It's Transgender Awareness Week, leading up to Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20th. I'm pleased to note that there are various local initiatives this week emanating from our provincial gender clinic.
I currently live in the Province of Imperia in Italy, a small province with about a quarter of a million people. The gender clinic, operated by the local health authority, opened a couple of years ago and has about 20 patients of all ages.
The clinic is giving public talks about gender dysphoria today in Sanremo, the largest town, and tomorrow in Imperia, the provincial capital. An initiative to raise awareness of trans people and the clinical help available to them under the national health system. I'm also pleased that these talks and the clinic have been nicely presented in the regional and provincial newspapers.
I hope that my local LGBT campaign group, Arcigay Imperia, will also have some presence this week or on TDoR, although they haven't advertised anything yet.
(NB Arcigay is pronounced Archie-gay, not Arsy-gay; I just want to make that clear!)
Late autumn sights and successes
It's been a nice month so far with plenty of sunshine which has cured my seasonal affective disorder. The pretty flowers I've posted above are in a nearby hedgerow bordering a mountain lane and the colour is lovely.
I normally dress soberly enough but this shrub did inspire me to wear my jazzy and very girly floral leggings!
All the plants on the coast here are green all year - palms, pines, eucalyptus, cactuses, agaves, oranges, lemons, figs, rosemary and basil, even bananas - and that enhances the feeling of perpetual spring that I find so alluring. No autumn leaves all over the pavements. Not that there's anything wrong with autumn colours ... but it's always a prelude to winter and I hate bare trees. (For a fine advertisement for autumn colours and living your best trans life alongside, have a look at Violetta's recent post here. It's beautiful.)
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| Sanremo promenade, November 2024 |
I promised I would post a photo of Arnold the Olive who, despite being just three years old, has produced his first crop of olives. Arnold is a bit straggly so the best view of his black olives is up through his silver-green foliage.
Arnold will be getting a bigger pot this winter so he can grow big and strong.
This is very much olive country and last weekend saw a three-day olive oil festival in Imperia that by all accounts was a great success. I didn't go to that, though, as I was busy at the many local markets buying cactuses, pictures to hang at home and music, and out eating some nice fresh fish and pasta.
I also visited the fort in Sanremo which was built to keep rebellious locals under control before becoming the town prison, a flying boat base and now an exhibition centre. They had some abstract art on display, some of which was quite nice, but more interesting were the prison cells and, above all, the newly opened roof area which give some nice views over the town, the harbour and the mountains through the embrasures.
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The cream coloured yacht you can see in the far distance through the slit here used to belong to one Donald Trump who used it as a money-losing casino before he sold it at a loss. The US economy will soon be in his capable hands and I'm sure we all have every confidence.
(I wrote a fuller history of this boat, including its being in a James Bond film and a Queen song, here.)
The roof of the fort, above, and the cell block, below.
The fort is triangular and looks like an Imperial cruiser from Star Wars when seen on the map, which is really cool.
Thanks for reading. Have a nice weekend. There's a lot to tell this month, so I'll be back soon.
Sue x
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