History by exposure

"They really had no imaginations," a French teacher of mine once remarked, on the subject of street names in America. "I mean, 'first lake', 'second lake', 'third lake'... and the same in New York!" Her charming accent and dubious grammatical accuracy more or less absorbed any sting the comment might have had... and she kind of had a point, anyway.

Here in Italy, it's like in Paris (her original point of reference, if I recall correctly). Every day I walk past any number of streets, and they all have name plaques on them that go like this: "Angelo Secchi, 1818-1878, Naturalista". It's no wonder people here are so much more cultured than in America - you can get a full history lesson just by walking through town. Or perhaps they were cultured to begin with and that's why they take the time to name their streets after historical figures. I'm kind of sleepy and not really up to getting into a chicken-or-egg debate with myself right now, though, so I'll leave you with that rather less than earth-shattering observation.

All I know is that I'm waiting for someone to mention Angelo Secchi in conversation, so that I can just rifle through my mental snapshots of on-the-way-to-work and respond with, "oh, yes, the ninteenth century naturalist."