Monthly Archives: January 2008

Venice Carnival, 2.0

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Carnival: Masks in Venice

When the confetti starts a flying for Carnival in Venice today, organizers hope costumed party goers will make the folks at home jealous by posting photos, blog accounts and videos from the just-launched Wi-Fi network.

Getting that access, though, may be a typically Italian test of patience: buy a user ID in person (€5 euros daily access or €10 for10 days) from hotels (Luna Baglioni or Hotel Monaco e Gran Canal) or historic locales in Piazza San Marco (Caffè Florian, Caffè Quadri and Avena).

Once in La Serenissima’s Piazza San Marco, add your user ID and wait for an SMS password.

(The hassle can’t really be avoided, thanks to Italy’s terrorism laws). (To find Italian hotspots that may be without registration, try here or here).

Still, there may be another reason to sigh out of your Casanova mask: the best photos and videos (15 total) win Skype-compatible cell phones.

Strike a Pose: Italian Artist Model Protest

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Shadow pose Aspiring Michelangelos will have to hold the charcoal: artist models have put back on their clothes to protest working conditions. In a note sent to news agency ANSA, unions representing these workers decry the “precariousness” of these jobs.

Live artist models were once state employees but over the last eight years they’ve become freelance workers striking a pose on yearly contracts.

Traditionally a job for the young, broke and shameless, only in a country “founded on work” do professional posers expect a job for life.

The protest may be worth a few pics: a “performance” at Rome’s Sapienza University, in the square in front of the Faculty of Letters at 9:30 a.m., Jan. 17.

All (Virtual) Roads Lead to Rome

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Virtual Rome

The Via Flaminia once brought nobles and notables to their pleasure palaces outside Rome. Today, though, it’s covered in palazzi and clogged with buses and scooters, a virtual version of the road can be visited thanks to researchers who digitalized 4.45 million acres of terrain.

Hosted at the Museum of the Diocletian Baths, the virtual museum lets four visitors at a time take on avatars (and 3D glasses) for a stroll through ancient Rome. Sights include Livia’s palace, the Milvian Bridge on the Tiber River and infamous farmhouse Malborghetto.

With a cost of over $1.1 million, the project employed team of 20 made up of archaeologists, architects and tech experts.
There isn’t much to see online, yet, but not to worry: a Second Life community is soon to come.

Outdoor Amore? Italians Say “Si”

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Luna ParkingDespite protests, Italy’s first paid parking lot of love is open for business.

Luna Parking, in Bagnolo Cremasco about 25 miles southeast of Milan, lies on a state road known for a florid prostitution business and vicinity to night clubs.

It’s the latest in a series of al fresco havens for Italian lovers, many of whom stay at home well into their 30s. The first one opened back in 2003 in Leonardo’s birthplace, Vinci, as a free, well-lit place for nookie set up by the local government.The market is hot and heavy — outdoor passion in Italy can be risky business in more ways than one — but the idea has never caught on because Catholic officials protest vociferously every time someone tries to open one.

An entrepreneur was set to launch a lover’s lane complete with privacy stalls Valentine’s day 2007, but authorities shut him down over nebulous “building code issues” before anyone could even neck in a Lancia there.

This latest effort is by far is the most expensive and elaborate variation on the theme. It costs €10 (about $14.50) for 90 minutes in a private covered box — enough time to perfect maneuvers around the gear shift for most — plus there are bathrooms and even snack machines.

A group of locals, who were unable to prevent the contested grand opening, spent the last night of 2007 in a prayer vigil “to redress the damages of the sex trade.”