It’s Italy Day here on this back porch of mine:
…and here are some fine Italian things.
First up, a matched pair of Rizzini shotguns:
Next up, a 1955 Fiat 8V, styled by Zagato:
…and a 1967 Fiat 2400 Dino Spider:
Speaking of fine Italian models of yore, it’s about time we looked at Sophia again:
…and her younger compatriot, Monica Bellucci:
And speaking of yummy:
Where could one buy such things? Well, in Milan, for instance:
That’s all Italian style, folks, and it’s pretty much unbeatable.
Wow.
I am not a man given to frippery and fashion. I wear carhartts and boots. My everyday chit kickers are Redwing moc toes, and my good boots are $700.00 hand made engineers but they can and will work too. Shoes (until today) were for fops and effeminate nancy boys.
But…
Even I would look good in those…
Yes, you could look good, but you need a gold dress to go with the 4 inch heels!
Oh! Wait… you meant the brown brogues?
An MGB-GT was my first desire so when I joined the army and got that tasty bonus what’d I get? A ’72 Chevelle Malibu wagon that someone had stuffed a 454 with a Hurst 4speed into. 4 on the floor in a wagon… Gads that thing scared the hell out of me. Hit 80 or so and the front end would float. Taught me about that whole not wanting to die thing.
I definitely prefer Sophia. That whole poutier than thou look has never done anything for me. And she owes it all to pasta, what’s not to love.
On another note, lost my wife of 30 years coupla weeks ago to liver failure, and I’m the one that drinks… Kind of putting the lie to the strong silent cavalry noncom thing I’ve cultivated over the years. Find myself breaking down at random times. Does it simmer down over time? Haven’t done it in front of a customer yet. Family wants me to sell the house and move to OKC where I work. Do that and it’s even money I don’t see the grandkids again…
And this is my once every 5 years or so encouragement to have you write a period piece from either the first or second Boer war. Something where Kitchener gets trampled to death by the Wildebeest migration would do the trick. I think you could do it justice. Ya bloody kaffir.
Drop me a note if you want to talk. Anytime.
Appreciate it, may take you up on it.
I can only offer my sincere condolences and say, from personal experience –
It gets better, but it does take time.
The sun will shine again, I promise you !
I guess those guns are being sold to fund a wedding
https://friskypartridge.com/products/shotgun-wedding-cl126
I spent a couple of weeks in Italy in 2019. It’s a fabulous place, but God almighty the place is full of thieves, both the street kind and the official kind. Even the Avis crew decided to put a hundred Euro charge on our rental bill for no stated reason, which we had to dispute with our card company.
Anybody who goes there should google for the common street scam tricks, pick pockets etc. And also read about validating bus and train tickets before riding. A ticket that isn’t validated is the same as no ticket and will result in a hefty fine. Don’t ask how I know.
As for driving…you take your life in your hands.
The food, wine, scenery…everything else is wonderful.
Nice timing on this post, wife and I arrived at an Air B’nB condo in Florence last night at midnight after a 20 hour marathon trip from Western Canada via Amsterdam. I’m sitting here looking into a flowery courtyard drinking short, strong espressos and planning lunch, life is perfect.
All the uproar about European Vaxx Passports is pure bullshit. I spent several hundred dollars and many hours getting the test and vaxx paperwork we were supposed to get, only to have the Dutch border guard wave them away without looking at them, with that finger-flicking gesture of contempt the Euros do so well. The Italian border guards at Florence airport were non-existent, having a smoke and Grappa no doubt, it was 11 PM after all and surely they were not expected to actually work at such an ungodly hour. We just walked in.
Side note: I wish we had left a day later, because we missed this back home: https://thefederalistpapers.org/us/civil-disobedience-canada-people-rebel-vaccine-mandates-picnics-streets
I hate you.
I know you’re not into comic-book movies, but not too long ago I saw Ms Bellucci as Aunt May in one of the Spiderman movies, and she was incredibly toothsome. Now I read Spiderman as a youth, and Aunt May was an OLD woman, grey hair in a bun, made cookies, etc. Now she’s a major babe (and Monica is only a year younger than I am, so I feel no guilt about saying so). I think the only other movie I saw her in was My Cousin Vinny, and having grown up in Staten Island NYC I wouldn’t have gone there.
I do wonder about the changes in how people age now vs the past. I have a picture of my grandfather, don’t know how old he was when it was taken but he died in his early 60s so he can’t be more than a couple years older than I am right now (58). He looks very similar age-wise to my father-in-law’s age shortly before HE died, at 86. Granted, he lived a hard life (started off cleaning toilets at a ship yard as a teen, retired as carpenter’s foreman at the same ship yard, even had my mother launch a ship, and found it on Wiki including her name as Christening it).
Mark D
I’ve seen the pics of my grandfather a week or so before he died at age 65/66. His son, my father, doesn’t look much older at 85. I look about the same as my mother did at this age (60), but both my grandmothers looked a lot older at that same point.
At this rate we’ll all die looking much younger and feeling much older than we are, based on how my joints and my kids’ joints are deteriorating…