Yes, Virgil, there is an REI in Manhattan, which we encountered during our Little Italy walk...
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| In the Puck building, Lafayette St., SoHo |
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| Probably safe from the rising seas...for now |
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| The building once housed a sizeable printer/publisher |
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| A few historical pix adorn the basement |
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| We're not the only people who collect old NFS and NPS signs... |
On September 21st, temporarily museum-ed out, we did the St. Gennaro Feast Day in Little Italy. It was simply the longest street party we have yet seen, a dozen or more (lots more) blocks along Mulberry St., pretty far down the island. 90% of it was food, and 90% of that was Italian food, which is certainly among our favorite cuisines. It was a Saturday, a beautiful day, the 98th edition of the Feast, and Mulberry St. was elbow-to-elbow most all the way.
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| As far as the eye can see... |
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| St. Gennaro Himself; patron saint of Naples and of Little Italy |
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| Among the many, many famous TV shows we have never seen |
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| Can't be a gangsta without your stogie |
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| Non-Italian stuff too, including the most expensive pasteis de nata yet encountered, including Covent Garden |
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| Super-fresh sugar cane juice (note machine)...childhood memories from Miami... |
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| Looking the other way, still as far as the eye can see |
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| Healthy treats...sugar-coated fruit |
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| Italiana |
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| A bit crowded |
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| State fair fare in addition to the Italiana; FWIW, I had a sausage sandwich with onions and peppers and a beer...all for just $25; Vicki had the funnel cake |
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| Italian pashminas |
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| Very famous, I was told |
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| At the saint's own booth; indulgences? |
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| Handy bowl for mixing your cheese and pasta |
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| We happen to know that in Big Italy this is not what you get when you ask for peperoni... |
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| Cross a boulevard and you have space-warped into Chinatown |
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| Street scene: the lady on the left is holding a printed catalog of items she can sell you...Apple phones, designer purses, luxury watches, etc., all at significantly deep discounts...the two tall guys are carrying armloads of "Apple" phones... |
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| No saints here, but they do have Dr. Sun Yat-Sen |
We've seen a great deal of Roman stuff over the years...the National Roman Museum in Rome, the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, Pompeii, most of the museums and sites in most of the places the Romans conquered in Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor...lots of it more than once. Just enter "roman" in the search box....The Met has an extensive Roman collection, but the pix below reflect just some things new to us and some curiosities.
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| Huge hall of sculptural antiquities, both Roman and Greek; the mosaic- like floor was hand-laid |
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| Thus |
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| Obligatory bust of Socrates...Roman copy...there must have been full factories manufacturing these...we have seen scores of them... |
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| Sarcophagus...saw scores of these in Turkey, some the size of small houses |
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| Etruscan chariot: two horse-power |
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| Mouse-shaped glass flask...Roman sense of humor...one supposes |
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| Now in the vast upstairs Greek and Roman Study Collection; arranged by nationality, era, genre... |
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| Helpful map...actually, a touch-screen on the wall where you can locate what's of interest, then key-in an item's inventory number and get its description, analysis, whatever...Roman, Greek, back through the neolithic and beyond, mostly smaller items in the glass cases; thousands of items...but, alas, no Gabinetto Segreto, as in Naples... |
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| Gold hairnet with medallion, Hellenistic, 2nd BCE |
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| Another gold ornament, with micro-chimes, 3rd BCE, Greek |
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| Golden arm bands, Greek, 3rd BCE |
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| New to us department: we have seen plenty of reconstructed Roman rooms, with original panting, but never this kind of architectural landscape...from the villa of P. Fannius Synistor, Boscotrecase, late Augustan, a bedroom... |
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| Use of shading, perspective that would have enlightened the Renaissance types a thousand or more years later...the villa was unearthed in about 1900CE; all done in true fresco, pigment applied to wet plaster |
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| Known to art historians as Second Style Greek painting...well worth the price of admission, we thought... |
