#appenine mountains

[mothmiso]

il Ragazzo di campagna / the country boy (2) (3) (4) (5) by Alessandro Galluzzi

[littlepawz]

Artist Giambologna created this sculpture in the late 1500′s as a symbol of Italy’s rugged Appenine mountains. This mountain god, named Appennino, stands 35 feet tall within the grounds of Villa Demidoff in Tuscany

[iblamethenubbins]

Yesterday my girlfriend and I went to the Golfarone Waterfall, a magic fairytale place hidden away in the Apennine Mountains in Italy. There were no signs so we were only guided by google maps and some cars parked on the side of the road. A slightly steep path through the woods took us down to the river and there some people kindly told us to keep walking left for another few minutes to find the waterfall. All along the river there were people bathing and picnicking or even sleeping on hammocks. Everywhere we walked we found clean, well-kept paths and river shores, not something you see everyday, unfortunately. My girlfriend found the walk a little challenging, with slippery stones and uneven ground, but I thought it was fine :D  When we got to the waterfall, it took our breath away. It’s about 15 meters high, so not huge, but the whole place was like out of a film set. Absolutely mesmerizing. There were people bathing in the pool, and some were actually diving off the top of the waterfall! Crazy. Of course when I decided to swim the sun went away behind the clouds, so it took me a while to actually dive in. But I did eventually ‘cause there was NO WAY I wasn’t going to swim there. I mean, have you seen the place? The water was absolutely freezing, as it should be, and it filled me with an electric thrill. I wasn't even cold coming out of the water, my body was radiating heat and happiness. Girlfriend decided it was too cold to swim so bummer for her. Shortly after we heard the rumbling of thunders so we made our way back. But we stopped on the way to eat our sandwiches. I was about to play “The Water” to the river with my ukulele when it actually started raining, so that’s my only regret of the day, not having serenaded the river with my uke. But there’ll be other times :)

[theacademicminute]

"Only fifty miles from Rome, a remarkable group of wild brown bears cling to existence."

Today on WAMC Northeast Public Radio - Roger Thompson, Associate Professor of writing & rhetoric at Stony Brook University, discusses bears in the Appenine Mountains whose population is dwindling due to changing times.

http://bit.ly/RThomAM