And Puppy Dogs' Tails

Anyone of the two - okay maybe four - people who read this blog regularly will remember when there was a Reesie Report . It appeared sometimes once a week and during his last period of illness almost daily. Reesie was our second pup - the first was Bundnie, a smooth haired dwarf dachshund that got us in Cairo in 1991. Reese, much to her disgust, followed three years later when we lived in Chicago. He was a long-haired miniature daschie and, as we discovered much later, deaf. The Cairo Princess and the Midwest Farm Boy - they were as different in character as sunrise and sunset. They both lived to a good old age: our wonderful vet back in Aylmer always said he wanted to be reincarnated as our dog because he knew he'd get nothing but the best. And I guess we did make sure they got the best but then they gave the best so there was no problem.

This shot was taken in Warsaw with my first digital camera - I forget how many pixels it was but it was pretty darned primitive. Bundnie was giving me her famous 'yeah, right!' look.

They both were well-travelled dogs - Cairo, Chicago, Ottawa, Warsaw, Aylmer, Montreal - they had more frequent flyer points than some people I know. Reese made his final journey to Roma with us but he was 14 and the adjustment to a new place was beyond him - he never did like going to far from home. He took ill in October 2007 and when he had a stroke on December 27th that year we decided that we could not let him suffer. If my heart was broken in two when Bundnie had to be put to sleep, it split in four when it came time to say goodbye to Reese. Not that I loved him more just that he was such a sweet, gentle, trusting, little creature and there was an incredible void with both of them gone.

Many people suggested getting another dog - even our Big Boss who is a major dog lover - and "when are you going to get another dog" became a standard question from friends and family. But it wasn't something I could do that easily. The grieving took a long, long time.

So why am I writing this now - well it looks like the time has come. As anyone who has been owned by a daschie will tell you they are addictive as a breed - those little sausage shaped bodies worm their way into your heart. So we began looking for breeders in our area and beyond. It turns out that there was one very close to our friend's Linda and Nazareno in Capena just north of Roma.

The good people at La Casa degli Orsi (The House of the Bears????+) breed wire-haired daschies and Saint Bernards - an interesting contrast. Two of their bitches had litters within the past month and the puppies will be ready to leave their dames by the end of April. So last Saturday we went out to look. The facility was clean but lived in, a home to both the breeders and their animals. There was an obvious affection for the dogs - large and small - and the dames and sires all were healthy, good-looking champions.

However we didn't get a puppy... no we are buggers for punishment... we got two! A female from the first litter and a male from the second. The logic was: its as easy to train two as to train one! I'm not sure how sound that logic is but....

Unfortunately when I went to see them again today I wasn't able to get really good photos but here's what I did get.
The female is the little dark one on the left and the male the reddish colored on the right. And that would be the male in the centre photo. She is a bit on the feisty side, he was very content to fall asleep in the palm of my hand. This is like history repeating itself.

Now comes the hard part - finding names! My darling Dora has suggested Nick and Nora, Laurent has been thinking Pina and Mimmo, I've been pumping for Fred and Ginger, Jack in Beijing has come up with some Chinese appellations, and Yannis gave us a whole raft of snappy Greek names. But we're still looking so if you have any ideas send them to us.
13 marzo - San Salomone

Una farmacia antica

(Just a reminder that a left click on any of the pictures will "inbiggin" them in a new window.)

In any Medieval monastery one of the most important buildings, after the church, was the Infirmary and its garden. Santa Maria Novella in Firenze was no exception. At its foundation in 1221 the aches and pains of the monks were well seen to. By 1612 the farmacia had opened its doors to the public and Florintines flocked to buy the monks' salves, syrups, remedies and beauty potions.

The Cloister has seen many changes since its foundation - now a small part serves as a museum and the greater part is a training school for the Carabinari. However tucked in off a side street is the entrance to the old Faramcia which has been active, in one form or another, since those early monks ground mallow root and steeped lovage. My friend Simonetta remembers when her mother and grandmother bought all their toilet waters and beauty needs from the Officina Profumo-Parmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella. So nothing would do but that we stroll down Via della Scala with her for a look.
Like many historical buildings, the Farmacia was damaged in the disastrous flood of 1966. It has been loving restored to its former Belle Epoque glory. The long entrance hallway leads past some beautifully carved benches from an earlier period and into the main room of the shop.
The Farmacia is part (free) museum and part store - and the friendly but business like sales ladies seem to be able to tell the browsers from the buyers. They are stocked with extracts, bee hive products, herbal teas, herbs and infusions, syrups, dietary supplements and beauty products for men and women. Walking into this first showroom is a visual and aromatic experience.
These apothecary jars from the 16th-17th centuries celebrate not only the herbs and extracts they held but also local saints. Particular attention was paid to those who's intervention would prove beneficial to the sick.
I couldn't believe the incredible woodwork and carpentry that went into the decorating of this small and, in my mind at least, loveliest of the rooms in the shop. The combinations of colours, displays and fragrance almost guarantee that something will be bought.

And buy we did. We left the shop with wallets slightly lighter - they are not inexpensive - and several bags bearing the distinctive crest in hand. And since I've started using their Latte di corpo per umomo my colleague Patty has mentioned that I've been smelling real nice.

13 marzo - San Salomone

Stormy Weather

Its been a nice day here - sunny, not quite as warm as I would like it but pleasant. As I was walking home at 5 o'clock I noticed a bit of cloud but nothing serious. Then about 45 minutes later it had gotten dark - darker than it should be at 6 o'clock.
As they are wont to do, this storm front moved in quickly and there was much wind, flashing lightening and some heavy rain. It was very dramatic. But what else would you expect in a country where opera was born?

11 marzo - San Costantino

Mercoledi Muscial

There was a time when New York was the thriving venue for the cabaret singer: Bloosom Dearie, Bobby Short, Julie Wilson, Hildegarde, Alberta Hunter, Hugh Shannon all graced the clubs that dotted Manhattan. Some played seasons at their favorite spot - Short was at the Cafe Carlyle for 36 years - others moved around from cabaret to cabaret performing at the Blue Angel, the Rainbow Room, Birdland, La Vie en Rose or the Persian Room.

Sadly there aren't many videos around of these wonderful performers and if truth be told they were better experienced live. Fortunately one of the greats Mabel Mercer was captured live in one of her last performances at Cleo's in New York. She would have been in her 80's when she recorded this set - there wasn't much of a voice left but there was the artistry and the astounding ability to communicate.

I believe that Time Heals Everything is one of the loveliest songs Jerry Herman wrote and I don't think anyone does as well as Mercer nor switches moods as quickly for a segue number.



And she could take a number as twee as Bob Merrill's Mira and make it magic.



Even a standard took on new shades of meaning when Mercer sang-spoke it.



Though she may not have been to everyone's taste, there was a reason that Frank Sinatra once said that she had taught him everything he knew about singing.

11 marzo - San Constantino

Turbans Become You ....

... they go with your eyes!


Some people can pull a turban off, other's can't.

Give it a try over at Turbanizer.com.

10 marzo - Santa Maria Eugenia Milleret de Brou

Do You Joseph ....

We went up to Firenze yesterday morning on the 0930 Express - its an 90 minute ride and arriving before noon gave us time to visit two museums, do some shopping, have lunch and just take a Sunday stroll through town gelato in hand. As we arrived in the station the bells of Santa Maria Nouvella and a few other churches were pealing forth, if not in celebration of our arrival than perhaps for Italy's Women's Day. This meant that as the day progressed, much to her delight, our friend Simonetta was admitted free to the museums we visited.

Our main purpose was to visit the Museo di San Marco and more particularly their glorious store of paintings by Beato Angelico. His work adorned not only the church and chapels but the cells of the monks who once lived in the convent. Though all of his works have a spiritual beauty, and his angels are particularly wonderful, I was immediately taken with this little painting - its only 19 x 50 cm.Il Sposalizio della Vergine (The Marriage of the Virgin) is a predella or one of a series of paintings running along the frame at the bottom of an altarpiece. They were meant to illustrate events in the life of the Saint honoured - in this case the main altarpiece celebrated the Coronation of the Virgin. One of the things that struck me about it was how it resembled middle-eastern wedding celebrations. Particularly the segregation of men from the women and children - though that may have also been a Medieval tradition.

09 marzo - Santa Caterina di Bologna

Lunedi Lunacy

Hey its spring break time and where else can a guy go but Mexico for fun, sun, babes and .....


I'm always amazed by Gavin Crawford's versatility - whither its last week's Gunther on Computer Corner, today's geeky teen reporter Mark Jackson or another of the many characters he plays on This Hour Has 22 Minutes he's always able to hit my funny bone.

I apologize to my Canadian friends, it appears that CBC has restricted broadcasting of this clip within Canada. Strangely enough I can't see any of the videos on their website here in Italy. Not sure what the logic behind it all is, but hey we're talking the CBC so .....

09 marzo - Santa Caterina da Bologna

Sharing

I know that Laurent thinks I spend most of my day on the computer but I honestly don't. Some of its spent in the kitchen making coffee and snacks to have in front of the computer. And I do get out on the odd excursion about town.

Here's a few things I discovered in the past week on my rambles around the Internet. And there's a few photos on one of my town excursions a few weeks ago.
We've often driven past the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls on our way to the airport. Its an impressive sight from the highway and more impressive up close. It was raining the day I decided to visit but even in the rain the front courtyard was glorious. The present Basilica was build after a disastrous fire in July of 1823 which destroyed the 1400 year old church. The evening before the fire the dying Pius VII had nightmares of a fireball striking his beloved Basilica - its destruction was never revealed to him.

• My dear Scarlet Lady, Dora, provided a link the other day to a wonderful series of YouTube shows by the remarkable 93 year old Clara Cannucciari. Her Depression Cooking series has become one of the most popular on YouTube. Its a combination of practical and economical recipes and, more importantly I think, oral history. She has her own website and Laurent tells me she was interviewed on one of the major US network prime time shows. Even if you don't use her recipes her tales of the Great Depression are a living slice of history.
  

• And speaking of food the oft-quoted Opera Chic (the world press has become aware of what some of us have known for ages - she rocks) introduced me to a wonderful food blog: Orangette. In her own words Molly Wizenberg explains: So I started Orangette. Almost five years later, here I am, with this blog, a book, a monthly column in Bon Appétit, and a husband whom I met through this site. It’s been kind of insane - in a very good way, of course. I thank my lucky stars every night. Five years! I'm just wondering why I haven't discovered this great blog before.

• My buddy Yellowdog Grannie , from West, Texas, sent me this link to a fascinating virtual tour of a famous Chinese scroll painting: Along the River During the Ching-Ming Festival. It is lodged in the National Palace Museum in Taipei - part of the collection spirited off the mainland during the revolution. QhingMing is celebrated in one form or another throughout most of the Asia and there is a particularly lovely Vietnamese song that sings of the awakening of spring and this approbriate for a stroll through this remarkable website.
  

  Swift swallows and spring days were shuttling by
  of ninety radiant ones three score had fled.
  Young grass spreads all its green to heaven's rim;
  some blossoms marked pear branches with white dots.
  Now came the Feast of Light in the third month
  with graveyard rites and junkets on the green.
  As merry pilgrims flocked from near and far,
  the sisters and their brother went for a stroll.

• Michelle, who you may know by now drinks so much coffee that she swears if she were cut she'd be Bleeding Espresso, gave a shout out to a fun blog for those of us struggling with Italian. Diane Hales has a blog as part of her La Belle Lingua website. Becoming Italian Word by Word is a light-hearted way to find those words and phrases that we anglophones find so confusing. Example??? Well let's take "maleducato" - has to mean badly educated right? Well in a way yes, it actually means "ill-mannered". And in response to my Napolitano buddy Marco - then you ask why I have difficulty speaking Italian?????
  

• And as part of her Going Green series Michelle has some tips on what do to with used coffee grounds. Her commenters have added some dos and don'ts as well.

07 marzo - Sante Perpetua e Felicita

Mercoledi Musicale

When you are attached to an Embassy, and if you lucky and have someone filling the position of what's called a Community Liaison Officer, you often get to find out about all sorts of things going on around town. We're lucky - our CLO seems to have ears and eyes everywhere - she's the one who let me in on the Propeller Theatre performances last weekend. And today she let us know about concert this coming Monday by the Puppini Sisters*.

Now I must admit I had no idea who they were - though I understand they're a bit of cult thing in the UK - I immediately looked them up on YouTube.



They aren't really sisters and only one of them is a Puppini - that would be Marcella with the accordion - the other two are Stephanie O'Brien and Kate Mullins. They met while students at Trinity Music College and very quickly became part of the alternate scene in London.



Recently a London fan was bemoaning the fact that they were so popular that they weren't playing the small clubs anymore but large venues. From what I can see on the venue website Circolo degli Artisti is more on the club side. And I don't care if it does start at 2215 on a school night - I want to see them!

*The website may take a while to load but its definately a fun visit.

03 marzo - San Casimiro di Cracovia

Graphic Proof

Thanks to my old friend Bonbon.

Update: My good friend Dora mentions that there isn't a segment for "sex" - I'm not sure but I think it fits into that one called: Looking for things I had just a minute ago????

03 marzo - San Tiziano di Brescia

Lunedi Lunacy

Yesterday I saw a wonderfully innovative production of Shakespeare's (yes it would appear to be a rash of Shakespeare posts) Midsummer Night's Dream. For some reason it brought to mind a production by the Old Vic back in the 1950s which toured North American. It was a Victorian Valentine designed by Oliver Messel with flying fairies and ballets to Mendelssohn's romantic score. Titania and Oberon were played by ballet dancers Moira Shearer and Robert Helpmann and Bottom was the great Music Hall and comedy performer Stanley Holloway. Holloway had played the part in a mammoth production in Hollywood in the '30s but was replaced by James Cagney (???) when it was committed to film.

Following the strange twists and turns of what passes for my mind in this household I began to think about the wonderful Holloway monologues that brought him success in the Halls long before his Alfred P. Dootlittle on stage and screen. I grew up listening to them and had several LPs of his stuff.

One of his most famous was the story of Little Albert Ramsbottom and the lion but Albert showed up in quite a few other stories including this one:



And he sangs this little ditty was sung long before the word "queer" took on an entirely new meaning.



I only saw Holloway live twice when he appeared at the Shaw Festival at Niagara on the Lake back in the 1960s. First off he appeared as the father in Shaw's Candida then when Frances Hyland broke her leg and couldn't go on (the Shaw had no money in those days for understudies) he and Tony Van Bridge put together a programme of monologues and songs that would have had even old GBS chuckling.

02 marzo - San Simplicio - Papa

Crollalanza = Shakespeare?

I mentioned that there was a third reason for this sudden rash of Shakespearn posts - if two can be considered a rash? At lunch a few weeks ago my friend Simonetta mentioned that she recently picked up a book expounding the theory that Shakespeare was really Italian! Why not I thought, everyone has claimed him as their own - I recall in the old USSR he was regarded as one of Russia's greatest playwrights!!!

A little background check - what did we do before Google, he asked searchingly - revealed that back in 2000 Sicilian professor Martino Iuvara claimed that Shakespeare was, in fact, not English at all, but Italian. His conclusion was drawn from research carried out from 1925 to 1950 by two professors at Palermo University. Iuvara claims that the writer we know as William Shakespeare was actually born in Messina as Michelangelo Florio Crollalanza. His family was hounded out of Sicilia by the Inquisition and he eventually fled to England to live with family who had previously immigrated there and anglicized their name: crolla = shake, lanza = spear. He was taken in by John and Mary Shakespeare and when their son William died he took his name.

And if you look at the settings of his 38 known plays he seemed to have a fondness for Italy: five (Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar, Antony & Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Cymbeline) are set wholly or partly in Ancient Rome; three (The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, The Winter's Tale) wholly or partly in Sicilia and six (Romeo & Juliet, Merchant of Venice, Othello, Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona, All's Well That Ends Well) may be described as being set in Italy. However one indignant correspondent in the Times of London - and the claim led to a rather heated and at times unintentionally funny correspondence - suggested that his knowledge of Italy was no more than what you could learn from reading your local Italian restaurant menu. Assuming there was a Ye Olde Trattoria Italiana in his area of Cheapside!

Its an interesting, if highly debatable, theory, and I'm hoping to get my hands on a copy of the book - provided its available in English. It could explain how a man with no university education - Ben Johnson refers to him as "having small Latin and less Greek" - could write such an incredible body of work. One fly in the ointment as I mentioned to Simonetta is that it would have also taken a great command of English for a native Italian to achieve such language. Well apparently Doctore Iuvara has that covered - Crollalanza wrote in Italian and his wife, poor old - he only left me his second best bed - Anne Hathaway-Shakespeare, translated into English! Behind every great man!

Meanwhile I'm off to see Shakespeare's Sogno di una notte di mezza esate - in English. I just hope they're using Crollalanza's original manuscript for the Italian surtitles.

Note: The Google Earth map is the work of someone named "H21" from France posted the placemarks for 85 locations mentioned in Shakespeare. They purposely left off a few places and challenged people to find the missing quoted places. One of the Google Earth team members added a custom placemark which has a picture of Shakespeare. If you have Google Earth you can access it here.

01 marzo - Sant'Albino

Il Ciclo di Mesi - Marzo

When I first started posting the great fresco Cycle of the Months in Castello del Buonconsiglo I mentioned that there was no panel for March. Sadly less than a hundred years after the Master of Bohemia had finished his work it was felt that a staircase was more important than some old painting. There is no indication of what, in the Prince Archbishop's fanciful world, the activities of nobles and peasants would have been in what has often been described as the cruelest month.

The Cycle will continue once the winds of March have given way to the rains of April. In the meantime a click on the drawing of the Castello will lead you to the slideshow of the previous months.

01 Marzo - San Rosendal

Tutto il mondo è una burla*

Italians love Shakespeare - almost every theatre company in the country is presenting at least one of his plays this season. And its not just the popular ones: as well as your Amleto you also get your odd Tutto e bene quel che finises bene. And here in Roma there is a summer theatre devoted entirely to Shakespeare in Italian.

In one of those wonderful quirks of Italian logic the Silvano Toti Globe Theatre, a replica of Shakespeare's famous playhouse, was built in a grove of trees in Villa Borghese and various companies present their takes on Shakespeare - sometimes traditional often experimental from June to September.

Following the Elizabethan tradition the theatre is open air and there is a pit in front of the stage space for groundlings - or seats on benches (more expensive of course) in the galleries. In either case bringing a cushion is recommended - the ground is hard and I swear those wooden benches harder. And something I hadn't thought of - pretty much wherever you sit in the galleries in an Elizabethan theatre there is an obstructing post holding the gallery or roof above you.

The language or the slightly obstructed view didn't at stop me from enjoying a raucous and rather bawdy production of La comedia degli errore (The Comedy of Errors) last summer - though admittedly its more Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum than Long Day's Journey Into Night, so was much easier to understand. I'm not sure how I would handle three hours of Hamlet or King Lear in Italian but I may give it a try when the season starts in June.

So what brings on this sudden post about Shakespeare and Italians? Two things! Well actually three but I'll post about the other one separately.

First: For the next 15 weeks the daily newspaper La Repubblica is including a DVD of a Shakespeare play with its weekly magazine L'espresso. They launched the series last week with an extremely good Othello starring Anthony Hopkins, Bob Hoskins and Penelope Wilton recorded in 1981. This week its Hamlet with Derek Jacobi and Claire Bloom. All 15 are part of a BBC series of the complete works presented from 1978 until 1985. Some of the finest actors of the period were involved including John Gielgud, Helen Mirren and Anthony Quayle, to name just a few. And as DVDs go they aren't that expensive so I'm planning to collect all of them.

Second: Propeller - in the company of men is in town presenting The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Teatro della Valle this weekend. This all-male 14 member Shakespearean company was founded by Edward Hall with the backing of the Watermill Playhouse in West Berkshire. Their ground breaking performances of Henry V, Twelfth Night, the Henry VI plays and, particularly, A Midsummer Night's Dream have been lauded in theater circles around the world. The company doesn't follow period practices - no hey nonny nonny or fatheringales - except that all the parts are played by men as they were in Shakespeare's time. One thing is clear from all the reviews and interviews published since the company was founded - this is not a bunch of men in drag camping up the Bard but a serious troupe of actors using the text to revive the excitement that the audience at the original Globe must have felt.

I've wanted to see Propeller since first reading about their Henry V back in 1997, so here I am 11 years later in Roma and finally getting a chance. How strange is that? From the reviews and photos (above left: Antonio is prepared for the taking of the pound of flesh)their new production of Merchant looks very exciting but a busy weekend schedule means I'll have to settle for the Dream (right: Titania is smitten by Bottom transformed into an ass). Mind you I am settling for a production of which a critic said: There was plenty of slapstick hilarity. But there was such human sweetness, too, and such generous virtuosity. The truest vision of love this play offers is the love the actors and the director show for its disturbances and contradictions. Yeah I guess I can settle for that.

*All the world's a joke... - Boito's adaptation of the famous Shakespeare quote for Verdi's Falsaff.

28 febbraio - San Romano di Condat

OK, There's Discount and Then ...

... there's discount.

From my friend Daryl of Warsaw, soon to be Daryl of Beograd.

"We're all about finding ways of raising discretionary revenue so we can keep lowering the cost of air travel," - Michael O'Leary, Chief Executive - Ryanair.

Irish carrier Ryanair, Europe's largest budget airline, might start charging passengers for using the toilet while flying, O'Leary told BBC on Friday.

"One thing we have looked at in the past and are looking at again is the possibility of maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door so that people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny in future."

He said this would not inconvenience passengers travelling without cash. "I don't think there is anybody in history that has got on board a Ryanair aircraft with less than a pound."

O'Leary has a reputation as a cost cutter, expanding Ryanair by offering low headline fares and charging extra for items such as additional luggage. Last week, Ryanair announced it was to shut all check-in desks at airports and have passengers check in online instead.

Discretionary, adjective from Discretion
Discretion
Pronunciation: dis-ˈkre-shən
Function: noun
Date: 14th century

1. the quality of being discreet : circumspection ; especially : cautious reserve in speech
2. ability to make responsible decisions
3. a: individual choice or judgment
   b: power of free decision or latitude of choice within certain legal bounds
4. the result of separating or distinguishing

Now I'm looking at the definitions and I'm guessing the first one doesn't really apply. For god's sake Michael's talking about bathroom functions on the BBC and everyone on an airplane knows what you're going when you squeeze past them to get from your middle seat to the aisle.
Second one - well I guess you make the responsible decision to walk down to that 2x2 cubicle and have a pound in hand, as it were.
Third one - well it is a choice - to go or not to go.
Fourth one - this should separate those with a pound from those without and certainly distinguish those with weak bladders from those who can hold it.

And I have a feeling Michael may just start offering discounts on salty treats and water on his flights. What you lose on the roundabouts you can make up on the swings.

27 febbraio - San Leandro di Siviglia

Photo Op... Ed?????

Perhaps only my Canadian friends will get this but this has to be my favorite photo of President Obama.


Thanks to my friend Linda for sending me this one.

25 febbraio - mercoledì delle Ceneri

Mercoledi Musicale

I know that yesterday was Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras and today starts the 40 days of Lent. And I know that many pleasures of life should be fore sworn this time of year. And I know Zydeco would have been more appropriate earlier in the week. But, and you knew there was a "but" coming, when Michael Doucet and BeauSoleil start playing its a good time for everyone to dance no matter what the season.



My own introduction to Zydeco came from one of the old timers Queen Ida and the Bon Temps Band.



Come on now a little toe tapping won't hurt to ease our way into Lent - you can't just go cold turkey.

And mille grazie to my own dear Dora for reminding me how cool Zydeco can be.

25 febbraio - mercoledì delle Ceneri

Lunedi Lunacy

I've never considered myself backward when it comes to using new technology, in fact I spent a good deal of my working life helping design and assisting people in learning new programmes and systems. However for some reason I have a problem with SMS - I just haven't got the hang of it. It may well have something to do with using the various abbreviations or trying to type with one finger. Fortunately I was able to find this excerpt from CBC's Computer Corner to give me some hints on acronyms.



UPDATE:

My friend DF tells me that apparently the embeded video is block in Canada - guess because the CBC is protecting its programmming. But here is the link which should take you to it.


23 febbraio - San Policarpo di Smirne

Skate Italia!

We're in the middle of a Tramontana (a quick click over to GB's posting at Italian Notebook will explain the term)and it's been bloody cold all week long. Okay maybe not Canada cold but cold for Rome. For the Romans and those of us who's thick Nordic blood is starting to thin it's mittens, scarf and parka weather. Perhaps this leads to a bit of over-bundling in some quarters but it does make it easier to spot the tourists. They are the ones shivering in the polo shirts, light windbreakers and - believe it or not I did see this the other day - shorts. They are also the ones with that slightly stunned "but this is Italy it's suppose to be warm" look on their faces. Surprise!
The cold weather makes it a little more authentic now for the skaters here in Roma. I may have mentioned that we do have rinks here;the two I know of, and I've been told there are a few more, are at Castel San Angelo (left) and Parco della Musica (right.) For most of the skaters what may be lacking in Olympic points for style is more than made up for by points for enthusiasm.The big surprise was when we decided to investigate the cluster of tents on the hill beside il Castel Nuovo in Napoli and found not only an artificial rink but artificial grass and pine trees. There is definitely something surreal about watching kids skating in the shadow of Vesuvius. We all know that Nero had snow brought down from the mountain to serve with syrups at diner but I'm not sure even he imagined making ice to skate on.

21 febbraio - San Eleuterio di Tournai

Signs of the Times

Last week outside one of the more conservative high schools there were signs calling for a day of remembrance - not an unusual thing here. This roughly translates as:

Honour to
all the war heroes felled at the hands
of Anti-Fascists.
In our memory we do not
and in our future
we will not disown them.

I am trying to imagine this sort of thing appearing on the streets of Berlin.

20 febbraio - Sant'Eleuterio di Tournai