La voglia di vivere

Lust for life. Italy needs a shout-out today after a scary, devastating earthquake tonight in Lazio and Umbria. Inspiring Orvieto was spared this time but this year it shook already, as is its habit.

We live on the other shore of Italy, therefore we were able to sleep through it. These are some of my images from Orvieto in Umbria with its splendid cathedral, double-helix fountain of St. Patrick, monumental chalice, lovely streets and facades, as well as a goat and a cow. And I haven’t been yet down below to visit underground passages.

This time the epicentre was more to the east with the worst damage to the town of Amatrice which is half gone, but with a seismic fault thereabouts and earthquakes in the region on a regular basis nothing is to be taken for granted. And yet – at least they didn’t build a nuclear power plant on the fault as they did in Slovenia.

Photo: a © signature mmm production

And since Orvieto is the town where I pick up my visitors who come by train and get off there, here is a memory of some other trains: Italian entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1984. La voglia di vivere was strong but Alice and Franco Battiato came 5th. (Tozeur is in Tunisia though.)