Why would anyone want to visit a penitentiary? Unless it is an imprisonment facility for political reasons, such as the gulags all over Eastern Europe, Cambodia, Rwanda, Chile and many others, or it is a place where atrocities were committed against ethnic groups, such as those during the WWII, I find it hard to understand why would someone go to visit a jail? Would it be because it is a constant reminder of how precious freedom is and why we should live in accordance with the law?

Anyway, these days television made heroes of various felons in the history. As time goes by and movies grow in number, many people want to see the place where their “hero” was incarcerated.

It the case of Leavenworth Prison. The facility is located in the state of Kansas, and is a federal prison where the sentences of the Federal Court are being carried out. Between the years 1903-2005 it was the largest maximum security federal prison in the United States. Nowadays, it is a medium security facility, accommodating only male population.

Very many notorious criminals were imprisoned there over the years. Thomas James Holden made it first  place on the FBI Most Wanted Fugitives in 1950. He had been convicted for murder, incarcerated in Leavenworth where he managed to break out. Quite a performance, if we remember it was a maximum security penitentiary at the time.

Orba Elmer Jackson made it #7 on the same list. He escaped prison and robbed a post office. Robert Stroud was taken to Leavenworth before he made a name for himself at Alcatraz (the “name” was “The Bird Man in Alcatraz”). Frankie Cavanaugh served 20 years until 2007 for murder. He was a well-known Irish-American gangster. Ricardo Flores-Magon, a Mexican intellectual anarchist, came to the USA during the Mexican Revolution, continued his activity, was imprisoned at Leavenworth, where he died in the ’20, allegedly due to a health condition that deteriorated during imprisonment years.

We could go on with presenting the “stars” of this penitentiary. We picked up the most renowned, leaving out “personalities” such of those of an Indian American leader or of the last fugitive executed before T. McVeigh.

A place such this would have, no doubt, a gift shop, scary as it may seem at a first glance. If you’re expecting a pair of shackles or a striped outfit, think again! We are living in a civilized world.

Let’s take a look at the T-shirts and jackets we can buy as gifts. For the price of $24 we can purchase a T-shirt with a logo on it that says: “Leavenworth Penitentiary 457885 A Gated Community”.

A very special yellow T-shirt, costing $20 has a logo on it that says: “Shawshank”. Remember Shawshank Redemption? The great movie that brings up a very delicate question: How many inmates in prisons are there because of judicial errors?

$24 can buy you a “Solitary Confinement” dark T-shirt. The idea of prison is used to illustrate a conspiracy theory. Thus, for $29 you can buy a T-shirt that says: “They are trying to build a prison for you and me to live in”. Some constant reminder, ha?

For $22 you may buy a “Beware” funny T-shirt that says: “Came to Kansas on vacation left on probation”.

You can also choose a license plate with the  inscription “I made this in Leavenworth prison” or  a great post card of the prison.

Bottom line is that if you don’t want to report periodically to your probation officer, try the Leavenworth prison gifts website shops.

Every one wants to see the world. No matter where we live, we want to see other places, to enjoy different experiences. Some say this is a consequence of the kind of life we are living: individualism and materialism determine us to try to reach another persons or places for a communion which is often denied to us.

There are those who think we feel the need to escape our own environment because we grow tired of it. Makes sense. Of course, there is also a consumerist desire to devour everything, but let’s not play down the sheer inclination to satisfy a curiosity or to enhance our knowledge.

With all these reasons in mind, most of the people in the Northern hemisphere choose as destination of their vacations, holidays, even weekends, the beautiful Italy. It is such a marvelous country, so full of history and culture that we can barely make up our mind. What shall we see? The eternal city of Rome? The most romantic city of Venice? Turin? Milan? Romeo and Juliet- Verona? Naples? Well, since we are in Italy, we might as well see them all.

There is a place in Italy that sends us back to the very first days in the history of Italy. The place is called Pompeii, it is located in the province of Campania, near the city of Naples.

The city of Pompeii was built in the 7^th century BC by the Oscans, and played a major role in the economy of this part of the country, being a crossroad between South Europe, Middle East and North Africa. It was taken by the Samnites in the 5^th century BC, and remained faithful to Rome during the Punic wars. The city had a flourishing life until the year 79 AD, when Vesuvius volcano erupted and buried it under mountains of ashes, lava and fire around 20,000 inhabitants. The first rediscovery of the city was made in the 16^th century and ever since it remained a permanent tourist attraction.

So, we are in Pompeii and want to buy something to remember the uplifting moments we have lived in this ancient city. Well, for starters, we can buy a post card. There are many post cards that display important moments of the ancient city life and of its rediscovery monumental work.

If we don’t settle for a mere post card, we can buy a book. There are so many books in English or in Italian about the tragedy at Pompeii that if you put your mind to it, you may buy until you have spent the last dime.

One of the most renowned artefacts from Pompeii is the statue of Madonna, a reminder of the fact that, apart from being a very ancient city of Italy, this one had a Christian community at the time it was destroyed by the volcano.

If you want to find some gift shops online that sell souvenirs from Pompeii, you may want to try a… Italian approach. In stead of typing “gift shop” you should try “negozio da regalo”. Italians are a little behindhand with translating their sites in English.

So, if you search for some negozi da regalo in Napoli you may find a lot of them. For instance, De Laurentis is a handicraft workshop manufacturing silver objects, candy cases, and articles dedicated to the ancient art in Pompeii.

A simple searching through the Pompeii Yellow Pages (Pagine Giale, in Italian) will show you tens of gift shops, where you can buy the most representative souvenir from Pompeii.