Amphibious Trekking is the most direct and minimalistic way of exploring a coastal area.

It consists in alternating between traditional trekking:

and sea trekking:

The key component is a lightweight freediving inflatable board. Deflated it can be easily carried in a trekking backpack and inflated it can carry your backpack across the waves.

As you will always be carrying all your equipment with you, you do not have to worry anymore about having to rent or transport a kayak or a SUP board and you do not have to go back to your starting point.

As an example, I recently used this system to explore part of the Cinque Terre going from Vernazza to Corniglia.

I arrived by train to Vernazza, descended to the beach with my backpack, inflated the board, secured the backpack to it and swam for two hours to Marina di Corniglia.

I then deflated the board, stored it in the backpack and...

Americans, and not just them, are stunned by the apparently unstoppable march of Donald Trump towards the presidency. From an Italian point of view, however, it all looks like a very unimaginative Hollywood remake of a twenty years old Italian movie: “Berlusconi, the Coming of the Second Christ”.

Being American, Trump is bigger, brasher and louder than our own diminutive Napoleon, but apart from size, they could be twins separated at birth. Billionaire posing as Messiah of the Common People, check, expert mass media manipulator, check, megalomaniac, check, despotic and despots lover, con man extraordinaire, consummate liar, serial philanderer, tax dodger, check check check check check. Really Hollywood? Is this blunt cut-and-paste job the best you can do? If I were Berlusconi, I would sue immediately for blatant copyright infringement.

So, under the assumption (and I admit that’s quite...

And so it has arrived, the Day of my Half Century. The most feared day, the Day of Reckoning. When one has to finally face reality, take account of failures and shortcomings, measure the road travelled so far knowing full well that what lies ahead is short indeed.

But how to celebrate this birthday like no other? A trivial birthday party won’t do. This momentous day that separates the “I Will Be” from the “I Was”, this moment of passage between maturity and over-ripeness cannot be wasted with trifles and trinkets.

No, I say! I will leave behind my lovely Florence and my lovely family with their cheerful little faces and their joyful birthday songs, I will renounce the fat slice of cake and the “Birthday Boy” badge that are my birthright. I will go far away and spend my birthday alone, looking for Truth and Wisdom.

So farewell I say, on my bike I jump, up and down the rolling green...

The European Union is facing a major economic crisis that has not only caused immense human suffering but that has also largely destroyed its moral standing in the eyes of its own citizens and it is imperilling its very survival. 

Other federal or multi national countries such as the USA and the UK, that were even more directly and heavily hit by the crises, are now recovering fast while the EU is still stuck in stagnation with little hope of a meaningful recovery any time soon.

The difference is not due to technological or economic factors, the EU has in these fields resources that are comparable or superior to those of any other developed country. The inability of the EU to get out of this crisis is due to a tragic and possibly fatal flaw in its own institutional structure: the lack of powerful political and economic institutions politically responsible to the whole Union.

The root...

This year, my daughter Libera 自在 Assini, got 11 A-Levels (8 A* and 3 As if you need to know).

This has created a bit of stir in the U.K. media and for a day her picture ornamented (she is rather pretty) many national and local newspapers.

In the commentaries, someone hailed her as a genius, someone worried if she had a life at all and if she had spent the last couple of years hidden in a cave going through all this knowledge.

Others declared that this is final proof that A-levels are a joke and that the country is going to the dogs.

So, having had the chance of observing Libera while she was preparing for her exams, I thought I would write a little note to clear up some misconceptions.

I am not writing this for the journalists, the commentators or the educational authorities.

Us old people are beyond salvation anyway, it would be just a waste of time, but I thought that it might be...

Caro amico, non so da dove vieni e cosa ti ha portato al blog di Beppe Grillo.

Forse il tuo meccanico ti ha detto: “so tutti ladri, l'unico bbono è Grillo, quello gne fa un culo così a sti npuniti!”.

O magari la tua signora ha letto dal parrucchiere un articolo su Di Maio, si è innamorata ed ora è tutta “Di Maio qui! Di Maio li!” e tu ti sei detto: “famme anna’ a vede’ che faccia c'ha sto grandissimo cornuto!”.

Qualunque sia il percorso intellettuale che ti ha condotto da noi, sappi che sei benvenuto nel MoVimento Cinque Stelle.

Come? Perche’ la V maiuscola? E’ perchè diciamo Vaffanculo! a tutti stì ladri di regime!

E’ un'idea di Grillo, forte eh?

Eh si, noi siamo simpatici così.

Ma procediamo per gradi.

Per prima cosa, devi familiarizzarti con la leadership e l'ideologia del MoVimento.

Che dici? Non sei mai stato bravo in politica e filosofia?

Ma no, è semplice, non ti...

Secondo il suo non statuto il MoVimento 5 Stelle (M5S) pone al centro della sua identità politica la pratica della democrazia diretta: “riconoscendo alla totalità degli utenti della Rete il ruolo di governo ed indirizzo normalmente attribuito a pochi.”

È istruttivo esaminare come questo principio sia stato applicato in alcuni recenti e cruciali passaggi politici.

La rete tradita

Nel febbraio del 2012, la rete vota a favore delle partecipazione alle consultazioni per la formazione del governo Renzi.

Grillo è contrario ma si reca comunque a Roma. Quello che avviene non è però un pacato confronto fra il programma del M5S e quello del governo in formazione. Grillo rifiuta ogni discussione e si lancia in una lunga serie di insulti.

Quattro senatori del M5S che si erano permessi di criticarlo (seppure nei termini più mansueti possibili) per aver disatteso il mandato che il movimento gli...