Photos That Most Tourists To Italy Do Not Take

Yesterday I wrote an article on how the citizens of Italy are selling their gold to survive...  I did take other pictures during our trip (while my wife was taking pictures of Baroque churches, historical sites, etc.).  Hey, if you want pictures of The Vatican. the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Venice, etc., you can find those pictures in lots of places!

You can click on any of the images and see them better...

Ever hopeful that I can promote my creativity, I present the below picture "Still Life, Caserta":

Caserta is located inland from Naples, and it has a magnificent palace and grounds that the Italians claim rivals Versailles (near Paris, France).  Well, the estate IS very nice, but Versailles remains unrivalled.  There is a lovely picture of the gardens and palace in the background here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Der_bourbonische_K%C3%B6nigspalast_in_Caserta.jpg

The below photo may entertain any of my women readers.  Above the entrance to the Ladies Room in Caserta's train station is a sign saying that the area is under video surveillance...:

We saw several windmill farms while traveling about there.  In many (most?) of the windmill farms we passed I noted that many turbines were not spinning.  In some cases, there turbines spinning and many others that were not (which would rule out lack of wind at that moment).  I saw this so much that I wonder if Italy has wasted capital on these projects, "mal-investment", I really do not know.  This picture DID have some turbines spinning.  I never got close enough up to any windmill turbines to get a nice photo, this was taken on the train from Caserta to Bari:

You had to know these two pictures would be coming...  They are railroad car wheel bearings, SKF (world's largest bearing manufacturer) brand and the second RIV brand (RIV was taken over by SKF).  I asked my wife to put her hand in the second photo for scale.  From trains in and near Bari:

We stayed a couple of days in Taranto (SE Italy).  Hey, Taranto has it all!  Founded about 702 BC by the Greeks, they were taken over by the Romans about 272 BC, who stole all that gold from "Magna Grecia"'s richest city.  Now Taranto has it all in another way: an oil refinery, a cement plant, a steel mill and a fairly big port.  We also read that the citizens living in Taranto have a very high cancer rate (like Louisiana does.  Hey!  Blogger "George Washington" ought to dig around for that info).  While my wife was using HER camera to take pictures of the Old City, Greek ruins, etc., I was taking other photos...

Oil refinery, Taranto, Italy (sorry not a good photo):

Steel mill, Taranto, Italy (again, from far away):

Part of the port of Taranto, you can see (if you look closely) both steel slabs (I guesstimate about that the steel slabs were maybe 1 meter thick), you can also see rolled steel sheet in the back to the left.

Assuming these industrial facilities are running at a profit (a BIG IF), then Taranto is generating wealth.  I wonder who, though, is buying the steel, there is so much cheap steel worldwide now I gather...  We did not eat seafood in Taranto...

We rented a car in Bari and drove to various towns (including Taranto, Matera, Lecce, Brindisi and Gallipoli).  All of these towns and cities are in Apulia (SE Italy) except Matera which is just over the boundary in Basilicata.  From Taranto to Brindisi we drove along Highway 7, which follows the ancient and most famous of the Roman Empire's roads: the Appian Way (Via Appia).  The Via Appia ends in Brindisi, Italy, the Romans marked the end of their famous road with two columns.  Here is one of them, you'll see the other soon.  People who like history might enjoy the fact that the Roman poet/writer Virgil (who wrote The Aeneid) died within sight of the columns in 17 BC.

Oh!  Please excuse me for being a little touristy.  To make up for that, here is the part of the port of Brindisi where they import natural gas.  It comes in as liquid (LNG), the ships then warm it up into gas, and the Italians then store in the round vessels below:

Two of my favorite pictures of Brindisi!  Brindisi is the main port of entry for people coming from Greece, Turkey and Albania.

When I took the second picture, there was NOT a line of people waiting to buy their tickets to Vlore (Albania)...

Europeans do tractor-trailer rigs a little differently than we do here in the USA.  Here, the truck (tractor) has a  front axle with one wheel (tire) on each side, THAT is the same as in Europe.  But, here in America the trucks have TWO rear axles (providing power to the road) whereas the European trucks have only ONE rear axle for the truck (all with two tires each side).  Finally, here in the USA the rear-most TWO axles (two tires each side per axle) are bearing much of the weight of the trailer.  In Europe, there are THREE trailer axles with one tire each side.  Have a look:

I mentioned earlier about the "other column" that is now no longer in Brindisi.  Turns out that Lecce also has a claim to being the SE end of the Via Appia, so they wound up with the other column (now at the amphitheater there in Lecce, the Empire's second largest amphitheater).  Someone later on put Sant'Oronzo (St. Oronzo, also the name of the piazza) up on the column.

This last picture is a Police Report from Rome.  I was a crime victim, if you want the grubby details read it yourselves!  I censored out the personal info that the cops wanted...  The pickpockets on the Rome Metro are VERY GOOD...

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Italy is a fascinating country with many marvels.  Yes!  There is history in every corner of the country.  But, we have been to Italy various times now, and I wanted to take OTHER kinds of pictures!  Once you have seen the main attractions (Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples) there are still many other interesting places to see.

Apulia is one of them.  There is often real value to be had when you get off the beaten path.

Compro Oro in Italia: Parte Due

I would like to start this article by noting that all of this is actually very bad news, at least in the sense that Italians are having to give up their gold (some of which has been in families for a long time) just to get by, in an economy that is WORSE than ours.

We arrived back to America yesterday (midnight, ugh), and I have compiled my photos and notes about the large scale of companies buying gold from Italians, individuals and families.  Zero Hedge was the first news source that alerted me to this, right before our vacation there, about a month ago.  I wrote a brief comment from Rome, and I now I include plenty of evidence that Italy is indeed losing its (private) gold holdings.  This first photo is from Rome, near our hotel, I saw this same sign over a dozen times, and because Rome is so large, I am sure there were over 100 such signs from the same company:

This next photo is their store (the company is called Yud Preziosi S.p.a., located on Via Napoleone III, 49/51, you know, if you are ever down on your luck in Rome, the guy told me they are the BIGGEST in Rome):

The van at the far right is actually an armored car.  I just barely missed getting a picture of the guard loading up the gold.  In a random act of journalism, I went in and talked with an employee about their business.  Naturally they did not want to give out their names, but they did tell me some facts.  They are buying LOTS, from lots of different people, much of it is heirloom gold...  Most that comes from Italians is 18 kt gold (75% gold), most of the gold coming from Eastern Europeans is 9 kt - 14 kt gold (!), and the gold coming from Africans is typically 21 kt (!!).  Most people who are selling their gold are in desperate states, they are not buying iPhones, they are selling their gold because they have to (Italians have long memories about the value of gold).  They typically only buy gold and silver despite what their ad says...  But GOLD is what they really buy, that's why "Oro" is always prominently displayed.  They do NOT buy platinum.  They get their gold price from kitco.com.

They test their gold examining hallmarks and an acid test, he told me they get BAD gold some 2 - 3 times a month.  They also discourage counterfeiters and thieves (who have robbed others) by making them sign a "Registro" which contains enough information for the cops to track them down I suppose.

They sell the gold that they buy to refineries, mostly in northern Italy, he mentioned "ARGOR" as one, I have not yet looked them up on the Internet.  He then told me that he believes that ARGOR mostly sells to banks, China and India.  Hmm.

They do have competition however.  Here's a picture my wife took of me at the sign of a competitor.  The small yellow sign about 100 feet away is yet another sign for Yud Preziosi):

We have been to Italy several times.  I always let my wife do the planning because she is more interested (and speaks the language, etc.).  This time we spent time in SE Italy (Apulia in English, Puglia in Italian).  We did spend two days in Caserta (inland from Naples) breaking up our train trip to Bari (Apulia).  Yes, there are buyers of gold in every city, Caserta:

When we arrived in Bari (a surprisingly nice city) I found more signs:

We visited the city of Taranto, which was founded by the Spartan Greeks about 702 BC.  For awhile Taranto was known as a very rich place, with lots of gold.  They were conquered in 272 BC by the Romans, after a long set of wars with the Greeks (whose King Pyrrhus gave us the term "Pyrrhic Victory", meaning that the Greeks won battles, but at a very high cost).  Taranto is now selling more of its gold:

Lecce (another surprisingly interesting city, like I mentioned above, my wife plans our trips very well), an ad on a light pole:

Lecce again, note the name "Pomod'oro" which is a pun in Italian (pomodoro means tomato), take a look at the lower left and you can see all those cities in SE Italy where Pomod'oro has branches, buying gold from broke people in Italy is big business:

And it's not just signs and storefront windows, here are two other ads, the first on the back of a bus in Lecce, the second from an Italian newspaper:

The ad on the right just above shows that they will pay 29.80 euros per gram of 18 kt gold (the usual over there vs. our usual of 14 kt), that works out to about $1205 per troy ounce, a better rate than you get in the USA.

Yes, yes, I know there are ads and kiosks at the malls offering to buy gold here in the USA.  But, this is NOTHING like the scale that I saw just now in Italy.

Compro Oro In Italia!

A couple of weeks or so ago, Zero Hedge published a story on how Italians are cashing in their gold because of hard times.

The story is true.  I will publish my expose (with pictures and an actual act of random journalism!) upon my return (no safe computer here nor flash drive).  LOTS of companies are taking in gold here, LOTS of details when I get back, I took good notes...

And where is the gold going?  China and India...

While this story IS interesting, it is also sad...

On Vacation: Italy!

Kind readers of my blog!

I was unable to find the time to review Barron's, which is too bad because the cover was such a slow fat pitch that we could have had a lot fun dissecting that one!

The Cover Story actually discusses the views of 10 analysts that they contacted for their predictions.  About seven were bullish, two bearish, and one neutral.  The cover was a little deceptive.

There was a good article on VOLVO ("European Trader"), the world's second largest truck maker that I would have liked to discuss.

Nothing in Barron's on GOLD!

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Since there was nothing earth-shattering happening, and because of our trip preparations, well, Italy first!  This trip will, perhaps, give me some understanding on what is happening in Italy (if not Europe).  Italy is a linchpin, Italy goes over the falls, then France will, then Germany, then America.

I will report back to you upon our return!  Maybe liven things up with some pictures.

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Please note!  About one half the times we go to Europe in September, there is ACTION in the financial markets.  I will never forget September 2008 going to the internet cafes to ask my friends WTF was going on...