Here at the eCool Compound, we’re grateful to Caroline Lawrence, author of the Roman Mysteries series of books and tv series for kids, for letting us know about the excellent Cave Canem Project now underway at Pompeii.
If you’ve visited Pompeii, you probably know that the ancient city is home to lots of affectionate stray dogs who spend their days sunning themselves on the cobblestones of the ancient streets and befriending tourists and following them about the archaeological site. While Rome has stray cats, Pompeii is home to their canine compatriots.
An admirable new project called Cave Canem (Cave Canem means “beware of the dog” in Latin and the phrase is famous because it is inscribed on a mosaic found in the doorway of a home in Pompeii) aims to find proper homes for these dogs. To this end, they’ve put up a website at which you can browse the dogs that are in search of owners and download the paperwork necessary for adoption. They come with charming ancient Roman names like Polidia and Vesonius; they’re chock-full of knowledge about Pompeii as they’ve been on many a guided tour; and they are healthy, vaccinated, and spayed or neutered.
In the past months, the Flash Mob movement has been growing in Rome: large groups of people assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse.
Yesterday was a gorgeous day in Rome–it seemed as if spring had suddenly appeared after a long, cold, and wet winter–and so it was the perfect day for flash mobbing at the Spanish Steps. At 3pm, thousands of people arrived on the site, took a place on the steps, and reached for the sky.
There are other Flash Mob events on tap for March, so if you want to join in, just click over to the Flash Mob Roma website to find out about them. You’ll see that on Sunday 7 March, a group will be assembling at the Teatro Ambra Jovenelli to protest the fact that it’s slated for closure and possible destruction.
And on 27 March, a flash mob will appear in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere to stage a 5-minute shaving cream war, this being, of course, the natural evolution of the annual pillow fight staged in the same place!
We do so like to see antiquity reveal itself in modernity–it’s one of the things that makes Rome such an intriguing city. And, we know, that many eCoolers enjoy the same.
So, we thought you’d be keen to hear about a debate set off by Vittorio Sgarbi, Italian art critic, politician, cultural commentator and TV personality and by Maurizio Costanzo, Italian television host and journalist. Costanzo has suggested that a street in Rome be named for the Roman Emperor Nero and Sgarbi has taken up his cause. While their are streets named for many other emperors already, Nero’s notoriety, earned in part (and only in part) for the charge that he burned the city to increase his own landholdings, has prevented his eponymous entry into the plan of modern Rome. Sgarbi argues that “a negative legend has kept one of Rome’s great politicians from having his own street.”
The newspaper La Repubblica has decided to give modern Romans (and you) a voice in the debate. They’re currently running a survey as to whether or not the name Nero should be emblazoned on a street sign. So click here to register your own vote in the Via Nerone debate.
And, if you find yourself coming down on the side of Nero in this conversation, you may want to advertise your sentiments with a “Come On Baby Light My Fire” shirt that sports the design shown above. You can pick one up at the iDC City Shop.
Today. 8 December, is a national holiday, the celebration of the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Schools and offices are closed, though shops are open and masses of Romans seem to be out and about browsing stores and getting a head start on holiday shopping.
Other Romans (and loads of tourists)–perhaps those more devoted to their religion than to retail–spent the afternoon in Piazza di Spagna awaiting the Pope’s annual visit to the Column of the Immaculate Conception. He was scheduled to arrive at 4:00pm; traditionally, he kneels in prayer and leaves flowers for the Virgin.
The eCool team passed through today between about 1 and 2pm–long before the Pope arrived–but the area around the column was packed already. The Spanish Embassy on the piazza (its location gives Piazza di Spagna its name) was decked out in red banners and any number of huge bouquets (many with corporate sponsors) had been placed around the column base–including a fabulous wreath with the name of ACLI/ATAC/Trambus, the Roman public transportation consortium, spelled out in giallo and rosso carnations. We’re glad to know about the devotion of ATAC and we’ll continue to hope for divine intervention on those days in which there’s nary a bus in sight.
We didn’t stick around long enough to see the Papal visit, but even in those hours before he arrived, individuals were bringing flowers for the Virgin and handing them off to a team of priests and nuns who were curating the careful arrangement. Images of the event itself, showing the arrival of the Pope in his Popemobile by way of Via Condotti, as well as the greeting he received from Rome’s mayor, Gianni Alemanno, can be seen on the Corriere della Sera website.
Moschino almost always wins the prize for creative Christmas windows (we loved the dancing gingerbread men from 2007) and this year their Milan boutique has scored again. The economic crisis–along with other holiday practices that infringe on his idea of an old-fashioned and romantic holiday–have sent him into psychoanalysis.
As these photos show (they’re from La Repubblica), Santa’s supine on the shrink’s couch. She, of course, is a sexy and well-dressed analyst who displays a myriad of degrees from the University of Moschino on her office wall. Of course, we have a term for this in English: retail therapy.
The window is the work of Moschino’s fabulous display designer, Joe-Ann Tan, and Moschino’s designer, Rosella Jardini.
In 2008, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right government passed a law that insured him immunity from prosecution while in office. Two months ago, in early October, Italy’s highest court ruled that the 2008 law was unconstitutional and as a result, two trials that consider allegations of false accounting and bribery against the prime minister have been reopened. Since the declaration of unconstitutionality, Berlusconi has reacted by accusing various parties of holding “leftist” biases against him, including Italy’s president Giorgio Napoletano, the foreign and national press, and left-leaning judges, and by inducing his government to introduce legislation that would annul the premier’s ongoing trials by means of a shortened statute of limitations.
Not surprisingly, those Italians who are not fans of their current prime minister have reacted with outrage to this fall’s events and have launched a national protest against him. That protest–up to this point largely an online movement–was made manifest in the Eternal City today when crowds clad in purple (a color they say represents vital energy and determination) took to the streets on NBD or No Berlusconi Day. Protests were also held in such cities as Buenos Aires, San Francisco, Sacramento, Ottawa, Montreal, London, Madrid, Vienna, and Istanbul.
Widely discussed in print and on websites, the protest attracted tens of thousands of people who marched from Piazza della Repubblica to San Giovanni in Laterano before being treated to a concert in which dozens of musicians participated.
Tourists and residents of Rome alike were surprised and delighted yesterday morning as they witnessed a street performance staged by an unknown group. Four “nuns” dressed in shocking pink appeared in Piazza di Spagna and took a stroll through the city accompanied by two mounted “mounted police” likewise suited out in all pink uniforms.
The rose-colored group traveled from Piazza di Spagna to Via del Corso by way of Via Condotti – no doubt the employees and clients of the haute couture stores that line Via Condotti were pink with envy – and then continued down Via del Corso to Piazza del Popolo.
Who’s responsible for this delightfully colorful parade remains a mystery, though Rome’s daily newspaper La Repubblica posits that the event may be a mini flashmob staging, a type of viral marketing, or very petite demonstration.
Photos from La Repubblica.
We’re kicking off Monday morning with a final homage to ABOVE and his/her centurion stencil on Via di San Giovanni in Laterano (really near the Colosseum). If you saw yesterday’s post, then you may have watched the video that ABOVE made about the stencil, in which one of the “real live” centurions who poses for photos at the Colosseum makes an appearance.
When ABOVE wrote to alert us about that video, s/he also sent us some snapshots of the “real” centurion standing side-by-side with the sprayed one. So, we show you some of those today and feel pretty confident that they provide just the kind of juxtaposition between past and present (or is this present and present) that e-Coolers adore.
If you missed it yesterday, click here to watch ABOVE’s When in Rome Video. You can find out more about ABOVE at www.goabove.com, where you can see more street art, watch videos, buy prints, and fill out an “application” to buy original art work (ABOVE won’t sell to just anyone, it seems – and that’s OK with us).
A few weeks ago we published a fabulous stencil by ABOVE that we spotted on Via San Giovanni in Laterano. We expressed both our admiration and entertainment for the work and shortly thereafter we heard from its creator, ABOVE, who wrote to let us know about the publication of a When in Rome video on Vimeo.
We knew that eCoolers would love seeing a real live (modern) centurion hamming it up aside this stencil, so we’re linking now to ABOVE’s great video. Click on over and watch!
ABOVE’s When in Rome Video. You can find out more about ABOVE at www.goabove.com, where you can see more street art, watch videos, buy prints, and fill out an “application” to buy original art work (ABOVE won’t sell to just anyone, it seems – and that’s OK with us).
Now that it’s September, things are starting to pick up here in Rome (and, we’re sincerely hoping that a HUGE amount of extra e-cool things start happening soon as events in Rome have been pretty slowly lately). The Romans are starting to trickle back into the city; restaurants and shops are raising their shutters; and the buses are starting to run with a bit more frequency.
In these last days of summer, Susan Sanders has been out roaming the deserted streets of the city. Just about a week ago, she joined a crowd of tourists and Romans on Via del Corso to watch the break dancers who spin that street. She got some great photos and we share those with you today.
For more images of the Eternal City by Susan, visit her fabulous photo blog, Rome With A View.
