Berlusconi's Nipple · 1 day ago by James Martin
I just don’t get it. Maybe Beppe Grillo would.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s staff have altered a reproduction of a famous 18th-century painting by Giambattista Tiepolo to cover an exposed breast on full display in the press room in the Palazzo Chigi, the prime minister’s palace.
You will remember that a Mr. John Ashcroft (or a member of the white house staff) seems to have had the same problem with the Spirit of Justice ( boy did he ever! who just happened to be bare breasted). That breast cost the taxpayers of the US over $8000 to remove from view, about 12 Euro…
It’s easy to say, “yeah, but I’m shocked that an Italian known for flirting with women on and off the campaign trail would stoop so low as to idiotically paint over an artistic nipple.” But it seems that this little incident is being played out on top of an epidemic of idiocy.
Public displays of affection in a car can earn you a fine of up to 500 euros ($745) in Eboli ~ No sandcastles please, you’re in Italy
If you don’t think that’s nuts, remember that here are also assaults on reading books in public:
Rodrigo Piccoli, 33, called national radio to protest after he was fined 50 euros for lying down in a park in the northern city of Vicenza to read a book.
Has the world gone nuts? Should we have a test that weeds out weirdo politicians? Say we put them in the room containing a painting of a famous nude (a reproduction to be sure) and a can of white spray paint. After say eight hours if the painting is unmodified, the politician would be allowed to run for office.
Wada ya think?
The Ultimate Travel Mouse Review · 5 days ago by James Martin
One of the jobs of anyone who offers travel advice is to review products made to make our lives easier, especially those of us who always seem to be on the go.
You might not think that a travel mouse is so important. Well, I’ve gone through several. There is a small graveyard in my office closet piled with the things. I always think that there will a time I’ll need the parts for something.
Anyway, see the video review. It was hard: A Professional Travel Mouse Review
Eat the Rich! Italians Revolt Against Rich Louts on Sardinian Beaches · 7 days ago by James Martin
You will see no greater contrast between traveling across the relatively narrow island of Sardinia from West to East, ending up at the Costa Smeralda, the Emerald Coast.
You see, the extraordinary interior of Sardinia is alive with people going about their business amidst spring-fed Roman baths that still function though in ruins (women wash clothes in the hottest pools, crazy Brits run swim races in the cooler ones), amidst the most amazing ancient architecture on the planet, what we call “sacred wells” so well constructed you’d think they were built centuries rather then millennia ago, amidst the enormous prehistoric stone towers we call nuraghi, amidst the harsh and dry landscape that manages to yield a decent olive oil and wine like you’ve never tasted, both fabulous and horrible.
On the other hand, the northwest coast of Sardinia offers a stunningly beautiful stretch of coastline, if only its geography wasn’t almost entirely dominated by loutish rich folks who make the land fester with their grand palaces and resources scarce and extraordinarily expensive.
But Italian holiday-goers have begun to fight back:
Millionaires and Hollywood stars visiting Italy have been put on notice that they no longer own the beach after a group of celebrities led by Flavio Briatore, co-owner of QPR football club, were pelted with wet sand and showered with water as they tried to land dinghies on a crowded Sardinian beach.
Already victims of shrinking spending power and sky-rocketing rates for renting deckchairs, Italians have descended on their beaches this August in a surly mood, and the sight of the Briatore-led flotilla as it carved a swath through alarmed swimmers was enough to spark a near riot on Friday at the packed Capriccioli beach… ~ Rebellion in Sardinia: Italians shower rich ‘louts’ with water and sand in beach uproar after Briatore’s dinghies alarm swimmers
Can you hear the pendulum swinging?
Italian Sharpshooter Has Taxes in the Crosshairs · 8 days ago by James Martin
I just heard that Italian police officer Francesco D’Aniello won an Olympic silver medal in double trap shooting Tuesday. He didn’t waste any time telling the government he wanted them to pass a law to waive taxes on Olympic winnings.
It may surprise you what an athlete winning a medal brings home. When I covered the Torino Winter Olympics, I gulped hard when I heard what the Americans pocket.
Yeah, I know an Olympic medal is the culmination of a whole lotta sacrifice and hard work. But is it worthy of a tax exemption?
I don’t understand why Francesco didn’t do like all other Italians and ask for the prize in cash. He probably would have gotten a pocketful of Yuan, Jiao, and Fen. I’m sure he could have used them for something.
I also don’t understand what double trap shooting is, or why it’s an Olympic sport…but that’s just me.
But one thing I know, the government should look out. This guy’s got a gun and knows how to use it, at least when he’s forced into a double trap.
Will the New Big Government ESTA end the Visa Waiver Program? · 9 days ago by James Martin
If you are from a foreign country you probably don’t understand the workings of the US political system. You’re in good company—-I don’t understand it either.
You see, the party of small government has spent most of its time making government bigger and more invasive to the private citizen. For example, the all-powerful Department of Homeland Security are now planning to foist the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) upon those who wish to fly to the US.
The essence of the ESTA is a requirement that foreign citizens who “intend” (so much for spontaneous travel!) to visit the USA will be required to get permission from the government of the USA before they leave their own home countries. As we point out in our comments, and as airlines have objected in similar cases, the USA has no jurisdiction over foreigners leaving foreign countries. And their right to leave any country is expressly protected by human rights treaties signed, ratified, and binding on the USA.
So opines The Practical Nomad, Edward Hasbrouck.
The result of this is likely to result in a VISA war as it always has in the past. The ESTA is really VISA authorization in disguise, so it’s likely (in my opinion at least) that countries like Italy will retaliate by making Americans apply for a VISA to travel there.
It’s really all about a big government mucky-muck covering his ass. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff reveals all in a recent interview with Wired:
And then I guarantee what would happen is this: If you stopped using the watch list and basically anybody could get on a plane without knowing their identity, sooner or later something would happen — and people would lose their lives, and then there would be another 9/11 Commission and we’d hear about how you had this system and you would have kept them off and these people lost their loved ones on a plane.
The problem is, of course, that there are other existing ways to know who is on the plane. These restrictions and forms are piling up, making receiving travel authorization a real pain; authorization to travel is becoming eerily similar to the way it has been handled in countries run by dictators and other miscreants (and oh how we criticize them!).
It’s not just a pain for the traveler, but for travel agents and airlines as well.
In any case, if you’re interested in lost travel liberty, read the full text of Foreigners now need USA permission to leave their home countries
Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas - Illegal Immigrants in Italy? · 10 days ago by James Martin
Just as George bush was paying undue attention to vollyballer Misty May’s backside in Bejing (he worked up a sweat!), Catherine Zeta-Jones and her husband Michael Douglas caught hell for not bothering to go through Italian Immigration when their boat docked in the Italian Riviera town of Santa Margherita Ligure.
At least the pressure is off Romanians and Albanians. Watch your watch when Michael Douglas is in the area. You never know.
Coastguard Pietro Micheli said: ‘The laws have been toughened up and all captains should be aware that they are supposed to inform us of the names of those taken ashore. ~ Catherine’s crew rock the boat after breaching Italian immigration laws
I like that the Italians are so fair. They fined the captain of the boat, the guy in charge.
But what a cultural difference between the UK writers of the Daily Mail, from whence the quote was scraped, and the Italians. The picture shows Michael Douglas pouring some wine at lunch. The caption is:
The couple enjoyed a boozy long lunch in Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy over a week ago.
Boozy? Note to editors: a touch of wine isn’t “boozy.” It’s normal. Healthy even. Get over it.
I gotta go.
The Saint Francis Walk - Cammino di San Francesco · 12 days ago by James Martin
We talk about pilgrimage a lot on Wandering Italy. A surprising number of people walk the Via Francigena from Canturbury to Rome, for example, but it’s still a very small group. For many Americans, the route takes too much time.
But there’s a compelling walk from Rieti I’ve just learned about. You can do the 80 km in four days. The Saint Francis Walk passes a lake and other interesting natural features:
The Walk includes visits to the sanctuaries where Frances travelled to: the Sanctuaries of Poggio Bustone, La Foresta, Fonte Colombo and Greccio. It is completed by a climb up Mount Terminillo with a visit to the reliquary of the Saint, a stop at the town of Posta and an excursion to the solitary and majestic Faggio di San Francesco (Saint Francis Beech Tree), in the town of Rivodutri. The itinerary that winds along 80 km of paths and roads immersed in a spectacular natural setting is the perfect occasion to renew thanks to the heavens just like Saint Francis did in The Canticle of All Creatures. ~ The Saint Francis Walk
The web site is a good one also—although the “news” hasn’t been updated since 2007. Still, if you’re wanting to try out a spiritual walk that isn’t too long for your 2 or 3 week vacation in Italy, this could be just the ticket: Camino di San Francesco.
Aledo, Illinois and its Prosciutto · 17 days ago by James Martin
This is another one of those “what’s different about Italy that I like” posts. I hope you can stand just one more this year.
You see, I’m currently visiting family near the town of Aledo in Illinois. Aledo is a fine town of the type you’d expect to encounter in the heart of farm country. All around the soil is rich and black. Fields of corn and soy beans stretch for further than the eye can see. Stout-hearted farmers raise pigs and cattle. Things can’t help but grow strong here.
The central district of Aledo, with its fine Courthouse as centerpiece, is built around a grassy park. There is a bandstand in one corner. On summer weekends bands like the River City 6 play to local folks sitting comfortably in lawn chairs they’ve brought from home. At the end of the concerts, toe-headed boys with plastic buckets weave through the crowds to collect donations for the bandstand, which isn’t fully paid for yet but undoubtedly will be soon.
Aledo represents the idylic small town and good wholesome life we think we remember, even if we’ve never lived in a farm town in the center of America. It’s the kind of place that city dwellers imagine they’d like to live in after reading the story of a a drug deal gone bad in the neighborhood.
Not only that, but Aledo seems on the cusp of an economic revival. You can see it’s a spiffed-up town.
This year someone has even opened a fine dining restaurant in Aledo.
So, being foodies, we went. I ordered the ham, thinking that we were in the heart of a place that grows and nurtures pigs. I had formed one of those odd, mental pictures of a smiling 4H kid beside his prized hog, the two of them looking ever so happy. The menu said the ham was hand carved and came topped with a cherry-whiskey sauce.
But what I got was a very think hunk of industrial ham. You know, the kind they put inside of a rectangular plastic enclosure, a colorless sock that you seem to be able to eat but wonder if the stuff you’re putting in your mouth actually digests. They put the ham and some random pieces of ham-like material in the sock so that the pressure “glues” all the bits together that might be lost during “manufacturing of the product”, squeezing it so much that it loses its unctuous juices.
What I can’t understand is why the folks in charge of the restaurant didn’t go to one of the local farmers and say, “Listen Hank, we need to have the tastiest darn ham in Mercer county for our fine restaurant. You got good hams, Hank. Why don’t you set aside the best ones and we’ll buy them so that our customers will be enlightened by what a smoked pork product can taste like when it doesn’t come from a big ol’ factory in the middle of a polluted city.”
Well, I suppose you wouldn’t want those darn Chicagoans to come a callin’ to your restaurant for a slice of Hank’s ham. They’d overrun the place for sure.
But here’s the thing. In the Lunigiana region of Tuscany I can go to most any of my local restaurants and ask about the provenience of the lamb and get the name of the shepherd that has the dog that watches the sheep. I can order trout from specific streams. People know where things come from, even in a restaurant located in a tiny village. Most of the time, it hasn’t spent time in a freezer awaiting the train that will take it hundreds of miles to a market where “chefs” gather.
In some ways, I hope I live long enough to witness the revolution that should take place when the devil gas gets to 15 dollars a gallon. Food should get local again. People in fertile lands like central Illinois should be able to eat tasty pork once again—where the hog hasn’t been bred and processed to taste like the combination of chicken breast and shoe leather.
And by that time Hank and his hogs should have a field day in Aledo. Good for them.
Fun With Flying · 20 days ago by James Martin
Flying used to be exciting. They sat you in proper seats and pretty young women served you. If you were a student you got a good deal, sometimes paying almost nothing for a first class seat.
Now you dread the trip to the airport. It’s worse than waiting for the bus at the station downtown. At least you don’t have to take off your shoes before boarding a bus.
Some things remain the same as they were before, like the boarding calls and procedure. But they are a mere vestigial remembrance of things past.
So I’m thinking, “what if the boarding call reflected today’s cattle-drive mentality?”
Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll soon be boarding flight 279 to Rome. In a few moments group 1 will board the airplane. But before they do, could those of you in groups 2 through 59 step up to the front and scatter your hand baggage all around to create a clogged mine-field for the passengers in group 1 anxious to board our flight today? This will make your experience grittier, and we all like gritty these days, don’t we? Cooperation toward a common goal is so 1950s, don’t you agree?
And what’s up with the film that shows the oxygen masks coming down and everyone calm and collected. Nobody grabs for a mask, nobody exclaims, “Oh my, the wing has fallen off!!!!!!”
The fat guy doesn’t grab two masks, claiming to need twice the oxygen of the normal passenger. Nobody utters a word. They reach for a mask with the same lugubrious motion that accompanies that last reach for your 32nd Buffalo wing on the buffet at the sports bar.
I guess if you’re flying these days, you do need a little fantasy to keep your spirits aloft.
Pilgrimage in Italy: Walking for your Soul · 23 days ago by James Martin
I often go on long walks to get my thinking straight. It never comes out without a few wrinkles, but it sure helps.
The idea of pilgrimage has been with us a long time. Folks used to walk long distances in dangerous territory to shake off sin. Those journeys changed the landscape. Churches, inns, and hospices popped up in along the routes. Carvers carved stories into stone for those who couldn’t read; the rich gave up (some of) their riches for use by the poor on pilgrimage. Balance was restored to the universe.
Today, pilgrimage isn’t quite so much a sacrifice—and it’s becoming not only more popular, but easier as well. In the Lunigiana we’re seeing lots of signs for pilgrims to use on the via Francigena, the pilgrimage route from Canterbury to Rome. Organized tours, like the Pellegrinaggio lungo la Via del Volto Santo promise you won’t have to scour the countryside for lodging or food; everything is planned for you.
The Pilgrimage along the Via del Volto Santo takes you through the beautiful parts of “hidden Tuscany,” the Lunigiana and Garfagnana, to Lucca. The little “motorino” train from Aulla follows pretty much the same path. Neither trains nor people like elevation changes much.
The pilgrimage is timed to arrive in time for the Volto Santo
procession on the 13th. The “Volto Santo” (Holy Face) is kept in Lucca’s cathedral of San Martino. Read more about the Volto Santo
Another interesting thing about pilgrimage is the willingness of pilgrims to share information. Babette Gallard recently sent me a copy of her LightFoot Guide to the via Francigena
Check out the map of the Via Francigena, even if you have no interest in traveling along it. You’ll find all the “best” cities in that part of Italy along it.
Pilgrimage changes not only the pilgrims.
