Wild Postcards

This card came in a couple of weeks ago from Francesco.  I hadn’t had a chance to post it yet but, since I had such high praises for Naples yesterday, I didn’t want to give Rome short shrift.  But mostly I just wanted to post this clip from Roman Holiday.  Gregory Peck will tell you all about La Bocca della Verità so I don’t have to.  All you need to know is that Audrey Hepburn has escaped from her life in captivity as a princess, and thinks she’s pulling the wool over Gregory Peck’s eyes, while he has kept hidden the fact that he’s a reporter who has seen through her disguise:

It’s been said that his little joke was unscripted and that her reactions were absolutely genuine; either way, I’m glad this scene made it into the move.

This card came in a couple of weeks ago from Francesco.  I hadn’t had a chance to post it yet but, since I had such high praises for Naples yesterday, I didn’t want to give Rome short shrift.  But mostly I just wanted to post this clip from Roman Holiday.  Gregory Peck will tell you [...]

Marco was kind enough to send me two beautiful cards from Naples, Italy, so I thought I’d use them to inaugurate a new feature called Two for Tuesday.  Really it’s just a way to remove the guilt from skipping a day here and there, like I did last Saturday.  First off, a panorama of the city:

This card attempts the same description in Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, and Chinese; the English description reads “Foreshortening panoramic street Partenope and Saint Lucy”.  Looks like somebody’s Babel Fish is playing tricks on them; I believe that the correct English translation is “panoramic view of Via Partenope and Santa Lucia”.

The Russian translation is even worse; it reads “Foreshortening panoramic улица Partenope и Святой Lucy”.  German is probably the most accurate; however, I can’t speak to the Chinese version.  Nevertheless, the view is stunning; it’s a great oversized postcard.  I don’t think we could get away with these colors in the US; our architecture isn’t suited for it.  But here it’s gorgeous.

The second card shows the Via San Gregorio Armeno (“Saint Gregory of Armenia Street”), also in Naples, where — well, I’ll let Marco explain: “This postcard shows the famous street of the Nativity scene makers. On this street, many handcraftsmen create true masterpieces of miniature, to decorate the Neapolitan Crib (presepe in Italian). Most shops are open all year, but a good period to visit the street is in September – November, when all the handcraftsmen start to prepare their shops for the busy Christmas time. During Christmas time, more than half a million tourists come to see the shops with the original miniature figurines, and the shops are especially busy.”  I couldn’t have said it better myself.

In case you don’t already think Marco is awesome, he also found three age-appropriate cards for each of the grandsons, and tied up each group with a personalized gold ribbon.  He also sent the envelope with a number of interesting Italian stamps, which came all the way from Italy without being cancelled.

It turns out that Marco is a great fan of all things American, especially New York City.  I sent Marco a similar number of cards, trying to find as many as I could that were as uniquely American as possible, including an NYC postcard that I hope he will find very dear.

Marco was kind enough to send me two beautiful cards from Naples, Italy, so I thought I’d use them to inaugurate a new feature called Two for Tuesday.  Really it’s just a way to remove the guilt from skipping a day here and there, like I did last Saturday.  First off, a panorama of the [...]