This morning I posted something on my Timeline, using the mobile client first, then the computer and at last even a complaining post on Twitter: none of those appeared in the profile. However, clicking on View Activity I could see, edit and featuring all of those. I then noticed that the date was October 1st - correct – but… hey, just below those 3 posts there was a Today with the post I actually wrote yesterday.

Having worked argued with timezones quite for long, I’ve immediatly thought it could be the case: my computer is set on the Italian timezone, 9 hours ahead of Facebook’s in California; I tried to change it to the Pacific one - back in time, September 30th! – restarted the browser and bang, here are my posts stories.

Yep, it looks like Timeline doesn’t show anything in the future and, for Facebook, October 1st was the future: was my Timeline an alternative one, as a consequence of time paradox?

It was December 2007 when I first came to Tbilisi: it was cold, my suitcase did not arrive for 2 days – italian mistake, this time – but still I liked the place. It is like coming back in time, when people were less careful about time, deadlines, rules and they were more friendly, especially with guests. This is a really nice thing that I found here and made me come back again and again. Now it’s 2010: almost 3 years have passed and Tbilisi is changed; it’s changed a lot and it is still changing. Somehow this is sad for me, since you never know what can happen next: I hope it won’t lose its good qualities, becoming a normal place as you can find everywhere else.

Making of Ferris Wheel in Mtatsminda

New roads in Heroes Square

TV antenna in Mtatsminda

The government is trying to push hard on tourism: it’s a good move, a great one. I do believe this country has the potential to be a favorite destination for holidays: there is sea - not the best one, but still nice and interesting – there is history with the beautiful buildings from old times, there are amazing mountains with wild nature, good food and everything you might want to find during a vacation. Walking around Tbilisi these days made me notice a lot of under costruction areas and a huge number of new buildings and repaired roads; they are making a new Ferris Wheel on top of Mtatsminda - a park situated on one of the hills within the city – in a place where you would be able to see the panorama of the whole city; they repaired some roads which were totally ugly and broken, built new ones, a new bridge, parks. So far, so good.

Let me open a bracket about the bridge in particular: called Bridge of Peace, it has been designed by an Italian architect and it’s situated over the river Mtkvari which flows along the capital. Of course it is a matter of taste, but I think that the place where they put it is not the most appropriated: I would not define the bridge ugly, it’s even nice, but it is surrounded by several old buildings and I personally believe that it clashes a bit with them. I must admit anyway that in the evening, especially when you admire the city from the top of the hills, it looks more integrated and nicer. They are even building something, probably a park, next to it, so the area might become even better.

The Bridge of Peace

Closing the brackets, it looks like you should run now to book a ticket and come to Tbilisi as soon as possible: yes, perhaps you should, but be ready for the unexpected. Yes, because even if everything is getting better and better to welcome guests and offer the best experience, there is still something missing before Georgia can be considered ready to be a destination for normal tourists. In a word, what is missing here is the planning: if you want to spend a vacation here, you just should hope that everything would be as you planned. And be sure, it won’t be. You still need to be a little adventurous to have a nice holiday in this wonderful country.

We were planning to go to Mestia, a village in the region of Svaneti, where you can find ancient towers and villages – one of them, Ushguli, is even listed as Unesco heritage – that are unique. The road is too long and still not fully repaired – which might be good, since you would feel the nature even more – and it requires several hours to get there. How many? Nobody really knows, since someone says 5, someone else even 10. Voices say that the alternative is an airplane which flies twice a week: sounds good, so we decided to get that. Travel agencies in this case don’t help: they know there is a plane, but no details; we decided then to call some friend-of-friend who lives near the airport to find out some information: the person at airport tells him to call one week in advance to book a seat – perfect!

So where’s the problem? Well, one week is missing to the planned flight, the man calls to book and… surprise: there’s no way to book a seat, first comes, first served is the rule. The last attempt would be to go directly to the airport and see if there is a way to change the situation, but another surprise was waiting for us: of course we could book them, but we had to call three weeks ago. You might imagine how disappointed we became after these answers. Finding a car to get there, without spending a fortune, does not seem easier: in this moment we still don’t have a real solution, although we want very much and, armed with some more patience, we’ll find out one.

Another point – which I also discussed with an Italian working here – is the lack of service in some situations: just as example, if you go to Davit Gareji, a monastry on the border with Azerbaijan very appreciated by visitors, you will find out that, after a two hours long road, you can’t find a toilet nor a place where to buy a drink. If this is supposed to be one of the great sites where people would go, I think something is really missing. The same might be said about roads: even if some have been renewed, again you may spend several hours without the opportunity to find a decent toilet.

There are other problems, maybe nothing so critical, but still something should change in order to make Georgia ready for the big tourism; when those things will change, probably the spirit of the country will also be different; so my suggestion is to find some time and take a two weeks trip here, soon: do not expect to be always on time, to plan everything, to have just a relax; but be sure to find good people, tasty food and an amazingly beautiful country.

Tbilisi by night

No Facebook Day - June 23rd, 2010

How much facebook-addicted are you? Can you stay one whole day without it?

On June, 23rd 2010 forget about the social network, don’t try to login with your mobile, avoid looking for someone to chat with… and disable all the mail notification. Can you live without it – for just a day?

Just a little experiment to see how many people would try to avoid connecting to the popular social network and find out if they are addicted.

Join the event: http://vaime.org/nofbday

Owner of Facebook has confirmed that they will send $1 dollar to the rescue fund for the Haiti earthquake disaster for every time this is cut and pasted as a status. You only have to leave it up for one hour. Let’s do it to support thanks!!!

The first thing I’d like to say is that 99.9% of these messages are fake; I don’t really understand what’s the point to send them out and what kind of joy the authors feel when they do this; however, I will tell my comments why I say this is part of those 99.9%.

“Owner of Facebook has confirmed„
The first thing to do when you read this sentence is very simple: check if it’s true; thanks to our big friend Google it’s very simple to do such search and in few seconds you can realize that there is no official place where this news is reported.

The fact that the text says this have no meaning: I can write that the president of US confirmed he will give 1,000,000 $ to every people on Earth, but this doesn’t mean it is true. Also, whenever Facebook announces some change, such as the change of privacy rules as it happened few weeks ago, they send out a big announcement: so why not using the same way for such a big project, if it was true? Why bothering users with an ugly status?

“they will send $1 dollar to the rescue fund for the Haiti„
This is simply crazy: if you take a look to Facebook’s income and number of users, it becomes clear how impossible is to keep this promise. Facebook, in fact, had a 230 millions dollars income last year (income, not profit) and they have over 350 millions users: even if they had no expenses and they would use every little dollar for the cause, they could have problems in case everyone would join.

“Let’s do it to support thanks!„
If you want to support boring of your contacts, this is the best way indeed; but if you really want to support Haiti, take that $1 and donate it to one of the international NGO that are already helping. Even Facebook has an official page about the help to Haiti: http://www.facebook.com/DisasterRelief.

However, the best way, again, is to find a fund and donate there; some examples of funds are Red Cross or Doctors without borders: few dollars may seem nothing, but it’s better than just copying that status on your Wall. If Facebook owner wishes to help, he will do it; with or without your status.

The photo used in this post can be found here under Creative Common license: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhilung/4276325012/

Victoria Falls

The most amazing thing, however, is the fact that, during the months with less rain, usually in September and December, water is a safe level, so that people can swim close the edge of the falls without danger; this is allowed thanks to a natural rock wall that creates a safe pool – named Devil’s Pool - where swimmer can safely stay in despite the current. An image is more incredible than just words:

Tourists swimming at Victoria Falls

After the visit, we went to this restaurant, located in a little town named Montalto Pavese, which is called the queen of the Oltrepò Pavese due to his good position on the hills and the wine production. Locating the restaurant is easy: just point your map to 009° 12′ 37″ E – 044° 58′ 45″ N: yes, this is the address written on their business card!

The restaurant is really nice: big enough, kind people and good food; we had a standard menu with different dishes chosen by them; after a good choice of sliced salumi, they bring us two different «first courses»: both of them, ravioli with braised meat and rice with mushrooms were really great, insomuch as we asked for more. There was then a choices of meat cooked in different ways: except the tongue, as I am disgusted only thinking to eat, I tasted them all and I was very satisfied again.

Only sad thing, the weather: the restaurant is located in a really nice position on the hills, the panorama from the window is great, but that day it was cloudy and raining, so we couldn’t enjoy the view. It is a nice place to go anyway for a nice day in the beautiful nature.

In the menu you may find different kinds of italian food: not only pizzas, really delicious, but risotto, pasta, meat and fish; you may see on the menu a dish called “penne alla Giulio„ which is basically pasta (penne) with tomato and chilly: it is not something typical, since you may find it in all the restaurants (usual name is “penne all’arrabbiata„), but it is very tasty and serving is large enough.
Regarding prices, I think you will be satisfied: with about 10 € you will have a yummy pizza and a drink; they also have some special menus for groups: starting from 20 € you will have a complete dinner.

One interesting particularity of this place is that you may have a dinner also at late night: many people like to have a pizza there before going back home after a night with friends. Yes, in Italy we do not have any time-limit for pizza! If you are going to come to Pavia, “la città delle cento torri„ (the hundred towers’ city), you should have to try this restaurant: you may find it in viale Matteotti, 39; a big car park, called “la buca„ or “Santa Rita„ by Pavia’s inhabitants, is avaiable just 100m far from it. And after the dinner, nothing better than a nice walk in the Castle Visconteo‘s park, few meters far from the pizzeria.

As usual, images and videos talk better; and as usual, you may click on the photo to see it bigger.

“Mentre Dio distribuiva terre a tutti i popoli del mondo, i georgiani erano impegnati, come al solito, in una gigantesca tavolata. Essi arrivarono in ritardo, come sempre, e Dio disse loro che tutte le terre erano già state assegnate. I georgiani, senza esitare, risposero che erano in ritardo solo perché avevano brindato in onore di Dio Onnipotente. Saputo ciò, Dio fu così felice che diede ai georgiani quella parte della Terra che aveva riservato per sé.„

Here’s the english translation by me, so sorry if it sounds not very nice:

“While God was giving territories to all the people of the World, georgians were busy, as usual, around a big table. They arrived late, as usual, and God said that all the territories had already been given. Georgians, without hesitate, said they were late only because they were toasting for Holy God. Known this, God was so happy that He gave them that territory on Earth which He had reserved for himself.„