Don’t know why, but the flight out to Rome just seemed to take forever and ever. Couple that feeling with a slew of airport mix-ups (stroller lost; driver gave up; phone just wouldn’t work) that by the time we reached our hotel we were beat. But of course, we still had to hit the ground running. I don’t rest on vacations. Which is kind of a problem in the long-term. But why would I travel somewhere to just sleep or stay in the hotel eating room service. That is just not for me. So, hit the grown running we did. By the time we got back to the hotel late evening, was thoroughly exhausted. But of course, I could not fall asleep. So, tv time it was.

I love watching television in a foreign country. It can tell you lots about the people culture, sense of humor and what is considered important overall. American television is filled with reality shows and dark heroes. We want things that are real. We love to keep it real. But as you very well know, keeping it real just means being a phony in a different window dressing (see my blog on being an authentic phony). We also want our heroes to be stained, broken and on a dark journey. Why, because we love stories of redemption even more. The United States is a place for ambitious, independent minded, freedom seekers. Or so it says somewhere in our constitution according to the latest protesters on whatever issue you can think of.

Ok. Back to Italian television. In social marketing there is something called the four Ps: price, placement, promotion, product that help make campaigns reach their intended target audiences and subsequently help change certain [health] behaviors. In Rome, late night television has its own four Ps: Porn, Priests, Paintings, and Pop music.

I channeled surfed 873 channels and almost every other one was an MTV station of sorts. I don’t quite get the need for such much MTV. I don’t think they have the sway or the cache they used to in the US. But here they seem to still be big just as David Hasselhoff is huge in Germany.

Now many places do not take credit cards in Rome or they give you a dirty look for using one. But late night television offers the opportunity to spend away on the credit card. While MTV channels are huge so are “girls girls girls” channels. There is so much of it that when I watched a commercial (clearly labeled as “publicity” here) about breastfeeding I thought it was some weird porn. But alas it was actually an ad about cow’s milk and how it was fortified as good as mom’s milk (or so that is my interpretation of the ad). I noticed that in the supermarket the milk bottles also boasted that selling point.

Now while mtv and soft porn were ubiquitous so were priests. I am not making a catholic joke here. Seriously, channel after channel there was commentary being provided by a priest. I think I even caught one discussing the Amanda Knox court-case reversal that just occurred. It was kind of cool today when I passed by, near the Pantheon, a catholic wardrobe store. They had clothing for nuns and priests. I was tempted to go in and make sure they were for real nuns and priests and not some kind of fetish clothing store, by I was pressed for time trying to take in as much as possible of the city in one day. I did see some nuns walking down that via so I will assume the store was not a fetish store. But back to the priests, there was one channel that was called “padre pio.” You can catch his YouTube videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/padrepiotv

Lastly, there were so many channels in which art work was being sold or discussed. I caught one very art sculpture that looked like a cross between a horse and tony soprano. Not too sure what that was about. I may have hallucinated that last bit. I was super tired. In the United States we have a lot of infomercials late at night, but it is usually some weird Tupperware or talking wooden fish. Here it was art, art, and more art. I guess there is a heightened awareness of the past historical architectural wonders and paintings keeping a collective need to continue to produce art for public consumption. It must be hard to be a painter here nowadays. That is an awfully huge reputation to live up to and past. But lest we think it is all high art being sold at 1am, I did come across the “slide slim” for 49,90 Euro. You can catch it here: http://www.slideslim.eu/. Good times on late night Italian television.

Got to get up early for my 8am Vatican Tour. Thank God they elected a new pope so I could visit the Basilica. No more TV for me tonight.

Laters.