The most fashionable place in the western world in 1492?

N.b. At some point in the next 24 hours we’re expecting all our online audio, which is hosted by Soundcloud.com, to go down, so ebooks and websites including this one. The only exception will be EasyItalianNews.com, which is hosted by Amazon, thank goodness. Why will nearly all of our audio become unavailable? Well, we moved the ebooks business to a new LLP last year, and the new LLP will now pay the Soundcloud.com bill. Is there an easy way to change the billing details from the old Ltd. to the new LLP? Of course not. The solution, advised by Soundcloud.com, is to let the annual subscription expire (today) then renew it, with the new billing details. During that process, 99% of our audio will be blocked. Sounds like nonsense to me, everything going offline for as long as it takes me to notice and type in a new set of credit card details, but hey, who cares about the customers? Anyway, now you’ve been forewarned, so don’t thump your device in frustration (unless it’s an iPad, in which case you have my blessing.) Hopefully things will be back to normal soon!

Buondì.

Bet you couldn’t name the most fashionable place in the western world in 1492.

Think back – that was the year that the so-called ‘new world’ was rediscovered by southern Europeans. The Vikings had visited centuries earlier, of course, while ten thousand years before that, during the last ice age and before modern immigration restrictions, various undesirables from Asia were free to wander unopposed across the land bridge.

But anyway, assuming that you didn’t have a travel itch to scratch, like that famous Italian Cristoforo Colombo, had cash to splash, and wanted to be where it was happening, where would have been a groovy place to hang?

Find out in Episode 3 of our Summer Series on Il Rinascimento (The Renaissance), which is now ready for you to read/listen to.

Il Rinascimento, Episodio 3. Il Magnifico signore di Firenze (1449-1492)

The previous two in this summer’s series of thirty articles with audio can be found on our History page.

Scroll down past the Romans and the Middle ages.

And by checking out the series index, you can see what’s coming next week, and in the eight weeks that will follow.

(Another n.b. Apparently, several thousand club members didn’t get to see Tuesday’s article, because Apple’s mail servers decided I’d used a VERY NAUGHTY WORD in the subject line, so automatically send thousands of emails which people had opted to receive straight to spam, or blocked them even before that. Our mail people wet their knickers at the thought of me having upset the great Apple, so I got my knuckles rapped for unprofessional behavior (as humor is known in some places…) Read the offending subject line, and the article that goes with it, here.)

Così.

So what else is new?

Here at OIC HQ, we all tested negative on Wednesday, which was a relief. Since then, I’ve been hitting the supermarkets – for the air-conditioning, obviously, but also to stock up on everything we ran out of while I was isolating. Potatoes, onions, BEER!

Roomie’s back at daycare since yesterday, which is a huge relief. Isolating isn’t fun. Isolating with an instantly-bored lion cub, even less so.

So great, back to normal then!

Except no, as our part of Italy, like other places in Europe, is being assailed by temperatures of up to 37/38 Celsius (that would be 98/100 if you’re a Fahrenheit person).

It’s too damn hot!

Thank goodness for refrigeration, and TV!

Assuming our own audio is (temporarily) down (thanks Soundcloud.com), you could check out Roomie’s current Youtube favorite, which we’re all thoroughly fed up with, here.

A lunedì.

Il Rinascimento, Episodio 3. Il Magnifico signore di Firenze (1449-1492) | History page

P.S.

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