Gloriously ratty Berlin Staatsoper will undergo a major (read: they're totally going to gut the building), three-year, $174 million renovation starting in September 2010 (but general manager Peter Mussbach is not saying, yet, where will they move the theatre's operations for those 3 seasons).
But the good thing is that pieces of the façade are not crumbling, crashing down on the Under den Linden boulevard.
No, that happened, yesterday, in Rome: a big honkin' chunk (about five feet wide) has somehow dislodged itself from the building façade, falling down on Via Torino where, luckily, no passerbys have enjoyed a close encounter with the stony projectile.