In honor of bleek, grey, and rainy Photo Friday in Rome, Susan Sanders brings us a bit of bright humor. The photo above was taken in Sperlonga, Italy and shows a bright yellow vending machine. What’s in there? Gumballs? Toys? Nope! This is not your usual kid-friendly vending machine.

Rather, this remarkable machine is stacked full of plastic capsules, each of which is filled with a silky, slinky, sexy thong! Yep! We mean undergarments. You need only slide in a euro coin and a brand new thong will be yours.

Who uses this machine? We have no idea, but we’ve managed to invent a few possible scenarios. Leave home without underwear and only realize that you’ve mis-dressed when you’re on your way to work? Stop here and get a thong for a song. You can slip it on in the bathroom of your workplace. Pick up a hot date on the beach and decide you’d like to freshen up? How convenient to be find a brand new thong waiting for you on Sperlonga’s main drag.

Susan’s got an eye for the ironic and that’s something often expressed in her photographs. We invite you to take a look at her work by visiting Rome With A View, her photo blog.

It was a busy day yesterday and we missed Photo Friday, so we’re making it up to you by featuring one of Susan Sanders fabulous images of Rome today, Saturday.

Taken in 2000, Trevi Shopper is a study in the arts of street shopping and fashionable self-presentation. In Rome, the bella figura is everything! Though it looks like all parties in this photo are entirely uninterested in the cheap souvenirs on display in front of the Trevi Fountain, in actuality, an intense negotiation over prices was underway when Susan snapped this shot.

Susan offers us the Trevi Shopper at the very moment that the Trevi Fountain is very much in our minds. Yesterday, vandals dyed the waters of the Trevi red. We’ve got that story here on Eternally Cool, as well as a longer article, called Trevi-Mania, that delves into the fountain’s history, asking why the monument has achieved such worldwide fame.

To see more of Susan’s photographs of Rome, visit her photo blog, Rome With A View.

A short post today (it’s a holiday in Rome!) to pay homage to one of the many clever ways that Moschino makes fashion fun. Is it a saucy striped shirt or a shapely shopping tote? Ready-to-wear or shop-til-you-drop?

Either way, it’s featured in one of our very favorite books about Italy: Volare. The Icon of Italy in Global Pop Culture by Giannino Malossa.

As part of Louis Vuitton’s efforts to use conceptual architecture to make each of their stores a unique showcase for their stylish goods, a new Vuitton store has just appeared on Rome’s Via Condotti. The front entry a plasma screen staircase that plays technicolor tricks on the eye. Over the course of just a few minutes, the stairs can transform themselves into cascading water, trailing vines, or even a classic Louis Vuitton trunk. Crowds gather to watch the spectacle; tourists and passersby are spellbound.

The store’s design is based on a concept developed by architect Peter Marino.