Music

On the piano

Trio with Luciano Napoli (bass) and Marco Pepe (drums)

Stella by starlight

With recorded backing tracks

September in the rain
Bye bye blackbird
It could happen to you
Moonlight in Vermont

On the trumpet

With recorded backing tracks

Misty

Cycling

When I was younger, I used to love cycling uphill just for the fun of then riding fast downhill drifting into a turn after the other. After risking my life too many times, I am now starting to really enjoy the fatigue of the climb for the sake of it, followed by a peaceful panoramic descent.

Here is the timelapse of a fantastic tour on the Sorrento peninsula and the Amalfi coast done in the Summer 2016.

And below are the tracking data of a couple of recent nice tours touching the highest peaks of the Parco Regionale dei Monti Lattari.

Reading

A collection of books I would advise anyone to read, in no particular order.

Despite the titles, most of them are both non-technical and a lot of fun!

• Naum Vilenkin, Stories about sets
• Roger Penrose, The emperor's new mind
• Carlo Cipolla, Pepper, wine (and wool) as the dynamic factors of the social and economic development of the middle ages
• Carlo Cipolla, The basic laws of human stupidity
• Godfrey Harold Hardy, A mathematician's apology
• Richard Feynman, QED
• Richard Feynman, Six easy pieces
• Richard Feynman, Six not-so-easy pieces
• Richard Feynman, literally anything from The Feynman lectures on physics
• Richard Feynman, Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!
• Richard Feynman, What do you care what other people think?
• David Richeson, Euler's gem
• Denis Guedj, The parrot's theorem
• Marcus du Sautoy, The music of the primes

Quotations

Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit. — William Somerset Maugham

Sed quomodo poterimus amare mundum si amamus Deum? Duo sunt amores: mundi et Dei. Si Dei amor habitet, non est qua intret amor mundi. Recedat amor Dei, et habitet amor mundi. — (almost) Saint Augustine

Il saggio è colui che quando ha sete e beve sente l'acqua fresca che gli scende per la gola e pensa: “Oh quant'è bello bere”. — Luciano de Crescenzo

Tensio condensatoris saltus non facit, Natura nemo scit. — Anonymous, but was used by many to justify their work and life

La migliore non c'è. — Totò in Eduardo Scarpetta's Miseria e Nobiltà

[...] in questo universo globalizzato in cui pare che ormai tutti vedano gli stessi film e mangino lo stesso cibo, esistano ancora fratture abissali e incolmabili tra cultura e cultura. Come faranno mai a intendersi due popoli di cui uno ignora Totò? — Umberto Eco

Come è possibile far capire a un contadino dell'Arkansas cosa vuol dire “Sono un uomo di mondo perché ho fatto il militare a Cuneo”. O ancora: “a prescindere”, “eziandìo”, “mi scompiscio” o “tomo tomo, cacchio cacchio”? — Luciano de Crescenzo