounted for and he was elected as Colombia’s next President. Today is “ley seca”; it is forbidden to drink alcohol in public from 24 hours before until right after the elections, so our waiter is serving our beer in teacups and hiding the bottles. He says: “I am a student and Mockus is by far my favorite because he is a former teacher himself and has vouched to bring education back to the top ranks of the political agenda. But today it is just a little early for Mr. Mockus to take the stand, we are still living uncertain times and safety needs to be restored completely before we can start thinking about further reforms. Mr. Santos has the better cards to make sure that Colombia becomes a safe and stable nation. Without safety we are nowhere; without safety we cannot move on. That is why I chose Santos today; I want my country to be safe. Next round will hopefully be for Mr. Mockus.”
For me this clarifies what is happening here; Colombian people are not only done with the past and ready for the future to be in their hands; they are also very carefully handling that new-found responsibility, and moving cautiously to make sure that today will truly mark the continuance of change for the better, and that a solid base will be created to build that future upon. We have seen many bad examples of political manipulation for ourselves over the past 15 years, so being here and listening to the people, seeing how they truly take up the task of making sure they get the right representation for this time, feels like a breath of fresh air. This country is getting ready for a bright future and we sure want to be here when it happens.
Made's Warung(S8 43.329 E115 10.494) is located along Kuta Beach Road (Jalan Pantai Kuta). I had pronounce the name wrongly, it should be pronounce "Mar-days Warung", and the driver cannot figure it out with the wrong pronunciation, so I said...just follow my GPS device! :) This restaurant is famous along the area, and many fellows blogger had a comments about it!
Initially, our group mambers have some little complaint about it...because they came all the way from Singapore airport (about 1700km) and will dine in just a 'Warung'?! But I said : "Well, let's try it first then feedback to me!" Haha!
Made's Warung at Jalan Pantai Kuta
Sometimes I felt the decoration was much better than a restaurant! So the group were happy and satisfied with the environment!
The M floor of Made's Warung
Once we got our table, we don't know what food to order?! And I recall the blogger - J2Kfm recommendation..."Nasi Campur". So we decided to order each of us one plate of 'Nasi Campur Special'! Some with beef and some without... Beside the mixed rice, I did order some side dish like - Gado-gado (vegetables in peanut sauce) and Curry Chicken.
Nasi Campur of Made's Warung - Indonesian Food
Gado-gado of Made's Warung - Bali
Curry Chicken serve with special recipe rice
We enjoyed the foods very much! Of course, accompany with Bintang Beer!
Bintang - The local beer
The Nasi Campur was serve in a big portion of beef, chicken, vegetables and other local special. The aroma of the rice was good! I like Curry chicken which was cook in a different method, I believe the local spices made the curry taste so Delicious! Most of us cannot finish all, because all serve in big portion!
The Damage :rp460,000.00(MYR165.00 / USD50.00) for 5 adults and 1 child included drinks.
The foods were a bit overprice! But worth visit for the first time! And the restaurant decoration was nice!
Once we touched down (6.45pm) to Ngurah Rai International Airport at Denpasar of Bali, the sky was dark. After the Immigration and scanning procedure, we were out of the airport. And I saw my name was Clearly written on the paper which hold by the driver hand!
Despite my stomach was playing like the 'Orchestra', we had to check-in to the Harris Resort (Kuta)(S8 42.950 E115 10.215) before having our dinner. The journey from the airport to the resort was about 15 minutes, that was fast! (only about 3km) The Resort is located at Jalan Pantai Kuta which is just beside the Kuta Beach. And it's easy access to 24hours convenience shop and clinic. It's just another 300 meter away from Hard Rock Hotel and Hard Rock Cafe of Bali.
Harris Kuta Resort
The staffs at the reception were very friendly and smiling all times! I like that!
The front desk(Reception)
We took three rooms and two extra beds for the children. The cost was about MYR250.00 for one room and MYR85.00 for the extra bed per night. But the last night (16th June 2010) we had to paid additional MYR90.00 each room because that was the day they adjust the room rate until December. The total cost for 3 rooms (4 nights) was about MYR3955.00. We were satisfied with the rate for this 4 stars Resort.
I did the booking through Hotel.com.au which was cheaper than the Harris official website.
The Lobby area
Some of the photos were taken in the next day morning...
The fish pool beside the restaurant
The swimming pool which is surrounded from the guest room
You can bring your beer and have a relax drink at this area during eveningsession
The baby pool and the slide
The pool area was Well organize. There have table tennis table and Chess to kill your bored! The staff will entertain you even if you alone! :) I saw a family practice their Yoga at the pool side every morning.
The Chess is ready for you
There are plenty of activities within the Resort. Beside the game and other exercise, you also can ride on their FREE shutter bus to tour the Kuta town. Your time will be fully occupy even if you stay at the resort alone! Haha!
The common Deity statue (Balinese Hinduism) at Bali Island
The room was clean and tidy. I like this resort very much! Especially the smiling face of the staffs here, even the cleaners of the Resort were also very friendly!
The room with two single bed and one extra bed
The bathroom with the bathtub
Hair dryer was provided
Three bottles of drinking water
As normal, coffee and tea are complementary from the resort
Bali is A friendly place, the Balinese are different from others Indonesian. But I can't find out more detail during this trip because of limited time. The religion of Bali : Balinese Hinduism 93.19%, Muslim 4.79%, Christian 1.38% and Buddhist 0.64%. You can read more and the History of Bali in Wikipedia.
Cute road sign in Harris Resort, Kuta
Overall, we were very satisfied with the service of the Resort. I rated this was one of the Finest resort we stay before. I will definitely recommend to all my friend who planning to visit Bali, especially those with family. The rate they charged was justified.
Rated :4.8/5
After check-in, we had a short rest and heading for our dinner in Bali!
We were having our 5 days 4 nights Bali holiday during 13th to 17th of June 2010. I booked the air tickets through Airasia.com, reserved the hotel from Hotel.com.au and find the 'Bali Driver' from the recommendation of Tripadvisor.com. Everything was smooth and simple!
We could not follow exactly what we planned because due to limited time at Bali Island, some of the attractions were skipped. That's make us an excuse to visit Bali again! Haha!
Our itinerary as below :-
Day 1 - Check-in to Harris Kuta Resort after touch down Bali. - Dinner at Made's Warung at Kuta Beach Street (Jalan Pantai Kuta) - Free and easy along Kuta Beach Street
The places that we miss from the original itinerary are :-
1 - Tirtha Empul Temple 2 - Seminyak 3 - Naughty Nuri's Warung 4 - Barong Dance 5 - Kecak Dance 6 - Nusa Dua Beach 7 - Dreamland Beach 8 - SPA and Massage Center
The above places that we miss are enough reasons for us to go back to Bali again! :) Anyway, I was desperately to snap the Sunset at Tanah Lot and Uluwatu, but the clouds was too thick that fully covered the Red Ball during our visit! No luck!
This trip also let me had my First BAD experience with Indonesia Airasia! We faced some incidents that we were forced to reschedule two persons from our group to fly on the next day, during reschedule the air tickets with the Airsia Sales counter at Changi Airport, the staff was having a very BAD attitude and was NOT serious about customer! She was chewing her chewing gum all the way during our conversation! The WORST was she charge us DOUBLE on the return ticket! This case is under investigation now from the officer of Airasia. She said they will contact us in 2 weeks, let's wait!
But the incident above was not effect our Holiday mood! Thanks GOD!
On top of Surabaya, Indonesia
The flight took 2 hours and 30 minutes to reach Ngurah Rai International Airport, Bali Island from Singapore Changi Airport, the time was 6.30pm and it was totally dark in Bali. Yes, it's dark faster than Malaysia and Singapore. (There's no different in time within Bali and Malaysia) We are benefited and learned a lot from the local culture in this Bali Trip. Everyone were satisfied with the itinerary. I will blog about our Bali trip in the coming blog post, stay tune! :)
In Venice, a Jewish disconnect between locals and visitors
By Ruth Ellen Gruber · June 16, 2010
VENICE, Italy (JTA) -- It was a Friday afternoon in the heart of the historic Venice Ghetto, and I was chatting with the city's chief rabbi, Elia Richetti, when his cellphone beeped.
"It's a text message from Gam-Gam Goodies, the Chabad-run pastry shop around the corner," said the bespectacled Richetti, whose wispy white beard spills down to his chest.
He read me the message, a reminder that there were still some chocolate, poppy-seed and cream-filled kosher pastries left -- and still time to pick them up before Shabbat.
"They really know how to use technology," Richetti said, smiling.
Many of the circles that make up Jewish Venice converged in that moment.
Richetti, who is also the president of the Italian Rabbinical Assembly, was speaking with me in the well-stocked Jewish bookstore and kosher cafe that form part of the Venice Jewish Museum, an institution founded by the Jewish community in 1953 that encompasses several of the ghetto's centuries-old synagogues.
Jews have lived in Venice since the Middle Ages; the old Jewish cemetery on the Venice Lido was founded in the 1300s. Venetian rulers established the ghetto as Europe's first enclosed place of Jewish segregation in 1516 on the site of an old foundry -- or getto, in the Venetian dialect.
The museum draws nearly 70,000 visitors a year, and locals say the annual number of Jewish visitors to Venice far exceeds that.
But the Venice Jewish community itself numbers fewer than 450, only a handful of whom live in the ghetto area. Only a few local Jews seek contacts with the tourists, other than as customers in their shops or bodies to make up a minyan.
"There is a paradox here," said Shaul Bassi, who heads the Venice Center for International Jewish Studies, an institution founded last year aimed at fostering intellectual and cultural interaction between Jewish visitors and Jewish Venetians.
"The Jewish community as such is eroding, and many are unaffiliated or disaffected," Bassi said. "But at the same time the ghetto has never been so famous. There has never been such a profound interest in the ghetto as a site of memory."
Picking up the slack, as far as foreign tourists go, is Chabad-Lubavitch, which in two decades of activity here has become the most prominent public face of Judaism in Venice.
I spent several days in Venice a couple of weeks ago, in part to visit with an aunt and uncle who were there on vacation, and in part to update myself on the varied components of Jewish life in the Lagoon City, which I wrote about in this piece.
Besides sampling the new Chabad-run pastry shop, Gam-Gam goodies (down the street from the long-established Chabad kosher restaurant Gam-Gam), I also stopped in a new glatt kosher restaurant and cafe garden, Balthazar, located in what used to be the Jewish old-age home (and where a few elderly members of the Venice Jewish community still live.)
Outside the Balthazar restaurant. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber
I also made it a point to go out to the Venice Lido to visit my friend Aldo Izzo, a retired sea captain who takes care of the historic Jewish cemeteries there. The old cemetery dates from the 14th century. Here are some pictures of it.
