Two Flying Chairs
Near the end of the Capo street market in the quarter behind the Palermo cathedral is a narrow lane called Street of the Flying Chairs where once these elegant travel booths were made. The cabs were carried on long poles on men's shoulders and seemed to fly above the crowds. Men and women of the 18th century who could afford this mode of transportation did not have to walk through the filth in Palermo's streets and were protected from unexpected showers of night soil being emptied from pots. Goethe traveled in one of these when he visited Sicily. These two well-used specimens were in a museum. I'd love try it and see what it was like to be carried by humans underneath you. What a mindset it must have encouraged among both the working-class bearers and their monied customers.