Location Location Location

[Pitkin]

Whoa, that's a comprehensive location introduction, Raffaele-san. ^o^

*salutes*

[MisterCat]

Now I want to visit Italy, thanks to Raffaele the Amigan's excellent overview.  Thank you, Raffaele!

By the way, regarding Sophia Loren, I'd like to suggest everyone screen Vittorio De Sica's 1961 film La Ciociara (released in the U.K. and U.S. as Two Women).  Sophia, in the lead role, delivered a tour de force for which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded her an Oscar.

Just so you'll know, Raffaele, it's perfectly all right with me if I see Naples and then die.  I want to eat some of that pizza first, though.

;010

=^..^=

[CaptBrenden]

Come to think of it I never got to visit tailand.  Shame really.  hit half a dozen countries in that area but never Tailand.

It's Thailand. T-H-A-I-L-A-N-D
Not Tailand, actually - -;

My spelling sucks, im sorry for any offence taken -_-

[Raffaele the Amigan]

By the way, regarding Sophia Loren, I'd like to suggest everyone screen Vittorio De Sica's 1961 film La Ciociara (released in the U.K. and U.S. as Two Women).  Sophia, in the lead role, delivered a tour de force for which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded her an Oscar.

And if you like Sophia Loren I advice you to see also:

- "Ieri, oggi, domani" also known with its international name "Yesterday, today, tomorrow" another masterpiece with Sophia and with Marcello Mastroianni as male main actor. Both were directed again by Vittorio de Sica and another Oscar award winning.

If you like more introspective movies:

- "Una giornata particolare" aka "A Special Day", again Sophia and Marcello at their best, directed by Ettore Scola. (2 nominations).

And as relaxing movies:

- "Arabesque" by Stanley Donen.

(One of my preferred movies! And it truly deserves to be seen!)  ;010

And finally a very magnificent fabulous fairy-tales movie with Mrs Loren and Mr. Omar Sharif:

- "C'era una volta..." aka "Once upon a time", or also "More Than a Miracle" in USA, which could also be known with the horrible name of "Cinderella italian style"...
(Very horrible name because it is not related directly with Cinderella tale. Except the fact that the heroine of the story is a peasant woman.)

I was astonished when I discovered this movie five or six years ago. I knew nothing of it!
It is a story made by a big collage of ancient 1600 neapolitan tales.

Sure it is weird, fabulous and evocative...

Now I want to visit Italy, thanks to Raffaele the Amigan's excellent overview.  Thank you, Raffaele!

Just so you'll know, Raffaele, it's perfectly all right with me if I see Naples and then die.  I want to eat some of that pizza first, though.

When in Italy make me a whistle, so we could meet, and I will avoid you to be trapped in the vaste swamp of modern pizzerie reastaurants, which were born in the recent times to catch tourists and which are too often just of "middle quality" (if you are lucky) but also always of EXPENSIVE prices.  ;026

(Due to some speculations on Euro currency since 2001, prices of meals in Italy increased of 100%. Some prices on certain products even of 200%, and reastaurant keepers were among the first who speculated on Euro!) ;014

[MisterCat]

Thank you, Raffaelle,  for all those film references!  I shall have to see if the video store has them for rent ââ,¬â€ not only to watch Sophia but also Marcello Mastroianni, one of my all-time favorite actors.

On the subject of Italian cinema, one of my favorite actors is Giulietta Masina.  She was brilliant in Federico Fellini's 1954 film La Strada ("The Road"), in the role of Gelsomina; and I also was very impressed with her role as Giulietta Boldrini in Fellini's 1965 film Giulietta degli spiriti (released in the U.S. as Juliette of the Spirits).

I'd love to visit Italy, of course, but my traveling days are behind me.  My rich uncle, Sam, sent me to various Asian destinations some years ago; and although I'm quite satisfied with having experienced the Orient, I'm sorry to have never been to Europe ââ,¬â€ but such is life!

:smoke:

=^..^=

[s8man]

S. E. England, UK.
At least we didn't get the worst of the recent storms...

[Myrdin]

I travel a lot. Airports are a most consistent location for me so you might say that's where I live, even though I hate them. Other common places are Alaska(current location), California, and Costa Rica. The worst part about travel is that it consumes massive amounts of time. I'm unable to pursue most of my hobbies.

[MisterCat]

Myrdin, I feel your pain when it comes to airports.  I don't travel very often nowadays, but back in the '60s I did a lot of it; and my love of air travel, from back in the day, has given way these past few decades to downright hatred.

De-regulation of airlines in the States marked the downfall of enjoyable air travel.  Back when ticket prices were set in stone, the only way airlines could compete for business was via service; so service was almost universally good.

Now, there is no service:  no in-flight meals, seats designed for short anorexics, mile-long lines at check-in counters with one person (two if you're very lucky) assigned to wait on everybody, aircraft cabins which are either too hot or have no air circulation (or both)....  The list of horrors goes on and on.

Plus, as we saw in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 tragedies, all that airlines have to do is pout and the federal government throws billions of dollars of our money at them; and nothing improves.  My biggest gripe, though, is the stupid hub-and-spokes malarkey foisted on the traveling public by airline owners and their friends in federal government.

Once upon a time, if you wanted to fly from point A to point B you could find a flight which did just that.  Now, you're forced to stop at these god-awful hub airports ââ,¬â€ like O'Hare in Chicago, where your connecting flight always leaves from a gate five miles distant from where you deplaned upon arrival.

Flying used to be fun, but now it's one royal pain in the ass.  Thanks a lot, corporate executives and politicians, for making what used to be an enjoyable mode of travel into a pile of Spam-in-a-can garbage!

;006

=^..^=

[Laevatein]

100% Filipino living in Quezon City XD

[CaptBrenden]

oh I guess i should mention that Im now living in Everett washington, no longer california.. thank the 9 divine


20 points to the one that gets that reference!

[SleepyD]

guess I can't get that 20 points. XD;

Jeff is Filipino! I live in California.   ._.

My Tagalog is horribly rusty tho (but it's not so bad that I can't speak at all... ^^).

[CaptBrenden]

points still up for grabs!


I feel for jeff.  jeff is in La.  La is a bad place.  I fear for jeff.

[SleepyD]

LA's subway system sucks.  When Jeff went to Tokyo in April Jeff loved public transportation.  Here, Jeff can't get anywhere.  Not even by car with all the traffic. >.<

A police officer was shot yesterday, near-walking distance from the apartment I live in.  Of course, I didn't know at the time, but that was the reason the street was closed and I had to sit in traffic yesterday morning.

Other than that, and the threat of earthquakes, and the occasional aggravating idiot, LA is just fine.

....I try to avoid Hollywood, but my sisters go to school near there....

[CaptBrenden]

I avoid the whole damn place -_- LA dosent seem that bad.. untill you go elsewhere and remind you what a good neighborhood is really like.

I mean.. the LAPD offered me about 70grand a year to start.. but I figured that would be more dangerous then going back to Iraq.

[SleepyD]

yeah, I've done some traveling, so I know what you mean. Did I mention I live under the Rampart Division's beat? That should give everyone an idea of the crime rate where I live.  I'm 3 stories above street level.  A little buffer zone, if you want to put it that way. ^^ I dislike walking outside here... And if you did accept that job with the LAPD, I'd fear for you. o_O

I'm also afraid of the crazy idiots that drive around here. I can't really avoid contact with them when I need to drive someplace.