Tourists regularly throw their smartphones into the Trevi Fountain

Image: Wikipedia

I'll keep this short but I found it quite amusing. Rome's Trevi Fountain is often completely swamped by tourists who want to throw coins into it and make a wish I guess. There are so many people there on occasions that it's impossible for those standing around it behind the crowds to safely throw a coin into the fountain because it might strike the back of the head of somebody in front of them!

But remarkably The Times reports that local officials in Rome, about once a day, visit the local bakery to borrow a pincher arm meant for reaching high shelves and they use it to fish phones out of the fountain when tourists try to take a photo of themselves throwing a coin over their shoulder but get their arms mixed up.

Here is the catch: A proper Trevi coin toss is done using your right hand to throw the coin over your left shoulder. That's were the confusion comes from.

You get the message don't you? They want to throw the coin with their right arm but I guess in the pandemonium and confusion caused by the required method they throw their phone with their left arm. The phone is in their left hand in order to video their right arm throwing the coin into the fountain. That's it. I think it's very strange but amusing. And clearly quite a lot of very nice smartphones are being destroyed in the Trevi Fountain every day! 

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Are there stray cats in the Vatican City?

Yes, there are stray cats in the Vatican. And they are well cared for! We know this because Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ (a Jesuit) feeds them and he posts tweets about them. He is an American priest who works as the Assistant for New Evangelization for the Curia of the Society of Jesus in Rome. He is a techie guy with experience in commuting.

Stray cat at the Vatican. Image: Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ. Click on it for a larger version. Cat is on the balcony!!

He's well known and has a Wikipedia page! I'll let Wikipedia tell you more about him. He is high profile priest who thankfully likes cats and is compassionate towards them. He is active on Twitter which is the source of this photo and video.

Here is the video of him feeding some Vatican stray cats. Rome has hundreds of thousands of stray cats. They are a feature of the city. The Mediterranean countries in general are known for their stray cats because the climate is conducive to survival on the street. For example, there are more stray cats on the island of Cyrus than people. Israel also has a stray cat problem. Same reason:

The problem is a lack of comprehensive TNR programs to sterilise them. 

Vatican City is a city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy, and is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. It covers 0.17 mi².