Weissensee, Austria

A pleasant and recent weekend in nearby Weissensee, Austria (160 kms from Udine).

Interesting: in 15 years of driving a car in Rome, not ONCE was I ever stopped. In close to 21 years of driving in the entire country, I’ve only been stopped twice. I think Weissensee’s entire population must be around 1,000 people (or less). Well, Saturday night we went out for dinner. We then went to get the car and go for a short drive in town. As I came around the corner, there was the “Polizei” car which stopped me for a spot-check! Organized those Austrians… (all pics by M. Rimati).

What an insult to the Three Stooges!

In nearly 20 years that I’ve been reading The Economist, I can’t recall once that the fine British magazine has made fun of and/or insulted Canadian leaders as much as they’ve so far done with their Italian counterparts.

An article from the May 8^th, 2010 edition on Canada’s economy: “The least-bad-rich-world economy. The charms of Canada. Good policies, good behaviour and good fortune: if only others could be as lucky”. VERY rarely do they say the same thing of one of the world’s most corrupt countries, Italy that is!

Now take a look at the picture in the May 15^th, 2010 edition of the same magazine. It shows, from left to right, the following Italian politicians: Gianfranco Fini, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the Northern League leader Umberto Bossi. Nice caption underneath, eh (and what an insult to the famous Three Stooges too)!