Naw, never heard of that, these are small shops mom an pop businesses, TONS of them in Toledo (which by the way is 1200 years old, and still has the old Roman walls around it and then the Christian walls above those..) also in Zaragoza there is a statue of Caesar Augustus (authentic and still standing, I was busy grabbing this Italian girls butt when staring at it though) with parts of the Roman wall there (this was an ancient Carthaginian colony taken by the Romans, just like Barcelona is named after a famous carthaginian family, (COUGH BARCA COUGH)) it takes a whole new meaning now that I discovered EB... :) Tarragona also is Carthaginian... history is alive even today!

as for the above, yes I live in Spain. Next trip I take to TOledo (its an hour away from Madrid), Í'll see if I can con one of the store owners to let me take pictures in a full suit of Roman lorica segmentata, with that damned heavy ass Scutum... and I'll post them. I'd make a good legionnaire. :) I dont think they like cameras though... and I´ll see if I can get website links for all you fans of real weaponry (the blades they sell are dulled, of course) but I broke a branch about 10 inches in diameter with a thrust... steel is steel after all.

ROMA INVICTA!

must brush up on Ciceronian