the view from my office window

In a few days we are driving in the morning to the Adriatic first to Ancona and then will make a left turn unto the Adriatic highway North towards the city of the great Italian Opera composer Gioachino Rossini's birth, Pesaro. We are going to the Summer Opera Festival of Pesaro featuring the native son's works. Le Conte Ory, one of his French works, Zelmira and La Scala di seta (the silk ladder). Gioachino Rossini was born in Pesaro in what was then Pontifical States in 1792 and died in Paris in 1868. Italy has a unified country only appeared on the map in 1860, so most of his life he was a subject of the Pope and not an Italian, that would happen once the Pope was forced to give up his estate which was most of Italy to the new Italian Kingdom. This year in Pesaro Juan Diego Flores is the featured tenor, he has a marvelous voice.

Crossing Italy from West to East is a very nice drive as the highway goes through a series of long tunnels such as the Gran Sasso (big pebble) and through a National Park in the Abruzzo. The Adriatic highway is high above the sea and offers spectacular views on the passengers side. The picture is not a view from my office window, though I wish it was, but a view from a Palace in Ancona, a city founded by the Greeks and called Ankon or elbow because it is geographically shaped like an elbow.

Pesaro is a small seaside town and has lots of charm, Rossini's birth place is located in a small house on the main street. He became fabulously rich and being a clever businessman was able to get many commissions from Kings and Emperors by composing works to their glory. Napoleon III in France decorated him with a legion of honour after he composed an air to the eternal glory of the French Emperor.

We will also do a day trip further North to Rimini, birth place of my favorite movie producer Federico Fellini. One of my favorite movies is Amarcord, The movie features Rimini in the 1920's and is semi-biographical.