London.

London.

It's almost e-day.

The London Eye.

Richmond Park, London, Boxing Day.

Milan.
Back in a week or so. In the meantime go read EUROTRASH. Merry Christmas!

Links to keep you busy:

But do they accept euros?

Laura got a new camera.

People posting photos of bridges. (Big page.)

Chaque jour une image. See this and this.

Here's another French photo-a-day site that has links to an army of photo-a-day sites. Get lost.

Trams, Milan.
Incandescent lighting. Everyone looks good on the tram.

From a fast train near Genoa, Italy.

Excerpts from the guestbook on the Web site of Haribo GmbH, the German candy company that makes Gummi Bears:

I'm gummi master in Japan. I have ever eaten about 100 kinds of gummi.So My conclusion is Haribo gummi is the best taste.

i would like to know if candy can be order on line can u please snd me a list in the mail ,831 south 2nd st plfd,nj 0063

when i am feeling blue i know what to do eat a big bag of jellybeans made by haribo

We love all Haribo Gums our Mummy buys them for us every week, and She buys us extra to take on holiday YUMMY GUMMYS thank you Haribo!

hallo!!i live in sweden i love candy!!!!

It's an international candy lovefest.

The Cinque Terre and Bogliasco, Italy.
I visited a friend last week in Bogliasco, near Genoa, and we took a hike through the Cinque Terre, a string of five towns on the Mediterranean coast. Bonus photos here.

Textism: French snow. The same wintry weather system had me trapped on a stationary train for three hours on my way back to Milan. A bit of white stuff and everyone panics here.

Milan.

Boring postcards, mostly from Sweden. Some are less boring than others.

The metro, Milan.

Genoa.

Milan.
Fortune-teller on the street.

Bonus photos today on EUROTRASH.

Milan.
I wrote a story about this restaurant that ran in Italy Daily last weekend. It's not online, so I'm republishing it here.

Twin Towers Haunt 'Skyscraper' Eatery in Milan

The signs stand proudly over Via Vittor Pasani in Milan like some strange relics from a past era.

They hang on the front of a restaurant and bar called Al Grattacielo, meaning "at the skyscraper." There are three of them, each two meters wide, depicting the World Trade Center and the skyline of Lower Manhattan in precise architectural detail.

For the past six years, the Twin Towers have served as the logo of this elegant restaurant, appearing on its business cards, its matchbooks, embossed in leather on the front of the wine list.

The restaurant faces a unique problem. What do you do when the symbol of your business suddenly becomes a reminder of a violent attack, loaded with emotional and political resonance?

The owners of Al Grattacielo are still trying to figure this out.

"I love the towers, and if I think of what happened I am obviously sad," said Paola Remaschi, an owner of the restaurant. "But I think they could remain up as a symbol."

Ms. Remaschi said the restaurant, which opened in 1947, took on its current name about 40 years ago in honor of Italy's first skyscraper, the Pirelli Building, which is a few blocks north. But when it came time to choose a logo six years ago, the restaurant went with the more contemporary Twin Towers.

Switching to another logo would cost a lot, Ms. Remaschi said. And she is not even sure this would be the right thing to do.

"The fact is that there has been a drop in clients, especially Americans," she said. "Many people said I should remove the signs."

"But then there was this American woman who came in a couple of weeks ago who began crying and asked for a copy of the menu," Ms. Remaschi said. "She was happy because the Twin Towers were a wonderful memory for her. That is what is prompting me to keep it as a symbol."

Business at the restaurant, where high-ceilinged dining rooms are lined with modern art, has taken its worst drop in 20 years lately. But Ms. Remaschi said she was not sure if the restaurant's name and sign had anything to do with the slump.

At Al Grattacielo, the only acknowledgment of the attack is a small collection of newspaper photos tacked up behind the cash register in the bar, showing the fireballs and smoke of Sept. 11.

Ms. Remaschi said the owners have written to the U.S. consul in Milan to ask what he thinks they should do. If the logo stays, the restaurant might offer discounts to Americans or hold a commemorative celebration each Sept. 11, she said.

Regardless of what is decided, Italians will still come to the restaurant, which is known for its spacious outdoor seating area in the back, Ms. Remaschi said.

Of course, if the restaurant waits long enough, its problem might just fade away. Time has a way of changing the meaning of even the most powerful symbols in unpredictable ways. A newer restaurant across town has a name that might have seemed just as unfortunate a few decades ago: Cafe Titanic.

Milan.
I spotted these in the back of a grocery store. They're made by Osama Writing Instruments, which is based in Milan and is the owner of the domain name osama.com. This inspired another story that was written by a colleague of mine and ran on the same day. Osama said it has received about 50 e-mail messages from confused Americans, and that "most believed that the terrorists were behind the company."

Around Lake Como, Italy.

EUROTRASH has had a great start, thanks in part to a plug from the kind people behind Blogger. I'm plugging it again right now. We're still looking for a few correspondents in the eurozone.

Around Lake Como, Italy.

Bellagio, Lake Como, Italy.

Cross-Atlantic Report is a really nice international photo-diary thing. Some of the photos move.

Somehow I missed the story about Prince Charles being attacked by a flower-wielding girl.

Milan.
My office building also has a game room which would blow away that of any boom-era Internet company.

This game is an odd combination of snooker and bocce.

Pneumatic mail. Who says this is a dead medium?

I am pleased to announce the launch of EUROTRASH, a new group weblog devoted to the quirkier aspects of the big euro currency switch. In case you've been distracted by other events, the scoop is that 300 million people in Europe are getting new money at the beginning of next year. I'm hoping the site will be a nice mix of news links and person-in-the-street observations, a sort of Obscure Store of euronews.

We're still looking for keen-eyed, English-savvy correspondents in Austria, Finland, France, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and even the U.K. Write to me if you're interested.

Milan.
My glamorous office building has a printing plant in the back.

Mike in Tokyo read yesterday's post and was inspired to send a screen shot of this site in Japanese, via AltaVista. This inspired me to add some more translation links: Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Portuguese. Now I feel less Eurocentric. Mike also asks:

Are you back in the States permanently now?

No. Still some more Europe left.

Advertising watch, Milan.
Somehow I don't think this ad would go over too well in the States.

On a metro platform.
Same for this one. See related desktop pictures. And see also 22.10.

At the airport.
Kevin Costner promotes Valleverde shoes in Italy and Germany. He looks a little sheepish about having to make the little walking motion with his fingers. Kevin says: "It's nice to walk in Valleverde." See related desktop pictures.

New! Auto-translations of this site, in the right column and right here: Italiano, Francais, Espanol, Deutsch. Hooray for Google. (But... no Japanese? Hindi? Australian?)