making rainbows and answering age-old questions

How's that for a lofty post goal?

Let's start with rainbows.

It is often said that if you're coming to Italy and want to blend in, you can't go wrong if you bring a lot of black clothes. Are Italians afraid of color?

In clothes, perhaps, but I present to you this morning's vehicle rainbow in the piazza:







There is actually a woman who has a purple car, but she must have gone out this morning.

The nerve!

Now if the rest of you will pardon me for a moment, I have some things to say to two people who found my blog while searching for answers that weren't previously to be found here:

(1) To GoogleIsOurFriend#1: The Parthenon is Athens was built between 448-432 B.C. The Pantheon in Rome, if that's per chance what you meant, was built from 118-126 A.D. Rome's Coliseum was built between 70-82 A.D. That would make the Parthenon the oldest, followed by the Coliseum, and then the Pantheon.

Bravo for your interest in ancient history (or the fact that some teacher somewhere made you find this)!

(2) To GoogleIsOurFriend#2: I can't imagine that there would be particular negative side effects (please note that the proper spelling is with an "e") to smoking basil leaves other than the usual, general smoking ones, but I'm certainly no doctor so don't take this as medical advice.

To be clear, I'm against smoking of all kinds, but I noticed you're in California where you can buy medicinal marijuana. Maybe that's an easier and more well-tested route? And call me an Italian herb purist, but I'm thinking the basil might just be of better use in a caprese salad or a nice pesto. But I don't judge.

Bravo for your ingenuity!

Let it never be said that I don't support my inadvertent readers and their quests for knowledge.