The Canary Islands are part of Spanish, a ten of volcanic islands in the Atlantic Ocean, 100 km offshore of the Morocco. The climate is fine all the year: the daily mean temperatures range from 18°C of January to 24°C of August (64 to 75°F); in fact there go 12 million tourists each year, one third of them are from Great Britain. There are over two millions of inhabitants, with 85 per cent of Spaniards and 15 per cent shared between Germans, Britons, Moroccans and others.
The fine whether and the dream landscapes aren’t the sole reasons why so many go there: the Canaries are a low tax zone, but let’s be clear; it’s not a fiscal heaven as some little states of Europe or Caribbean; so it has been established by the European Commission, that is the executive body of European Union, in order to improve the economy of the archipelago safeguarding its natural environment.
The Italian community dwelling in Canaries isn’t so great as the German and British ones; they are 25.000 circa, but much more have an house where they come often, so not residents but more than occasional tourists.
When it comes to Bridge in Canaries, first we have to quote the Team Orange 1, winner of the 2005 European Open Bridge Championship, a transnational event held in Tenerife: Jan Jansma, Jr Louk Verhees, Ton Bakkeren, Huub Bertens, Bauke Muller, Simon De Wijs. All them were Netherlander. In the same island, four years before the Italy had won her fourth of the eight victory string of European Bridge Championship: they were Dano De Falco, Guido Ferraro, Lorenzo Lauria, Alfredo Versace, Norberto Bocchi, Giorgio Duboin.
Since this month, the Italians have an own monthly paper magazine, Leggo@Tenerife, only written in Italian, directed by Mr Franco Leonardi and published by the cultural association “Gli amici di Tenerife”.
Laura Camponeschi, founder of Neapolitan Club and member of the International Bridge Press Association (IBPA), holds a bridge column in the magazine. In the first issue she has written: “…I have accepted with enthusiasm the proposal to write here…”, and this enthusiasm is expression of her willing to be always next to whom is playing bridge, no matter where or how many they were: Where there’s bridge, there’s Neapolitan Club.
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Paolo Enrico Garrisi
February 9, 2013