California Dreamin'?

I recently spent some time in California - a welcome return there after nearly 10 years' absence. We all have all these ideas of Californians...generally 'doin' the right thing' in terms of eating, exercise, GMOs, heck - even plastic surgery...but, in reality, it's a far different place than what the Kardashians would have you believe.

But what came as most shocking to me was the utter disregard for our natural resources and recycling. As someone who scrapes the coffee grounds out into a special bin rather than toss them down the drain or in the garbage, like most Europeans, I couldn't believe my eyes.

We've all gotten so used here in Europe to garbage bins calling for your plastic or aluminum or paper goods, that even though no one particularly follows those orders, we at least give it the old college try. In California, our picnic turned into one big garbage bag, tossed into the bin. Papers, bottles (galore...after all, they're Californians with their omnipresent water bottles not far behind), cans.  I was stunned.  I wondered if somewhere along the garbage line they didn't get separated and recycled elsewhere, but I doubt it. Food waste was in epic proportions.*  Kids' half-eaten bowls of cereals tossed carelessly out, along with the last four pieces of bread in the package, just because they 'look funny'. In restaurants, people left entire meals on their plates. So why don't they just serve them less?

Watching Californians' water consumption was a sight to behold, and I don't mean just with the goldfish bowls and aquariums everywhere. This is a state that just stated they have about one year left of water. I believe it. I witnessed people with all the behaviours above, and then some. Water running for 30 whole secs (just count 30 and see what I mean) just to rinse an apple or even just a tupperware lid; kids with 30 min daily - and sometimes twice-daily before & after sports) showering routines; people watering their lawns -- even just after a rare rainfall. A friend just posted on fb how her son insists on showering before soccer - isn't it cute? I tried to remind her they were in the midst of a draught - she said she compensated. Because saying No is *that* difficult? So much for the good of the community.

Certainly, I am always horrified to return to Rome to see the water from our nasoni fountains just pouring out onto the streets. I wonder if somehow it could be bottled and shipped to California.  Because they have a lot of fine, white teeth that will need brushing in the future. Just ask the Kardashians.

And for more on Food Waste and what we all can do about it...a good place to start is Tristram Stuart's TEDTalk and the website: feedbackglobal.org/food-waste-scandal/

Tons of travel tips for Italy

Friends who run a wonderful B&B - The Beehive - and apartment rental service Cross-Pollinate in Rome have been penning quite a few pointers on their blog for years.  It is filled with excellent tips for anyone coming to Rome, with a touch of user-friendly advice as given by their lovely daughters often featured in the videos.  I loved the quirky stuff so much, I thought I would bring you one as a guest post feature.  
This one is on how, exactly, to drink from the Nasoni (or Big Snout) Water Fountains of Rome just like a native.  They also provide another on shopping tips, or purchasing train tickets from Rome Termini Station (right near the Beehive) to Fiumicino - Leonardo Da Vinci airport.  You can even download on their home page an exceptional 'insider's guide' to all things Roman while there.  Their cross-pollinate blog posts are also filled with cool tips and neat stuff to make any trip that much more pleasurable.  So be sure to buzz over there sometime and check out what hoteliers Steve & Linda (& their girls) have to say.

I Nasoni - water fountains of Rome from Cross-Pollinate Travel on Vimeo

note: all live links are in grey above

Rome's Nose Jobs

While biding my time at Rome's ACEA Electrical Co. offices (just wait 'til you hear about that one!), I came across this incredible treasure map of Rome's Nasoni water fountains. And so, as a service to tourists and residents alike, currently melting in the unbearable summer heat, I thought I'd publish it here for you.
Why, in the face of EU fines they would ever actually provide the world with an actual map to their water-wasting ways is beyond me, but, maybe it's a nod to transparency. Of course, should officials descend on the ACEA fontanella, they'd find it was retrofitted with a tap. Why the dozens of others don't get them is beyond me. But, in reality, I wonder if it'd make a difference -- after all, the water's flowing beneath our feet anyway, no?




I also found their listing of the quality of Rome's water, which is better than bottled and the best thing in town...(but, they never come clean on the pipes which bring it into your home...)

Francesca Maggi's...Strange But True!

The Italian press got a big kick out of the fact that Cardinal Bertone, during a sermon at San Giovanni in Laterano, the third most important Basilica in Rome, quoted Woody Allen’s famous line, “God is dead, Marx is dead, and I’m not feeling so well myself.”
Frankly, I applaud any attempt by the clergy to appeal to their flock, and with humour no less; in a country where Latin Mass will soon assure that even more people are detached from the church.
But even I gotta admit that perhaps Cardinal Bertone should maybe have chosen a different person to quote from…I mean, with the pedophile scandal in America costing millions per year (in Italy, it generally goes unreported both by victims and the press), quoting an incestuous pedophile is, well…perhaps not so PC.
But, what to expect from the Vatican who took Cardinal Bernard Law, after being disgraced in Boston for covering pedophiles for decades, and ‘demoted’ him to run Rome’s second most important church, Santa Maria Maggiore?


According to the most excellent monthly news magazine, The Roman Forum, a public works councillor has estimated that it costs €4.3 M ($6.4M) per year to maintain Rome’s Nasoni water fountains. I imagine that cost, however, does not include the amount of money literally going down the drain in water itself. And with water prices up 27.7% since 2002, well…
But, the fact that someone is even starting to talk about the Nasoni is good news (although the EU has been talking about them since the ‘90s, fining Italy millions for this waste year after year).
Just think: if they just added off/on nozzles, we’d probably save enough between water, maintenance & fines to give IBM a new €58M website contract! (see previous blog entry about that scandal).


And finally, in a rare moment of Awesome Customer Service, the (German) Bosch Company, known for its high quality, replaced my car battery with just one email exchange to the powers that be, and with incredible professionalism on the part of the Customer Parts people throughout my little ordeal.
[Basically, the retailer where I had originally purchased the faulty battery told me in no uncertain terms: 
a) the warranty was only 6 mths (it was 2 yrs)
b) the faulty battery was actually the fault of my car (yeah, right) and 
c) they would send it in to Bosch and wait for an answer (over the 3 wk holiday closures) – and I’d have to simply sit tight and go without wheels during that time, as a sort of ‘punishment’ for causing them this distress. As it turns out, they sold me the wrong battery in the first place (but is that a surprise?).
The Bosch people even amazed themselves over their own response, stating well, “We’re not a very Customer Service – Driven country and we were glad to prove otherwise." (Had my true identity been revealed to them in a Clark Kent sort of way???).
They have earned a customer for life and I’ll even be taking my Honda there for servicing…(they even took the time to give me a personal introduction...something worth its weight in gold in Italy).
Now, if the rest of the country would just catch on…

Italy's Fountains: Spilling out money

Rome’s former Mayor Veltroni announced during his watch a few years back that the City of the Future will be more Green. This is exciting news. In fact, just two years prior, Rome was named the “Most Green City” in Europe. And it deserves it. There are so many parks and public spaces, people don’t even realize it. Nearly every corner has a quiet place where the elderly go with their little grandchildren, usually filled with sculptures, ponds, playgrounds and even dog fountains now and again. It's wonderful.
But, I guess with all this greenery, the Greens have sort of sat back and relaxed. More precisely, those politicians representing the Green Party. All I know is that they’ve been sitting pretty quietly on fairly major ‘green’ issues which affect us Romans (or rather, yours truly in specific).

But, where were the ‘greens’ when the greenery had to go? I didn’t hear a word when they cut down dead or dying trees, leaving 2 ft. high stumps in their wake, never to be replaced. Or, when they brought down all of the amazing trees lining one of the most beautiful streets of Rome, just off the Via Veneto. Walking down that street made you feel like you were in Paris. And maybe that’s why they had to go. They cited, ‘Security Reasons’. From my point of view, it looked more like they needed to make way for parking spots and a bus lane rather than snipers hiding out in trees. Nonetheless, seeing that the U.S. Embassy is right nearby, well, I knew one way or another the Americans would be blamed for this disaster too.

It goes unreported, but those wonderful water fountains with the long snouts (charmingly called the ‘nasoni’) spout water day and night. And while my dog is most certainly grateful to receive some cold clean water in his lifetime, the amount of money going literally down the drain is incomprehensible. What’s even more unbelievable is the fact that all it would take to stop the flow is a little spout with a turning mechanism. To think of the amount of bribes one could garnish from fitting these sprouts across the city, well, it’s all the more unthinkable that it hasn’t happened yet.

What makes this situation even more preposterous is that Italy is consistently levied steep fines from the European Union precisely for their --errr turning up their noses at the problem. The water problem, cited repeatedly in the documents coming out of Brussels, costs the taxpayers billions. And yet, no greens pipe up (pun very much intended) on the issue.

They say that our next wars will be over water. One of these days, I’ll bet we’ll see an astute Italian entrepreneur team up with the Saudis and just start bottling and shipping the free (and exceptionally clean) water coming out of the nasoni before that happens. Maybe they’ll even garner the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.