Music

On the piano

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

Stella by starlight

IFAC Control Orchestra

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
• Umberto Galimberti, I miti del nostro tempo
• 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