november-2010

SHORTS | EURO GOSSIP
Virtual Veg
MILAN
With over 85 million
users each month,
Farmville is by far
the most popular
game on Facebook.
But what if players
could actually
eat the food they
grow? Verdure
Del Mio Orto (“the
vegetables from my
garden”) addresses
exactly that idea,
allowing customers
to set up a virtual
plot, grow produce
and actually receive
deliveries of their
“homegrown” food.
A 30m 2 garden for
one-to-two people
on the farm close
to Milan costs
€850 per year, and
customers can
choose from 40
types of vegetables.
Once the produce
is grown, it’s picked
and delivered to the
customer’s door
within 24 hours.
Extras include a
photo album of the
garden’s progress
(€49) and even
a scarecrow with
a picture of the
online grower’s face
(€39). leverdure
delmioorto.it
92 | TRAVELLER | 15 TH BIRTHDAY ISSUE
Travelling Teddies
COLOGNE
Regular readers
of this magazine
will know that our
cuddly mascot
Gulliver gets around
– people send us
pictures of him in
all sorts of far-fl ung
destinations. So
maybe we shouldn’t
be surprised that
former saleswoman
Ulrike Böhmler has
launched Teddy-In,
a travel agency
for teddy bears.
Doting owners pay
Cologne-based
Böhmler to take
their beloved soft
toys on dream
holidays, with prices
starting at around
€90. Owners book
via email or letter
Buddy System
VARIOUS
The likes of
Facebook and
Twitter have ensured
that these days it’s
not at all strange to
have friends that
you’ve never met,
but one website is
going a step further
and offering to
supply real world
friends on demand.
RentAFriend.com
allows paying
members to
browse a worldwide
database of 218,000
men and women for
hire from as little as
€8 an hour – users
could be looking
for a “friend” to
accompany them to
a social gathering,
a family function,
or simply someone
to show them
around an unfamiliar
city. One month’s
membership costs
around €20 and
and then post their
soft toy to Böhmler,
who records the
bears’ adventures
by taking snapshots
of them with
famous landmarks.
All teddies are
returned one week
later with a photo
album, certifi cate
and souvenir.
teddy-in.com
WORD OF
MOUTH
provides access to
friends in a range of
countries, including
Poland, Croatia,
Malta, France and
Sweden. And there’s
no danger of a
“friend” getting the
wrong idea either,
as the site warns
that any members
offering more than
purely platonic
friendship will
be expelled from the
community.