Going South: Scenes from the Italian Mezzogiorno

1
Trani
Seaport


2
TRANI Seaport
St. Nicholas the Pilgrim Cathedral
Street Cleaner


3
Barletta
Evening play next to the
Basilica of San Sepolcro


4
Barletta
Evening chat
The Colossus of Barletta


5
Trani Public Gardens
Morning walk in a park by the seaside


6
Trani
Private enterprise


Trani seaport
Morning chat

1
Nicolas Cage e Montblanc
Actor Nicolas Cage has signed on as Montblanc's third international brand ambassador.
Cage donated his recompense for the campaign to the California project "Heal the Bay," to which Montblanc also contributed.
More information at the Montblanc website.

3
Basilica of San Sepolcro
A Romanesque church with particular Oriental influences from Jerusalem.

4
The Colossus of Barletta
"A legend says the statue washed up on a shore, after a Venetian ship sank returning from the sack of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade (1204 AD), and that it represents Emperor Heraclius (reign 610-641 AD). Modern scholars think the statue should represent Theodosius II (reign 408-450 AD), who had it erected in Ravenna in 439; Honorius (reign 393-423 AD) has been also proposed with some success."
Source: Wikipedia

5 + 6
Trani
"Trani is a seaport of Apulia, southern Italy, on the Adriatic Sea, in the province of Bari, and 40 km by railway west northwest of that town.

The city of Turenum appears for the first time in the Tabula Peutingeriana, a 13th century copy of an ancient Roman itinerary. The name, also spelled Tirenum, was that of the Greek hero Diomêdês. The city was later occupied by the Lombards and the Byzantines. First certain news of an urban settlement in Trani, however, trace back only to the 9th century.

The most flourshing age of Trani was the 11th century, when it become a bishop seat in lieu of Canosa, destroyed by the Saracens, and its port developed greatly thanks to its favourable starting position for the Crusades, becoming the most important on the Adriatic Sea. In the year 1000 Trani issued the Ordinamenta Maris, which are considered today the most ancient maritime codex of Middle Ages."
Source: Wikipedia

Il Mezzogiorno
"The term Mezzogiorno ("mèzzo" /'mɛddzo/ and "giórno" /'dʒorno/)
first came into use in the nineteenth century,
a comparison with the French Midi.
Both mean "midday" or "noon"
and are applied in this manner because the sun
is directly above the southern horizon
at this time of day (in the Northern Hemisphere).
Italians often refer to Southern Italy
as il meridione (the South)."
Source: Wikipedia