Here in the eCool Compound, we spend a lot of time thinking about shoes.  Thus, when a kind soul alerted us to the fact that Zazzle allows you to design and market your own personal Kids, we were intrigued.  Though a brief survey in the Compound suggests that no one on the eCool team has slipped a Ked on their foot at least since college, we navigated on over to Zazzle and begin to browse.

We were intrigued by the wackiness of the selection and began to fixate on certain themes near and dear to our eCool hearts.  It was a Dante kind-of day (the Inferno, not the Paradiso) and so we did a search for Dante shoes expecting that the search engine would turn up a great big zero.  Boy were we wrong!  There are lots of Dante shoes being designed these days and though we can’t possibly purport to understand what might make someone want to wear the poet on their foot, we do admit to developing a slightly perverse fascination with the idea.

Thus, today, we bring your our Dante shoe picks.  We don’t know what kind of shoes the poet preferred, but it’s easy enough to imagine that he would have enjoyed the opportunity to slide his tired feet into some sneakers during his long journey.  Perhaps he would have chosen a pair that featured his portrait, like those shown above, from Rick London’s collection of Love Quote shoes. They feature an image of Dante on the top panel and on each side panel is one of his most famous love quotes in Italian and English: Love that moves the sun and other stars.

Or, perhaps the poet would have shod his tender toes with the Dante’s Inferno Spookhouse model shown below (though the shoe comes in sizes suitable only for women and children).  The front panel has a photograph of a horrible monster taken by Liza Dey at the Dante’s Inferno Spookhouse at the Astroland Amuseument Park on Coney Island.

About a week or so ago, driven out of the Compound by heat and by a case of the stir-crazies, the eCool team did some prowling around the Oviesse store on Viale Trastevere.  On this particular field trip, team members were armed with cameras and were assigned the task of photographing their favorite wacky t-shirt.  As it turns out, that was the perfect time to hit the store: the back-to-school fashions were just in and there was an almost endless supply of fashion entertainment.

We’ve already shared one of our favorites with you: it was the “I Look Forward to Meeting You” shirt (available only in women’s sizes) that we blogged about last week.  Now, we offer up a few others–these mainly available for children (or small adults) only.

First up is the grey t-shirt seen above on the left.  It’s got a groovy all-caps font that’s outlined in brown and green and reads, “Indie Rockcity in the Middle of Nowhere.”  Oh, and there are images of cassette tapes as well.  We’ve spent some time trying to figure out exactly which city they might be describing.  We feel like we’ve been there, but no one on the eCool team can recall the name of that nowhere urban locale.

Things get a bit more academic with our next two selections.  Above, right, is a pink shirt (it comes in other colors and in sleeved and sleeveless versions) sporting a huge “D and P” in athletic lettering.   As “D and P” is not the most easily recognizable abbreviation, the designers also inscribed the full phrase to which those large letters refer: “Discipline and Perseverance.”  We love this shirt for several reasons: 1) “Discipline and Perseverance” is such an inspirational motto.  We think it would be great to walk around with that emblazoned on our chests.  Each time during the day that we felt discouraged or lazy, we could simply look in the mirror and be reminded of the virtues necessary for success.  Not every t-shirt does that kind of work for you.  2) It’s so very Foucault.  Every time we look at that shirt (and, believe me, we’ve made many trips back to Oviesse to admire that baby), we think “Discipline and Punish.”  We’re not sure that “Discipline and Perseverance” are so very far removed from “Discipline and Punish” and we wonder if the t-shirt designer was doing some heavy reading when he or she came up with this little gem.  (Oh yeah, by the way, we’re buying everyone on the eCool team a “D and P” shirt.  So, if you should see a gaggle of grown people squeezed into children’s t-shirts and walking about the streets of Rome, then you’ve just had an eCool sighting.)

The other shirt perfect for the child-size academic is seen above and on the right.  It’s a purple number with a San Francisco seal at the center, around which is written “Scrawling Poets.”  Oh man do we dig this!  We went so far as to purchase a couple of these, squeeze ourselves into them, and pay a visit to Keats’ and Shelley’s burials in the Protestant Cemetery to see if the earth would shake when they rolled over in the graves.

This is not just about informal day wear, however.  Oviesse’s back-to-school displays currently feature some outfits that are perfect for a pre-teen night out on the town.  Who wouldn’t be proud to see their 12-year-old daughter slip into a slinky yellow dress (above, left) with a sexy blond model on it, around which are emblazoned the words, “Old Flavor New Emotions” and “Hola Guys, Your Pin-Up Side”?  This is the stuff that parents HOPE their children will want to wear – we’re sure of it.

Here at the eCool Compound, we don’t get much post — post, that is, as in snail mail.  In fact, we’re convinced that our mailman saves up the post for a couple of weeks and then delivers it all at one time.  That’s just the way things are in Rome.

That said, we were delighted last week when we discovered a package in the mail from some avid e-Coolers in Dallas, Texas.  We ripped open the package to discover that Christy & Cathy had sent us a copy of a charming kids book that we’d never before encountered.  Called Ancient Rome.  Modern Rhymes about Ancient Times, the book is written by Susan Altman and Susan Lechner and illustrated by Sue Hughes.  It’s chock-full of little ditties about ancient Rome that any eight- or ten-year old aficionado of the eterna would love.

In support of that claim, we offer you one of our favorite poems from the book, about the Vestal Virgins.

The Vestals

The fire, / Sacred fire, / Must be guarded / Day and night. / The Vestals / Had that duty / And they had / To do it right.

The Vestals– / Pure young women– / Followed / Every rule. / Models / Of behavior, / They could never / Lose their cool.

The Vestals– / There were six of them– / Performed their work / With pride. / Their main regret was / None of them /  Could ever / Be a bride.

We also love the Sprtacus and Augustus poems, but we’ll leave it to you to read those on your own.  Buy your own copy of the book by clicking here.

Sorry for the absence eCoolers.  We’ve had some IMPORTANT things to take care of here in the Compound over the past week or so and that’s kept us from blogging as faithfully as we’d like.  But, we’re back and we’re bad!  So stay tuned for some Rome ultra-coolness over the course of the next few weeks.

We’re kicking off our Summer Coolfest with some sand sculptures from Jesolo Lido, a city near Venice on the east coast of the boot-shaped peninsula.  Seems that Jesolo Lido has a thematic sand sculpture festival each year and that this summer they’ve asked a team of professional sand sculpture artists to illustrate Dante’s Inferno (note to Compounders: possible alternative career).

In particular, artists were asked to take their inspiration from verses 1-9 of Canto III of the Inferno, words that Dante reads as he stands at the edge of the world of the damned souls:

Through me is the way into the woeful city; through me is the way into eternal woe; through me is the way among the lost people. Justice moved my lofty maker: the divine Power, the supreme Wisdom and the primal Love made me. Before me were no things created, unless eternal, and I eternal last. Leave every hope, ye who enter!

The international team of 18 participating artists have created the scenes, mythological figures, and the most famous characters from the Inferno, including the figures of Charon, Paolo and Francesca, the terrible Cerberus, Count Ugolino and  many others.

We haven’t seen this.  But we’d love to.  It’s on display at Jesolo Lido until July 31st and is open from 9am to 11pm.  Those who are really well-versed can take advantage an area where spontaneous poets (this means you!) perform by reciting the Inferno.

The entry fee is a mere 2 euro.  If you’re in the area, make your way to the Casa Bianca Beach.

So, today’s the big day!  Ron Howard’s Angels & Demons was released in Rome on Wednesday, 13 May and today it opens in theaters around the U.S.A.  We’re betting that lots of eCoolers will be dashing off to see the flick, if not for the suspense and action, then for the fantastic views of Rome that the movie is sure to offer.

As many of you will know, author Dan Brown published the book in 2000, but it didn’t really take off until after the DaVinci Code hit the bestseller list in 2003.  Since about 2003, however, Angels & Demons has become particularly popular with visitors to Rome, who “let the angels be their guide” as they make their way around the Eterna.

The novel revolves around the quest of fictional Harvard University symbologist Robert Langdon (also featured in the DaVinci Code) to uncover the mysteries of a secret society called the Illuminati who are murdering Cardinals as part of a plot to annihilate Vatican City using destructive antimatter.

In order to prevent the destruction of the Vatican, Langdon sets off on the Path of Illumination in hopes of uncovering clues as to the disappearance of Cardinals and the location of the antimatter canister.   The Path leads Langdon to four major locations in Rome, each marked by an artwork crafted by 17th-century superstar sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini, and each associated with what the Illuminati believed to be the four primordial elements of all things in existence: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.

It’s those artworks by Bernini (as well as some other pretty fabulous masterpieces of art and architecture) that Angels & Demons tourists come to see–and who can blame them? Of course, many such visitors are also interested in the long histories of Rome and the Catholic Church and as they traipse along the Path of Illumination, they find themselves asking questions that Dan Brown hasn’t answered in his novel.  So what to do?

Here at the eCool Compound, we have the answer!  We’ve just discovered that our friend Angela Nickerson, author of a lovely book called A Journey into Michelangelo’s Rome (which, by the way, makes a great guidebook to Renaissance Rome) has teamed up with Roaring Forties press to publish Rome’s Angels & Demons: an Insider’s Guide — a free ebook with inside information about the art and places in Dan Brown’s book.

Rome’s Angels & Demons: An Insider’s Guide is filled with information about the historical figures, churches, artwork, and locations that figure prominently in Angels & Demons.  With maps, visitor information, photographs, and in-depth insights, it is a great guide to the city of Rome and the fascinating world Dan Brown has created.

To find out more about this free guide — great on Kindle or any e-reader, but also formatted so that you can print it and take it to Rome with you — visit Angela’s Just Go blog where she’s throwing a launch party that includes a Twitter-to-enter contest by which you might just win some fabulous Roman stuff, including a copy of her Michelangelo book and some eCool Sigg Bottles!  You can also download the book from the Roaring Forties Press website.  Remember, it’s absolutely free!

Often enough, we field questions about resources for kids who are interested in ancient Rome.  First on our list of suggestions is the Roman Mysteries series by Caroline Lawrence, books aimed at youngsters ages 9-12, the age for which ancient Rome has the greatest appeal.  Thus, we’re thrilled to hear that Lawrence recently won the 2009 prize from the Classical Association for her work:

The prize is funded by an anonymous benefactor and is awarded for ‘a significant contribution to the public understanding of Classics’. ‘The Roman Mysteries’, with their exemplary combination of entertainment and education, thoroughly fulfill this criterion.

For those not familiar with the series, the Roman Mysteries are set in the first century AD, and feature  girl detective Flavia Gemina and her multicultural posse of crime sleuths, including Nubia, a slave girl from Africa; Jonathan, a Jewish boy; and Lupus, a mute beggar boy.

There’s also a BBC TV series and a website aimed at young readers.

Regular readers may remember that a few weeks ago certain members of the eCool team confessed to being compulsive readers.  Imagine, then, the delight of those readers when they discovered a book vending machine in a small and out-of-the way train station about an hour to the south of Rome – just across the street from one of the best trattorie in Fondi.

We’ve never seen anything like it — and rarely have we ever seen anything that made us so happy.  That fear of leaving home without enough books — or without the right books — was immediately assuaged.  Here, in this remote location, a train station that’s nearly always empty and close to abandoned, was a book machine! Just put your money in and choose your volume!  All books at 10% off the bookstore price!

The selection of 16-20 books in the machine (we got so excited we didn’t count) included Dante, Twilight, Manfredi’s The Ides of March, one of Camilleri’s best selling mysteries, a Hannah Montana book for the tweens, and oh-so-many more fabulous reads.   

We weren’t the only ones who were intrigued and enchanted!  We observed a steady stream of onlookers — from the detatched to the clearly bookwormy — a rather lot of whom dropped in coins, inserted bills, and received a book in return.

We’re passionate readers here at the eCool Compound.  It’s not just books that we read, of course.  There are certain people who frequent the eCool Compound who read anything and everything that crosses their line of vision: cereal boxes, free newspapers handed out on the street, every ad on every billboard, and, above all, the endless graffiti that’s splattered across all of Rome.

Some of Rome’s streetside scribblings are senseless. Others are objectionable.  Some rouse one’s curiosity, while others induce admiration.  It’s those with sentiment that we search out, however, like this teen-aged paint-penned commentary found on a bench in the playground in Piazza San Cosimato.

Our favorite part?  It’s the philosophical musing written in mint green:  Gli amici sono come le stelle…non li vedi sempre ma sai ke esistono, which translates to,  Friends are like the stars…you don’t always see them but you know that they exist.

Thanks to the fabulous Rogue Classicism blog, we’ve been catching up on webcomics about the ancient past.

At the moment we’ve got a case of the SPQR Blues––a sword-and-sandals soap opera that takes place in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. Mysteries and danger are daily duty in the life of a bodyguard–or so Felix hopes when he signs on. Who is threatening the life of the young girl he has been asked to protect? What secrets lurk in the tunnels below the city? And who keeps putting animals on top of the arch?

Created in November 2005 by artist Klio, and updated (almost) daily, SPQR Blues has gained a devoted following among fans of online comics, those interested in the history of ancient Rome and fans of outstanding comic art. Most of the characters are based on the actual inhabitants of the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, whose names are known from graffiti, inscriptions, and the records of a notorious (and unresolved) ancient lawsuit.

Want a piece of the fun?  Click here to start reading the SPQR Blues.

Truth be told, no one at the eCool Compound has read this book yet.  Though our many New Year’s resolutions include more time reading and less time surfing the web, we’ve not yet managed to break open Robert Clark’s Dark Water. Flood and Redemption in the City of Masterpieces. 

But we’re going to read it.  Soon.  In fact, there’s a kind of war going on in the Compound as we try to decide who gets first dibs on what is sure to be a great read.

So why are we recommending to you, faithful eCoolers, a book that we haven’t vetted?  It’s because one of our favorite book critics, Laura Browning, gave Dark Water a great review  in the latest issue of Contrary Magazine.

Dark Water, as Browning tells her readers, is about the flood that ravaged Florence in 1966, turning the city’s streets into rivers; its museums, houses, and churches into cold, dirty swimming pools; and its works of art into muddy messes that took decades to restore.  But it’s also about urban development of Florence over the centuries, those who suffered and died in the flood, the art that was ruined and damaged, and the angeli del fango or mud angels who descended on Florence from every part of the globe to help rescue the city and preserve its cultural heritage.