Rome, Interactive!

Put that caffè and biscotto down right now, and get ready to be a participatory member in this blog post.

This is the typed-on-a-screen version of: “Everybody Dance Now!” You are about to have things to do.

The blog Where No Mangoes isn’t just a sit-and-read-on-your-phone-in-the-waiting-room-at-the-dentist-because-of-course-you-follow-the-protocols-of-good-dental-hygiene-and-go-for-regular-check-ups kind of blog.

Not here. Where No Mangoes instead promotes a much spicier approach to life, one with less down time and more get up and go, go get’em, get’em started, and start’em up right now!

But also here at Where No Mangoes, we promote a multidisciplinary approach by providing you with a range of intriguing options.

You get to choose your activity, from a list located right below these intentionally inspiring images from Rome’s Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna / National Gallery of Modern Art. (The sculpture above is from there, too, as are the maps below.)

You are now officially inspired.

A. Send Me Some Mail!

I have not personally received any mail since mid-December, since I have been in transit and in motion. But now I am staying put for a bit, and I have a mailbox.

Even better, I have the key to that mailbox. And as a few of you know, that is not always the case with rented accommodations in various places.

So you can send me something, like a postcard.

Or a friendly little note.

Or some Hammond’s Old-Fashioned Hand-Rolled Lightly Salted Sourdough Pretzels made at the Hammond Pretzel Bakery in Lancaster, PA since 1931. With maybe a little dill dipping sauce on the side.

Or, you know, a postcard is always nice.

Here in Rome my street is named after Giovan Battista Magnaghi (1839-1902), an Admiral in the Italian Navy and later an important ocean surveyor and nautical mapmaker.

This is a public domain portrait of Admiral Magnaghi in his naval officer uniform. In the course of his career, he invented quite a few useful things for ocean exploration, including a water sample bottle that somehow fills and flips and then awaits collection by the scientists.

This website, with an essay by one Alessandro Pini, retired Captain in the Italian Navy, tells the story of two historic, commemorative Italian meals Admiral Magnaghi took part in, in 1894 and 1897: At the table at the end of the 19th century, between America and the Albertine Statute – StoriEnogastronomiche.it One was an official lunch in honor of a statue of Christopher Columbus, and one was an official breakfast in honor of a newly enacted statute. (I think, never mind statues and statutes, people were just hungry.)

The menus for these events included: Zuppa Reale, a Bolognese soup of meat broth and fried dough balls, with some grated Parmigiano sprinkled atop; something with veal, and something else served in the English style — the menus on the website look very elegant but are super hard to read; fruit ice cream/gelato; coffee; and Babà, a mushroom-shaped Neopolitan babka-related dessert soaked in spirits and syrups.

Now that site is some gastronomic history story-telling at its finest.

An Italian Navy research ship named after Admiral Magnaghi is actually still in service to this day, cruising the world, stopping here and there, with its crew looking about and discovering things. And presumably taking some pictures, and writing things down. . .

So, from the USA it costs $1.55 to send a postcard, or anything up to one ounce in weight, to Italy via the US Postal Service, which sells a very nice Global Forever Stamp for $1.55, which would do the job nicely.

From the UK to Italy — Good Heavens, they make it complicated — is £1.25 for first class, and 75p for second class. You have to decide the class of postcard you want to send? Well, naturally, darling, postcards have classes in Great Britain.

From Mauritius, a postcard to my place in Rome is 8800 Ariary, or, if you are using the smaller Mauritian money unit, 44,000 Iraimbilanja. From Paraguay to my current gaff, it will be 18,000 Guaraní. Or from Tanzania, 2300 Tanzanian Shillings. From Laos, 8000 Kip to where I currently kip.

I think if you get your postcard in the mail by April 14th or so, it should arrive in time to reach me.

You can send it to me here: (For personal security purposes, I am not putting my address on this public blog. But friends can email or Fb message me to get my address. Or request it in the upbeat comment you were planning to leave, below.)

B. The Where No Mangoes Blog Official DIY Bookmark Kit!

You can now interactively make yourself some Official Where No Mangoes Bookmarks. I have provided below some original bookmark artwork, which you can download and print onto cardstock/heavy paper, or onto regular paper which you then attach to some cardstock.

For a really good bookmark, I find that the heft of some nice stiff cardstock is always preferable.

The art is black and white, ready for you to print and color in for yourself.

Now you can get out those crayons, and start thinking in full color.

Where No Mangoes: A brief respite from the hurley-burley

Where No Mangoes: Our Motto!

Where No Mangoes: ALL THE NEWS

Some of my Readers know me — in fact, met me — as an International Bicycle-Ride-Chronicler Online Crayon Artiste during the pandemic, so I have form and history when it comes to recommending crayons as the artistic medium of choice.

And yesterday, passing by a shop, I found these.

So I am beyond delighted that I can include here for you a Bonus Official Where No Mangoes Bookmark in Giotto Cera Maxi Color:

Enjoy your bookmarks / segnalibri! I hope you get to slide them into some really great books soon.

AND: *Coming Soon To A Mango-Inflected Blog Site Near You!*

Even more interactive distraction!

• The Make-Your-Own 3D Mini-Map of Garbatella, Rome, with all cafes serving a soy milk cappuccino highlighted.
• The Universal Recipe For Delicious Home-Made Gelato Using Any Leftovers You Can Find At This Moment In Your Fridge.
• The Life-Sized Italian Origami Motor Scooter Kit.
• And possibly my personal favorite,
• Italiano Aperitiffi, Aperateeevo, Aperi-thingee — Reshippees For One. . .

Cheers to All!