Italy Vacation (part 3)

Some random thoughts on modern Italian Culture:

- Italian TV and Radio are pretty lousy. Most of the TV shows are just American shows dubbed in Italian, and the radio plays more songs in English than in Italian. There were a few Italian pop songs that I enjoyed, but Italian rap is ridiculously terrible. (Shocking, I know)

- I heard before the trip that Europeans, and especially Italians, are more fashion conscious than Americans, and are therefore better dressed. I have to say that in Rome at least, this was not the case. What I saw of the local fashion is pretty much what I've seen in other large cities in the US, namely, people running the gamut from impeccable and expensive to sloppy and cheap. Except that almost everyone, including the guys, wear scarves.

- You can order beer at Italian McDonald's. Something about that just seems wrong. (And it IS a Royal with cheese, not a quarter-pounder...)

- There is almost no litter on the streets of Rome, but plenty of dog shit. I have no idea what conclusions to draw from that, I just thought it was odd.

- There are illegal street vendors all over Rome, especially around major tourist attractions. Every once in a while, you will see 8 or 9 street vendors running down the street, followed 30 seconds later a Carabinieri (Italian police) slowly patrolling the area . As our tourguide pointed out (we were in the Colosseum when this happened), it would be pretty easy to prevent the vendors from setting up shop at the tourist attractions. All it would take is a single cop stationed at the entrance. But it seems that both the Carabinieri and the vendors enjoy the cat-and-mouse game. The vendors set-up, the cops arrive, the vendors scurry away, the cops leave, and the vendors set-up shop again. The vendors all seem to know each other, and run away from the police at a very easy pace, laughing and telling jokes to each other. This cycle repeats at least 10 times a day.

-I felt very safe walking around, even at night. I'm sure that Rome has as much crime as the next city, but even walking around the older parts of the city, I was more worried about getting run-over than I was about getting mugged. Maybe it's just me.

Ok, a few more quick hits on some sites.

The Spanish Steps. It's a bunch of steps. Built near the Spanish Embassy. I have no idea why this ever got famous.

Trevi Fountain. It's a big fountain. Throw a coin in it. That's about it.

Borghese Gardens. This is actually kind-of a neat place. It's more of a public park than a garden, with large open fields and paved walkways for bike riding or jogging. It reminded me of Central Park in New York. (I've never been to NYC, so how this happened is a mystery, but it happened.)

The Pantheon. It's one of the oldest buildings in Rome (and that's saying something!), and yet it is also one of the best preserved. It's a large, circular building with a dome on top,The large dome has a hole in the center, called an oculus, that is wide open. Meaning that when it rains, it rains in the center of the building as well. (The floor around the center slopes to a drain..) This leaves the center wide open, pushing the tombs and statues and paintings to the outer wall. The effect this creates is kind-of odd, but kind-of cool at the same time.