Visible Invisible - Urban History in Catania

Visible Invisible is the latest conference of the Italian Association of Urban History. 400 participants, about 50 sessions in three days. Respect to the organisers for putting together such a massive event. Absolutely stunning location in the Benedictine monastery in Catania. Fantastic southern italian food.
It is very difficult to focus on anything specific in such an event. Very difficult to know which session or paper will be good, interesting, exciting, innovative. So you end up picking randomly and liking, as usual, one or two papers out of the whole conference. However, the strongest point is what you can build up in your own session, the possibilities of collaboration, especially international, even in an extremely local context. So I thank Giovanni, Michael and Miki for putting the session together and hope to continue working on the project.

For more information on the conference.

http://www.storiaurbana.org/index.php/en/congressi-uk/catania-2013-uk

Via Etnea, Catania. My first street in Sicily

Via Etnea is a good street.
It is 8pm. People walking by. All ages. Mostly locals and some tourists. Some stores open, some closed. 3 story buildings, very tall. Generous space for pedestrians. By the look of it all buildings are occupied over the shops. Some apartments, some hotels and some offices.

It was built in 1693 under the direction of Duca di Camastra, after an earthquake destroyed great part of the city. It is now one of the most populated streets in the city.

And I will now eat my bruschetta, while i study the program of tomorrow's conference.