European Tribune - Community, Politics & Progress.

Italian coastal blogging - The Sea-Cats of Anzio

by eternalcityblues
Thu Nov 2nd, 2006 at 12:49:54 PM EST

The cats practically own the place!

From the diaries ~ whataboutbob

Here's how Anzio looks in general - a fishing-town,
busy, boatsy and not too swank.

It's about 45 minutes from where we live, so we go
there quite often - a very enjoyable place to spend
an afternoon wandering around doing nothing
in particular...

... hard to remember that in WW2 it had been bombed and shattered till it looked like Fallujah.

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Italian coastal blogging - The Sea-Cats of Anzio | 15 comments (15 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Cats of Rome (4.00 / 2)

Thanks for the refreshing diary!

Stray cats are considered citizens by the city of Rome. There are reportedly over 800 cat colonies here with total membership around 120,000, perhaps the most famous in Torre Argentina. Human citizens are held responsible for their up-keep, care and general well-being. Very much a cat's life.

Here's the most recent city law that regulates our duties to them.

by de Gondi (publiobestia aaaatttthotmaildaughtusual) on Thu Nov 2nd, 2006 at 04:52:09 PM EST

Re: Cats of Rome (4.00 / 2)

Thanks for the lovely Torre Argentina cat-pic, De Gondi! I visit the Torre Argentina cat-colony whenever I'm in that area, proudly wear a supporter's teeshirt. Pleased - but not surprised - to see they've gone international.

On a smaller-scale, localist level, practically every neighbourhood here has its local "gattara" - a more or less official "cat-feeder lady", usually but not always of grandmotherly age, who regularly collects scraps and leftovers from local butchers' shops and restaurants and distributes them, at discretely-chosen fixed "feeding points" and usually at the same time every day, to the nearby cat-colonies. My mother used to be a "deputy gattara" ... meaning she'd temporarily take over the local cat-feeding rounds when the No. 1 cat-lady was sick or away visiting relatives.

"Ignoring moralities is always undesirable, but doing so systematically is really worrisome." Mohammed Khatami

by eternalcityblues (parvati_roma aaaat libero.it) on Thu Nov 2nd, 2006 at 05:42:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Cats of Rome (4.00 / 2)

Our condominium has a cat colony and two regular gattare. "Gattaras" are encouraged to register the colony they look after with the municipal authorities. They have rights and duties- and condos are supposed to work out a decalogue to handle any colony. Communal school kitchens are supposed to hand out food for the colonies.

I really enjoy our cats. Each one has his/her quirks and habits and very much contribute to the "personality" of area. It's great to see newcomers move in and grow.

by de Gondi (publiobestia aaaatttthotmaildaughtusual) on Thu Nov 2nd, 2006 at 06:02:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Cats of Rome (4.00 / 2)

A Colosseum cat...

...and a Roman "gattara" on her rounds:

"Ignoring moralities is always undesirable, but doing so systematically is really worrisome." Mohammed Khatami

by eternalcityblues (parvati_roma aaaat libero.it) on Thu Nov 2nd, 2006 at 06:15:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Cats of Rome (4.00 / 2)

Amazing...the things I learn at Euro Trib...I never knew this!! (I have some cat loving friends who will now rush to visit Italy!!

Half the population is under the age of 18. Tanzania's future is NOW...join the 50% campaign!

by whataboutbob on Fri Nov 3rd, 2006 at 03:31:14 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Cats of Rome (none / 0)

i saw one of those cat sanctuaries in rome, it was a trip!

they were cruising round these great ruins, and the whole vision was other-worldly, and a bit fin-de-millenne...

Lobbyists are people too...

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Thu Nov 2nd, 2006 at 05:04:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re:The Sea-Cats of Anzio (none / 0)

Great photos, thanks a lot! Unless I missed something, this is your first diary, yes? Welcome to ET! Excellent!! Please post more photo journals of Italy!

Half the population is under the age of 18. Tanzania's future is NOW...join the 50% campaign!

by whataboutbob on Thu Nov 2nd, 2006 at 03:33:19 AM EST

Re:The Sea-Cats of Anzio (4.00 / 2)

Thanks for the encouragement! ET's a great forum and I'll certainly try to contribute as actively/creatively as possible whenever I can. I'm a very amateur-type photographer, all I have is a kiddy-type wee digicam with low definition and no accessories so my pics-quality is so-so at best, but no lack of interesting places to photograph around here - so if you're prepared to put up with the crappy quality there'll be more photodiaires coming from me now that I've finally learnt how to insert pics (this effort took me practically all night, trial and error)! Also text ones when I have time and inspiration - unfortunatley they don't often coincide :-(.

"Ignoring moralities is always undesirable, but doing so systematically is really worrisome." Mohammed Khatami

by eternalcityblues (parvati_roma aaaat libero.it) on Thu Nov 2nd, 2006 at 06:53:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re:The Sea-Cats of Anzio (none / 0)

Great!! One request we get from many visitors is..."please, more photos of Europe!!" And there are so many remarkable and beautiful places, in each and every country...so I for one would love to see more of this sort of diary in general. Plus it balances out our pithy informative stuff!

Which is all to say...I look forward to more essays!!

Half the population is under the age of 18. Tanzania's future is NOW...join the 50% campaign!

by whataboutbob on Thu Nov 2nd, 2006 at 09:24:58 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re:The Sea-Cats of Anzio (none / 0)

It's his/her third. It would be indeed nice if more of these diaries came!

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Thu Nov 2nd, 2006 at 05:30:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re:The Sea-Cats of Anzio (none / 0)

Hers, she's mentioned her husband before.

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Nov 2nd, 2006 at 05:52:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Sea-Cats of Anzio (none / 0)

One info-thingy I meant to add to the pics - but didn't as I was too sleepy to write coherently by the time I'd finished messing around with learning where/how to upload and then how to write the html links last night - is the fact that Italian cats often live in cat-colonies that are neither privately-owned nor stray/feral... kind of community-supported, human-friendly free feline collectives?? In Anzio I've seen cats all lined up on the wharf in their dozens, waiting for the fishing-boats to come home - they get the fish-scraps!

"Ignoring moralities is always undesirable, but doing so systematically is really worrisome." Mohammed Khatami

by eternalcityblues (parvati_roma aaaat libero.it) on Thu Nov 2nd, 2006 at 07:09:15 AM EST

Re: The Sea-Cats of Anzio (none / 0)

Great to see another unusual subject with nice pictures.

Having just been to southern Spain, where old fishing ports have turned into mostly "yatch marinas", are the fishing ports in Italy safe from development?

And if humans would only learn from cats... human-friendly collectives...

_Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. --Charu Saxena._

by metavision on Thu Nov 2nd, 2006 at 07:57:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Sea-Cats of Anzio (none / 1)

...old fishing ports have turned into mostly "yatch marinas".. are the fishing ports in Italy safe from development?

No! Yacht marinas are getting tacked onto the fishing ports just about everywhere here, even Anzio has a small one and its sister-town Nettuno has a bigger one - nasty locked gates, closed jetties, entry by electronic key-thingies only to protect the mega-yacht cosmopolitan mafia from the local hoi-polloi. But thankfully the fishing-port and local small-boats part has managed to survive... at least so far?

"Ignoring moralities is always undesirable, but doing so systematically is really worrisome." Mohammed Khatami

by eternalcityblues (parvati_roma aaaat libero.it) on Thu Nov 2nd, 2006 at 08:15:30 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Italian coastal blogging - The Sea-Cats of Anz (none / 0)

Great diary, ecb! I was wondering why I should find the name Anzio familiar, then you put the reminder at the end...

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Nov 2nd, 2006 at 04:28:01 PM EST

Italian coastal blogging - The Sea-Cats of Anzio | 15 comments (15 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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