It may cost $1.55 to buy a euro, but President Bush is still enjoying high season in Europe. The commander in chief has been on a whirlwind tour of the Continent since June 9, making stops from Slovenia to the UK.
Bush started his tour in Slovenia, which he once confused with Slovakia. After hobnobbing with European Union officials, he left for Germany to chat with Chancellor Angela Merkel. Later he flew to Italy for a two-stop meeting: After talking with Silvio Berlusconi, Bush skipped over to the Vatican for an audience with Pope Benedict XVI.
Later, after breakfast in Paris, the president crossed the Channel to the UK. His last stop was in Belfast, where he presumably changed his pounds back into dollars--and started planning his next trip to a place where the greenback is stronger.
Earlier this week we encouraged you to hop on Eurofly's cheap NYC-Naples flight for a last minute Amalfi Coast escape. You probably noticed that no where in that post did we say, "Hang around in garbage-filled Naples."
If you've been living in a dumpster you might not have heard, but the city is literally knee-deep in a ten thousand-ton garbage crisis that is stinking and cluttering up the once electrifying Southern Italian city.
In a bold move yesterday, newly elected Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi rode down to Naples on his white horse, vowing at his first official cabinet meeting to clean up the mess and give the city's tourism industry a fighting chance. How? His plan is to open five new dumps, guard them with the military and send anyone who tries to infringe on the operation to jail for a couple years.
To make sure Berlusconi didn't get his shoes dirty on Wednesday, some trash was scooped up before he came to town. Time reminds us that Berlusconi once gave similar quality-of-life orders to Genoa residents who were forced to pull in their hanging laundry before a G8 summit. And we remember how well that turned out...
Both Milan and Venice would love a profitable spring tourism season, but we have to wonder if having racist campaign posters plastered around the north of the country is the wisest way to drum up international appeal.
May we regretfully introduce the Lega Nord, a relatively new side show act in the already fascinating Italian political circus. Since 1991, the Lega party has been spewing bold political propaganda and outwardly racist opinions towards what they believe to be criminal immigrants, freeloading Southern Italians and gay exhibitionists.
In the north of Italy this week you may still see the Northern League's campaign manifestos lingering after Monday's national election. As expected, the winner was Silvio Berlusconi, an ally of the LN.
As for the posters themselves, the Native American cautiously warns that Italians could end up just like him, on a reservation, if they allow more immigrants to make a home in Italy. The one with the fat egg-snatching woman says, "Wake up Northern Italians! With Lega Nord, Against Roman Thieves." Something tells us these fellas didn't play well with the other kids in preschool.
Last week's billion-dollar Air France-KLM bid for our struggling amici at Alitalia was going once, going twice... and frustratedly yanked off the table. The generally-awful Italian carrier is now a strong contender for the title of "Newest Bankrupt Airline in April," and we're only 10 days in.
Alitalia's fate has been hanging in the balance of Italy's recent--and trademark--political turmoil. The drama could reach a climax this weekend when Italians head to the polls to elect a new leader, the majority of whom support media mogul Silvio Berlusconi --whose nationlistic stance doesn't gel with the Air France-KLM deal.
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by pbb
