It says don't take the bowls away; they're for feeding the cats. AND, it says that if you are mean to cats you will be punished under the San Marino penal code.
That's tellin' 'em.
F says she still hasn't seen any cats despite this state level protection for Sanmarinese felines.
Ghost cats.
Yesterday's history lesson about San Marino started with Monte Titano being under the sea. They've found fossils that they say prove it. This impression was in a stone step of a castle. Critters from under the sea long long ago had cat tails. That much I can see.
Archaeological evidence suggests stone age humans also hung out in some caves there.
A saintly bloke set up a hermitage on the mountain about 300AD.
(Not sure about storm warning, maybe he spent his time looking out for lightning strikes.....)
Anyway, said saintly bloke, by the name of Marinus (because he came from over the sea), was a stone mason, which would have come in handy given the raw materials available to him.
We will leave you to work out how the place got its name.
Here are some pictures from inside their place of government:
You can tell that these people are kind to cats. Fireplaces were designed solely for us to lie in front of.
That's it, the legislature; all of it. The local football team possibly has more participants.
PS - go back to the first depiction of the saintly bloke; do those look like a stone mason's hands to you?
Oh I just love Fs take on everything. Very refreshing. I want her for my tour guide, anywhere
ReplyDeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteWell, whoever would've guessed there was a saint involved in its foundation(s)>>>??? (eyes cast skywards briefly... there might have been a tsk in there too). That hall has all the looks and feel of medieval barons knights and damsels about it! As for the cats... pawhaps they are nocturnal? Or maybe there are just too many wonderfurs firesides to stay close to... hugs and whiskeries, YAM-aunty xxx
Yup, you would never have imagined that some beatified semi-deity was attributed with building (quite literally) the foundations of the place. The Grand Hall thing was suitably grand and suitably modern at the same time. Unlike our class II listed home in UK that is not allowed to have double-glazed windows (go figure), this building was tastefully modernized in the window department. xxx Mr T and F
Deleteyour words always have me quitely giggling inside my head. I am thinking the saintly bloke was a Boss Stone Mason, the head saint, the one who said do this and that and they did. He ran the crew on the construction site. I am fearful of heights and just the sight of this really beautiful old castle makes my heart beat faster. I mean who could sleep in there without fear of the whole thing falling off that cliff. its gorgeous to look at. about the photos out of order. If you click on the photo and make it size small, you can drag it up where you want it. blogger has a mind of its own but so do I.... now I am pondering where are the cats? they must be there, i see an open can of cat food..
ReplyDeleteThe photos moving thing works on the laptop, but not the tablet. We just get in a right pickle when we try. I, the Tigger, do a lot of the screen swiping and I've not mastered photo arranging yet. The castle thing didn't have a cliff on the other side - would that make you feel better? Did you see how we sneaked in some pictograms to continue our conversation about reading and symbols? We are going to ask people to guess what they were meant to warn about. xxx Mr T
DeleteSounds like Kitty Heaven to me :)
ReplyDeletePurrs, Mittens 😻
It is certainly closer to heaven (what God thinks of that we wonder because it seems to be over provided with lightning rods and earthing equipment.)
DeleteMaybe the cats are all inside being taken care of by their slaves.
ReplyDeleteLove all the history and the pictures.