This Article in the New York Times about the new government's severely reduced funding for cultural sites and the specter of corporate sponsorship is distressing. For me, part of the richness and allure of Italy is its integration of the ancient and the new into daily life, and I'd hate to see what I would characterize as short-sighted financial priorities overly commercialize Italy's cultural wealth and/or risk the so-called "second tier" of cultural assets via financial neglect. I don't intend this to turn into a political post, simply a lament that things seem to be coming to this.

It is a sad situation, and not only in Italy. Governments retreat in their political fortresses and less and less funding is left for arts and culture. In Toronto we have learned that the only way to build concert halls, operas and exhibition halls nowadays is through fundraising and selling naming rights.

But I'd rather have it this way than not at all.

Speaking specifically of Rome, I will never forget the shock when I saw, in 2005 I believe, Trinita dei Monti transformed is a huge advertising panel for the vulgari Bulgari. In 2007, with the huge veil off, I loved the view of the refreshed Trinita dei Monti more than ever, and I quietly thanked Bulgari and said mea culpa...