Tuesday, October 21 2008

Turning Water Into Wine

Now, if I can find the meat fountain and the salad waterfall, I'm set.

Not since the Mario brothers stereotyped Italian plumbers as tortoise hating, gorilla baiting, princess-rescuing do-gooders has civilisation seen such a miracle of modern ablutionary events. According to The UK Times online, bungling plumbers caused wine to flow from the taps of local residents.

Residents of Marino in the Castelli Romani district were awaiting the annual celebration of Sagra dell' Uva, a wine harvest festival. Part of every year's fun is when newly pressed vintage spurts forth from the Fountain of the Four Moors, decorated with grapes for the occasion, to a backdrop of fireworks, dancing and – not least – drinking. But

This year however revellers who crowded round the fountain, jugs and beakers in hand, waited in vain for the town's engineers to work their miracle and, by dint of their creative plumbing somewhere below the streets, turn water into wine.

The mistake was spotted quickly and reversed, but not before many quick-witted residents had the presence of mind to fill jugs, pans and any other receptacles that came to hand.

Not all householders were thrilled, however: one woman said that she had been cleaning the floor at the time and as she refilled her bucket, "I noticed the smell of alcohol. Wine is fine for drinking, but not for cleaning."

Good plumbing is the hallmark of a gracious civilisation, but even I think that's taking it too far.

Posted by Tim AT 4:30PM

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