December 2007
31 posts
Happy New Year All
Party is about to start here in Rome where i’m told the Campo will be packed to the gills with people. Off to Florence tomorrow to move into my new home, pictures and info to follow.
“Salient Point #20. There’s no love like apathy.”
Time for a little humour.
Okay so the joke is about politics, which I love and has the Pope in it, so it’s topical to this here site. The Pope and Hillary Rodham Clinton are on the same stage in front of a huge crowd. Her Majesty’ and His Holiness, however, have seen it all before, so to make it a little more interesting, the senator says to the Pope, ‘Did you know that with just one little wave of my hand I can...
Boxing Day
Any thought that in a city with so many catholics, Rome would shut down on Christmas and Boxing day, would be grossly incorrect. Sure the area near my current home is a ghost town, but venturing into either Trastevere or downtown one quickly finds themselves surrounded by people. Many of the stores are closed, but the trinket shops and anything selling food and booze are as always bustling with...
My Christmas Meal
Christmas isn’t a big holiday for me. I’m anti-snow, not interested much in presents and come on, a fat man in a red suit, please. Combine all the odd rituals and the religious overtones of a pagan inspired, arbitrarily dated christian holiday and no one who knows me should wonder why I tune out. I do have one tradition every year on December 25th though, an act I stereotypically share...
In case you're of differing beliefs.
Happy Chrismukkah.
Happy Festivus Y'all
In case i haven’t told you directly, merry christmas.
Supermarket Lottery
So as much as I try to avoid the supermarket here, inevitably the situation arises where at 9pm on a weeknight, you find yourself in need of bread or milk or possibly some form of cured meat. The fresh food market that i visit regularly closes just after noon, naturally, so it’s round to the supermarket you go.
Now supermarkets in Rome are “super” in name only, as every single...
“Salient Point #19
Older italian woman have no problem laughing at you when you...”
– Also you’re not supposed to touch the fruit and veggies either, so it can be a bit of a process.
“Salient Point #18
I like it here, a lot.”
– Need i say more.
December's Music Playlist
Get it while it’s hot and still downloadable.
The italian people are fucked...well sort of...
I can’t help but dwell constantly on what an interesting character study the people of Italy are. Human behaviour here seems to live only on the extremes, and very often takes the form of extremely cool. Granted, Rome is a big city and like all big cities gradually hardens all those who stay within it’s walls for any length of time. But that’s not it. Whether it stems from their...
Campo de Fiori
The Campo de Fiori should be the first stop anyone visiting Rome makes. Every day of the week, cept of course Sunday, a bustling market fills the piazza with fresh fruit, flowers and the ubiquitous Roman market pajama stand. By 4pm the square looks like a bomb was set off in it, scattering lettuce and vegetable bits everywhere and piling enormous bundles of trash into the corners. Give the...
Speaking of Fuck Yoga
So I didn’t post the picture of my Fuck Yoga shirt for no reason, it’s had a grand unveiling in Rome. Now first thing i have to say, while it always brings a smile to my face to slide this bad boy on, I should have known this time would be different. I’m staying with a 65ish year old scottish woman, who I figured would frown at my having the word fuck across my chest. So for the...
“Salient Point #17
The more beautiful the environment, the easier jogging...”
– The pictures below, do no justice to how nice my new running route is.
Buying Cheese as Big as Your Head
I had the woman, a 40 year transplant from Scotland, who owns the home i’m staying in take me down to the local market the other day. You wanna talk about a kid in a candy store, i almost want to call this place my Disneyland, for it’s clearly one of the happiest places on earth. First off, it’s packed, I mean wall to wall packed, as in you move only as others move. The crowd is...
