Rome

The reason they couldn't get it built in a day is that the whole danged thing is made of brick! I always assumed Rome would be marble or some some such thing. But no, it's bricks. Bazillions of 'em.

I'm posting backwards. We went to Rome in late May, then Tuscany in June. (I actually started this post 6 weeks ago.) It looks like we're crazy mad about Italy all of a sudden, but it just kinda happened. We had already planned the Tuscany trip when one of Rita's brothers wrote to say he had business in Rome and asked if we'd like to meet him there, so we went to Italy twice in 3 weeks.

If you're interested in seeing Roman bricks and some other stuff, you can click on our Roman holiday picture book.

Good Belgian music

Dani Klein. Take a listen to this from Vaya Con Dios, which was her main vehicle for a decade or so. One morning going to work, we heard "He's Just a Friend of Mine," and I was instantly hooked.

And remember: stealing music is a crime.

I may never eat feta again

As regular readers will know, one of our favorite things about being in an international community is the different foods you can get. Today Sarah and I found another: manouri. It's a Greek cheese, packaged in a block like feta. Like feta, it's a sheep's milk cheese; and like feta, it's crumbly (at least I guess that's the way your supposed to eat it). It's also got its own protected appellation like feta…and champagne. The taste, though, is subtly but distinctly different. Think of sweet, less salty feta and you're about there.

We also found a frying cheese, like that stuff that's all the rage in certain NPR-listening circles in the US.

Italy pix

It's kinda weird that we wound up going to Italy twice in less than a month, since it took us so long to get around to going the first time. If you're interested in seeing pictures of our trip to Tuscany, they're here.

Pessimists aren't always wrong

As someone who's basically pretty optimistic, I often find it hard to understand pessimists. This helps. It's an excerpt from a June 2009 Atlantic Monthly article by Joshua Wolf Shenk entitled "What Makes Us Happy?"

"For 30 years, Denmark has topped international happiness surveys. But Danes are hardly a sanguine bunch. Ask an American how it’s going, and you will usually hear 'Really good.' Ask a Dane, and you will hear 'Det kunne være værre (It could be worse).' 'Danes have consistently low (and indubitably realistic) expectations for the year to come,' a team of Danish scholars concluded. 'Year after year they are pleasantly surprised to find that not everything is getting more rotten in the state of Denmark.'” 

Belgian ragtop

Now that the weather has turned nice, I've noticed several barges cruising with "the top down." The first time I saw this trick, I thought the captain and his wife were sitting on top of the wheelhouse. Mais non, the roof folds back and the sides lower so that you can sail along in a canal-going convertible. The old salt was even driving with one hand, the other arm draped over his gal's shoulder. (I didn't look to see if he was trying to cop a feel.) I suppose if you don't have Shoney's to cruise, but you do have a canal, you take what you can get. 

Poppies

I've grown quite fond of poppies, even though we don't live in Flanders fields. This shot was taken on the approach to the catacombs of St. Callisto on the Appian Way south of Rome. The site is administered by Mickey's order, the Salesians of Don Bosco. Or is it the Sicilians of Don Corleone?