It’s been a long day and I haven’t had dinner yet. So maybe a photo dump is in order.
Itsy-bitsy cars are nothing new in Europe, but with climate reforms, impossible parking and the price of gas all putting pressure on, the race seems to be to the bottom, so to speak. EVs and hybrids are commonplace, but this is the smallest we’ve yet seen:
It’s called a Twizy. Alan looked it up. Best for single people (there’s only one seat), all-electric, with a limited range of maybe 40 km. But you can park it anywhere.
Roman drinking fountain:
Roman bird bath:
(You just turn a corner and see stuff like this. Every walk is an exploration.)
You know me, I’m a sucker for a beautiful vegetable, in this case, melanzana. A much prettier word than “eggplant.”
A rare piece of sculpture in which the subject is caught taking his shirt off over his head. Actually, I have no idea what this guy is doing, but I liked the pose:
Finally, the Roma birthday party didn’t disappoint. It was my favorite variety of tourism, i.e., the-same-but-different. If you’ve been to any historic re-enactment, it’s the same. The different parts? All of it. The legions trooped before a viewing stand and did some maneuvers, especially the shield thing where a group of nine or 10 guys turn themselves into a turtle. I paid close attention to the shoes, which looked pretty period — shoes are the Achilles heel of any historic costume.
Also, I don’t think Roman-empire tattooing was quite as advanced as this guy’s back piece:
I call that commitment to the bit. Another different thing? Not one, not one single, not even a whiff of…a food truck. No elephant ears, no Eye-talian sausage, no tacos, no nothing. I did see one tented booth advertising water, but that’s all, and they weren’t even selling it, but giving it away. And now you know how Italians can eat pasta every day and stay slender. (Note the phone in his right hand. Seeing people in historic dress talking on a cell phone is never not amusing to me.)
OK, then. Tomorrow we saw arrivederci to Roma, and travel to…you’ll have to come back and see.
susan said on April 21, 2024 at 1:53 pm
Ooooo, I don’t know about that Roman drinking fountain. It looks to be about the height of a dog’s lifted leg.
110 chars
Dexter Friend said on April 21, 2024 at 2:11 pm
Digging on Fat Caesar. And I can’t get the serving skillet w/pasta outta my gourd. Watch out for pickpockets the books say….
126 chars
ROGirl said on April 21, 2024 at 2:44 pm
Guy with the drapery over his head is on Bernini’s Fountain of the 4 Rivers in the Piazza Navona. He represents the Nile, the symbolism of the face covering is unclear. It may be because the source of the Nile was unknown.
222 chars
nancy said on April 21, 2024 at 4:31 pm
You are correct about the location. I didn’t know that about the Nile. Interesting.
83 chars
Jessica said on April 21, 2024 at 3:03 pm
Speaking of shoes in re-enactments: I was once dragged to the Christmas Eve play at my spouse’s brother’s church.
The guy playing Jesus was wearing sandals, of course. But he forgot to take off his socks early enough. Those of us in the front rows could see the sock-rib prints on his lower legs very clearly.
315 chars
alex said on April 21, 2024 at 3:23 pm
I see Romulus and Remus suckling at the she-wolf’s teats. Reminds me of a Playboy cartoon where the she-wolf is getting mounted by a male. The caption reads “Hey, kids, want a milkshake?”
194 chars
Deborah said on April 21, 2024 at 3:48 pm
Whatever you do don’t drive in Rome or anywhere in Italy for that matter if you want to stay calm. We rented a car in Rome and then drove to Tuscany and then to Venice. I have never been so full of anxiety in my life. We vowed never to do that again. Two seconds out of the rental car place and a car whizzed by us coming the other direction so close it popped our drivers side mirror forward, and then miraculously the mirror popped right back into place with nothing broken. We had rented a tiny car and there were so many gigantic semi’s driving a million miles an hour on the highways between our destinations. It was beyond terrifying.
640 chars
Mark P said on April 21, 2024 at 4:03 pm
My home town has a statue of the Capitoline Wolf right in front of what is now city hall. It was given to our town by none other than Il Duce himself (no, not Il Douche, the orange one, but the Italian one). It was taken down and stored out of sight during WW2, but brought back out after it was over. Oh, yeah, I live in Rome. I think the gift had something to do with an Italian textile company building a plant here.
420 chars
susan said on April 21, 2024 at 5:51 pm
Cincinnati also has a Capitoline Wolf with Romulus and Remus in Eden Park…er, had the wolf. Gosh, damn ƒü¢k1ñg vandals.
Cincinnati was built on seven hills, just like Roma, you see. And it was to honor Cincinnatus, the namesake of Cincinnati. From wiki: “It was inscribed with the Latin Anno X (year ten), indicating 1931, the tenth year of Mussolini’s regime.” Oh dear.
391 chars
LAMary said on April 21, 2024 at 6:47 pm
Before my last trip to Italy I was advised that there are no brakes on Italian cars, just horns. I saw a very nice Alfa Romeo that had just been in an accident, halfway up a sidewalk, and an Italian man waving his arms and saying, “mi machina…mi machina.
256 chars
Dorothy said on April 21, 2024 at 7:28 pm
I know he’s in costume but the tattooed guy looks like he has a loosey-goosey diaper on. My head knows it’s not a diaper but once my head saw it, it’s all I can see.
I saw an Amish horse and buggy at a drive in bank line once and I found that amusing. I’m not sure why but it just looked really strange and funny.
I got home around 1 today from the funeral weekend and I just have to share this conversation my daughter-in-law had with my 7 year old granddaughter, who until yesterday, had never been inside a church: After the mass was over, Mom M asked Olivia what she thought. And Olivia said “It wasn’t what I thought it was going to be.” Mom said “Well what did you think it was going to be like?” And Olivia said “Well I thought we would all be in a white room sitting on chairs and someone would have a microphone and come around and ask us what we wanted to say about Weezie.” And Mom said “Okay, well what would you have said when it was your turn at the microphone?” and O said after several seconds of quiet “….pass!” I wasn’t there when M had this conversation with her but she told me about 10 minutes later and we DIED laughing! Honestly Olivia didn’t really know my sister so she’d say ‘pass’ for good reason. She doesn’t remember her.
1280 chars
Jeff Gill said on April 22, 2024 at 8:02 am
Melanzana/eggplant for the win.
31 chars
Deborah said on April 22, 2024 at 3:35 pm
Aubergine means eggplant in French, it’s also a beautiful name for a color.
Happy Earth Day! I thought this was lovely https://www.instagram.com/p/C6EcttyOAll/?hl=en, I don’t know if you have to have an Instagram account to see it?
234 chars
Julie Robinson said on April 22, 2024 at 4:36 pm
Rick Steves ssays no shorts for men in Italy, or you risk ridicule. Only little boys wear shorts.
I also read a few stories on the Indiana Daily Student’s website and ended up going down a rabbit hole. Apparently the Legislature has placed additional trustees on the board, and want the professors to answer to them instead of having academic freedom. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
This led to a no-confidence vote against the president and two other officials, and the trustees then voted in their support. Also, IDS staffers are staging a walkout to gain more financial support.
My beloved IU, liberal bastion of the state, is suffering.
662 chars
JodiP said on April 23, 2024 at 2:41 pm
We had some mixed VRBO experiences in Italy. I had a great one in Florence on 2019 and an outstanding one in Bologna last fall. I bought a moka pot after using one in 2019 and have an espresso mid-morning.
I loved seeing the re-enactment photos. Looking forward to more tales!
We’re deciding where to go this fall: hiking near Mont Blanc, island in Greece or Grenada, Spain. I wish to see the Alhambra in my lifetime.
426 chars
LAMary said on April 23, 2024 at 10:07 pm
There is a BNB across the canyon from my house. It was, for about three years, a party BNB. I believe the city has shut those down now but for those three years it soured the neighborhood on BNBs bigtime. Noise, drunks, stupid parking, fights in the street. The cops were called regularly.
289 chars
Dexter Friend said on April 24, 2024 at 3:27 am
A good companion to all the pics of Italy: “Ripley” on Netflix.
63 chars