Das andere Italien

The 'other Italy', that is the rural Italy, far from the bustle of the cities. It is the Italy of the Apennines, its natural scenery, its remote villages, churches and religious communities, its farmers, charcoal burners, shepherds and fishermen – even if these old professions are now dwindling away. The author has travelled hundreds of kilometres through this rural Italy on foot, and travelled thousands of kilometres through it by car. Although he was acting in a professional capacity as a geologist, his interests went beyond this wonderful country’s geol-ogy to embrace everything it had to offer. In the year 1959, he embarked on ten years working in Liguria (north of Genoa) and twen-ty years in Calabria, on the toe of the Italian 'boot', on the flank of the Aspromonte facing the Ionic Sea. Further visits to both areas up to the present day have contributed to his fifty-year relationship with Italy, and a body of Italian experiences which was simply begging to be set down with accompanying pictures. Eight stories tell of the land and the people, of the wild landscape of Calabria and its mafia, of rural festivals, Christmas customs, Italian food, abandoned farms – and of 'Nonno', a grand-father. A wealth of photographs, mainly in colour, join with the stories in encouraging the reader to forsake bathing holidays and art tourism and take a trip to a near and yet distant land. Until his retirement, Hillert Ibbeken was professor of geology at the Freie Universität Berlin. He has been involved in architecture, landscape and macro-photography throughout his life. His book Karl Friedrich Schinkel – Das architektonische Werk heute / The architectural work today, edited in co-operation with Elke Blauert, was published by Edition Axel Menges in 2001. Later followed, in the same format, this time with him as sole editor, his monographs on Ludwig Persius (2005) and Friedrich August Stüler (2006) as well as California. Impressions from the American West / Impressionen aus dem amerikanischen Westen (2007), then, edited in co-operation with Michael Bischoff, Schlösser der Weserrenaissance / Castles of the Weser Renaissance (2008), and finally Fossil Design, Zeichen versteinerten Lebens / Signs of Petrified Life (2009).