A Dog Park in Pisa
June 19, 2014 23 Comments
Well, I suppose I should begin by explaining my long absence for the blogosphere (I am so behind on blog reading and am unlikely to catch up). But there’s a good excuse, I promise: the Husband and I went off to western Europe for 24 days.
And it was awesome! We had so much fun and went to so many cool places!
But I didn’t completely forget about the Soapbox while I was away and have some travels to share.
For example, did you know there’s a dog park right next to the Leaning Tower of Pisa?
Me neither!
I don’t know if it’s an official dog park, but there were quite a few pups gathered there having a great time.
Perhaps it’s the Capitoline Wolf sculpture that welcomes them?
It depicts the legend of Romulus and Remus (sons of Mars), who were rescued by a she-wolf after being cast into the Tiber River. They were then raised by a shepherd, grew to overthrow their great uncle (as prophesied, hence the banishment in the first place), and eventually established the city of Rome. (Later Romulus kills his brother, often taken to represent the city’s history of conflict.)
This little dude was chewing on a stick solo nearby, in front of the Pisa Baptistry
So, now that I’m back, what’d I miss?!
This post is part of the Thursday Barks & Bytes Blog Hop, hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. Go pay a visit to the hosts and check out other hop participants.
About ThatJenK
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How very cool to get away to a beautiful place like that for so long. Great pictures.
That is so cool! I did not know that, we lived in Italy for a couple of years and made it to Pisa a couple of times. At that point we did not have any dogs, but now that we do, it would be so much fun to take them! Thanks for sharing!
WOW!!! It looks so so beautiful there!!! Sounds like you had a great trip!!!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
OH my gosh, Jealous! What a fun trip you had.
What a wonderful trip! Nice you were able to get away for nearly a month. It’s very European of you. 🙂
I’d love for you to write about pet-friendly Europe. I have a huge suspicion that if North American allowed dogs in more public places they’d be better socialized and less reactive. Did you find that to be the case when you saw dogs in your travels?
I suspect it is a great deal like children. When parents are responsible bringing children to more places can be a great experience. They learn to adapt to more environments and they aren’t disruptive to the people around them. They can have a wide range of wonderful experiences. When parents just dump them into the environment without proper training and supervision, nobody enjoys the experience and usually little benefits are achieved.
I suspect the same is true of dogs. If people take the time to train the dogs they take out and supervise them when they are in public it can be a wonderful experience for everyone. However, if the dogs aren’t trained and the owners are not responsible, it can be a tough situation for all parties.
Sadly, that is why people are so resistant to allowing dogs in more public places. Just getting owners to do something simple like bag their dogs’ poop seems a huge challenge. Making owners understand they are responsible for controlling their dogs’ behavior in public around humans and other dogs is also a challenge. Instead of dealing with the small population of people who won’t behave they banish all of us. The few ruin it for the many. That is one of the biggest issues we’ve had in getting approval for a local dog park. There are huge concerns about liability issues. Having watched the few who ruin it for the rest of us, honestly I can see the government concerns.
I’ll definitely put something together on that subject. We saw dogs everywhere and I kept thinking how awesome it would be to have Moses and Alma welcome in so many places (though they wouldn’t be too keen on the warmer temps), but then I wondered if it was just a romanticized grass-is-greener lens I’m looking through? Things to contemplate…
Great pictures. Thanks for sharing your trip.
Nice vacation. No excuse needed
Wow – well, we missed you and Moses & Alma, so welcome back. It looks like you had a wonderful trip – so lucky to get away for such a long time! A dog park at the Leaning Tower…love it.
Wow – jealous! Great photos!
AMAZING photos!
What an incredibly great excuse for being away from blogging! All is forgiven, but you have been missed. How are Moses and Alma doing? Did they stay with friends or a kennel? I’ll bet they were super excited when you returned. I can’t wait to hear more!
That sounds like a marvelous time!! I understand the animal philosophy is so different in Europe, I wish it would drift over this way. 🙂
Thanks for joining the blog hop and don’t worry about being behind, I’m so far behind I’m tempted to empty my reader and start fresh. 🙂
Welcome back and thanks for joining the hop. Marvelous pictures. That is such a nice grassy area next to two wonderful historic buildings. If I was a dog, I think I would hang there too!
I’m jealous!! Glad you had a wonderful time! Bet Moses and Alma were happy to see you when you go home!!
*got home* not *go home* — silly me!
Looks like a brilliant place!
This is so cool!! Now, if only Donna can go travelling too… She can go there and conduct social media experimentation next to the leaning tower of pisa… oops! 😛 Anywhere, cool post and how wonderful … I have yet to make my way to any part of Europe yet.
That is just awesome and I’m glad you had a great time!!
Screw what you missed! I want to see more of where you were! I love the shots of the dogs playing at the base of the Tower. I doubt anyone would have or could have expected that. Kind of a nice break in the day huh? 🙂
Okay. So how was it?
BTW – Fantastic photos.
How cool! And welcome back!!! I love those pictures. Okay, so I looked at the pictures first and had the following thoughts:
1. I didn’t know she lived in Italy
2. I didn’t know she could take her dogs to Italy
3. Those aren’t her dogs
4. Did people pick up after their dogs
Then I read the post.