I have spent the past week in Italy. My publishing house rents two appartments in Terracina, a small town between Rome and Napoli. The authors can spend a week here for free. Travel expences are not included, of course.
Terracina is great in the summer, I have heard. Here is a nice beach and a pittoresque old village. This week, on the other hand, in the middle of the winter, it has been raining most of the time, with thunder and lightening.
We spent most of the time indoors. The appartment is in itself an historical site; originally a monastery with paintings on the walls from the 18th century.
But you can’t stay one hour from Rome without wisiting. So we went on a one day trip. Originally, we planned to see the Vatican museum and Colosseum. Of course that was too ambitious. We didn’t have time for more than the Vatican museum.
Walking through the halls filled with art and artefacts from all times, I got kind of numb. The roman statues made the most impression, because they have very small penises, kind of the results of metoidioplasty. On some of the statues, the sexual organs are actually gone, leaving a hole in the marble where they used to be. Very trans-ish.
Tarald Stein 