(no subject)
I've finally found a new place to stay! A nice single room, much unlike your usual student flatshare as the landlords actually lived there with his family up to last year - which means good furniture, elbow room, all comforts. A bit far-off into the suburbs, but this is hardly a malus - if nothing else, it'll make for long, healthy walks in the open air. Moreover it's within minutes reach from 1) the main cemetery, 2) a mental institution, and 3) a bunch of derelict, crumbling farm-houses :D
In other news, the SIF congress turned out surprisingly good. My poster drew way more attention than I could reasonably expect given the subject: apparently, there's quite a few people out there interested in carnitine deprivation syndromes, especially when it comes to setting up cheap, viable animal models. As of now, it seems the one we've used for this study is a first-timer for Italy. Plus, the lectio magistralis by Giacomo Rizzolatti, the first ever to discover and describe mirror neurons, was nothing short than amazing. It'd be no wonder if he got at least a Nobel candidacy in a few years, if someone (Ramachandra if I recall right) even went so far to say mirror neurons will represent for psychology what DNA represented for biology. Besides, he's an enchanting person too, with a very easy-going, informal attitude and a remarkable and (I suspect) skilfully tended physical similarity to uncle Albert Einstein.
Aside from that, I'd been told by many what a wonderful town Lecce is, and I wasn't disappointed - the ancient barocque city centre is stunning architecture-wise, clean and peaceful, and in a word (again) enchanting. The suburbs are enchanting too, albeit for the opposite reasons: a grotty, decaying, tower-block paradise if I've ever seen one. All in all, a "fuck, if only I had my camera" kind of thing.
Finally, for all HPL junkies: if you still haven't, try out the "Road to L." flick about what "really" happened during the shooting of the "HPL - Ipotesi di un viaggio in Italia" documentary. dolma33 and I had the chance to watch it back on saturday at the 70th anniversary of Lovecraft's death here in Parma, introduced by no less than Sebastiano Fusco. Basically it's all about a mysterious Lovecraft manuscript (popped out of thin air at a flea market) according to which HPL secretly visited Polesine back in 1926 to investigate the local lore about a race of fish-men haunting the swamps and abandoned villages near the Po delta (ring any bells?). However fishy the whole story may smell, both the documentary and the mockumentary are totally enjoyable - the former well-balanced between sensationalism and understatement, the latter very, very Blair Witch-ish, yet way more convincing and disturbing than the original... after seeing it, you'll definitely want to visit Polesine right away. It's sort of incredible to find such a beacon of silence and spookiness right amid the sprawling mess of northern Italy. No wonder the locals came up with stories about amphibian humanoids ;)