What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 8 December 2022.

Římská was built in 1884.

Řím is Rome. And yet I’m writing this from the airport in Athens. I bet there’s a Latin or a Greek word for this.

Awesome sunrise from where I’m sitting right now, too.

Until 1926, the street – which was shorter at the time – was called Brandlova, after Petr Jan Brandl (1668-1735), a Czech Baroque painter (self-portrait from 1700 below).

It took an awful lot of research, but I eventually managed to establish that Rome is the capital of Italy. If you’re wondering what an ‘Italy’ is, then please refer to https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/12/23/prague-2-day-1-italska/.

That thread also explains the Great Allied Renaming Frenzy of 1926. And also explains why I’m a bit stumped for new material for this post.

I’ll try anyway.

Prague and Rome are twinned.

And the Vatican News has a Czech version: https://vaticannews.va/cs.html.

I also started looking for Czech restaurants in Rome, and saw one with really good reviews before realising it was in Turin.

Finally, this list of false friends between Czech and Italian may result in you never hearing ano* or kozy the same way ever again. Let alone a mountain round with curva after curva on it. https://www.berightback.it/false-friends-falsi-amici-italiano-ceco/

* As if that word hadn’t already been sullied by AB.

One more: got a friend in Italy who you need to get a Christmas present for? Here’s the ‘leader italiano nell’importazione di birre ed alcoolici dalla Repubblica Ceca’: https://birraceca.it/

‘Il leader’. Crikey.