1348 - Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)

This year I had no idea whatsoever, what I would do for SoFoBoMo 2010. Well, my friend Ted Byrne helped me out with the plan, and I have to say, it helps to know what you’re looking for.

This entry is three days late, sorry, it took me some time to figure out what I want to post, I rejected my initial choice and simply had to try a little bit harder.

In general I am quite successful in finding those layers of new above old, this mixture, that is so very common in Italy, even when Tuesday was not the most successful day.

We decided to visit Pontremoli, a town in the mountains, just over the border in Toscana, a town once famous for its book sellers, a town with an annual book festival.

Let’s say we expected at least something book-related, I don’t know, a library, a monument in form of a book, at least a big book store …

What we found was nothing. The town could probably be a tourist attraction, it has an interesting medieval core, interesting history (imagine a town where people had to build a wall across the center to keep the parties from murdering each other), but it would need a lot of money to make all that more accessible.

As it is, you have narrow medieval alleys where you hardly see anybody, closed doors, no shops, no restaurants, apart from those on the main Piazza. It didn’t help at all, that it began to rain after we had our coffee.

It was still an interesting day though. The image of the day is from Pontremoli, the last is from back in Sestri Levante, and the other two from our way to Pontremoli.

The Song of the Day is “Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)” from Janis Joplin’s album “Pearl” (or any other collection of her songs). YouTube is supposed to have it, though I can’t check it here from the hotel.