Post number 300! A morning in one of the museums of Rome. This one is a little underrated because we have so many archaeological remains that waste them. I visited it when I was a child. It is the Museo delle Mura (wall museum), built inside a city door of the late Roman walls. This is now called Porta San Sebastiano, and it is the door where start the Via Appia from Rome.

The opportunity to visit it was a temporary exhibition about Roman armours and helms. The materials are supplied by Archeos, an almost local reenactment and research group. So we haven’t real archaeological pieces but reproductions. It is good to see these things in a natural size shape to understand better what you can see only on books or monuments. My only remark is on some realisation are not so exact, as late Roman helm or other things for gladiators. But these are particulars. Enjoy the spectacle indeed.

Classical imperial helms and lorica segmentata.

Late Romans are a historical period not so represented in actual iconography. Trajan times are used as standard for all the Roman history. But what we generally know about Trajan is his column, while we have evidences about something different even for his epoch.

An armour for commanders. Vitreous materials could be used instead of gems for the helm. A way to save…

The kind of standard dress for foot soldiers. But this one is for a high rank soldier. Watch the crest and the richness of the vest.

On the left a secutor armour. I love this close helm. Near an arbelas, the weapon of the scissor.
On the right a middle Roman armour with a chest protector composed of rhomboidal plates.

The classical duel: on the left a myrmillo, on the right a thraex! In the middle, myself.

Some short graeves, a parmula, a sice supina and a falx.

A highly decorated myrmillo helm. Someone claim that this kind of helms were used only during the pompa magna, the presentation of gladiators to public before the fight. But if they are build to be used for a fight, then they were used for fights. None build a strong helm only for a parade. It is so simple. This is the helm of a champion.

I’m so tired and replete! Sunday I was in Canino (VT) for a wargame convention organised by Narciso, my wargame club mate who lives there. The opportunity was a countryside festival about asparagus. The municipal authorities gave us a building in the town centre to place our tables. So some demonstration games ran all the day.

The Napoleonic rules by Di Bartolo in a mastered battle. Only for grognards.

The Clan Conan of LuccaGames fame was there. Romans versus late Macedonians with easy rules: Battle of Cynoscephalae (364 BC).

The best demonstration table. Diego has got a real feeling for children. So he took Song of Blade and Heroes, mastered and simplified the rules to baby level, and a lot of fun were spread.

Vlad the Impaler always by Clan Conan. Playable by common men.

Another preview for Of Gods And Mortals. In these days I’m studying the rules to build a new mythological pantheon expansion.

This is a demonstration game season. So I was there with my Ferrum et Gloria. Now I’m writing the rules, at last! In this phase I’m editing all the game mechanics to add more fluency to the play and to clarify some situations. The goal is to have the published version in the late 2013.

Narciso is an artist too. His first attempt to make something about miniature sculpting: two 75mm gladiators that he sculpted with Milliput and realised with resin. I think that they are great! Remember, his first attempt…

And now, back to the countryside festival. Part of the long historical parade. Sorry, I didn’t captured the feeling of the thing, it was better than what you can see here. There were three horses too. Canino is a little town, so it is a big effort to have a lot of people with medieval costumes.

Asparagus, oil and artichokes, sold at bargain prices, especially the asparaguses, something like one euro for one bundle! This place has got an agricultural vocation, and they are famous for high quality oil and early production of asparagus.

All wargamers together for the lunch. And a multi courses menu exclusively based on asparagus recipes: with oil and vinegar, with pasta and fish, with potatoes and meat, with calamari, au gratin. Two hours and half for this duty. The ladies around the table (girlfriends, Andrea’s mother and Di Bartolo’s wife) went in the morning to visit an ancient Longobard stronghold in the surroundings, in a trip leaded by Narciso among tuff rocks and high grass. Narciso is the chap with sideburns.

In the main square of the town, the traditional Guinness omelet with asparagus, the topic moment of the festival. An eggs massacre for the joy of people.

And here a close-up on my slice of omelet. A great day, fun with friends and some dices rolled around. Later, after the greetings to the wargamers, we reorganised the place and the materials. After we take the dinner with some Narciso’s friends, again asparagus, but on pizza this time.

In the past I lost a lot of opportunities to visit military markets in my local area. Instead this time I went up to Latina, during a freezing raining day.

Among flat fields near Latina there is a private museum inside agriculture warehouses. It is about military vehicles and other collections regrouped by a hobbyist like us, but with some money more in his pockets. We collect models, he bought the original items. They are transport vehicles at most. They are a lot and ready to be put on road. This place is called Piana delle Orme.

Every 4 months they organise a military market in a small empty pavilion. You can find WWII items in real scale. Almost all is original. We are near the Anzio front so something is even recently dug up from those places.

If you need an helmet this is the right place. Some were at bargain prices as 20/30 euro. But these people are professionals so generally prices were not so low.

Collectors are always strange people. Everyone is looking for something, from helmet rivets to complete machine-guns. I was not so interested about finding something to add to my reenactment equipment. Principally because I only need weapons and they are at high prices.

In these days I’m thinking about a Beretta MAB 38a. In the photo you can view it among other weapons. It costs 900 euro. Another time, if I cannot satisfied myself with another thing that I’m trying to buy in these days.

In Lucca Games there was the Miniature Island. Yes, we were on an island in the sea of Lucca Comics & Games (and Cosplay, remember). We were only an island in Lucca Games pavilion too. Boardgames had a larger space and importance because in Italy we have various publishers on the market. This means that more money is involved in this sector than wargames one. Roleplay games are another sector and it has a respectable market. Live roleplay is an obscure sector to me and it was located in another pavilion. But the videogames market rules upon us all.

To celebrate the release of the new chapter of the Assassin’s Creed saga, the third one, an entire pavilion was dedicated to it. A polite statement to say that Ubisoft bought it. They have got the money to do it.

Around the city you could see some projections of this videogame advertisements on the walls. More revealing was the reenactment event of the Saturday, the simulation of Bunker Hill battle (1775). Almost 200 reenactors and lots of gunpowder were involved. We play wargame battles with miniatures, videogame industries play wargame battles with real men. Money makes a difference.

Another money matter. Videogame stands were huge and customised. I forgot to take a picture of the new Nintendo console and its gorgeous girls stand assistants. Among these game giants I took a photo of a wrestling videogame with the straight edge wrestler guy. Weird. Minor Threat – the band who came up in the eighties with the “straight edge” term – didn’t think about this evolution.

Just Dance is the exhibitionists videogame of the fair. Every year a new edition, every year wild girls try to hypnotise men with their rhythmic movements controlled by a game console with video camera. Some stand assistants lead the game. Here at the end of a day. I saw them in the morning, before the open of the gates, dancing without public: they were so crazy for dance to do it for fun! After 4 days in Lucca I was dead tired. And these girls?

An alternative way to utilise your old CRT computer screen: using it as a stage for miniatures.

In Lucca there is always a little modding section. This one was kitsch for sure, a gun with inside and outside various bad taste things, as Smurfs and model cars. Ugly looking.

Something better. But not so practical with that finger-eat fan. Glamorous but too much “open” to be a computer case.

A great machine! Water cooled case. Clean design, neon lights, blue-black-white colours. What can I say? It is sexy.

Paolo from Switzerland came to Lucca by train. Here while he is wearing his new computer headphones. Saturday night we walk together to a place outside Lucca where were relegated the computer geeks. They organised an all night long videogames lan party. Someone fell asleep on the floor, indeed. Instead Paolo, our hero, killed millions of aliens and took the train the morning after at 7 to the watches country.

Lucca Comics & Games has a wrong name, a better statement would be Lucca Cosplay, Comics & Games. This is the Italian biggest event for cosplayers. This year I was more involved with the Ganesha Games table so I dedicated only few time to take cosplayers photos. Sorry.

These two girls remained all the time on the wall posing for photos. Every day (4) they changed the dresses. They have got a video blog where they speak about their daily experiences in Lucca.

The walk on the bastions are the traditional place for show your cosplay and your legs to people and photographers hordes.

A huge sword and a slight corpse. Yes, the sword isn’t made of steel.

A girl in bikini. A common view in Lucca those days. Look at the girl on the right: a little more heavy as dresses. On the left another girl with an open umbrella. Maybe it wasn’t summer time.

Monsters from famous flicks. It was fun to walk with a bed or a well!

Steampunk, a new subculture that I like. The next year Osprey will publish a book with steampunk wargame rules.

This paunchy chap was just come from a human female abattoir. Or had he devastate a mannikin deposit?

Anime heroes gone bad. This chap impersonate a pop singer from Love Me Knight (“Kiss me Licia” in Italy) anime. Time goes by for us all. And a big belly can be the result. These film producers are specialised in parodies.

A miracle in the parking! A pirate patch was discovered by us on the ground. We suppose that a cosplay recovered sight! Lucca works miracles.

A warm androgynous nude look. And a blast from a fist. Common sights in Lucca.

Another cosplay from anime world. And an easy way to keep close a girlfriend. She is almost a cat, he can remind an Arabian knight. I’m too old, I don’t know all these Japanese series. I don’t know which characters are impersonated by 80% of cosplayers…

This guy is the “reenactment part” of this post. Some people as cosplay costume wear their softair dresses. So they can walk in the streets with (softair) guns. I think that they are prohibited outside specific areas. Even a lot of metal cosplay swords are illegal, I suppose. However, lots of people in Lucca wear costumes so these weapons are saw as part of the fair colour. But there is someone who overdo! This is a Humvee, indeed! This vehicle is labelled as German but the overall aspect is American, with a forest camouflage, I believe. In Italy we don’t have Humvee. The guy wears an Italian desert “vegetata” uniform. A patchwork and another not so legal presence.

After 5 days in Lucca Comics & Games I needed some sleep. I was among thousands of staff people and 180000 paying people. I worked heavy at the Ganesha stand but I succeeded to take almost 250 photos, so you have to wait a little to watch a full report in thematic posts on this web. However now I’m offering you some official videos to understand what is this fair. Enjoy!

I wrote a lot of posts about this reenacment event. It was an intense experience for me and I wanted to show you that large amount of vehicles and uniforms. Mine is a replica of those of Gruppo Combattimento Folgore, the paratrooper troops of South Reign of Italy in 1944-1945. They are the English Battle Dress with Italian badges, because the old uniforms were lacerated by wear.

Here there is the same uniform but with the paratrooper suit and a more practical combat cap.

And now some images from our stop on the way to home. This is the tablet at Case Grizzano, a place, some houses on a hill, where Italian and German paratroopers found death only a few days before the end of the war, in a failed attempt to break the front in the plains from the lateral side on the mountains.

The cippus. Sad that there is nothing for the Germans.

The valley where Italians attacked.

A country cemetery, place of a German machine gun position. Now a empty cemetery.

This event is a mobile one, it is a column made of vehicles, so you need a historical vehicle. Our little group prevently found four seats on a camion but a nice gentleman (Mario, thank you again!) offered us a passage with his jeep, a Ford GPW. It is a replica of the car of the commander (general Arturo Scattini) of the Gruppo di Combattimento Friuli, that fought during the 1944-1945 years in this area. The specific white livery is distinctive of the command role.

A little problem with the klaxon. And the possibility to view the motor.

Here a post on a forum with the official presentation of the refurbished jeep to Mario’s friends.