Ho letto "Un' estate al mare"

Finally I have read my first book in Italian that were not for kids or specially made for foreigners. I don't know if its a great victory, but it feels like a milestone been have passed. And that's nice. As I mentioned yesterday, its not great literature, but I was entertained, even if I am a bit afraid that the story that I understood was also partly from my own imagination, and not from a complete understanding.

Either way I have been forced to read Italian for some time now, since I have to study and learn a large pile of specifications written in Italian at work.





Now the next "reading" goal is to read a Umberto Eco book, which is said to be very high level Italian. And also mostly written in grammatical time, which is not really used in the spoken language anymore. But I think I will take a few "lower level" books first.

Tomorrow its "Festa della liberazione" liberation day, and therefore a holiday. It marks the day when "Nazi occupation army leaves Northern Italy after a general partisan insurrection by the Italian resistance movement."(link)

Right now, I just heard somebody jam their breaks, and people starting to shout down on the street.. So I better go and look out the window.

The picture above has nothing to do with any of it, just one I took passing the Colosseum in a bus the other day.

Breakfast of Champions

Today, Sara had to get up early, to go to work. While it was hard to get up so early, and to let her leave so fast, it was nice to go down to our local bar to drink a coffee and hang out a bit.




And then I read a bit in my Italian book, which I have almost finished now. First book for grownups I have read in Italian, and I am pretty proud of it. The only thing that bothers me a bit is that I think this book is hilarious, sad and negative at places, but many places hilarious, while the reviewers says it's just a very negative and sentimental book. So do I really understand ?!?. who knows? But I am 20 pages away from finishing it, and that's cool.

The bosses, the obendient and bad

Last night, Thor, the great God of Thunder, has ridden in the skies of Rome all night... Therefore our fearless hunting dog came and wake us up on several occasions during the night, to tell us that he needed somebody to put his blanket back on him. And maybe protect him a little bit too. So when the alarm clock rang this morning, the poor dog was exhausted! He looked so tired that not even cheese would make him get up...and so did we (but I, on the other hand, knew very well how to open the fridge and I got up too eat a bit) !!! :)

Anyway, not being completely at home with my new first language, my ability to understand and speak is really dependent on me being rested... it is quite a strange experience, to have your ability to communicate depending on the amount of sleep you get! It can be an evil circle, cause its not only my ability to talk, its also my comprehension that decreases, which makes the efforts to talk with people even harder, and more troublesome, and there by more tiring ... So days when I feel a bit tired, I usually hide myself behind my (according to my colleagues) over dimensioned headphones, and listen to music, while I try to concentrate on work.

But this morning, at some point, I ventured a break at the coffee machine where. Suddenly one of the accountants entered the coffee cupboard (its a room, but its size, makes me refuse to call it a room) and said "alle undici c'è la riunione "delle delinquente"... I listened and when she left I asked one of the others why we had meetings here today with the "delinquente" (which means "the bad" or "law breakers") saying "Ma perchè c'è questa riunione, con "le diligente" (where I was trying to ask about the criminals, but in fact I actually asked why we have a meeting with the "obedient" = diligente), she responds "non le diligente, ma i dirigenti" (for me
"diligente" and "dirigenti" sounds the same), which I then understood as the obedient. Then I got confused... 'cause the obedients?!? Shouldn't I be among the obedients, that makes things on time, and are structured... so I asked if was also for me, and then again "no no, solo per i diligente" (no no, only for the "obedients", I understood)... "but am I really that bad at work, that they are starting to leave me out of meetings?", I thought... especially when she added "Tu non sei diligente" (you are not obedient, but she actually said "dirigente").

When I asked, why she didn't think I was obedient, and then she understood that I was not understanding anything at all, and finally said, "The Bosses (dirigenti) have meeting", smiled sweetly, and probably decided that she will never understand these strange Danes.

Have a nice weekend.

Biking in Rome?

Many people wants to bike, even on holidays. In Rome there has been some efforts to make it possible. You will see places where there suddenly are placed 50 meters of bike lanes on the side of the road, but nothing really connected. But even if not all is connected yet, there are several "trails" that can be followed.

This page is dedicated to the bicycles in Rome (italian)(link). Otherwise the map can be downloaded directly following this (link)

So go biking, but remember it gets quite hot during the summer, so this activity is probably better done, during spring or autumn. I plan to go and try one or two of them.

I will be keeping you posted.

psycho darwf says "im not that small"

Berlusconi announces that there is no reason to call him a drawf, since "Im taller than Sarkozy and Putin, the same hight as Prodi".

Berlusconi: 1.71 meter

Lunch at the vatican

These days, it is spring in Rome ( as I have probably bored most of you with already), and most of the tourists haven't realized it yet. So the line at the Peters church is still only marginally longer than everything.



Having been in Denmark not long ago, I still have some rugbrød in the freezer I can take a piece of, once in a while.

There is something special about the rugbrød you can buy at Lagkagehuset in Christianshavn in Copenhagen, and when you combine it with some pecorino, you have a feast.


So its only appropriate to go down to the Vatican, sit in front of the Peters Church and eat the feast.

Long live the psycho dwarf.

Congratulations to the mafia, the tax evaders, the enterprise business men, car owners, and the people that likes to take auto campers to Sicily.

Condolences to the environment, the social state, the precari (the employees with a time determined contract), the judges and the needy, which includes the public transportation.

Berlusconi has worn again, for the 3rd time the Italian people have put their heads under their arms, and believed if they are close to the rich, maybe the gold rains a bit on them. For two periods this hasn’t happened, so chances are that this will be exactly the same as the previous to times Berlusconi made a mockery of this confused country.

What’s even worse, is that it’s a much more extreme Berlusconi which has risen to power this time, gone is the christian democrats, which finally had enough, and instead the government which Berlusconi can present is a mixture of liberals (old fortza Italian), reformatory facists (National Alliance), and the north Italian liberation front (Lega Nord). The National Alliance, lead by Fini, wants a strong unified Italy, whereas Bossi, the leader of Lega Nord, has threatened with an armed revolt if Italy isn’t turned into a taxation federation where each part of Italy handles its own taxes, to allow northern of Italy to keep its tax money (even if half its workforce arrives from the south or as immigrants. The same immigrants as they want out). On the positive site, the opposition leaded by Walter Veltroni, seems to have the largest party in Italy, “Partito Democratico”, which hopefully will present a good counterweight against the extreme government.

So now that Berlusconi is back, and as the previous times he will probably spend most of his time making laws that will evade him and his friends from being convicted of various crimes. While the social problems, pretty much was left alone, but now he is able to keep his 3 nationwide television channels and earn even more money. Berlusconi solved his conflicts of interest of being a business man and a politician by declaring that it didn’t exist, tax evaders got the opportunity to evade, by paying a small fine. People with black money abroad got safe passage.

Now the problems are on the other hand so big, that he cannot just let it sail, because the ship is going down, and fast. But first he will probably start a war against the judges which have tried to put him to justice for years, and the journalists which put critical voices against him. Last time most of the journalists that dared to say anything critical was fired, and now he wants the judges to have a mental examination, which opens up for corrupt people to remove judges which could be problems.

So Italy, has shot itself in the foot... but if it wants to go to the hospital, they will probably only find a bridge to Sicily, wont be able to take a bus, or a train. But only the car without any taxes on.

Mum, this is where I go and walk our dog

This post is mostly for my mum. Often when I am out walking our dog, I call home and for some reason it's always my mum that picks up when I am in this villa. And she always asks where I am, and how does it look.




Its one of the less tended of the villas of Rome, and its pretty much a mess all around, but its possible to let your dog loose and get a bit away from the stress of rest of Rome.




There is this tree trunk in the furthest end of the villa, where you sit can read the newspaper, and Theo can run around and pee on things. Which is an important job, even for an old dog.

The Horror, The Horror

The first exit polls predicts that the psycho dwarf is winning.

Oops, does the Mafia support me? (Berlusconi Stories V)

In what seems as a nasty attempt to get the Mafia to vote for Berlusconi, "Mafia connection" convicted key ally Marcello dell'Utri has made a promise to "rectify" the italian history books (which he accused as being leftist) and include the right wing heroes of Italy. On these list of "heroes" is the now dead Vittorio Mangano, former stable master at the Berlosconi estate in Milan, and convicted of a Mafia-linked murder

The judge (when convicting Mangano) said that Mangano had worked as a link between the Cosa Nostra (Mafia) and the industries in north Italy.

Marcello dell'Utri is also convicted of having mafia connections, but he is still waiting for the appeal case to come through (and has been waiting since 2004). In the mean time, even if the sentence is 9 years of prison, he remains a senator and runs a network of Forza Italia clubs, as well as serving as one of Mr Berlusconi’s closest advisers.

Berlusconi has avoided the subject of the mafia, but did use some of the same rhetorics when commenting on magistrates who have investigated him 11 times for alleged corruption. He suggested that they were left wing, and needed "regular mental health checks".

I wonder... (Berlusconi story IV)

The election is now happening, and guess what? It looks like the psycho dwarf (aka Berlusconi) is going to win.
In the end of the 80's Italy had a economic growth so big, that it became the 3rd largest economy in Europe. When the European union was created, Italy's prime minister Andreotti was one of the main characters behind it.
Today, however, this is nothing more than a memory. Italians are currently trying to overcome the large blow to their pride when it came out that the Spanish economy was now better than their own. This was hard to swallow, since the Italians always considered Spanish development to be many years behind the one of Italy.
From being among the top in Brussels, it has now been many years since anyone listened to what people from Rome say. Last time Italy held the EU presidency(2003), it ended in a catastrophe. At the European summit that year, where the new European union treaty should have been negotiated, Berlusconi started out with saying that he would actually rather talk about "football and women". which made most of the other country leaders leaving the table, shaking their heads.

So now, when the Italians are going to the urns, it is quite surprising that they are actually going to vote for him again. Luckily for the EU, the return of the psycho dwarf will not do much, since Italy is long gone from the central administration of EU. But more unsettling is the fact that the Italians apparently reward politicians which avoid making the reforms which the Italian economy is screaming for. The - now former - Premier, Prodi, tried by closing some of the holes in the tax laws, but even these small steps made him so unpopular that his own successor, Veltroni, had to distance himself from them.

So while the EU commission has given several warnings to Italy to clean up its messy economy, Berlusconi is still promising to make extensive traffic projects, among others a bridge to Sicily. Italy currently has a public debt of such size, that every Italian would have to pay 1,200 euro a year, just in interest.

So, to make it short, what the hell are the Italians thinking about when they vote for him again?

Most of this post is taken (and translated) from an article found in a Danish newspaper "Berlingske Tidende" (link) plus my own comments, and rewrites;-)

Getting dressed

Not for a weeding, not for a baptism, not even for a birthday, only for a swim. But going for a swim under the surface requires some equipment, and since I am (hopefully) going to finish the theoretical part of my diving course next week I have to get the equipment.

Sara came and picked me up, on the way I played the American tourist and took some photos of things we passed in Rome.

Well actually I took out my camera mainly to put this poster on the blog:



This poster got my vote for being the most interesting poster so far, in the election campaign for major of Rome. The poster says "Rome is a jungle. - vote for Tarzan". I wonder what Disney says about it. I have no idea if Tarzan is in fact one to vote for, but the poster is cool.

Driving on we saw this house, with lots of flowers illustrating the level of spring here:



Then I was warm so this is mainly a picture of the pedestrian who got the auto focus of my camera, instead of the entrance to the biggest cemetery in Rome.



Or maybe this was actually the entrance... and the other one, something else (?!?)



here are some more balconies with flowers, it was very pretty, but I was slow, so you can't see much from this angle.



And finally whats a shopping trip without showing the catch.



All of my new equipment home in the sofa, trying to figure out what to do with itself.

It is a bit strange to buy this kind of things, because honestly its not that comfortable to wear the suit, or the flippers for that sake. but if you can get in it you just have to trust that it will adjust when it gets into the water. As the saying goes "just add water".

Life in the fast lane

So, there is still life here! I have been very busy being busy. It feels like I had a winter depression, been doing nothing but working, taking my diving certificate, learning a new programming language, learning Italian, going to Denmark, and well, I slept a bit too, but all the while feeling tired without having any reason for it...

And then suddenly one day, we are sitting outside eating ice cream, my autumn jacket is getting too hot to wear, even in the shade. The belly of a pregnant coworker stretch further out than her tits (as another colleague comes and tells me.) I'm reading technical standards in Italian and writing emails - almost in Italian. I still get replies with corrections but they have now moved down in the P.S. section after the actual answer (in the beginning, there was only the correction, never an actual answer). On Monday I have to take the theoretical exam for my open water diving certificate. This came as a huge shock to me. The thought of the exam has been nothing but a distant, nagging, guilty feeling for so long that the reminder almost scared me. I received a message from my instructor with a date.

We changed to summer time, so now there is actually light when I get out of the office. Isn't it grand? Hope its also spring where ever you are. I will go home and look for my summer t-shirts