Tante Belle Cose - June08

Actually, tantissime since I had such a fabulous 10 days traveling around S. Italy with friends. From Agropoli to Tropea, everything was more than exceptional: the hospitality, the food, the scenery. Paestum didn't disappoint (those temples are what brought me to Italy in the first place - never mind they're Greek). Even the people in the snooty hotel in Sorrento weren’t snooty. Why people even tolerate Portofino is beyond me. Come to Tropea! They still appreciate the yankee dollar! Incredibly, they even let us take out the peddle boats during lunch hour.

The only 'nota stonata', which went noticed by all (well, it was hard to miss), was the number of absolutely enormous German fraus sunning themselves in bikinis.

In Sorrento, I saw signs posted that the Garbage Collection will now be door to door - versus - the dumpster. This is terrific for two reasons: those dumpsters are huge eyesores (not unlike the beach bums above), and nobody uses them properly anyway. And, with door to door, they can finally fine the lazy ones for not recycling.

Now, to get them to pay up, well, that's another story.

In Venice, the govt found a way to clear the streets of all the illegal street vendors: citing security, no one is allowed to carry huge bags of ‘stuff’ along the streets. After all, the vendors have scouts so that when given the signal, they spring into action, pulling the sidewalks up along with their wares in a matter of seconds, and dashing, knocking down anyone in their path.

Anyone who has ever witnessed this feat can attest that they should be admitted as a sport in the Hong Kong Olympics.

While in Capri, they reopened a beautiful path put in by the founder of Krupp, who at the time, vowed to never return due to his treatment by the locals.

Those same locals are now eating the Capri equivalent of crow (probably seagulls), seeing what a beautiful patrimony he had left them.