Here’s a little video of one of Italy’s most famous sights, the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
When I visited Pisa in 2001 (for a few hours only), the tower was roped off and no one was allowed to climb it - which is as it was for years. Until they’d figured out a way to stop the tower from continuing to sink at such an advanced pace, people weren’t allowed to go inside. What’s most interesting to me about the tower is that if you look at it from the side you can actually see the evidence of the architects attempting to correct for the tilt which was beginning even before construction was complete. Instead of leaning at one constant angle, you’ll see the top few “stories” actually lean a little less.
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April 28th marks the anniversary of the execution of Il Duce, Benito Mussolini. He, his mistress and other Facist party leaders were shot in the village of Mezzegra on this day in 1945 and their bodies publicly displayed in Como and Milan. In Milan, the bodies were hung upside-down on meat hooks from a gas station roof. The pictures aren’t pretty, so I’m not going to post them, but if you’re so inclined you can find pictures here and here. The idea was to prove that the dictator was, in fact, dead, but the body also became the target for much of the anger felt by the crowds, who reportedly spit on and shot at the body as it hung. Mussolini was later buried in an unmarked grave in a Milan cemetery, but in the 1950s his body was moved to a crypt in Predappio, where it’s “flanked by marble fasces and a large idealized marble bust of himself sits above the tomb.”
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You’ve heard of Latin lovers, right? And that Italian is the language of love? (There are others who might try to lay claim to that title, too, but that’s another matter.) Well, it turns out those might be more than stereotypes.
Two reports released recently in Italy indicate that the sex lives of Italians are not only thriving, but are cause for envy.
The first was a poll conducted on Italians over the age of 60:
The poll … found that 32% of women and 31% of men aged over 60 made love “regularly” with their partners while 10% of men and 2% of women had sex “all the time”.
The survey results also include the revelation that the men were the ones with the “more romantic mindset” than the women, although I’m not sure I can believe them - “just over half the males said they never or rarely felt sexually attracted to young women.” Yeah, right.
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For many travel enthusiasts, the best possible way to celebrate a wedding would be to do it overseas. Whether you choose to elope in secret or transport your entire wedding party to some foreign locale, a destination wedding is certainly one way to make your wedding day memorable. As someone who chose to elope overseas, I can certainly attest to the added feeling of excitement in knowing you’re exchanging your vows at the same time as you’re doing the thing you love most in the world - traveling.
I got married in Scotland, and it was fabulous. A few years before during our first trip to Italy, however, the husband (then boyfriend) and I investigated the possibility of getting married while in Italy. As far as I’m concerned (and this only becomes more cemented in my mind the more I learn about Italy), the Italian government invented red tape. It’s no easy task to get married in Italy as a non-resident, and even more challenging to do it on anything resembling the spur of the moment. You have to think that any country that houses the Mothership of the Catholic church isn’t going to make eloping easy.
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Some Italian news tidbits for an April Sunday:
When a real estate agent tries to sell you an “unspoilt” piece of land in Abruzzo, make sure it’s not the site of an illegal toxic waste dump.
A new Italian reality show has put the whole “Mama’s boy” idea on the center stage - mothers are choosing their son’s future wives on television.
How is it possible that Italians are the unhappiest people in Europe? I’ll swap places with one of them, no problem…
I completely want to take this trip - it’s a tour of Italy that focuses on the country’s cats.
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Whatever your reason for visiting Italy, chances are good you’ll take in at least one museum or art gallery while you’re there. With so many world famous works of art and architecture to see, it would be hard to avoid them. And yet you might also want to consider checking out at least one temporary or lesser-known exhibit as well. You can get an idea of some of the special exhibits which are on display throughout Italy with this Arts Guide. And here a couple more things you can see if you’re
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Some Italian news to get you through the weekend:
Mediterranean diet holding firm - Most Italians still cling to traditional diet, not foreign junk food
Trevi Fountain raiders nabbed - Two men were unsuccessful in their attempt to collect coins thrown in the fountain
Falcons hatch on Florence Duomo - The first hatchlings are making their first public appearances
Pope celebrates 80th birthday - He had lunch with cardinals and went to an evening concert
Olive oil feels climate change - Warmer weather in the north has improved olive oil, while drying up parts of …
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Today is Liberation Day in Italy, and it’s a gigantic holiday. So here’s a bit of information about it, courtesy of Life in Italy:
Celebrated on April 25th, it commemorates the liberation of Italy by Allied troops in the Second World War. The holiday is meant to honor all those who died during the war, from soldiers fighting overseas to civilian victims of Allied bombings and atrocities committed during Nazi Germany’s bitter retreat from its former ally’s territory. The lives of those who served as partisans in the Italian Resistance are especially honored.
There will be ceremonies all over the country …
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People who know me know that I enjoy good food. I consider a good meal a vacation experience worth spending money on, and have food memories from every holiday I’ve ever taken. So when friends have been planning trips to Italy, they usually ask me where to eat. While I don’t have a list of restaurants I’ve eaten in all over the country, I do have a personally tested method of ensuring I eat well in Italy. It’s a tiny book, about the size of a phrasebook, and it’s called The Hungry …
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Here’s a fun look at the culture of Italians as compared with the culture of the rest of the EU nations (as if, in reality, every non-Italian nation is one massive culture - but I digress). I’ve seen this little video before, but it was fun to get reacquainted - especially since I’ve learned a bit more about the Italian culture since the last time I watched it. For instance, the bit about “Bureaucracy” reminds me of the stories our friends tell of trying to get things like their driver’s license or medical insurance lined up once they moved …
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