Rome Journal: Il gatto...e il capello matto

Il gatto… e il capello matto is the Italian translation of The Cat in the Hat. If you remember the Dr. Seuss’s fable begins on a note of childhood boredom. “The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we stayed in the house. All that cold, cold, wet day.” After a spate of unusually beautiful weather, characterized by clear and sunny skies, uncharacteristic for the post Epiphany season, cold rain greeted Romans on a recent Saturday. The fact is that Rome is famous for its cats. They’re ubiquitous and begging for employment. Dr. Seuss’s cat is a lord of misrule, but unusual due to the fact that it cleans up the mess it makes and returns everything back to normal. 150 cats occupy the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary, Colonia Felina di Torre Argentina. The are attended to by Le Gattare, a group of women who are devote to the care and protection of cats and if you visit any of Rome’s monuments you will find lots of cats. The first Italian language tour of the musical Cats was in 2009, with a new version subsequently having a run in 2016. Indeed there are estimated to be approximately 300,000 feral cats in Rome. In no other city in the world, is a pleasant intruder like Dr. Seuss’s creation more likely to provide such an imaginary salvo and flight of fancy.