It is now illegal to feed the pigeons in Venice's St. Mark's Square, or anywhere else in the city for that matter.

Venice's avian crackdown, which went into effect on Wednesday, joins the likes of London's and New York's, where it's been against the law to feed pigeons for some time now. But it's difficult to name a city that has a closer connection with the "winged rat" than Venice: Who hasn't imagined walking across St. Mark's early in the morning with no one around ("Yeah right!" you say of Venice) and scattering pigeons, which take flight in a rush of wings that do not quite drone out the chimes from a nearby bell tower.

Of course, you can still scatter the pigeons, I guess -- there are an estimated 40,000 living in Venice. But feeding them is going to cost you a 50 euro fine (around $75)

Naturally, the dozen or so vendors in St. Mark's Square who made their living selling breadcrumbs to tourists who wanted pigeon-laden snapshots are angry at the city's mayor for imposing the crackdown, saying they've been catering to this particular niche in Venice's tourist market for more than a century.

What do you think? Is banning pigeon feeding silly or practical? Do places like St. Mark's and Trafalgar Square in London lose something by such laws?

Can you imagine knowing how much all your friends, neighbors and coworkers make?

Italy's IRS created a grand snooping opportunity Wednesday when it posted on its Web site the taxable income of just about every Italian citizen - for a few hours. There was a huge outcry, and the tax collector had to take the information down, NPR reports. Listen to the piece here.

According to BBC, the release of the information was one of the last acts of the outgoing center-left government and has shocked many tax-shy Italians. But it was also hugely popular, and within hours the site was overwhelmed and impossible to access.

According to an Italian government report from 2007, the amount of unpaid tax in the country is equivalent to 7% of gross domestic product. The finance ministry described the move as a "bid to improve transparency".

I don't think this kind of "transparency" generally goes over well.

Call me crazy, but I am one of those people who likes to read newspaper corrections. Yes, I am every editor's worst nightmare. It is probably because I have made my fair share of writing and reporting mistakes, and so I must derive some sort of weird pleasure from other writers' mistakes.

One of my favorite corrections sections is in the Travel section of The New York Times. I bet nobody else reads it ,although it can be quite entertaining. This is my favorite correction of this week: "An article on April 20 about Rome at night misidentified the figure from mythology represented in the centerpiece sculpture of the Trevi Fountain. It is Oceanus, the Titan who the ancient Greeks believed ruled the watery elements - not Neptune, the Roman god of the sea."

That wouldn't be so bad, but this is what they included as an excuse: "The error has appeared for years in travel guides about Rome, is found extensively in Internet references, and has infiltrated at least five other articles in The Times since 1981."

Great. Some slacker once put a false piece of information in a guidebook and it's been picked up repeatedly in the last 27 years. You would think that the NY Times wouldn't rely on guidebooks for their fact-checking.

I got this email from a couple of different people: "After a short stay in America, David returns to Italy." You know what's coming before you even open the picture. David gets FAT.

It reminds me of my first extended stay in America. When I first lived in the US as a student in 1994, I gained 30 pounds and 3 months. Yep, it was a not a pleasant sight. The thing is, I am not the type of person who ever gains weight. Until I moved here, I never thought it was possible for me to gain weight. It took me a year (after leaving the US) to lose those pounds.

I still can't figure out why. It didn't seem that I was eating more than I was used to. I had exercise. Some people tell me that it was probably just because I completely changed my eating habits and ate more carbs than I did before. Others claim that the additives in US food is what makes people gain weight.

I don't know what it was. I do feel bad for David though. (Geez, lay off the pasta, man!)

When I browse the photos in Gadling's photo pool to look for a "Photo of the Day" post, inspirational, lush, funky and interesting shots are aplenty. It's hard to choose between them. Yesterday's choice, David Farley's shot of the restaurant, La Grotta dei Germogli gives a hint of the pleasure of being there which is one reason it caught my attention. It left me intrigued, prompting me to find out more about it. Oh, my goodness! This is a reason to head to Italy.

Calcata, where the restaurant is located, is a medieval village in the hills, 30 miles from Rome, thus a day trip suggestion. The town, over the years, has been taken over by the artsy crowd. When the government condemned it back in the 1930 because officials worried that the volcanic rock cliffs that it sits on would crumble, people moved out. But, the 1960s happened and hippies and artists moved in turning the town into a happening place.

I came across this New York Times article that details Calcata's path from ghost town to groovy. It has something to do with the positive energy the village exudes. If you're going to be in Rome, this looks like a terrific gallery and eatery filled spot to mellow out. There's the blue chair folding chair on the balcony overlooking the hills with your name on it. It's at the La Grotta dei Germogli. If you go, the gnocchi with almond pesto sounds delicious.

The days for sitting outside overlooking a view and sipping a glass of wine are here. This shot of La Grotta dei Germogli, a restaurant in Calcata, Italy looks like the most perfect place. Imagine sitting in that blue folding chair, with a glass of earthy red wine to savor. This looks like the type of place one stumbles upon and thinks, what a find. David Farley, who snapped this took the shot in November, had an autumn experience. Just think about how the flower boxes must be blooming now.

Share the shots of places you've come across by posting them at Gadling's Flickr photo pool and one might be picked for Photo of the Day.

I have succumbed to the fascination in viewing dead people. I'm not talking about funerals, but about viewing dead people who have been dead awhile, as in years and years. The recent public viewing of Padre Pio, a Catholic saint, in San Giovani Rotondo, Italy has brought back memories.

Ho Chi Minh was my first preserved body tourist attraction. Mao Zedong was the second one. I wasn't really comparing which of the two looked better when I went back for a second gander at Ho Chi Minh, but preservation has treated him better, in my opinion. Neither of these former leaders looked real, though--more like odd wax dolls.

The dollar might be low, but if you make your way to Venice you can count on a discount from Harry's Bar, the renowned Venetian watering hole said to be the birthplace of the Bellini and Carpaccio, and where Ernest Hemingway himself downed martinis. Offering a discount to "poor" Americans who are suffering from the weak dollar is representative of a growing concern across Europe that a decrease in US tourists will have an effect on the tourism industry.

At the entrance of Harry's Bar you now find a sign that says, "Harry's Bar of Venice, in an effort to make the American victims of subprime loans happier, has decided to give them a special 20 percent discount on all items of the menu during the short term of their recovery."

How bad is the current state of the US dollar? When the euro was first introduced in 2002, one US dollar was worth 1.10 euro. Today the same dollar gets about .64 euro, which makes the price of even a simple meal of nutella and a baguette expensive.

"Since the start of January, we noticed a drop in (American) customers of between five and 10 percent and now that we are in April its looks really frightening," said Arrigo Cipriani, owner of Harry's Bar. Then again, what better solution to economic frustration than a refreshing Bellini?

When I read that Charlton Heston died last night, an image of him parting the Red Sea as Moses crossed my mind. "The Ten Commandments" was on TV just two weeks ago. While channel flipping, I came across it and he was just getting ready to hold up that staff. According to the New York Times article, the scene where he came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandment tablets was filmed at Mount Sinai.

"Planet of the Apes" has several locations you can also go to and might recognize if you watch the movie. The scene with the top of the Statue of Liberty resting in the sand was filmed in a cove near Point Dume at Zuma in Malibu. The rest of the desert scenes were filmed around Lake Powell (where the spaceship crashed and the crew went to land), Glen Canyon and Page, Utah. I've driven through these places and they are gorgeous. I can imagine back in the 60s they were less traveled than today. Malibu Creek State Park was where the ape village was built. Fox Studios use to own the property. Here's Charlton Heston's World, a Web site I came across that has several "Planet of the Apes" photos and audio clips.

Other trivia. If you head to Rome, you'll be near where the chariot race in "Ben-Hur "was filmed at Cinecittà Studios and the Sistine Chapel where Heston played Michaelangelo in The Agony and the Ecstasy.

As an interesting aside, not movie related, Charlton Heston was involved in the Civil Rights March on Washington with Martin Luther King Jr. With Martin Luther King Jr's assassination 40 years-ago, just the day before yesterday, and Heston's death the day after, that struck me. I don't know why. It just did.

For a while there, it almost looked like Air France-KLM was actually going to buy Alitalia and dig them out of their ongoing financial problems. Alitalia has been losing $1.6 million a day for more than a year. Grant wrote about the KLM-Alitalia deal just a few weeks ago.

Unfortunately, Air France-KLM ended their negotiations with Aitalia after Alitalia's unions balked, The Wall Street Journal reports. As a result, the Italian airline's chairman resigned.

You could just see how this whole thing unfolded in Italy. Silvio Berlusconi, currently campaigning to become Italy's eccentric prime minister again, thought that KLM was just not offering enough for the national pride that Alitalia is. Looking at it through KLM's eyes, they could care less about national pride; they wanted a good investment.

Well, if Berlusconi does get reelected, one of the first things he might have to do is place Alitalia under a government-appointed organization. Air Silvio, anyone?