Italia 2008 - Pictures

[billyskank]

Malpensa Airport is a very dreary place, but I spent more time there on my first day than I would have liked, so I ended up taking a picture of it:



After I finally arrived I was placed in a hostel a mile or so from the festival site. I only stayed there a couple of nights before I was offered a spare bed with a friend in a hotel much closer to the festival. But before that, this was my bedroom:





The best thing about the hostel was the view from our bedroom window:





Keep looking for more posts by me in this thread, where I will post more pictures as I upload them.

:hi:

[bicentennial_baby]

1. Hey Baby!

:bounce:

I was thinking about you yesterday, I ran across that pic of us from the day you left.

:loveya:

[billyskank]

3. Hello you.

:hi:

:loveya:

[billyskank]

2. The festival venue was a hotel joined to a school.

I have no idea why a hotel is joined to a school. It just is.

I don't know about America, but in Britain you never see a school as well-kept as this:





Unbelievable, no? :o

[Mutley]

4. I think the only schools that well kept in America are the ones

in really rich neighborhoods. I've seen expensive private schools that don't even look that nice. :o

:hi:

:hug:

[billyskank]

10. Hiya muts

:hug:

:hi:

[Midlodemocrat]

5. billyskank!!!!! I was just going to post a "Has Anyone Seen billyskank?" thread.

Great pics!!!!

:loveya:

[billyskank]

11. I has been away, sweetie

as you can see. :)

:loveya:

[fizzgig]

6. hey sweetie!

what a fantastic view and great pics :loveya:

[billyskank]

12. Hi babe

:loveya:

[fizzgig]

23. how've you been?

i've kinda dropped of the face of the earth, but i think i'm making a comeback ;)

[billyskank]

25. Since the festival I've been pretty good

and maybe for a couple of weeks before as well. I noticed that we hadn't spoken, although I could see that you were around so I figured you were basically ok. I hope that's the case. I miss you. :hug:

:loveya:

[fizzgig]

28. i miss you, too

things are fine, i just feel a lot lately like i don't have anything worth saying, so i'm just not talking to a lot of people. i can only talk so much about my day...it's the same every day, you know?

:hug:

[billyskank]

30. I know exactly what you mean.

:*

[u4ic]

7. Hi billy!

:loveya: :hug: :hi:

Wow - what beautiful pictures! I can't wait to see more of them.

What kind of festival were you attending?

[billyskank]

13. Good heavens, it's you!

I haven't spoken you in like what, a year?? :loveya:

Sorry, I didn't say, did I? It was the 2008 European Hare Krishna festival in Verbania, Italy.

:hug: :hi:

[Madrone]

8. Yay!

I've been waiting for these! :bounce:

Thanks :)

[billyskank]

14. More coming

:D

[billyskank]

9. Verbania is astonishingly beautiful.

Every time you turn a corner you catch your breath at the gorgeousness that is presented to you. It is difficult to believe that such a place exists.

I soon learned that I didn't actually need to walk up this alley to reach the hostel, but it was worth doing so anyway for a photograph:



After I moved from the hostel to the hotel, this was the entrance:



Now just how European is this? :crazy:



The gang in a piazza; I think we might have been discussing going to get ice cream:



and in another place:



Roaming the streets:



Now we were definitely on a mission to get ice cream:



Anybody fancy eating out?



This was the road down from my hotel. The festival venue was just at the bottom of the road:



And looking back up it from the bottom one evening:



Me risking death by standing in the middle of the road:



Actually, given that the Italians are notorious for their lousy driving, in Verbania they are very calm and courteous. Although I did observe that a large number of the cars had scratches and dents. So I guess they are not particularly careful. ;)

A roundabout, next to the gelaterie where we finally fulfilled our desire for ice cream. The road sign actually points to Locarno, which I believe is where Heidi and Call Me Wesley live:



Some streets:



The gang, on our way to the lake to go swimming. I did that four times in a week: :blush:



On a street corner:



Only in two countries, France and Italy, can you get away with driving something like this:



Mind you, with the price of petrol going the way it does, maybe future rednecks will drive pickup trucks like that too. :D

Road signs:



Everywhere you look there are reminders that Italy is the home of the Roman Catholic church:

[Call Me Wesley]

15. Great pics!

And good to see ya! :hi:

It's amazing how similar everything looks here, down to the yellowish-orange house colors. Just your first hostel room is :hide:

Locarno is actually on the opposite of the lake here. Since it's around midnight here, all the lights are on there. ;)

:hi:

[billyskank]

17. Good to see you too.

:hi:

[billyskank]

16. At the end of the first full day, there was a concert in the park

The park is by the lake, and it was a warm summer's evening. A group of musicians from our festival went and gave a concert of devotional songs:

[1gobluedem]

18. Beautiful, just beautiful

Thanks for sharing. :hi:

[billyskank]

20. Thanks

and you're welcome. :hi:

[billyskank]

19. Some pictures from the festival itself

An impromptu class (actually more of a question-and-answer session) on the grass:



The person speaking on the left is my best friend who left for China two years ago. This festival was the first time I had seen him since.

The view from a random balcony:



A group of sannyasis (renunciates) giving class:



Where do these stairs go?



(Curiosity got the better of me and I climbed them to find out. Disappointingly, they went nowhere).

The gang at lunch:



No words for this one, just enjoy it:



Vamsi from Germany (left) and Sunanda from France, eating dinner:



I love the way my group of friends at these festivals are from all over Europe: france, belgium, germany, finland, switzerland. It is so nice to get out of your normal routine and hang out with foreign people for a while.

The gang resting on the second to last day. For some of them it was actually the last day, because they had to leave early. :(



Me wearing a dhoti, holding the camera with a shaky hand:



And from the front, with a steadier hand:

[fizzgig]

32. there's your handsome self

:*

[billyskank]

33. Handsome, nah, trick photography.

It's all done with mirrors. :*

[fizzgig]

35. trick photography my eye

:P

[billyskank]

21. Down by the lake

One evening at dusk:





This tower housed a clock which had no face, but instead rang a bell every 15 minutes. It would chime a large bell to tell you the hour, followed by a smaller bell which would chime once, twice, or three times for quarter past, half past and quarter to. You could hear it at night if you left your window open, which we always did. It sounds like it would annoy you during the night, but I found it very restful:



My feet drying after having been dipped in the lake at the end of a long day with lots of walking:



This is Mohan, a straightedge hardcore punk Hare Krishna from Finland:



Trees and paths just next to the lake:

[billyskank]

22. My friends Sunanda and Sudevi rented an apartment down by the lake

I fear to think how much it would cost to buy. This is the view from their bedroom window for a week:

[billyskank]

24. To finish up

On the saturday we took to the streets en masse, and some pictures of a sunset:

[sniffa]

26. I love all your pics. It looks like you had a great time.

Thanks for sharing. You've been missed. :loveya:

[billyskank]

27. It was wonderful.

I miss you too. :loveya:

[Inchworm]

29. Awesome dude!

and glad to see ya!

Looks like a totally cool time.

:woohoo:

:hi:

[billyskank]

31. Thanks.

:hi:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

34. My dear billy!

I just looked at ALL your wonderful pics, and I know you had a terrific time in Italy!

And your pictures are so damn beautiful...

Wow!

How I wish our American cities looked even a little bit like that one in Italy!

So clean and tidy, no trash, no graffiti...

And the lake and sunset pics just blew me away!

It's great to see you again, sweetie...

I have missed you so much...

:loveya:

:hug:

[billyskank]

36. Glad you liked them, Peggy

:hug:

[nuxvomica]

37. Awesome pictures

I just love Italy. The street scenes, the stairs to nowhere and the narrow alleyway to the hotel are so wonderfully evocative of that country. It's been a long time since I was there and your pictures brought me back for a little bit. Thanks for the mini-holiday. :D

[AirmensMom]

38. Awesome pics, billy!

:bounce: Thank you for posting them.

I'm so glad you had such a good experience. :hug: :loveya: :*