The perfect name to use if you plan to start a new escort agency in Italy or rename your existing business. Inspired by Tarantini, the Italian businessman who hired escorts to attend parties at Berlusconi's homes. Tarantini denies any wrongdoing and says he brought women to the parties to make a "beautiful impression." Italians are notorious for tax evasion so maybe avoiding paying taxes is his real motive for making a beautiful impression. Whatever the motive, however, I can't think of a better way to name an escort agency in Italy. Italians have an interesting sense of words, if they apply it to marketing their shady business, there's the next great world export from Italy :-))

I guess you know that there was a major earthquake here in Italy. Lot of people died. There is also this scientist saying that he had predicted the earthquake.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/04/06/italy.quake.prediction/index.html (read more)

I'm planning to go somewhere in Europe on vacations and I'm thinking about Italy, Spain or Greece.

Do you have any place to suggest?

People from France call themselves French. Those from Germany, Germans. Those who are from Italy, Italians.

How many of you would call yourself European?

This question came to my mind when I visited the US almost 2 months ago. When I claimed that I was from Europe a friend, who was originally from France, stopped me to correct me telling me: No , you're from Norway. (read more)

If you are an espresso lover you will love this one. Try adding a small piece of lemon peel to your espresso. It is supposed to help infuse the flavor of coffee. You are not actually adding any juice, so the espresso just has a tint of this extra aromatic flavor. I had this at a Brazilian restaurant the other day and it works great. Suppossingly they do in Italy too but no one I know drinks espresso like that. What do you think? (read more)

Most of my foreign friends tell me how they notice the Japanese people often stare at them but don't stare at each other. It's true, Japanese people don't stare at each other, if at all, the same way they would stare at a foreigner. When I went to Italy I noticed there people stare a lot. Because it's not socially acceptable for the Japanese to stare at each other, I think a bar where everyone can stare at each other would make the Japanese happy to experience what they can't experience in other social settings :)

From the guys that gave us the Mafia and inspired Don Corleone, why not let them take the lead on this? The Prime Minister does it, the judges do it, the troops do it, most businessmen I assume do it too. Who's left? If everyone does it, and whoever doesn't accepts it as a fact of life anyway, why not nudge Italians to take the next step and make it all legal? For one, it will help make us foreigners less confused about their norms and practices. Confusion mostly results from claiming that something is illegal when everyone either does it or accepts it. Holland made the use of drugs legal, I see no problem with Italy doing the same with bribery. They seem to be equally addicted. The measure will save lives, money (spent on legal fees) and last but not least...horses' heads!

I used to find it disturbing that a country's Prime Minister is subjected to 2,500 court hearings on charges of bribery and corruption but's never convicted. After reading Berlusconi's latest clown statements I changed my mind. I realize there are some things in a leader money can't buy that are worse than bribery, worse than corruption, worse than what he claims are false accusations of bribery and corruption. Delusions of grandeur is the vice I'm speaking of. Berlusconi just told us he is The Best Prime Minister in human history boasting, among his other well-known "priceless" vices, paying more than 200 million Euros over the years in consultant fees and...Judges(!!) Need he slip more? I don't think so. And the Oscar for best Honest Clown performance goes to.....Signore Berlusconi!! (read more)

The other day I was having dinner with a friend at an upscale, expensive Indian restaurant. We noticed that most of the items in the menu were variations of curry, a recipe that both rich and poor people eat daily. I am sure Indian gourmet food also includes recipes that you won't see people eat every day, but what is interesting is that most recipes on the menu or what people order the most in a gourmet Indian restaurant are curry variations with fresher spices and ingredients, better cooking and obviously better taste. (read more)