Thinking about the "sister city" thing following a radio piece, and about how it seems pretty meaningless in many cases.
I had no idea where Ottawa's sister city is. It never seems to be mentioned nor celebrated here. Turns out we have two – Beijing and Catania.
Presumably it's supposed to foster trade and tourism relationships, but I suspect beyond an initial announcement, it usually fades into obscurity.
Does your city celebrate and build on a sister city relationship?
Afraid to say I didn't know of the city of Catania at all - apparently it's the second largest city in Sicily, at the foot of Mt Etna.
I can see why we were paired, probably our mutual volcano threat experiences. 😂
I imagine it's rather warm there today!
@oblomov Oh! Didn't know you were a sister-citizen.
We'll have to urge the cities send delegations to renew the connection. :)
fun fact, I was looking at the list of our “gemellaggi” (the gemellaggio, twinning literally, is how we call in italian the relationship of being sister cities)
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catania
and Ottowa is there, but not Beijing, so I'm guessing being a sister city is not a transitive relationship 8-D
@giuseppebilotta hello! Nice to connect.
No volcano… yet. Tomorrow, I'm not sure. Best to keep vigilant in these uncertain times.
@ottaross I didn't know anything of this! Who knows where this pairing comes from?
Anyway, in this moment there are 32 degrees. It's not that bad compared to the north of Italy, which is unusual. I don't complain that much😅
@paolabonacini I don't know how sistering begins, but I suspect ultimately it is the cities themselves that send delegations back and forth to formalize the relationship and have ceremonies. Plus I'm sure the politicians enjoy the 'vacation' to travel somewhere far away.
32C isn't too bad. We had a bit of that a couple of weeks ago, but have a nice period of 25C underway now. :)
Ross of Ottawa
rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua
Oblomov
Giuseppe Bilotta
Paola Bonacini