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Dec

The Gladiator Gift Guide!

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Roman Holidays, Shopping and Past & Present

Gladiator Gift Guide

Remember the moment in the movie Gladiator when Maximus (aka Russell Crowe) commands his fellow combantants by saying, “At my signal, unleash hell!”? If you feel subject to the powers of the underworld every time you venture into a crowded shop or mall this holiday season, then eCool is here to help!

Today we bring you the Gladiator Gift Guide! Are you not entertained?!

Here’s the top 12 things that every modern gladiator (or Colosseum lover) is wishing for this holiday season:

1) The Colosseum Board Game by Days of Wonder. As commanded by the Emperor, Rome is in the midst of a 100 day celebration commemorating the opening of the greatest public arena ever conceived by man - the Colosseum. Earn wealth and glory as one of Rome’s greatest impresarios by producing grand spectacles in the hopes of attracting the most spectators to your events. Great for ages 10 and up.

2) Gladiator. Three Disc Extended Edition. Best swords-and-sandals flick ever. Set in Roman times a banished general fights his way back as a gladiator. The only power stronger than the emperor is the greatest hero in all the empire.

3) Gladiator Nutcracker. Hand-carved and hand-painted. Traditional holiday nutcrackers are soooo boring in comparison.

4) The Colosseum by Keith Hopkins and Mary Beard. Part of the Wonders of the World series published by Harvard University Press. Great for the smart traveler who wants to know more than the average guidebook tells.

5) Gladiatrix Costume. We’re always partial to dressing up here at eCool and we can’t imagine why the gladiatrix in your life wouldn’t think this outfit worth fighting for.

6) Colosseum. Road to Freedom. For Play Station 2. Takes you to the time after Caesar’s death and follows the life of a gladiator in those trying times. Travel back in time to the height of the Roman Empire circa 190 AD, to see the brutal reality of life-and-death fights in the Colosseum. Narcissus the Gladiator saw his village burnt to ashes by Roman soldiers. On his quest for revenge, he is captured and sent to the arena, to entertain the Roman citizens by shedding blood. Win over the crowd, impress them with your skills and stay alive — and you might just earn your freedom. Survive massive multi-person battles where up to 20 men fight for their lives Manage your money wisely — you will have to pay for your own medical expenses and equipment.

7) Colosseum Planter. Think of it as your very own romantic overgrown ruin and you’ll start wanting one too.

8) Make Your Own Colosseum Kit. Calling all amateur architects! Experience the fun, excitement, and pride of building your own amphitheater brick by brick! Mix the special mortar in the mini-sized wheelbarrow, then follow the step-by-step instructions for building this spectacular structure with real kiln-fired bricks!

9) Playmobil Gladiator. Cute. So very cute. If you want to spend big, spring for the Playmobil Arena so the gladiator has a place to fight.

10) Spartacus. The rebellious slave Spartacus (played by Kirk Douglas) leads a freedom revolt against the decadent Roman Empire in one of the best of Hollywood’s grand historical epics.

11) Victory Wreath. The winner takes all.

12) Colosseum Bookends. Add a bit of grandeur to your library and remember that “while stands the Colosseum, Rome shall stand; when falls the Colosseum, Rome shall fall; and when Rome falls - the World.”

Dec

Photo Friday: Bella Figura

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Roman Holidays, Photo Friday, Photography and Outside Rome

Obama Etc for creche scenes

An Italian Christmas celebration simply isn’t complete without a trip to Naples for a stroll along San Gregorio Armeno, a narrow street in the very oldest part of the city that’s lined with stores selling nativity figures. From the end of November through Epiphany on January 6th, the street is turned into a one-way pedestrian thoroughfare to accomodate throngs of Italians and tourists searching for the perfect addition to their holiday presepe scene.

Most Neapolitan creche merchants feature a wide array of miniature angles, virgins, shepherds, and wisemen who pay homage to the baby Jesus alongside figurines of butchers, bakers, and pizza makers. But on San Gregorio Armeno, there’s a store or two that extends Christmas invitations to a much broader range of personalities, and so, the eCoolers recently made a pilgrimage to Naples to see who had been deemed deserving of an appearance at the manger this year.

Figurines of Barack Obama and others for Italian creche scenes

Being somewhat partial to the American President-Elect Barack Obama, we were thrilled to see figurines of him and Michelle, two people that we’d invite to join our Christmas celebrations in a flash (note that Michelle holds a sign with Obama’s name and the Italian symbol for victory). But, we were equally intrigued to see that John McCain was available to follow the star, along with with a variety of soccer stars and race car drivers.

Comedian and political critic Beppe Grillo is an honorary wise man this year, as is Roberto Saviano, the Italian author of Gomorra, a semi-fictional expose of the Neapolitan Camorra (their particular version of the mafia), who’s recently gone into hiding because of threats made on his life.

Photos by the fabulous Susan Sanders. Be sure to check out her 2009 Rome with a View calendars as well as her website.

Barack Obama, Michelle, and John McCain Nativity Figurines in Naples

Dec

Surf’s Up, Venetian Style!

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Outside Rome and On the Street

Wakeboarding in Piazza San Marco

Italy-lovers world wide have been following the story of the extreme acqua alta in Venice.

On Monday, the city endured a high tide that produced the worst flooding that the serenissima has seen in 22 years, with waters reach 1.5 meters or five feet in depth before beginning to recede. The photos of Venetians and tourists wading through (at least) waist-high cold water have appeared in every media outlet, boggling both mind and eye.

Wakeboarding in Piazza San Marco

But, no photos we’ve seen are as great as these, featured in the Italian daily, La Repubblica, that show a Dutch wakeboarder, Duncan Zuur skimming through Piazza San Marco and across narrow canals.

In case you’re wondering, wakeboarding, a combination of water skiing, snowboarding, and surfing, is a surface water sport that involves riding a board over the surface of a body of water behind a boat.

Surf’s up dude!

Wakeboarding in Venice

Dec

The Writing is on the Wall

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Shopping and Art & Design

There are days around here when we need a bit of visual cheer and so we find ourselves surfing on over to the Wooster Collective for a dose of sprayed or stenciled street-art happiness. Imagine, then, our happiness when yesterday–amidst rain, cold, and almost constant hail (since when does it hail 3 or 4 times in a day?–the Wooster Collective published an interview with our favorite Roman stencil man, Sten, who cites Giotto, Gentile da Fabriano, and Raphael as being among his favorite street artists.

Wooster’s interview with Sten reminded us of a special surprise that we’ve been saving for the holiday season! It’s another Rome with a View calendar by Susan Sanders, this one filled with street art from the Eterna. Packed with images you’ve seen here on EternallyCool.net (and some that you’ve not seen before), the calendar makes a great gift for all the Rome-antic hipsters in your life.

Click here to order.

Dec

The Color of Blood

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Advertising

Civil Rights Poster

The autumn of 2008 has been a season jam-packed with strikes and demonstrations (in fact, there’s a huge transportation strike on this very day!). Such occurances–while tolerated in Rome because they allow the voice of the worker to be heard–don’t do much to put the city in a very good mood. The endless strikes and demonstrations of 2008 have blocked city streets and shut down transportation day after day, turning cross-city commutes into ordeals. In theory, we support strikes and demonstratons. In practice, they’ve begun to make us a bit crazy as there seems never to be a day without one.

You can imagine, therefore, our frustration at seeing a sign announcing another huge demonstration and strike to be held in Rome. As the sign on the left, above, declares a “sciopero generale” or “general strike” to be held by the CGIL labor union (the largest of all of Italy’s unions with some 5.5 million members) on Friday 12 December.

Our eye-rolling stopped, however, when we spotted another CGIL-sponosred poster next to the announcement of the general strike. We give you a close-up view here:

CGIL Blood Poster

The poster shows two identical drops of blood, one labeled “Italian” and the other labeled “Foreigner.” The text below reads: “Skin comes in many colors. Blood only one. Against racism, equal rights of citizenship. For the right to vote, the same civil rights for immigrants.”

Now this is something we can support completely. CGIL, it seems, has put together a quite clever series of such ads demanding equal rights for all.

CGIL Smile and Sweat

There’s a smile version (above, left), which declares that smiles come in only one color while skin comes in many. There’s a sweat version (above, right) which likewise declares the universality of perspiration. And, there’s a tears version (below), that informs us that CGIL believes that immigrants should have access to the same social services as Italians, as well as equal access to education, and the right to reunite families separated by immigration.

The posters (which have brought us right over to the side of CGIL), are meant to combat xenophobia and to protest Italy’s Bossi-Fini laws which so severely limit immigration. They’re going to be appearing across Italy for the next four months–the blood poster was the first of them, a new one will appear each month–with the publicity campaign ending on 21 March 2009, the International Day Against Racism.

CGIL tears poster

Nov

Life and Death on Viale Trastevere

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: On the Street and Text & the City

Shrine on Viale Trastevere

In the midst of a rainy and cold weekend in Rome, we bring you a lovely photo of a shrine to the Virgin that’s located on Viale Trastevere, just across the street from the Ministry of Public Education. The shrine, as seen in the photo, is a popular one, as attested by the hundreds of marble plaques thanking Mary for her intercession. There are always candles, too, and fresh flowers and plants, and more often than not a devotee who has stopped to say a prayer.

It’s not just the eCool team that loves this site. Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, an author who wrote beautifully about Rome (and the rest of Italy) until her recent death, admired this shrine as well. And so we bring you a passage from her book, Italian Days:

Rome is a city in which life exists in the midst of death, death in the midst of life. [On Viale Trastevere] there is a wall at which I often stop to refresh my spirits; it is a shrine to the Virgin–in the midst of clamour, salubrious naivete: a collection of pictures of those in peril saved by Mary; ex-votos, tin or silver representations of body parts for which Mary’s healing grace is asked; and testimonails to her efficacious intercession. (I am at the post office, I always think, when I sotp here, the post office where the Virgin collects her mail and simple sprays of flowers.) Each day there is a new thank-you note, a new request; it makes one quite happy to have left one’s house.

Nov

The Pope Goes Green

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Myth/Legend/Religion and Everything Else

Solar Panels at the Vatican

Via AFP: The Vatican began its conversion to renewable energy system this week with the inauguration of an array of solar panels on a key building.

The 2,400 panels on the 5,000 square meter roof of the Paul VI auditorium, near St Peter’s Basilica, where popes hold general audiences, will convert sunlight into 300 megawatts of electricity a year.

This is enough for the year-round energy needs of the hall, which is also used for concerts and conferences, and several surrounding buildings, according to the Vatican.

The auditorium is one of the most modern buildings in the Vatican City and the system will save the equivalent of 80 tons of oil per year, or 225 tons of CO2.

The panels were donated by German company Solarworld, which recently hit the headlines with a plan to take over vehicle builder Opel.

Solarworld’s boss Frank Asbeck met the late pope John Paul II in 2002, and according to his own account asked for a papal blessing on his firm’s solar panels in the hope of stopping them being stolen while in transit.

Other buildings in the Roman Catholic Church’s city state will soon benefit from renewable energy sources as the Vatican expands its green ethos across its 110 acres.

It plans to have enough renewable energy sources to provide 20 percent of its needs by 2020, in line with a European Union target.

The next project will be a solar heating facility in its so-called “industrial zone”.

Pope Benedict XVI and his predecessor John Paul II both encouraged the Vatican to go progressively “green”.

Since summer 2007, the Vatican has been involved with a scheme to restore an ancient forest in Hungary, under a pact with Planktos-Klimafa, an eco-restoration company.

The reforestation scheme is aimed to make it the world’s first carbon-neutral sovereign state by offsetting its emissions through planting trees.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, states can purchase so-called emission credits to compensate for their excess greenhouse gases.

On a visit to Australia earlier this year, the pope warned his audience that humanity was squandering the earth’s resources to satisfy its insatiable appetite for material goods.

Nov

Pauline on Pay-Per-View

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Photo Friday, Photography, Outside Rome, Past & Present and Art & Design

Our trusty photographer, Susan Sanders, does it again with a fabulous image of a stenciled graffiti depicting Rome’s Neoclassical pin-up Pauline Borghese. This may be our favorite Photo Friday ever!

Susan spotted this stencil on Lungotevere a Ripa and was immediately intrigued by the idea that someone is out spray-painting images of Canova’s famous statue of Napoleon’s sister, Pauline Borghese. Closer inspection revealed that this is not your average cut-and-spray reproduction, however, but that the image is a humorous invention on the Neoclassical icon.

If you look carefully at the image above, you’ll see that Pauline wears a spiked bracelet and a mask and holds a whip. This is Pauline all dressed up for an appearance on pay-per-view, as the barely legible caption below her reminds us. It reads, “All you need is to play.”

To see another humorous invention on Canova’s Pauline Borghese, click here.

To see more photograph of Rome by Susan Sanders, visit her website: Rome With A View. And don’t forget to treat yourself to one of the calendars designed by Susan for 2009. They feature beautiful but out-of-the-ordinary views of the Eternal City that you’ll want to admire all year long.

Pauline Borghese Stencil Graffiti

Nov

Counting the Days

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Photo Friday and Photography

For those of you busy assembling and studying wish lists in preparation for the upcoming winter holidays, we’re thrilled to announce the release of the long-awaited Rome With A View Calendars! (see images from the calendars above and below)

Featuring expert photographs of the Eternal City taken by Susan Sanders, our photographer in residence here at e-Cool, the calendars provide an insider’s look into Rome that you can enjoy all year long. (You’ll be glad to hear that these aren’t your usual postcard views of the city–we’ve all owned that calendar already, right?)

Each month features a photograph of the Eterna and a quote that will help you keep the Rome fires burning all year long. And, at $19.99, you can afford to buy one for yourself and one for the Rome-antic in your life.

So, if you’ve enjoyed our Photo Fridays here on e-Cool and would like to enjoy a bit of Rome every single day, click here to buy a calendar from the iDC City Shop.

Nov

A Bit of Naples in Ft Worth

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Roman Holidays and Outside Rome

Neapolitan Presepe in Ft Worth

In past holiday seasons, we’ve spent lots of time blogging about presepe or nativity scenes. No doubt we’ll be back at it when the Rome enters into the Christmas crescendo in a few weeks.

Being perfectly aware, of course, that not all of our readers will have the chance to admire shepherds, angels, kings, and babies in Piazza Navona (or on the streets of Naples from whence they hail), we offer an alternative for those of you who are Texans or who will be passing through the Lone Star State during the holidays.

This Christmas season, Ft. Worth’s Kimbell Art Museum plays host to an extraordinary loan from Naples, Italy: a magnificent, 18th-century Neapolitan Nativity scene. The presepe (the word comes from the Latin word for “crib,” praesepium) features more than 70 figures and animals that average about 15 inches tall and will be displayed in the traditional manner with a realistic, rocky setting and a crumbling Roman arch.

In Renaissance Italy, presepe figures were generally large (often life-size) and installed in churches. The tradition of presepe took exceptionally strong root in Naples during the 18th century, a period of great political stability and economic boom. The Kimbell presepe showcases a form of art that today seems almost inseparable from the celebration of Christmas—the arrangement of movable figures, animals and props to represent the scene in the stable at Bethlehem after the birth of Christ.

Supervising the installation is the leading expert on presepe, Elio Catello, whose family has collected and installed presepi since the early 19th century. He learned the art from his grandfather, Vincenzo, and his father, Roberto, and has passed it on to his daughter, Roberta, who will also accompany the presepe to the Kimbell.

Seeing a fully installed presepe is a rare treat. The Kimbell’s presepe will be on view throughout the holiday season, from November 25, 2008, to January 25, 2009. There is no charge for admission to this exhibition.