November 2014 – Fennyblack

Junk shops or values of the past?

Here we go, let’s have a walk in the narrows of Florence.

Let’s explore the streets you always avoid because they’re not the main ones, you won’t see any important brand shop windows, you won’t meet anybody and they’re a little scary. But you go on and maybe have some surprise.

I saw a little light, maybe there’s an old house or a little trattoria..but not. Just look at the bottom right of this picture:

The first things that drew the attention it’s the fantastic, smiling and cheerful old plastic doll ‘Susanna’, a myth for all the children, the symbol of mini chees portions that have always been part of the life of any child. Those triangles of cheese that made all the children happy were produced by Invernizzi, a popular Italian brand that became part of the international Krafts Food company. It’s ages that Susanna disappeared from TV – because there were a lot of TV spots about it – so it was really unexpected to see her in this little unknown shop.

And as you can see, you can explore all the variety of things from the past: old photos, old TV and radios, 101 Dalmatians puppets, old plates, guitars and so on.. an entire world of things of the past that sometime helps you remember.

And here’s some other stuff of old memories, pictures, statues, record player, Xmas decorations and weird stuff, it’s to you to find the other ones..All of these pieces could be very appreciated, it’s not so usual to see them, and I don’t think you can buy them on eBay. Maybe this is exactly what keeps them exclusive things.

Just some minutes after this first stop, you can look at a totally different kind of shop. This time it’s not a shop, it’s a gallery, a modern gallery. Exactly the contrary of the previous place.

Let’s try to understand these traffic signals and the re-interpretation of their artist:

Historical aim. Any of them has got a print of some historical-political important character: danger signals, alerts, stops, any of them just advise us of something. This is how any person interprets the things, old junk stuff showed in a window to help remember the past, modern traffic signals that advise for the future.

Let’s finish with this picture:

E-commerce: first things to do

How to create an e-commerce?

Nowadays having an online shop is like have a new activity, a business by yourself. You can do it anytime you prefer, at any hours, by day, by night, you can have your activity everywhere in the world, but it doesn’t mean you don’t have to spend hours by working on it.

Actually, you need to focus on this task more than you can think. It could seem so simple, but it’s not.

You should have a clear idea of what are you going to create, about the products you want to sell, about the variations of these products, localization of the markets, methods of shipping and payments and, obviously, you have to explore the different software solutions you can find on the internet.

Here you the first steps you have to follow, before starting your online activity and before building your e-shop:

– create a map of your products

– catalogue your products (by dividing them into different categories, by colors, size, or depending on different criteria you can have)

– choose the right name for your online shop: by considering SEO criteria on search engines, choose an easy name that people (and customers) can remember easily, choose a name related to the field and market of your kind of products

– choose the right template, fonts (for your contents and descriptions) that could be consistent to your style and products

– take good photos (or if you have some good images you can use them) of your products, from different point of views, with different lights: the most important thing is that they have to be uniform and look in a quite similar style

Then, in general, try to be logical and well-organized: your e-commerce has to be easily understood by your customers, they have to reach easily what they’re looking for. This is the first step to sell.

Christmas is coming

It’s 23rd November, this month has already gone and I haven’t realized it yet. But somebody else noticed it. Just after some weeks spent at work by going to some places because of some events and fairies, or working into the office, it’s time to have my little break.
Why not spending some days out of the city and go to Naples.

Et voilà.. it’s Xmas
Here you are some photos taken by Via Roma, going towards Piazza del Plebiscito:

Nice Xmas lights all around, weird Xmas lights, those kind of Xmas lights you can only see in Naples.

And here you are the best ones:
shopping bags or girls with bags in their shopping time

and then the best of all, the image that its the typical representation on Naples style and flavor and tradition for everybody in the world: the ‘sfogliatella napoletana’

If you have some days to spend somewhere, discover this city and its beautiful and weird traditions!

Romantic views and landscape – Italy, Tuscany

I was just thinking how to share some of the photos I took during last week. They are nice pictures, romantic views, panoramas, buildings, rivers and sun…

Florence, Ponte Vecchio

Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi e Circolo Canottieri

Florence, romantic view from Ponte di San Niccolò

Siena, Piazza del Campo

Siena, the Dome

Florence, Lungarno rules!

One Panda by Armani

Post-one-shot.

Just while going all around, randomly,

here you what drew my attention:

Panda by Armani - in Florence — Panda by Armani – in Florence

Nice view: one white Panda car – not very the most recent kind of car – with corn plants on the top of it (or maybe some other plants that look like corn) and then the best… yes, I had to get closer to the car, to confirm I did not mistake.

A white clothes hunger that shows the Armani brand: maybe a suit, a coat or just a jacket.

Sorry for these photos, they are a little bit blurred, but the important was to show you ‘Armani Collezioni’ and share this wonderful scene of everyday life, in Via Verdi, Florence.

Florence Rain

Florence rain sounds so familiar. It starts in the morning and never stops until late night, maybe until next day, but just if you’re lucky. But Florence is also so romantic when it rains. And it’s also crowded, tourists are everywhere, and they like the city even when it rains. The squares, the statues, the Dome, the churches, the shops windows, everything have its romantic side while raining…

Here you some views of the Dome:

And here’s another view while going towards the station – under the rain.

Going to meet some friends to enjoy this night together. But I can’t resist and I have to stop and take some wonderful picture, here in front of this view, even if it’s raining. A lot.

And now, it’s time to compare this views with some new ones, taken just after a brief storm, here in Florence. Let’s enjoy a little bit of sun, at least here in this article, by looking at these pictures. Half of the Dome is bright, half is dark.

Sunny photos are to be used in a new article.
Don’t miss the new ones!

Why just the Gold Fish?

Yes this is the question. I don’t really think it’s worth to mention just the Gold one. I support the Blu one. I vote for him.

I vote for the different ones, the ones that are not so official and conventionally known, the ones that are not so common. That’s why they’re more special, because they’re exclusive…you won’t find them at the market, you won’t see them by going to your friends’ home, neither in regular pet shops..

Have a look

what do you think about the anti-gold fish trend?

So nice and sweetie, I introduce you Azul, and its little home.

Italian markets

Italian markets are something so traditional that you can’t live in Italy and enjoy this specific part of any Italian life. You can go everywhere, with any of your friend, and enjoy clothes markets, vintage markets, street food, food market from all around the world…

And this happened to me some weeks ago, when I came across what I thought it was the Xmas market 2014. But I was wrong, anyway, I thought it was too much early for Xmas.

And here we are: I was going towards Santa Croce when I saw so many people, and in 2 minutes I was in front of hundreds of food corners and little shops that were selling any kind of stuff.

What do you think they are?

Flower and herb seeds, fruits, oranges and ginger and more..

licorice, licorice roots and very big black bricks made of this plant.

And going on with food markets full of sausages, porks, strudels, ‘vin chaude’, apple pies and so on…

I was really sad to know it was going to be open just for 2 days,

hence I couldn’t do anything else but buying sweeties and homemade products and weird buiscuits.