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Hello From Sicily Italian Studies, A Pottery Lesson And A Hike Up Mount Etna

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On a gorgeous morning following a good sleep after last nights cooking lesson I woke up at about 6 am and stepped out on the balcony of my hotel room. The sun was just coming up, and the sky was filled with shades of purple and pink. Far away I could see the outline of a strip of land: the Italian mainland, more precisely the Region of Calabria, was visible on this clear day for the first time. The aerial distance between Taormina and the southern tip of Italy is about 40 kilometres, and this sunrise view across the Ionian Sea was simply gorgeous.

I decided to get up early and take a stroll through beautiful Taormina, before the hustle and bustle of the day would kick in. My hotel, Hotel Villa Nettuno, is located on the north side of town on Via Pirandello, outside of the citys gates. I really enjoyed the location since it was quieter and yet just steps away from the amazingly busy Corso Humberto, Taorminas main street in a pedestrian area.

Having strolled through the northeastern Porta di Messina I reached a still quiet piazza in front of the Palazzo Corvaja, seat of the first Sicilian Parliament and today the location of Taorminas tourist office. A few of the locals were already up, taxi drivers were getting ready for their first fares, while the pedestrian street of Corso Humberto was still almost completely devoid of people. I reached Taorminas main square: Piazza IX Aprile which features a large panoramic terrace facing the Mediterranean and Mount Etna. Two churches, San Giorgio and San Giuseppe, adorn this square, and the famous Torre dell Orologio (clock tower), featuring the Porta di Mezzo gate, and the famous Wnderbar Caf anchor this public space on its western side. I could even see most of the volcano today on this relatively clear day. There are not many views that compare with the beautiful vista that spread out in front of me from this lookout point.

My walk on the Corso Umberto continued to the western edge of town where I passed through the Porta di Catania, the western city gate featuring the coat of arms of the Municipality of Taormina. From there I walked to a small park which features another beautiful lookout point that faces straight towards Mount Etna. After absorbing this gorgeous picture and trying to burn it permanently into my retina I started to make my way back, this time along the Via Roma, the picturesque road on the southern edge of town high above the coastline of the Ionian Sea. No wonder Taormina is such a popular tourist destination, the physical beauty of this town and the surrounding area is stunning.

Well, after this hour long walk I definitely deserved my breakfast and reviewed a bit of Italian grammar on the gorgeous terrace of the Hotel Villa Nettuno before I made my way to the Babilonia Language School. Punctually at 9:30 our lesson started and our grammar teacher Carlo familiarized us with the preposizioni semplici the contracted Italian prepositions that are formed from a combination of the actual preposition together with the article. Prepositions are always complicated topics in any language, and Carlo patiently and succinctly explained to us the usage of in or per to express time in different contexts. We continued with a variety of games to help us remember the use of Italian prepositions, a fun and effective way to learn and retain complicated linguistic concepts.

Just before noon I had an opportunity to complete another interview: Alessandro, Babilonias director, connected me with Donatella Rapisardi, a local Taormina based artist, who provides some of the Pottery Decorating Classes for Babilonia students. For millennia, Sicily has been at the confluence of cultures: the Phonecians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Swebians, Spanish and French have all left their imprint in this culturally rich area, and pottery has been an important craft in Sicily for many centuries.

I met Donatella at the local Hotel del Corso, right on Corso Umberto, where she offers pottery decorating classes on the rooftop terrace with a perfect view of the Palazzo del Duca Santo Stefano with Mount Etna as a backdrop. The weather was gorgeous, the sky was blue: I cannot imagine a more scenic location for pottery painting than Donatellas rooftop retreat.

Donatella Rapisardi is a gifted local artists who works in a variety of media. She also heads an organization called the Grupo Artistico de Perseo which organizes various exhibitions and art projects throughout town and the entire region. The group consists of five permanent artist members and a number of other affiliated artists that are coordinated by Donatella and her team. In addition to ceramics, Donatella also creates mosaics using marble and different types of stone) and handles wood restoration.

She explained that the pottery decorating lesson starts with plain terracotta pieces such as vases or tiles on which students apply the design they wish to paint. Two different types of processes are used for pottery painting, Donatella explained in her machine gun Italian: lavorare a freddo means that the pieces are painted without firing them, and lavorare a caldo refers to painted pottery pieces that are fired in a kiln to preserve the painting.

Traditional Sicilian colours such as blue, yellow and green are often used in the ceramics decorating process, although the students are completely free to create their own design and colour choices. Donatella guides them, makes suggestions and gives the students advice when they need it. She also explained that the tiles offer an advantage since they are easy to handle and transport and they offer a great surface for landscape images.

The course includes three lessons per week, and is particularly popular with Babilonia language students from Japan and the United States. Donatella added that Japanese students in particular are extremely precise and detail-oriented and very gifted when it comes to applying decorative painting to pottery. This may have something today with their exposure to the popular Japanese tradition of calligraphy.

Often Donatellas students become her friends and she invites them into her home and does a culinary exchange: Donatella will create a variety of Sicilian specialties while her students prepare various tasty treats from their home country. She indicated that to this day she receives emails from some of her Japanese students from years ago, and she enjoys it every time when she receives international correspondence from her previous students.

After having lived in Umbria, another beautiful region of Italy, Donatella moved back to Taormina several years ago which she really enjoys and which inspires her creativity. She also teaches childrens art courses and volunteers for some local schools. She showed me a couple of pieces that had been completed by students and three of her own works of art. I mentioned I would have loved to see her studio to see more of her own art. Maybe next time.

Following this interesting side trip another excursion was waiting for me: punctually at 2:30 pm eleven people were assembled in front of the Babilonia Language School, ready to go hiking on Mount Etna whose summit is located at an altitude of over 3200 m. Peppe Celano, Babilonias social activities coordinator and one of the language teachers, was ready to introduce us first-hand to Sicilys highest mountain and an active volcano.

As a matter of fact, Mount Etna had just erupted a few days ago on April 30, but unfortunately I did not see it. The eruption was only a few hours long, and one of my co-students saw the red lava stream at night! So today we would see Europes largest volcano up close.

Peppe had rented a small van and a small passenger car to carry all the participants. Our drive to the parking lot on the southern flanks of Mount Etna took about an hour and twenty minutes. We drove through local towns such as Giarre and Zafferana Etna where Peppe explained that near this area the Arabs used to cultivate saffron, hence the name.

The day was overcast and rather cool, a windproof jacket and a nice sweater were definitely in order. We parked our vehicles on a rather isolated parking lot and got ready for our climb. The lower part of our climb took us through a forested area where the leafs were just starting to come out. Not surprisingly, at almost 2000 m of altitude, the plant growing cycle is a little slower, even on a subtropical island such as Sicily.

Peppe explained that the local fauna includes chestnut, oak and birch trees which have all existed here since before the last ice age. We walked single file along a steep narrow path that was punctuated with many roots and stones, right along a precipice with many lookouts towards the famous Valle del Bove (Valley of the Ox), site of layers upon layers of lava flows.

Our steep hike continued for about an hour and took us from 2000 m in altitude to 2400 m to an area with a perfect view, facing the recent lava flows in the Valle del Bove. The summit area of the volcano stretched out right in front of us. Our area was a side summit designated by a cross and a broad natural ledge that our group used as a perfect posing area for our group shots of our conquest of Mount Etna. We spent about half an hour at the top of this side summit, chatting, snapping pictures and generally enjoying our mountain adventure.

On the way down three ladies, one from Switzerland, one from Germany and one from Austria (me) raced down the mountain in about 20 minutes. Coming down was a heck of a lot easier than going up, and almost sprinting down this steep mountainous pathway was rather exhilarating in itself. Once all the other mountaineers arrived we set off to visit a local winery. The Murgo vineyards were just about 15 minutes away, located in the fertile foothills of Mount Etna and many people in our group bought red, white and sparkling wines. An animated discussion followed in the van and by 7 pm we had arrived back in the school.

After a brief refreshment back at the hotel, a group of us met at a local pizzeria called Trocadero, right next to the Porta di Messina, where we were going to have a nice dinner. For some of us this Thursday evening was our last night in Taormina; I was going to leave tomorrow night to go to Milazzo while another person was going on an excursion to the Eolian Islands. Most of our group members were leaving Taormina this weekend, and we were all commenting how much we have been enjoying our experience.

Everyone around the table was a German speaker: we had three folks from Germany, two from Switzerland and myself, originally from Austria. Given the linguistic differences throughout the German-speaking countries, we all mentioned that each one of us has to speak Hochdeutsch (Standard German) in order to be understood by the rest of the group. All of us speak fairly strong dialects that would essentially be incomprehensible to German-speakers from other regions, so we get by, speaking the standard version of our language. For me this exposure to other Europeans was really enjoyable. Having lived more than 20 years in Canada, I hardly ever come in contact with German speakers, so this experience of enjoying a nice meal, speaking in my mother tongue, was a definite treat.

By 9:30 pm I started to get really tired since I had already gone on a one-hour walk through Taormina before breakfast, followed by another walk through town to meet Donatella, the pottery decoration artist, capped off by a short yet strenuous hike up Mount Etna. And tomorrow was after all going to be my last day in Taormina, so it was time to rest.

One thing is for sure, when you come to Taormina for language studies you definitely dont get bored.

Susanne Pacher is the publisher of

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, a web portal for unconventional travel & cross-cultural connections. Check out our brand new

FREE ebooks about travel.Article Source: Hello From Sicily Italian Studies, A Pottery Lesson And A Hike Up Mount Etna}

Submitted by: Katrina White

Are you concerned for the environment? Are traditional chemical-based house cleaners making you sick? It may be time to switch to green cleaning, starting in your home! The great thing about environmentally-friendly house cleaners is that they’re not only better for the environment, but they’re better for your health and your wallet, too.

Lemon

Lemon’s naturally pleasant smell makes it a wonderful natural cleaner. It’s naturally biodegradable, so it doesn’t harm the environment the same way soap products do. If you regularly consume lemons in the home, then you’ll be pleased to know that even lemon peel has its cleaning uses!

Garbage disposal systems have drains that can get nasty and smelly after a while, but putting lemon peel through the drain can help freshen it. Some people find that pouring concentrated lemon juice into the drain and letting it sit there for a good amount of time does the same trick. Just don’t forget to rinse it through with water when you’re done!

Cleaning the microwave can also be a chore, especially if food particles have stuck to the inside walls and hardened. But when you put half a lemon in a bowl of water and run the microwave, the resulting “lemon steam” softens the food particles, making them easier to wipe off later. Oh, and the microwave ends up smelling better, too.

Greasy stoves can also turn nasty after a while, but lemon can fix things easily. After the initial wipe-down with a wet rag, smear some lemon juice on the stove surface and wipe again. When all the greasy streaks are gone, wipe everything off with a wet rag. The scent of lemon works quite well in removing any “cooking” smells left behind.

There’s much more lemon can do for your cleaning efforts. Leftover “lemon water” from your microwave cleaning efforts can freshen smelly drains. Lemon juice and olive oil can polish hardwood furniture. Lemon even gets rid of any soapy scum left on dishes!

Vinegar

Vinegar is also another widely-available food product that’s naturally biodegradable, and it also has its cleaning uses. It is one of my staples when it comes to green cleaning. Mixing one part vinegar, one part borax and about 10 parts water makes for a disinfecting and deodorizing mixture you can use on kitchen surfaces. I then add a few drops of my favorite essential cleaning oils like lavender or eucalyptus.

Undiluted vinegar also works well in disinfecting toilets. Simply flush, then pour the vinegar on the inside rim, then scrub down as usual.

Baking Soda

Does your carpet smell from pets and the vacuum cleaner? Simply sprinkle baking soda on the offending spots and let it sit for an hour. It soaks up and neutralizes the smell quite effectively.

Baking soda also works well with vinegar to clear drains that have gotten all clogged up. Throw a cup of baking soda into the offending drain, then throw in a cup of vinegar to make things bubble. Then pour in another cup of vinegar and let the mixture sit for an hour. Then wash everything down with hot water.

Put a small container of baking soda in the back of your fridge. It will keep nasty odors at bay.

Make the switch to Green Cleaning!

And if you don t feel like making your own potions, commercially made organic and natural house cleaners are becoming more and more affordable these days, so it’s high time to remove dangerous and polluting chemical-based cleaners from your home. It’s friendlier to the environment, to you, and to your finances.

About the Author: For tons of free cleaning short cuts and secret tips, visit

speedcleaningsuccess.com

. Katrina White, is the owner of SpeedCleaningSuccess.com, a directory of house cleaning articles. If you would like to receive more information, sign up to the free mini-course that will deliver cleaning tips and secrets to your inbox. All articles are written to provide tips to free up the time to do the things you love to do.

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By Elizabeth Fletcher Brown

Marketing is actually very simple. It involves telling people what you do.over and over and over. The key to successfully marketing your massage therapy business is consistency.

So, first, lets take a look at the difference between marketing a service and marketing a product.

Products are tangible. you can touch and feel and see them before you buy. However, when a prospective client is considering coming to you for a massage, until they actually work with you they dont know for sure if you are the right person to help them with their specific situation or challenge.

It is for that reason that the first thing your prospect has to buy is YOU, before they decide to become a regular client or patient. It is important to remember this in all of your massage marketing endeavors.

Secondly, I would like to talk about the difference between advertising and marketing, because all too often when I ask therapists about their current massage marketing plan, they tell me about a classified ad in a local newspaper, or a display ad in the yellow pages.

Advertising is just that the placement of an ad, whether on the radio, print or web-based, in the hope that a prospect will call you as a result. Marketing, on the other hand, is relationship based. It is about building a relationship between you and your prospective client or patient over time. It is about building rapport, confidence and trust.

So lets look at the 9 elements of a simple yet effective massage marketing plan.

1. Define Your Goals

In order to put an effective marketing plan in place you first have to ask yourself, where are you now, and where do you want to be 6 months, or one, five, or even ten years from now.

2. Measure Your Progress

You have to decide how you are going to measure your progress. You could measure:

Your total number of weekly massage sessions.

The number of new clients or patients that schedule appointments.

The dollar amount actually deposited in your bank account

The dollar amount invoiced to massage clients or insurance companies.

Or some other measurement that you choose.

3. Who Do You Want to Work With?

Who is your target market or ideal client? What are their ages? Are they male, female, or both? How much money do they make? What are their hobbies?What is the biggest challenge or problem that they face? What are the qualities that your ideal massage client possesses?

For Example: I work with female executives between the ages of 28-50, making $60,000.00 per year minimum. They enjoy athletic activities, but want to experience less stress in their life. They are interested and willing to pay for regular wellness care.

4. What Specifically Are the Benefits That Your Massage Services (or products if appropriate) Offer?

Remember, benefits are different from features. Benefits tell the prospective client how your massage services (and products) are directly useful to them or how their wellbeing will be improved if they come to you for a session.

A feature is a characteristic of your service, like the number of years you have been in practice, or the massage techniques and modalities you use. While features are important, people do not buy based on features. They buy based on benefits.

They want to know whats in it for me. A good way to know that you are focusing on benefits is to finish the sentence, You get

Examples of Benefits: I help tri-athletes reduce risk of injuries, enhance concentration and increase flexibility. I work with executives to relieve stress and tension and to increase concentration and productivity.

5. Your Uniqueness

What makes you unique from the other massage therapists and bodyworkers in your area? What is your signature style? What do you do differently from your competition?

For example: “I do energy healing with people in hospice who want emotional and physical support through their final life transition.”

6. Choose Your Strategies and Massage Marketing Tools

In choosing which marketing strategies to focus on it is essential to choose things that you enjoy doing, otherwise

you will find ways to sabotage yourself. So if you are terrified of public speaking, dont pick that (unless you plan on doing some work in that area).

Think about your strengths and passions and take those into account when you are choosing your strategies. This is a time to have fun and get creative!

Strategies can be divided into a number of key areas:

Direct follow up and contact (such as sending personal letters, making phone calls)

Networking and referral building (such as working with key strategic partners like a Chiropractor)

Public speaking (for example, a brown bag lunch talk for busy professionals on stress reduction)

Writing and publicity (putting a press release in a local paper)

Promotional events (like chair massage at a sporting event)

Advertising (putting a display ad in the good ol banana pages)

7. Create a Budget.

Many excellent massage marketing tools are free. Instead of money, all that is required is some time, creativity and imagination. But some tools will require that you spend money. It is important to decide up front what your massage marketing budget will be and how you will spend it.

8.Develop Your Action Plan

Your Action Plan involves the specific marketing and sales actions you plan to make, for example, how many calls a day, how many personal letters or invitations a week. Remember, marketing is about simple effective things that you do consistently. It is a good idea to map out your massage marketing action plan on a calendar, and commit to it.

9.Have a Tracking System

It is important to have a system in place to track your efforts as well as your results. Having such a system in place gives you a clear sense of direction as to where you and your business are going. It also helps you to stay focused and on task.

A tracking system also gives you the evidence that what you are doing is actually working. This will motivate you to stick with it until you reach your desired goals. It also lets you know when things are not working so that you can make the necessary course corrections to get your marketing back on track.

You may choose to keep a record of:

The exact source of each prospect.

How many new prospects each massage marketing strategy produced.

How many of these prospects became regular clients.

The actual monetary value that these new clients produced.

Remember to periodically evaluate the results you are getting, and make any adjustments to your plan as necessary until you reach and maintain your client or patient goal, and the massage business of your dreams.

About the Author: Elizabeth Fletcher Brown LMT, and Certified Success Coach is the founder of the Massage Business Center and Massage Success Radio (at

MassageBusinessCenter.com

).

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