I was going to post a few photos

February 3, 2008 · Filed Under Milan · Comment 

But I can’t. I did want to show you some photos of a little event I went to today which is being held at Milan’s Triennale exhibition centre. This event is for 2 to 6 year old children and is called ‘Vietato Non Toccare‘ - information in Italian. ‘Non toccare’ is ‘Do not touch’, and ‘vietato’ means ‘forbidden’, so ‘Vietato Non Toccare’ is ‘Not touching is forbidden’, or, perhaps a nicer translation would be simply ‘Do Touch!’.

This event is in course at the moment and its purpose is to encourage young children to touch and experience their environments. There are lots of activities, such as climbing in and out of big boxes, opening and examining other boxes, creating stories from pictures, and colouring and drawing. I guess the whole set-up acts as a kind of natural sensoral activity to stimulate the learning process.

Learning process or not, our little four year old loved it, as did the children of two friends of ours who came to the event. In fact, it was quite difficult to drag our sprogs away. Just the thing for a cold and damp Sunday morning in February.

I also thought that the event might have been just the thing for taking a few nice photos, so went armed with my camera. Now, I noticed that at the entrance to the building, there was a sign that basically said ‘no photography‘. Shame, I thought, but I will abide by the rules.

Only, the parents in the children’s play event area where taking photos right left and centre, so I thought, what the heck, I will too. I did take a few snaps until one of the young men running the event said ‘I’m sorry, but you can’t take photos’. I looked a little perplexed and then pointed out that everyone else was. He accepted this and said that he was going to tell the others to stop snapping away.

He did try to stop the happy parents from snapping away, but nobody listened to the poor chap and everyone kept on photographing their children having fun, as most parents would do. Yours truly got his camera out once more, and was told off a few more times, albeit very nicely. My bolt on flash unit is a bit too noticeable and rather too powerful, and does not lend itself too well to the taking of semi-clandestine photos, I noticed. One of the parents there did ask if I was covering the event for some magazine or other. I was hardly fading into the background.

Anyway, the reason why I should not have been taking any photos, and why this post will remain photoless, is that Italy’s privacy laws effectively state that children under the age of 18 cannot be photographed without the photographer having first obtained the parents’ written permission. I, and the other 20 or 30 parents could have been arrested for what we were doing. Now that would have been an event.

Worth checking out, the ‘Vietato Non Toccare‘ event runs until the 30 March. From Tuesdays to Fridays it is open from 5:00pm, whereas at weekends and during school holidays there are a series of 90 minute sessions at the following times: 10.30 - 12.00 - 2.30 - 4.00 - 5.30. It’s a nice way to keep the little ones occupied and there are supervisors too.

Bring the kids, but leave the camera at home, possibly!

PS Some of the photos I should not have taken seem to have come out quite well.

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The Typical 21st Century Work Day - possibly….

January 11, 2008 · Filed Under Work · 4 Comments 

While I could be wrong, I suspect that the average workday for many, especially those working with technology, may now go something like this:

09:00 amish Arrive at work.

09:05 amish Have a coffee/tea etc

09:10 amish Switch on computer

09:12 amish Check and reply to work related email

10:00 am Log in to Facebook.

01:00 pm Log out of Facebook and go to lunch.

02:00 pm Return from lunch and go for a coffee/tea with your colleagues.

02:30 pm Login to Flickr - upload a few photos, comment on some other photos, reply to comments on your own photos.

03:30 pm Log out of Flickr and go for a coffee/tea with colleagues.

04:00 pm Return to desk. Check email and reply, if really necessary.

04:15 pm Log in to personal blog and write a post about the heavy day you are having at work.

04:45 pm Log out of blog and into Facebook to kiss, punch, message, and play games with your ‘friends’.

05:30 pm Log out of Facebook and into bank account to pay that electricity bill that you should have set up a direct debit for years ago.

05:50 pm Log out of bank and check Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail accounts. Reply to emails and comments left on your blog. Log into Google Analytics and Adsense.

07:00 pm Log off Google Analytics and Adsense.  Switch off your computer and go home.

Of course, throughout the day you will have been answering the phone and thinking about the job someone employed you to do!

It’s a virtual world.

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The day I met the president.

October 3, 2007 · Filed Under Sport · 7 Comments 

Yes, it’s true, I met the president the other day, while I was watching rugby at the 4-4-2 pub here in Milan.

However, as you may have guessed, the president I met was not the famous guy who runs the States from a big white house. Instead this president, one Massimiliano Natale, heads the Italian Touchrugby association, and is involved in the association’s informative website ‘Mai dire Meta’ - ‘Never say Try’ in English.

Since this sounded interesting, we started chatting and he told me how he and a group of friends got together in 2005 to promote touch rugby as a new sport in Italy. As a result, they created a website and registered the Italian Touchrugby association as a charity. Now they are working on the promotion of the sport in Italy. However, promoting this game will not be all that easy in football mad Italy, but, having said that, there are some indications that football is losing some of its popularity here. Interestingly, Massimiliano is himself an ex-football fan, which is one indication that something is changing. Another sign of change is the participation of the Italian rugby team in international rugby championships, which has proved very popular with Italian TV audiences, thanks in great part to the matches being shown on the Italian La 7 TV channel.

Perhaps it would be true to say that the Italian team’s struggle to the top has created a resurgence of interest in Rugby which is something of a minority sport here in Italy. Possibly this resurgence is due to stories of violence at football matches, over-paid players, and various scandals have caused people to find an alternative to the ‘beautiful’ game. In other words, a sport which is still a sport, and not a thinly disguised international business.

Touch Rugby ItalianoEnter touch rugby or ‘touch’ as it is known down in Australia, where it is also referred to as touch football, apparently.

But why play touch rugby instead of the traditional form of the game? Well, while rugby is a great game, it is perhaps a wee bit violent for the average person who is not built like a small armoured vehicle, and this aspect of the game most probably puts many people off from trying out the sport. Touch rugby, though, is an essentially non-violent form of rugby. There is no tackling, scrumming, rucking, mauling, lineouts and kicking. It’s also a sport which both men and women can play on equal terms, and Massimiliano told me that a number of women do play the game in and around Milan. I like the idea that both men and women can play a sport together, and touch is one of those few sports in which mixed-sex teams are possible.

Have a go

If you would like to have a go at touch, then at the moment Touchrugby organises touch matches in local parks, especially Parco Nord which is on the northern side of Milan and the park in Cernusco sul Naviglio. Both Parco Nord and Cernusco are easily reached by public transport. You can find details of forthcoming events and games in Mai Dire Meta’s forum, although the information is currently only in Italian. I shall try to encourage Massimiliano to set up an RSS feed on his site so that subscribers can find out when and where meetings will take place.

Other teams

Touch Rugby ItalianoThere are also some other teams springing up, as you can see from the list on the Mai Dire Meta site. The news on the front page indicates that there are also two teams down in Rome.

English is spoken

Do not worry if you do not speak Italian, Massimiliano speaks good English and I understand from him that a number of non-Italians are members of the club, including a few Welsh people who live and work over here.

So if you are feeling a little overweight and need a little exercise, or simply fancy meeting some new people and want to have a little fun, get in touch with Touchrugby Italy through the Mai Dire Meta site, or register in the Mai Dire Meta form, ask a few questions (in English!) and find out some more. The non-obligatory Touchrugby membership fee is a whole 10 Euros. For this fee you get insurance cover and the right to play in international tournaments. However, playing a game of touch in the local parks will not cost anything and never will. Players between the ages of 25 to 60 are more than welcome. Mai Dire Meta is also looking for volunteers to help set up touch teams in other areas around Italy, so contact them if you think you may be able to help out.

You may also be interested to hear that on the 11th October, Shane Wilson, an Australian who is the Scottish National Touch rugby team coach, will be over here in Milan. In honour of this occasion, Touchrugby has found somewhere to hold a match in the central Fiera area of Milan. A party is also planned and will most probably take place at the good old 4-4-2 on the same day. See the Mai Dire Meta site and forums for details.

Touch Rugby Italiano

To see some more photos of the players in action and find out more (in Italian), follow these links:

If you would like to see some videos of the teams in action check out this on YouTube .

There are certainly some parallels between touch and the full blown contact sport, indeed, after a game of either version, you will find all the players down at the pub downing more than a few beers!

Photos by Nicola Stornati

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