The market for this type of piece , bubbling with Mediterranean 6joie de vivre , and redolent of bougainvillaea and pizza , remains pretty constant .sx In many countries , even the daily papers devote columns to this kind of thing , and still come back for more .sx The Germans in particular will take an indefinite wordage about the land where the lemon blooms .sx German correspondents can survey their public on St. Peter's Square every Easter .sx They stand in pouring rain amid the puddles , dressed in thin cambric blouses and astonishingly short shorts .sx Between their chattering teeth they emit little cries of " n !sx and Fantastisch !sx as they empty the water out of their camera shutters .sx The journalistic dog-days from May to September are a cruel problem for the professionisti , who are expected to offer their employers something more substantial than the latest old-world customs thought up by the Italian National Tourist Board .sx Not for them the fragrant piece about wine running from fountains at some village festa .sx But certain hardy perennials have been evolved to meet this recurring crisis , though it is regarded as bad form to use most of them before July .sx Safest , perhaps , is the one that comes in from Pisa about 30th June each year :sx LEANING TOWER TOTTERING !sx JAPANESE EXPERT INJECTS PLASTIC INTO FOUNDATIONS .sx This story , in its numerous variants , is usually good for at least ten lines on an inside page .sx It can be followed with another ten lines the following day , about the de@2menti issued by the Mayor of Pisa .sx A little later , Venice comes in with a similarly useful item :sx PALACES SINK INTO GRAND CANAL :sx BRIDGE OF SIGHS SUBSIDING .sx Even if it should be decided to let this standby lie fallow for a season , there is always a handy substitute about a strike of gondoliers .sx Bits about gondoliers are always printed .sx There has been some jealousy about these stories in recent years , and Florence has retorted strongly with the White Ant Peril .sx This has the advantage that it can be applied to almost any well-known building :sx TERMITES UNDERMINE PITTI PALACE is perhaps the favourite version .sx Floods in the Po Valley and eruptions of Etna and Vesuvius are usually well received , but snowfalls in the Alps are the safest weather-stories any date after 15th May .sx They can be telephoned or cabled with special confidence if they involve blocking of well-known passes , particularly the St. Bernard .sx In the latter case , mention should also be made of the Hospice and its dogs .sx It is customary to state that all the latter are about to be destroyed , because ( a ) they have gone raving mad and attacked travellers in distress , or ( b ) are so enfeebled by inbreeding that they can hardly stand up .sx Should snow occur anywhere within a hundred miles of Rome , it can be reported that packs of famished wolves have been driven down from the Abruzzi and have decimated flocks of sheep within sight of the Colosseum .sx But this item is rarely printed much before Christmas .sx However , an inspired variant of the Bitter Weather story recently almost reached the heights of the Love-mad Major .sx It ran in several papers simultaneously .sx A postman named Giancarlo Peppino Dante Tagliabue had been delivering letters for thirty years in a rural district near Aquila , it seemed , and was proud of never having missed a day .sx Heavy snowfalls had covered the rugged district with a deep , thick mantle , interspersed with occasional drifts .sx Giancarlo strapped on his skis nevertheless , and set off on his round .sx At seven-thirty in the morning he was seen by a shepherd , gamely negotiating a particularly tricky section of the mountain road to San Doloroso .sx At about ten o'clock , linesmen working on a power cable four kilometres from Monte Callifugo thought they heard howls and a deep-throated baying .sx At four , when it was already growing dark , a patrol of carabinieri found Tagliabue's official cap halfway down a snow-covered hillside .sx On the road above , half-buried in drifts , were scattered twenty or thirty letters , five copies of the Corriere dell' Aquila and an official receipt-book for registered mail .sx Of Giancarlo nothing was left .sx . Several papers ran banner headlines :sx DEVOTED POSTMAN EATEN BY WOLVES .sx A left-wing organ recalled that only the previous year Tagliabue had received a scroll from the Postal Workers' Union .sx Two agencies circulated smudgy photographs of his unattractive wife and seven children .sx The Voce di Trastevere opened a nation-wide subscription fund .sx It was not until several weeks later that Tagliabue was detained by the Foggia police for simulating an offence .sx He had been sweating up that snow-covered hillside , he explained , reflecting that he would not be pensioned for another fifteen years .sx He thought of his nagging wife and appalling brats , and it was just too much for him .sx He threw down his letters and his hat into the snow and took the first train to Foggia .sx He had been living there ever since with a waitress from a local trattoria .sx The only wolf he had ever seen , he said , was in a travelling zoo .sx However , I should not like to convey the impression that no authentic news is transmitted from Italy .sx Many Rome reports are based on the most solid facts- as witness the affair of the twenty-six Yemeni concubines .sx The Alban Hills south-east of Rome have been celebrated since pre-classical days for the beauty of their countryside , and the picturesque town of Frascati has been successively the headquarters of Etruscan kings , Saracen pirates , Renaissance princes and German field-marshals .sx But it is rare for buildings there to fly large red flags emblazoned with scimitars and five-pointed stars .sx When a rash of these exotic banners broke out in Frascati one recent June , residents at first suspected another foreign occupation .sx They were quickly reassured ; the flags were in honour of sixty-five year-old Imam Ahmed , King of the Yemen and self-proclaimed Suzerain of Aden , who had arrived to undergo treatment at a local clinic .sx The Royal Yemeni Embassy had originally rented merely an entire hotel for the monarch and his suite , but at the last moment it was learnt that the Imam himself would have to remain in the clinic for medical attention .sx The second floor of the hospital was therefore cleared of other patients , and additional flags were hung from the windows .sx The arrival of the royal caravan from Ciampino Airport created a certain stir .sx Some twenty Cadillacs disgorging nearly a hundred persons gave the impression that a successful fancy-dress party must be in progress .sx After the Imam himself had been helped to his apartments , a succession of wizened brown tribesmen , about five feet tall and clad in bizarre mauve and orange suitings , emerged from the vehicles .sx Lastly thirty-seven muffled figures , swathed in veils and wrappings and attended by men with scimitars and muskets , scuttled from the hindmost cars and vanished into the hotel .sx The two principal members of the suite were brothers of the Imam .sx Two young sons of the Ruler and numerous nephews made up the male section of the family party .sx The female side was more extensive .sx It was headed by three of the Imam's wives , twenty-six representative concubines , and eight women slaves .sx In addition , there were the Imam's aides-de-camp , senior officers of his personal escort , an adequate bodyguard armed with scimitars , daggers and an assortment of firearms , a number of eunuchs and male slaves , and four European doctors who practised at the Yemeni court .sx Three of these were described as Italians , and the fourth as Franco-Rumanian .sx There was marked reluctance on the part of the ruler's attendants to establish contact with the outside world , possibly because they were anxious to retain the use of their extremities .sx Apart from syphilis , the most noteworthy form of indisposition in the Yemen is lack of hands or feet , of which it is customary to deprive those who fall under official displeasure .sx The complaints from which the Imam himself was suffering were difficult to establish , despite a guarded statement that he was a martyr to arthritis .sx Apart from his own physicians and the staff of the clinic , the Ruler was visited by a continual stream of eminent Rome specialists , including Professor Gozzano , Dean of the Faculty of Neurology and Psychiatry , and Professor Bietti , a distinguished eye consultant .sx The Imam's section of the clinic was heavily curtained , and those who caught a glimpse of the corridor beyond could report only the presence of two sentries armed to the teeth and carrying drawn swords , a number of parcels wrapped in newspaper , and a heavy odour of mutton fat .sx On the night of his arrival , the Imam had slept on the floor of his room on a pile of fifty pillows .sx At the clinic , a procession of porters removed all beds from the royal apartments , and mattresses were distributed on the floors .sx The wives , concubines and slaves quickly introduced a shift system to enable them to satisfy the Imam's every want .sx Some of them , possibly the ruler's favourites , seemed to put in a good deal of overtime .sx At the hotel , the management was wringing its hands ; its catering system had been gravely disorganized , and the rows of white-jacketed waiters were forbidden to approach either the harem ladies or the eight female slaves .sx The three wives and five senior concubines took their meals in their rooms , but the other twenty-one , heavily disguised with hoods and yashmaks , ate in a corner of the restaurant , which had also been hung with curtains for the purpose .sx The barefoot slave-girls shuffled back and forth with the dishes .sx By this time , the Italian Press was sitting up and taking notice .sx Relatively little interest attached to the health of the Imam , but photographers from the illustrated weeklies were wild about the concubines .sx Every tree in Frascati seemed to contain an active little man from Catania or Palermo , armed with an eighteen-inch telescopic lens .sx Meanwhile , there was near-mutiny in the respective kitchens of the hotel and the clinic , where local experts had been hovering lovingly over Fettucine Tuscolo , Saltimbocca alla Romana , and Cassata alla Siciliana .sx True , these delicacies were duly consumed by the distinguished guests , or at any rate they were not returned to the kitchens .sx But there was a distinct suggestion that the ruler's court was being underfed .sx The little men in mauve and orange suits , tailored no doubt in the emporia of Steamer Point , flitted in and out with newspaper-packets of strange vegetables , larger parcels stained with blood and apparently containing lumps of goat , and earthenware cooking-pots .sx Other ingredients were carried through the austere hall of the clinic in large baskets , and at the end of a corridor two Negro slaves were found constructing a spit over a bonfire of dry twigs .sx It was , I believe , at about this stage that some of the photographers fell foul of the bodyguard , while insinuating themselves into favourable positions for a series of exclusive shots of harem life .sx The photographers apparently came off worst in the encounters , and retired complaining of blows with the flats of swords and damage to their cameras .sx They left at once for police headquarters , to bring charges of assault .sx Meanwhile , odd rumours were coming in from the Imam's capital at Taiz .sx No sooner had the ailing monarch departed for Italy , it was learnt , than would-be modernizers had begun to loosen the bonds of theocratic absolutism .sx The name of Crown Prince Mohammed al-Badr was bandied about , though it was far from clear whether he was an active modernizer or not .sx The word 'reform' in the Yemen is more or less equated with 'revolution' .sx Messengers were moving unobtrusively over the jet-black mountain ranges , bearing confidential tidings from sheikhdom to sheikhdom .sx According to exultant enemies of the ruler , he was unlikely ever to set foot in his kingdom again .sx They had , however , reckoned insufficiently with the therapeutic qualities of a stay in Frascati .sx One day , after a short but bracing trip to the seaside west of Rome , the ruler pronounced himself fighting fit .sx Leaving behind trusted agents to contest the naturally considerable bills and fight any possible lawsuits , the Imam drove to Rome airport .sx Embarking his wives , slaves , viziers , eunuchs , aides-de-camp and concubines in a couple of airliners , he descended like a thunderbolt on Arabia Felix .sx