ARCHIVE - Art and Culture
THE SIAE AND THE JAM SESSION THAT THERE IS NO THE SIAE AND THE JAM SESSION THAT THERE IS NO
If during the most classic of summer bonfires on the beach, hug a guitar and begin to sing Wish you were here together with another ten friends, you are breaking the law. Unless you have paid SIAE ahead of time. Dura lex, sed lex. If you then invite that dozens of friends of the bonfire to your home for dinner and you are so "eccentric" to decide to watch simultaneously the video Wish you were here (you are really fixed...) on youtube, everyone from just smartphone, nobody has to pay SIAE, because Google, owner of Youtube, is already paying for you. In addition, with the purchase of the smartphone, you have contributed to the payment of the SIAE through the implicit purchase of the so-called license for the private copy, which covers the possibility of keeping a copy digital of the original support purchased. In other words,...
TOURIST TAX: DURA LEX SED LEX TOURIST TAX: DURA LEX SED LEX
IN BRIEF: Agricamping Sophia falls within the Municipality of Noto and is forced to collect the tax relating to the stay in the camping from every guest who is not exempt and who is aged between 15 and 75 years, i.e. 2.5 euros per night, for a maximum of 6 nights.
At the end of the season, Agricamping Sophia will pay the entire sum collected (minus 2% for the "disturbance"...) to the Treasury of the Municipality of Noto, via bank transfer.
WHO IS EXEMPT

Under 15s and over 75s, residents in the Municipality of Noto, 100% disabled people are obviously exempt; assistants of patients admitted to local health facilities (one companion per patient, two companions if the patient is a child under 18); university students participating in cultural exchange projects or enrolled in the Eastern...
IF THE TRAGEDY IS FEMALE IF THE TRAGEDY IS FEMALE
The traditional Cycle of Classical Plays at Syracuse Greek Theatre into its fifty-second edition: from Friday, May 13 to Sunday, June 19 2016 are taking place every other day of the representations Elektra Sophocles and Alcestis Euripides, and ends with the staging of the Fedra of Seneca on days 23-26 June. As announced by the National Institute of Ancient Drama, presenting the edition, the woman is the absolute star of this season and is precise and original connotations in the texts chosen. The theater of Syracuse, second in size only to that of Epidaurus, will open the dance with the Elektra by Sophocles, directed by Gabriele Lavia and the interpretation of Federica Martino. Translation by Nicola Crocetti, Lavia has drawn the deep strong character of Electra, considerably different from...
THE INNOVATIVE MESSINA MUSEUM THE INNOVATIVE MESSINA MUSEUM
Almost all of our guests who come from the center north of Italy, to reach our Agri Camping Sophia, pass a couple of times from Messina, on the way and back. And we usually give excellent culinary advice given the gastronomic culture that belongs to us. But this time we want to give you a different advice, and combine gastronomy with historical and artistic culture.
A few months ago was finally inaugurated the MuMe ( Regional Interdisciplinary Museum), where in eight exhibition sections you can admire the history of Messina, from prehistory to the '900. The first adjective that came to mind when I visited him for the first time was "surprising". No one would have expected, for a Museum that after 30 years of work was born "old", a environment worthy of the best Italian institutions if not even...
A NATURE RESERVE LIKE VENDICARI IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE BLUE FLAG? A NATURE RESERVE LIKE VENDICARI IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE BLUE FLAG?
With extreme amazement this year I'm finding that the beaches of Vendicari have definitely disappeared from the list of beaches awarded with the Blue Flag. How is that possible? How is it possible that one of the most immaculate nature reserves in Sicily has been excluded from the famous guarantee certificate of the FEE (Foundation for Environmental Education)? From a reading to attribution criteria, on the official website, it is easy to see that the assignment of the Blue Flag responds to parameters that a nature reserve like Vendicari can not satisfy. Here are the main reasons.
The FEE contemplates the "officially" seaside resorts that request it. In Vendicari, the bathing is in a certain sense "tolerated", in the radical respect of the environment: in fact all the...
HOW TO START AN AGRICAMPING IN AN EUFEMISTICALLY SHORTSIGHTED SYSTEM HOW TO START AN AGRICAMPING IN AN EUFEMISTICALLY SHORTSIGHTED SYSTEM
It was the late summer of 2009 and from my uncles 'cellar, Vini Sultana , all' dusk, I watched the vineyard and the olive grove planted long ago by my far-sighted grandfather. There the sunsets are quite bewitching, perhaps due to the softness of the hills and the countryside of Pachino, perhaps due to the ancient charm of the ruins of old farmhouses, perhaps due to the relaxing permanence of the Iblei in the distance. And there, probably also influenced by the many wonderful years spent in scouting, I thought I saw tents among the olive trees. No, it was not about any abusive camper but simply of my galloping imagination in the throes of having to combine something for my future subsistence ... I was in fact completing my course of study in philosophy and soon I could have the title of Doctor Magistrale in...
"DA DOVE VIENI? TERRAFERMA, TERRACHIUSA". REFLECT TO SIDING "DA DOVE VIENI? TERRAFERMA, TERRACHIUSA". REFLECT TO SIDING
In his touching monologue, the talented Igiebor Eseosa tells of an evening, an evening in any one of the many Libyan concentration camps where migrants are forced to live crammed like animals, waiting uncertain and indeterminate of their turn for the crossing of the Mediterranean. Some jailers enter the warehouse to snatch a six-year-old girl from the arms of a desperate mother who begs them to have mercy. The girl is raped by the inhuman herd all night long. It is then rejected in the arms of the mother, unconscious, bleeding and swollen.
The "dose" has risen from the story of a woman who has died in the birth of a child with his son almost born, complaining of labor, simply annoyed his tormentors.
From father and husband, in hindsight, I could also have preferred an energetic and well-balanced fist in the belly listening to the reports of the daily atrocities in...
IN THE BALY OF THE JUDGMENT OF AN IDIOT: THE REVIEW AS A PUNISHMENT IN THE BALY OF THE JUDGMENT OF AN IDIOT: THE REVIEW AS A PUNISHMENT
Waiting for the appointment with my webmaster for the regular maintenance of the camping site, I take a quick look at his positioning with respect to some search "queries", to evaluate the retouching of some "meta tags" (not that much changes but, according to the essay, every fly liver is substance ...)
From all research, using keywords and combinations obviously relevant, there is a constant: like parsley, TripAdvisor is omnipresent. At the end of this 2018, there is nothing to be surprised about. TripAdvisor is one of the most visited sites in the world . It can be considered a sort of Michelin Guide online, constantly updated, having a disproportionately larger number of inspectors, but not paid. TripAdvisor uses mechanisms from social networks to turn most of its passive "users" into active...
FIRST THE...SICILIANS! THE ORIGIN OF SICILIANITY FIRST THE...SICILIANS! THE ORIGIN OF SICILIANITY
In mathematics we define axiom a principle that is believed true for evidence. In other words, this truth does not need to be demonstrated. In religious terms one should believe it for faith. For example, on the evidence that for two points only one line passes, Euclidean geometry has been constructed, which until modern times was considered the only possible geometry.

Asserting Before the Sicilians! assumes that there is a definite and identifiable Sicilianity, which can not be reduced to only being born or living in Sicily, otherwise my brother , which has recently moved to Milan, would no longer be Sicilian or risk losing, after a given period (which no scientific study has yet determined ...), this status. It is therefore necessary to understand which is the ...
MAHMOOD MONEY SEMISTER REVIEW MAHMOOD MONEY SEMISTER REVIEW
Diciamola tutta: non avrei scommesso un solo euro sulla vittoria di Mahmood al Festival di Sanremo. Non tanto per la lontananza del brano proposto dai canoni tipici della canzone sanremese, quanto semplicemente perché non credevo potesse piacere al tal punto. In realtà il verdetto popolare (tramite il televoto) avrebbe premiato l’artista Ultimo, tuttavia la giuria demoscopica (ossia un campione di 300 abituali fruitori di musica), la giuria della Sala Stampa (formata cioè dai giornalisti accreditati) e la giuria d’Onore (composta sia da esperti del settore, sia da vip che con la musica non c’entrano proprio nulla…), ha decretato la vittoria di Soldi di Mahmood.
Il cantante Ultimo, tramite un video recentemente postato su Instagram, avrebbe in buona sostanza gridato allo scandalo per l’arbitrario...
ALLERGOLOGICAL VISIT IN SICILY ALLERGOLOGICAL VISIT IN SICILY
With the succession of the spring season is approaching also the period in which they will be put to the test not only the blades of the lawn mower (given the flourish thriving of all types of grass on every corner dell'Agricamping Sophia), but also our poor nasal mucosa and our panting bronchi, despite the attempt of improbable slalom between various pollens and inflorescences of olive trees .
And yet we certainly can not avoid the many maintenance and "updating" jobs in order to make the stay of our future guests more pleasant in our rural accommodation.So, let's start, all the allergic tests necessary to determine with discrete accuracy of what drugs our body needs in order not to lose the right force to perform the jobs mentioned above!Whom to contact? If you are in Sicily, in particular in Pachino (in...
ESISTENZIALISMO E ALTERITÀ IN “FUORI DI ME” ESISTENZIALISMO E ALTERITÀ IN “FUORI DI ME”
Se non lo avessi saputo prima, mai avrei potuto pensare che Fuori di Me fosse uno spettacolo realizzato non da navigati attori teatrali, bensì da comunissime persone che solo lo scorso gennaio si sono avventurati nel laboratorio di creazione teatrale condotto a Messina da Lelio Naccari, che quindi fino a qualche mese prima fossero bianche delle basi minime per sostenere un tale impegno teatrale. Anche se nessuno a conoscenza della genesi di questa performance avrebbe mai preteso che tecnicamente dessero più di quanto dato, aprioristicamente perdonando quel paio di fisiologiche sbavature, tra i nove novelli performer teatrali alcuni non stonerebbero affatto in una compagnia di attori professionisti.
Bisogna dunque dare atto a Lelio Naccari del magistrale lavoro svolto, plasmando dall’eterogeneo capitale umano a disposizione un affiatato gruppo...
TRIPADVISOR BUSINESS ADVANTAGE? 400 EUROS LESS IN POCKET... TRIPADVISOR BUSINESS ADVANTAGE? 400 EUROS LESS IN POCKET...
Well yes... we succumbed to the "system"! Despite our enormous concerns about it , at the end of the month of In August 2019, we were persuaded to shell out around 400 euros for the TripAdvisor Business Advantage package. What would we have liked to achieve? Visibility in the default ranking of TripAdvisor, that is the one relating to the quality / price ratio. Before entering into the contract, to the Business Development Sales Executive from whom we were contacted and subsequently also to the Senior Customer Success Executive, we explicitly expressed the sole need to have visibility in the default sort order. We were therefore told that the Business Advantage package would give us the opportunity...
TRIPADVISOR TRAVELERS'CHOICE: WATER AT YOUR OWN MILL... TRIPADVISOR TRAVELERS'CHOICE: WATER AT YOUR OWN MILL...
This morning, while I was hanging out on the camping site to check that the booking system was working by heart, I absentmindedly noticed that the logo of the certificate of excellence of Trip Advisor is still in 2018 ... Not that there ever is very important, however, as they say in our latitudes, it is a recognition that nevertheless rinses .

And what has happened since 2019?

Apart from a slight increase in reviews on Google (where the review system is perhaps perceived as leaner and faster) compared to Trip Advisor, the quality and quantity of reviews has remained more or less constant. So what? Isn't it by chance that the recent skirmishes to withdraw from the Business Advantage contract (question resolved after months of emails, certified e-mails and phone calls by a kind Customer Success...
DON'T CALL HIM MAESTRO - TEN SONGS WE WILL NEVER GET LISTENING DON'T CALL HIM MAESTRO - TEN SONGS WE WILL NEVER GET LISTENING
May 18, 2021: what unfortunately happens at any moment, for some time, we knew would happen. The tired voice of his farewell, of his spiritual will, Torneremo ancora , written jointly with his friend Juri Camisasca, former author of the splendid Nomadi , already betrayed the hope of his return to the scene.

Sorry if we skip yet another copy / paste of life, death and miracles by Franco Battiato . You can read about him what you want, wherever you want, because a lot has been written in recent days, perhaps even a little hypocritically....
How a campsite is born and evolves - The cynical truth How a campsite is born and evolves - The cynical truth
THE SOCIAL CONDITION

I come from a family that has acquired relative economic well-being over time, not because of some kind of arcane passive income, but simply because of my father and my mother's career choices and financial management. All my grandparents were in fact simple farmers who, thanks to hard work in the countryside, were not sick but did not even sail in gold. However, they were doing well enough for their children to study. As the son of peasants, my father was thus able to retire as a General of the Italian Army.

WITHOUT MONEY YOU CANNOT SING MASS

To set up the campsite, I tried to intercept the funds that Europe donates through the Region of Sicily. However, between the presidencies of Cuffaro and Lombardo, those funds were "frozen" (there were but for the moment unavailable ...) In any case, to access those...
HOW YOU REFURBISH THE MUNICIPAL BUDGET AT THE EXPENSE OF TOURISTS. ONLY THAT BY LAW IT CANNOT BE DONE… HOW YOU REFURBISH THE MUNICIPAL BUDGET AT THE EXPENSE OF TOURISTS. ONLY THAT BY LAW IT CANNOT BE DONE…
Since 24 November 2022, the Municipality of Noto has seen fit to "remodulate" the tourist tax to restore the municipal budget. From a range that until last summer ranged from €1 to €2 for a maximum of 4 consecutive nights, the City Council, through Resolution No. 57 of 11/24/2022, was "forced" to increase it from 2, €5 to €5 for a maximum of 6 nights.

Proportionate and gradual?

Obviously the problem does not arise for those who are willing to pay 200 or 300 euros a night in the center of Noto or for the VIP on duty. However, for a couple of students who pay 20 euros to stay in a tent in July, an extra 5 euros represents 25% of the amount, as well as for a family with two children over 14 who, in the same period, as far as regards, you would realistically pay €39 for the overnight stay and €10 for the tourist tax. Do they seem...
IDIOT TOURIST TAX IDIOT TOURIST TAX
While there is talk of reducing the tax wedge and aid to companies as an incentive for job creation, the local political scarcity decides against the trend to increase the rates of the tourist tax. We should roll out a perpetual red carpet to the tourist who comes to spend money to sleep, eat, visit museums, crowd the bathing establishments, because (one really has to be intellectually gifted not to understand this…) if businesses survive, not only can they easily pay already expensive IMU, TARI and various surtaxes but, consequently, they can pay their employees so that they themselves pay their mites...
But no! Tourist, do you want to come and visit what pertains to our municipal area? Then we punish you! Here's a nice tax (in our case) of 2 euros and 50 cents per night (for a maximum of 6 nights) if you are over the age of 14 and do not belong to any of the...
IF I REACH YOU ON FOOT, HOW DO I GET AROUND? IF I REACH YOU ON FOOT, HOW DO I GET AROUND?
The Municipality of Noto is the fourth largest municipality in Italy. Due to its ancient heritage, it preserves a territory of 555 square km for just under 25,000 inhabitants. Just out of statistical curiosity, we note that the Municipality of Noto has a population density of 45 inhabitants per square kilometre, therefore well below the Italian average (196 inhabitants per square kilometre) and the European average (115 inhabitants per square kilometre). And again out of the same curiosity, we also note how the Italian municipalities with a similar territorial extension all have a significantly greater number of inhabitants.
Marzamemi, the now sought-after touristy seaside village close to Pachino, finds itself administratively split between the Municipality of Noto and the Municipality of Pachino. Some homes find themselves having...