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Archive for January, 2008

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The Italian Government Fell on Thursday

Saturday, January 26th, 2008

But given the Italy’s usual political instability, I imagine that a lot of travelers can claim to have witnessed something similar.

Sadly, there are no riots in the streets or other displays of anarchy that would have taken place if this had happened in any of the other countries I’ve visited on this trip. Oh well.

Posted in Italy, RTW 07/08 | No Comments »

Ringing in the New Year in Rome

Saturday, January 5th, 2008

Is this post a little late? Ok, maybe it is, but December 31, 2007 in Rome definitely needs to be remembered.

First, to place the event in context, let’s go back to December 27, 2007 or so. That would be around the time that one of my Italian neighbors decided to begin his nightly launch of full-sized-Fourth-of-July-in-DC-worthy fireworks from his rooftop, crowded urban neighborhood be damned. All of them resulted in rattled windows and huge blasts of color across the sky; when I first heard them, I thought bombs had gone off.

In the home of frothing personal injury lawyers, otherwise known as America, I’m sure that the police would have been called out to a similar scene right away. Not so in Rome.

Now flash-forward to 11PM on December 31st. Matteo and I decided to go to Piazza di Popolo, a beautiful square in the center of Rome filled with priceless statues, twin Baroque churches housing paintings by Caravaggio, and even a hieroglyphic-adorned obelisk carried out of ancient Egypt by the Romans. When we arrived, we found a huge crowd of jubilant Italians and vacationing foreigners of all ages in a ring around the square as well as on the obelisk’s platform in the center. But few people were in the square itself. Why? Because a fireworks war was underway!

Being young adventurers, Matteo and I decided to take a risk and run to the center to be with other crazy souls. Dodging the fireworks being tossed across the piazza, which exploded just next to statues that would be protected in climate-controlled glass cases anywhere outside of Western Europe, we entered the center around 11:57PM, ready for the countdown. But everyone was screaming so loudly, spraying bottles of champagne that had been purchased from smart vendors in the piazza, that we figured our watch was late, shrugged, and yelled Happy New Year to one another. Around 12:03AM, a group nearby decided to count down to the New Year, or possibly replay a moment from the old year, and I stumbled along with them in Italian. (Counting from 1 to 10 in Italian isn’t a problem for me, but I’m still a little slow from 10 to 1.) Our countdown was interrupted by more fireworks exploding in trash cans, so who knows if we actually did it at the right time or not. In the meanwhile, the few men and women from Rome’s polizia who were actually there to witness the madness celebrated alongside the crowd.

So, amid the anarchy, I rang in 2008 (and, thankfully, emerged with my body intact). I hope this year turns out to be as exciting as 2007!

Posted in Italy, RTW 07/08 | 2 Comments »

Happy New Year and Merry Photo-Browsing!

Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
At long last, I've gotten my act together on the photo front. Lesson learned: when you're on a round-the-world trip, upload photos as you take them. My photos from Malaysia, India, Kenya, and Tanzania can be seen at http://flickr.com/photos/dptrphotos/. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in Italy, RTW 07/08 | No Comments »