Red twin cars

Telecom Italia used to be the only Italian telephone company. Its monopoly ended about in 1998 when by law, other telephone companies could be chosen for home telephone lines. For some years however, Telecom still owned the phisycal lines, so you ended up paying your own telephone company PLUS a fixed tax to Telecom Italia. Also this came to and end. Right now, there are many different telephone companies and when you choose them, you can also choose to dismiss totally Telecom Italia and pay only one company.

These are Telecom Italia cars...becoming rarer and rarer. These two, parked together at noon near a pizzeria are a clear sign of..lunch time!

Only clothes, bags and shoes

CARITAS is the main charity organization in Italy. It is sponsored by the Catholic Church and organizes many different activities to sustain those who are in need. Caritas also collects used clothes, bags and shoes in these brilliant yellow containers that you see now and then around in all towns and cities.

Water, again

This is another picture of the fountain I showed you yesterday here. I shot lots of pictures that day, I really liked the water fell on the stones.

Theme Day: Fountains

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

The newest and modern fountain in Concordia.

Fog

Fog. This is a foggy winter, not too cold, but with often a dull grey sky.

Typical parking sign

Typical sign that indicates when and how you can park in this place. In this case, from Monday to Saturday from 8 AM to 8 PM, you must show at what time you have arrived with your parking disc and you may stay only 30 minutes. It is free (costless). On Sunday, no rules and you can park how long you want to!

Natural power

Fuel and gasoline in Italy cost a lot. Alternatives to fuel are LPG and methane. My car runs with both unleaded fuel and methane: it uses fuel to start and immediately ti switches automatically to methane. When methane is finished (I run about 350 km with full gas bottles), it automatically switches back to unleaded fuel (another 350 km). I usually try not to use fuel: a full tank of fuel costs me abotu 55 euros, while a full supply of methane gas costs me 22 euros...In this picture, my car, a FIAT Multipla, is at the methane station.

Security through video

This sign says that in the town of Concordia Sagittaria that area is being video watched; this happens more and more often in our towns and cities, and many times authors of car accidents (that run away), thefts and robberies have been caught thanks to these kind of videos.

Does this happen in your country too?

Allied with me

My pressure cooker at work: a big help, my ally! Thanks to it, I cook for the family in half the time normally required.

This kind of pot is used normally in Italian cuisine. Do you use it?

From the 6th January on

Traditionally, sales start after the 6th of January in all Italy. But in the last years, while officially they do start in that date, shops anticipate and make strong discounts also before: sign of the (hard) times.