A Little Respect for our Italian Scorpion Friends

Left: Wood-scorpion (Euscoporpius) in Bergamo on 2019-05-02.
Center: Wood-scorpion (Euscoporpius) in Bergamo on 2020-10-17.

Right: Wood-scorpion (Euscoporpius) in Bergamo on 2020-05-08.

I admit it, I thought scorpions only lived in the desert and had lethal stings. These statements contain a shred of truth but are far off from the full picture about scorpions. I had to come face to face with my scorpion ignorance recently when we ran into a scorpion on the wall of our palazzo.

My first question was: is it natural that there is a scorpion on the wall of our apartment building, in northern Italy? Has the world turned upside down? Has there been a mistake? No, no mistake, in fact scorpions are found on all landmasses except Antarctica. The most northern colony of scorpions in fact is on the Isle of Sheppey in the United Kingdom at 51 degrees N. They were accidentally introduced there.

We saw our first scorpion in Italy when we lived for several months in Florence in 2007. I remember being slightly disturbed when finding it under the sponge on our kitchen sink.

My second question was: are the scorpions we are running into in Italy dangerous? Again, the answer is no, not the type we are seeing (and pictured here). There are very dangerous types for sure but those are typically not found in Italy. And those dangerous types sting as last resort and do not actively seek out humans as prey! In other words, there is nothing to be afraid of from the ones we are seeing. In fact, the scorpions we typically see have a sting that has been described as mild as a mosquito bite to as bad as a bee sting. And again, they sting as a last resort.

My third question is what is the correct name for the scorpions we see? The scorpions we show here and see in Bergamo are in the genus Euscoporpius, commonly called small-wood scorpions. Distinguishing between species in the genus – according to this overview of scorpions in Italy – requires you to look at the underside of the claw of the scorpion and look at something called the trichobothria to be sure. (Not sure I will be doing that any time soon.)

By size, color, and prevalence, I’d say we are likely looking at E. italicus (in Italian), which is typically about 5cm (2 in) in size and found throughout Italy, Switzerland, France, Balkans, Greece and North Africa.

It’s said that scorpions with small pincers and a thick, powerful tail indicate a more potent sting. The idea behind this is that armed with a deadly venom the scorpion does not have to rely on its pincers as much to subdue its prey. In the photos here, the pincers are bigger than the tails.

Scorpions are in the class Arachnid, the class that contains spiders. And like spiders, scorpions eat other things like insects, spiders, and other scorpions. It is a cruel world. Of the over 1700 species of scorpion, only around 20 have venom lethal enough to kill a human and those are mostly or if not all in a different family Buthidae.

And so, I close with respect for our little scorpion friends we find on the walls of our apartment in Italy and all scorpions for that matter.

Left: Wood-scorpion (Euscoporpius) in Bergamo on 2020-10-17.

Right: A dead scorpion on the doormat of a church Sant'Antonio Abate above Varenna on 2016-06-02. Either this scorpion was painted blue (unlikely), there is some process that happens after death (maybe) or it's just this color (maybe)? We can't explain the color of this.

Left and center: Wood-scorpion in Bergamo 2021-12-09.
Right: Wood-scorpion in Bergamo hanging out in the stairwell 2021-12-12.

A cold night February 2022 and our scorpion friend (the same as above?) is hanging out near the entrance of an apartment. We touched it lightly and it barely moved.

Wind Directions in Italian – The Sundial on the Bastion San Giacomo, Bergamo

Left and center: Example RAI weather forecasts showing named wind directions, on September 28 and 30, 2020.
Right: A sundial in Bergamo Città Alta.

This sundial (meridiana in Italian) is an equatorial bow sundial that shows the time and the compass rose. You can find it on the Baluardo di San Giovanni, one of the bastions of the Venetian Walls of Bergamo. Not only being a pretty example of a sundial, it also is interesting because it provides the common names of the direction of winds, which are used often in Italy when discussing the weather.

In the US, wind is usually discussed in terms of direction from which it originates, using the compass rose. For example, winds from the north are northerly winds. There are exceptions and named winds exist like the Santa Ana winds and the Witch of November. For more examples, see the Wikipedia entry List of Local Winds. If you don’t live in an area where a particular named wind is used, you probably wouldn’t know about it. In other words, the named winds (other than based on direction) are not commonly used across the USA.

On the contrary, in Italy the names of winds are common knowledge across the country and are easily seen in any weather forecast. On the rosa dei venti (compass rose) as shown on the sundial pictured in this post, there are eight named winds:

• N – north – tramontana
• NE – northeast – grecale
• E – east – levante
• SE – southeast – scirocco
• S – south – ostro
• SW – southwest – libeccio
• W – west – ponente
• NW – northwest – maestrale

There are regional-specific names for the eight names above as well as other regional weather phenomenon names, usually depending on local geography.

The English Wikipedia entry on the compass rose states that the eight names come from the Mariner’s compass rose used by seafarers in the Mediterranean during medieval times, maybe as far back as the 11th and 12th centuries. The names come from a pidgin language called Sabir. While the exact origins are not clear, two (Ostro and Libeccio) have classical etymologies and two (Scirocco and Garbino, another name for SW winds) have Arab etymologies. So, we have ancient seafarers to thank for these names.

The Italian Wikipedia entry on the compass rose adds that to understand the NE, SE, SW, and NW wind names you need to put yourself somewhere in the Ionian Sea. The Greek island of Zakynthos is given as one example. Then the directions for the northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest start to make sense. Northeast of our hypothetical point in the Ionian Sea is Greece (hence, Grecale). Southeast is Syria (Scirocco derives from al-Sharq, east in Arabic). Southwest is Libya (Libeccio is comes from the Greek libykós, meaning "of Libya", or from the Arabic lebeǵ, which derives from the Greek líps-libós, which means "wind that brings rain). Northwest is the direction toward Rome or Venice depending on where exactly your hypothetical is in the Ionian Sea (Maestrale from maestro).

The sundial in Bergamo tells:

• T.M.E.C. is Central European Mean Team. (Literally tempo medio dell'Europa Centale.) Italy goes to this time (one hour back) between the last Sunday in October and the last Sunday in March.
• Solare We are not sure how to use this part. It seems like it helps you know what season you are in and whether to use the T.M.E.C. or Legale hours. But we think it must be read at noon to be sure. In our photos below we have three readings:
• September 16, 2020 at 9:20 am. Time read off of Legale band.
• October 13, 2020 at 9:18 am. Time read off of Legale band.
• February 16, 2021 at 9:17 am.  Time read off of TMEC band.
  
• November 2, 2021 at 9:16 am. Time read off of TMEC band.
• Legale is daylight savings time or summertime when clocks are advanced one hour ahead typically from the end of March to the end of October.

On this sundial, there doesn’t appear to be a EOT (equation of time) correction.

The sundial is made by OrologioSolare by Mauro Fizzanotti, and was installed in 2003.



Left: An equatorial bow sundial in Bergamo Città Alta.
Center and Right: Named wind directions at the base of the sundial.

Left: The sundial set to the latitude of Bergamo at 45°41'56"04 N.
Right: The sundial pointing view north at 9:20 am October 13, 2020. Use Legale band.

Left: Gnomon shadow at 9:20 am on September 16, 2020 is just below Solare band. Time read from Legale band.
Right: Gnomon shadow at 9:18 am on October 13, 2020 is above the TMEC band. Time read from Legale band.

The sundial on February 16, 2021 at 9:17am. Time read from TMEC band.

The sundial on November 2, 2021 at 9:16am. Time read from TMEC band.

The sundial on June 20, 2022 at 8:54am, with the help of a hapless assistant. Time read from Legale band, and it's pretty accurate being close to solstice.

The maker of the sundial in Bergamo, "Fizzanotti".

More example RAI forecasts showing named wind directions, from October 5, 2020.

Asplenium ruta-muraria – Wall Rue

Left: Botanical illustration of Asplenium ruta-muraria.
Center and right: Asplenium ruta-muraria on a wall in La Rocca, Bergamo.

Today we spent an hour visiting La Rocca – a fortress that is part of Bergamo’s Città Alta. La Rocca fortress is made up of a memorial park and the Casa dei Bombardieri or Bombardier’s School. The park is free to enter and explore, offering 360-degree views and a great view on to Città Alta as La Rocca is at the east edge of the upper city. The school is the main building in La Rocca and contains one of the museums in the family of Bergamo museums called Museo delle Storie di Bergamo, and even better 360-degree views.

The museum inside La Rocca, also called Museo dell’Ottocento, deals with the Risorgimento (Italian Unification) and while it is a difficult museum to get through it is one of the most rewarding for those that persist. Part of the difficulty is the subject matter. The Risorgimento had many players and events that are hard to keep track of. Also, this museum is currently all signed in Italian, and the exhibits are on complex subjects such as the silk economy, an overview of the Fiera (a very important fair that once existed in the lower city), and demographic and economic facts and figures.

Included in the museum entrance fee is access to access to the top of the Casa dei Bombardieri. On the stairs up to the top of the roof, we noticed this fern that looked similar but not exactly the same as the Maidenhair Spleenwort we talked about in the post Asplenium trichomanes – Another Bergamo Wall Plant.


The plant we noticed is in the same genus and is called Asplenium ruta-muraria, commonly known wall rue. First, based on our obsessive analysis of walls in Bergamo, A. ruta-muraria seems to be much less common than A. trichomanes. Second, A. ruta-muraria has green rachises (midribs), not black like A. trichomanes. And, A. ruta-muraria has pinnules that look like small ginkgo leaves or as suggested by the common name, like the leaves of Ruta graveolens, commonly called rue.


Wall rue is a lithophyte, that is, it grows in or on rocks, and grows exclusively on limestone and other calcareous rocks. In Europe and cities like Bergamo, it can be found on masonry works. Wall rue is called ruta di muro in Italian and according to Flora Italiana (one of our go-to sites), it is present all over Italy. Wall rue is present in the Eastern United States as well but is found more in well-weathered limestone outcrops and rarely invading masonry works according to Flora of North America.

Left: The sori (spore structures) of Asplenium ruta-muraria.

Center and right: More examples of A. ruta-muraria on walls in Bergamo.