Sandcastle

I adore Italy.
The thing I love most about it is easy balance between the devil-may-care and the fiendishly intellectual: Anita Ekberg in the fountain; Luigi Serafini; La Cicciolina; Umberto Eco; Pavarotti eating pasta between acts; Luciano Berio; Rafaella Cara...
The country is plain mad, but in the best possible way.

It is, therefore, very saddening for me to see that it has become like the UK; bogged down by petty officialdom imposing petty rules to please their petty minds, to fret over things that normal people wouldn't bat an eyelid over. The ban on building innocent - and eminently temporary - sandcastles is even more ridiculous than the worst that the UK could come up with.

Defy these rules NOW.
Don't let Berlusconi's henchmen get away with this.
Build your sandcastles, kiss in public, lie down to read your books and assert proudly, above all, the vigorous Italian belief in the essentiality of "La Dolce Vita".