Here at the eCool Compound, we let the Fourth of July slide on by without much fanfare or fireworks. Nevertheless, for anyone who lives in Rome and is a student of the city’s ancient past, the founding of the United States is a fascinating topic, for the Founding Fathers also knew their ancient history and drew heavily on the model of the Roman Republic in deciding the form of the American government.
Thus, these photos, published on the La Repubblica website this morning, served as a reminder of American connections to Rome and made us wish that we’d spent the holiday in New York City’s Times Square, watching artist Troy Landwehr as he spent eight hours carving a representation of the singing of the Declaration of Independence out of a one-ton block of cheddar cheese.
The images made us giggle, of course, and provoked a long debate about whether or not the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be honored to be represented in a block of cheedar. (We suspect that they might prefer another medium, but you can decide on your own.)
We also began to muse upon the different ways in which Americans and Italians entertain themselves with cheese. Though this cheddar sculpture is certainly breathtaking, we think we prefer the Italian tendency to roll cheese around a hilltown in celebration of a holiday.
