Today was my last full day in Rome. I did some last-minute souvenir shopping, taking to opportunity to visit a few favorite spots one last time as well. I walked across Ponte Sisto, my usual route into the Centro Storico, and into the riot of color and commotion that is Campo dei’ Fiore. I visited Piazza Navona too, and looped around south toward the river. Approaching Largo Argentina, I saw the streetcar pulling up, and decided to have one last tram ride back to Trastevere.
Earlier I had spoken to Gary, who is on his way to the ALA Annual Convention in Anaheim, California. I’m missing the conference luckily, since I’m still in Italy. Anyway, Gary was supposed to have an early-morning flight out of State College and into Cincinnati, and eventually get to California pretty early. Well, he told me that his plane had some mechanical problem and they had to wait. Wait they did, and eventually, the airline sent him by taxi to Harrisburg, nearly a hundred miles away. Through some convoluted series of flights he eventually got to California, about twelve hours late. I used to love flying, but it sucks these days because half your flights get cancelled or changed.
This evening I have a nice farewell dinner at Tony’s, a place I frequent because it’s close, good, relatively inexpensive, and the staff are great. I know all the people working there, and they gave me a great buon viaggio dinner: mixed antipasti, a big salad, and a Roman specialty: lamb grilled on oak. The folks working there all came and hugged me and gave me the two-cheek kiss, saying “Arrivederci Rossone!” They made me promise to come back and eat there again the next time I’m in Rome, a promise that will be easy to keep.
I took a last stroll around the neighborhood with a cone of gelato (limone, con panna), stopping to talk to proprietors of some of the shops I’ve gotten to know. The bakers across the street from me all waved goodbye from behind the counter, and the baristas at Good came out to hug me as well. Night was falling, and I returned to my apartment to pack and grab a little sleep before leaving for Ostia the next day.
Danilo in Italia: Dan's in Italy!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Thursday 26 June: Concert in Trastevere
I’m nearing the end of my stay in Italy. As I was visiting some of my favorite spots for the last time, I saw an advertisement for a concert in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere. This is “my” church, not sixty seconds from my door. I thought it would be a great way to end my stay, so I went to the concert at 6 pm.
Performing was a visiting group from Germany, the Dresdner Kapellknaben, the Boys Choir of Dresden Cathedral. There were probably three dozen boys in the group. The youngest couldn’t have been more than 6 or 7, and the oldest bass maybe 16. I was excited to hear them sing in Santa Maria in Trastevere. This is an ancient church, one of the oldest in the world. It’s built on the site of a second or third century titulus or house church, from when Christianity was still an illegal sect. The original basilica was built in the fourth and fifth centuries, and was the first church in Rome, maybe in the world, to be dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It was largely remodeled in the 1200s, when the amazing mosaics with scenes from the life of Mary were installed. There are later frescos and chapels as well, including some beautiful Renaissance and Baroque art. The nave is lined with columns re-used from ancient Roman temples and palaces. I love how they are of different sizes and materials, and have re-used, non-matching capitals and bases as well. This was the perfect setting for the choir.
The boys sang incredibly well. Their voices were clear and focused, but light and flexible at the same time. The choir would rise from a tiny, quiet pianissimo and to a thunder of contrapuntal voices that filled the church and echoed off the mosaic and marble of the walls. They also had outstanding intonation, which is quite an accomplishment for their age. The program covered sacred music from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance and Baroque, and up to the twentieth century. Some of my favorite composers were represented, as well as a couple I was less familiar with. The choir sang works by Lassus, Gabrieli, Palestrina, Schütz, Scarlatti, Trexler, Bruckner, Mendelssohn, and Grieg. As I heard those pure, clear voices singing such great music in the ancient basilica, I forgot about the heat outside, and the packing I had to do, and the goodbyes to say. I’ve heard a lot of music while I’ve been in Italy, but I think this was my favorite. I couldn’t have asked for a better parting gift from Trastevere.
Performing was a visiting group from Germany, the Dresdner Kapellknaben, the Boys Choir of Dresden Cathedral. There were probably three dozen boys in the group. The youngest couldn’t have been more than 6 or 7, and the oldest bass maybe 16. I was excited to hear them sing in Santa Maria in Trastevere. This is an ancient church, one of the oldest in the world. It’s built on the site of a second or third century titulus or house church, from when Christianity was still an illegal sect. The original basilica was built in the fourth and fifth centuries, and was the first church in Rome, maybe in the world, to be dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It was largely remodeled in the 1200s, when the amazing mosaics with scenes from the life of Mary were installed. There are later frescos and chapels as well, including some beautiful Renaissance and Baroque art. The nave is lined with columns re-used from ancient Roman temples and palaces. I love how they are of different sizes and materials, and have re-used, non-matching capitals and bases as well. This was the perfect setting for the choir.
The boys sang incredibly well. Their voices were clear and focused, but light and flexible at the same time. The choir would rise from a tiny, quiet pianissimo and to a thunder of contrapuntal voices that filled the church and echoed off the mosaic and marble of the walls. They also had outstanding intonation, which is quite an accomplishment for their age. The program covered sacred music from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance and Baroque, and up to the twentieth century. Some of my favorite composers were represented, as well as a couple I was less familiar with. The choir sang works by Lassus, Gabrieli, Palestrina, Schütz, Scarlatti, Trexler, Bruckner, Mendelssohn, and Grieg. As I heard those pure, clear voices singing such great music in the ancient basilica, I forgot about the heat outside, and the packing I had to do, and the goodbyes to say. I’ve heard a lot of music while I’ve been in Italy, but I think this was my favorite. I couldn’t have asked for a better parting gift from Trastevere.
Wednesday 25 June: A brief discourse on gelato
One of the most pleasant ways to deal with summer heat in Italy is to eat gelato. Gelato is usually translated as “ice cream,” although technically it’s ice milk, since it is made with whole milk rather than cream. It often has egg in it as an emulsifier, and is less dense than American ice cream. In Italy gelato is taken very seriously, and only the highest quality ingredients are used. It’s made fresh daily, and when you walk past a gelateria, you see it heaped in bins within glass-fronted counters. It is much better than most American ice cream, better even than la glace in France. And although I’ve had really good gelato in Florence and Venice, the best is in Rome.
Gelato comes in lots of flavors. The vanilla and chocolate are standards, but there are lots of variations. Cioccolato fondente is dark chocolate, very deep and intense, and one of my favorites. Bacio, named for the “kiss” candy you see all over Italy, is chocolate and hazelnut. And Gary’s favorite, stracciatella, has hot melted chocolate drizzled over the gelato and then stirred into it. The strings of chocolate harden and break up, and it’s sort of like chocolate chip, only better. There are tons of fruit flavors: fragole (strawberry), arancia (orange), ananas (pineapple), mela (apple), pera (pear), pesca (peach), and frutti di bosco (“fruit of the woods” meaning blackberry and raspberry) are all common. The best fruit flavor for a hot day is limone, which has an incredibly refreshing, almost astringent lemon flavor. You can also find fico (fig) and albicocca (apricot) sometimes. Nut flavors are also popular, including pistacchio, mandorla (almond), and nocciola (hazelnut). There are several subtle but delicious cream flavors, too. These include fiore di latte (“flower of milk,” a very delicate and delicious taste), crema (not cream, but egg custard), zabaione (custard with Marsala wine, quite rich and tasty), and caffè (coffee). You can also find some more unusual flavors too. Cannella (cinnamon) gelato is really good if you’re lucky enough to encounter it. Zuppa inglese (“English soup”) is named after the British dessert “trifle,” and has pieces of cookie or cake in it. Liquirizia is licorice, and maybe an acquired taste.
You can get gelato in cones or cups of many sizes. You can also have it on a sweet roll: the gelateria will have a bin of brioches wrapped in cellophane. They’ll split it for you and heap on the gelato. Italians think you’re crazy if you only order one flavor. I’ve seen people get as many as ten on one cone!
And remember the panna! Panna is cream, as in whipped cream. The best places, meaning the ones I go to, whip the cream by hand until it’s really stiff, and keep it in a big steel bowl on ice. Whether you have a cone or a cup, just say you want yours “con panna” and they’ll slap a big glob of whipped cream on top. The best thing is, panna is always free!
Although some desserts, like frozen cakes, may include gelato as an ingredient, gelato is seldom eaten as a dessert by Italians. Instead, it’s the perfect snack for the late afternoon or early evening stroll. Before and after dinner, the streets of Rome are filled with boys and girls, workers in uniforms, men and women in Prada, tourists, police, nuns, and priests walking with their friends, laughing and talking and eating gelato. When it’s hot out, there’s nothing better than a cono piccolo di limone, con panna!
Gelato comes in lots of flavors. The vanilla and chocolate are standards, but there are lots of variations. Cioccolato fondente is dark chocolate, very deep and intense, and one of my favorites. Bacio, named for the “kiss” candy you see all over Italy, is chocolate and hazelnut. And Gary’s favorite, stracciatella, has hot melted chocolate drizzled over the gelato and then stirred into it. The strings of chocolate harden and break up, and it’s sort of like chocolate chip, only better. There are tons of fruit flavors: fragole (strawberry), arancia (orange), ananas (pineapple), mela (apple), pera (pear), pesca (peach), and frutti di bosco (“fruit of the woods” meaning blackberry and raspberry) are all common. The best fruit flavor for a hot day is limone, which has an incredibly refreshing, almost astringent lemon flavor. You can also find fico (fig) and albicocca (apricot) sometimes. Nut flavors are also popular, including pistacchio, mandorla (almond), and nocciola (hazelnut). There are several subtle but delicious cream flavors, too. These include fiore di latte (“flower of milk,” a very delicate and delicious taste), crema (not cream, but egg custard), zabaione (custard with Marsala wine, quite rich and tasty), and caffè (coffee). You can also find some more unusual flavors too. Cannella (cinnamon) gelato is really good if you’re lucky enough to encounter it. Zuppa inglese (“English soup”) is named after the British dessert “trifle,” and has pieces of cookie or cake in it. Liquirizia is licorice, and maybe an acquired taste.
You can get gelato in cones or cups of many sizes. You can also have it on a sweet roll: the gelateria will have a bin of brioches wrapped in cellophane. They’ll split it for you and heap on the gelato. Italians think you’re crazy if you only order one flavor. I’ve seen people get as many as ten on one cone!
And remember the panna! Panna is cream, as in whipped cream. The best places, meaning the ones I go to, whip the cream by hand until it’s really stiff, and keep it in a big steel bowl on ice. Whether you have a cone or a cup, just say you want yours “con panna” and they’ll slap a big glob of whipped cream on top. The best thing is, panna is always free!
Although some desserts, like frozen cakes, may include gelato as an ingredient, gelato is seldom eaten as a dessert by Italians. Instead, it’s the perfect snack for the late afternoon or early evening stroll. Before and after dinner, the streets of Rome are filled with boys and girls, workers in uniforms, men and women in Prada, tourists, police, nuns, and priests walking with their friends, laughing and talking and eating gelato. When it’s hot out, there’s nothing better than a cono piccolo di limone, con panna!
Tuesday 24 June: Sleep, or the lack thereof
I have never had normal sleep patterns, and in Italy, they’ve only gotten worse. I remember my first night here, when I heard the incessant din of Trastevere continue until after 3 am. My first thought was that I was back on the north side of Youngstown, Ohio, where I went to college. Of course, I was a quarter century younger then, too. I quickly decided that I wouldn’t even try to sleep through it, but just go to bed after it became quiet. This worked, more or less.
As the weather became increasingly hot, I tried to do what the locals do and siesta in the hottest part of the day. The problem was that my apartment lacks even a fan, much less air conditioning, and is just too hot to nap then. So what I’ve been doing is trying to schedule my time so I’m in a comparatively cool place in the afternoon: library, museum, air conditioned caffè, etc. Then, when the late afternoon breezes come through my apartment and the shops start opening, I sometimes take a nap for an hour or so, then get up for dinner. I write during the night while Trastevere parties, since the noise doesn’t bother me. I catch another two or three hours of sleep between 3:30 and 7 am or so.
This has evolved into just sleeping whenever it’s cool enough, quiet enough, and I’m tired enough. These three coincide occasionally, but not necessarily predictably. Since I’m living along and have a little kitchen, it doesn’t really matter when I get up or go to bed. I doubt that I ever get more than five hours of sleep in any twenty-four hour period, though. I don’t even think that I’ll suffer any jet lag when I return to the US, because I don’t have a normal sleep pattern to get disrupted!
As the weather became increasingly hot, I tried to do what the locals do and siesta in the hottest part of the day. The problem was that my apartment lacks even a fan, much less air conditioning, and is just too hot to nap then. So what I’ve been doing is trying to schedule my time so I’m in a comparatively cool place in the afternoon: library, museum, air conditioned caffè, etc. Then, when the late afternoon breezes come through my apartment and the shops start opening, I sometimes take a nap for an hour or so, then get up for dinner. I write during the night while Trastevere parties, since the noise doesn’t bother me. I catch another two or three hours of sleep between 3:30 and 7 am or so.
This has evolved into just sleeping whenever it’s cool enough, quiet enough, and I’m tired enough. These three coincide occasionally, but not necessarily predictably. Since I’m living along and have a little kitchen, it doesn’t really matter when I get up or go to bed. I doubt that I ever get more than five hours of sleep in any twenty-four hour period, though. I don’t even think that I’ll suffer any jet lag when I return to the US, because I don’t have a normal sleep pattern to get disrupted!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Monday 23 June: Top ten traffic blunders of Italy
On my way to a museum today, a guy riding a Vespa cut off my bus. The scooter guy was talking on his cell phone while he did it. This got me thinking of the many almost-accidents that I’ve witnessed in Italy. Here’s my list of the top ten traffic blunders I’ve seen:
1. A scooter cutting off a bus (see above).
2. Two chubby boys of about 11 or 12 careening on a scooter through the crowded streets of central Naples against traffic (the legal age in Italy for scooters is 16).
3. Taxi driving the wrong way down the tram tracks as a tram approached from the opposite direction (this was on my way from the airport to Rome; the driver assured me he’d get off the tracks before we collided).
4. Taxi driver leaving the road and driving between the outdoor tables of a caffè (with Gary in Sorrento).
5. Woman driving a scooter in downtown Rome putting on mascara with one hand (in Piazza Venezia).
6. Two pedal cars of teenage boys chasing each other down a steep hill, taking a turn on two wheel, and heading into two-way traffic (street leading from Villa Borghese to Piazza del Popolo; see my 26 April post).
7. Bus squeezing through a street so narrow and crowded that people eating at a restaurant’s outdoor tables had to get up and move their table over (in Trastevere).
8. Several people ignoring numerous signs and barriers to keep off the tracks and jumping down about three feet to train tracks, crossing them while oncoming trains had the green light to approach, then climbing back out on the other side, because they didn’t want to use the underground tunnel (Stazione Trastevere).
9. Man riding against traffic on a bicycle with no chain or brakes by pushing with his feet (Via dei Fori Imperiali, Rome).
10. Four people on a single-person scooter: the driver, a little boy standing in front of him holding the handlebar, a woman riding behind the driver, and an infant in the crook of the woman’s elbow, dangling out over the oncoming traffic (Spaccanapoli, downtown Naples).
1. A scooter cutting off a bus (see above).
2. Two chubby boys of about 11 or 12 careening on a scooter through the crowded streets of central Naples against traffic (the legal age in Italy for scooters is 16).
3. Taxi driving the wrong way down the tram tracks as a tram approached from the opposite direction (this was on my way from the airport to Rome; the driver assured me he’d get off the tracks before we collided).
4. Taxi driver leaving the road and driving between the outdoor tables of a caffè (with Gary in Sorrento).
5. Woman driving a scooter in downtown Rome putting on mascara with one hand (in Piazza Venezia).
6. Two pedal cars of teenage boys chasing each other down a steep hill, taking a turn on two wheel, and heading into two-way traffic (street leading from Villa Borghese to Piazza del Popolo; see my 26 April post).
7. Bus squeezing through a street so narrow and crowded that people eating at a restaurant’s outdoor tables had to get up and move their table over (in Trastevere).
8. Several people ignoring numerous signs and barriers to keep off the tracks and jumping down about three feet to train tracks, crossing them while oncoming trains had the green light to approach, then climbing back out on the other side, because they didn’t want to use the underground tunnel (Stazione Trastevere).
9. Man riding against traffic on a bicycle with no chain or brakes by pushing with his feet (Via dei Fori Imperiali, Rome).
10. Four people on a single-person scooter: the driver, a little boy standing in front of him holding the handlebar, a woman riding behind the driver, and an infant in the crook of the woman’s elbow, dangling out over the oncoming traffic (Spaccanapoli, downtown Naples).
Sunday 22 June: Melting
It rained a little last night. Not enough to cool things off, but enough to make it really muggy today. I bought a gelato around the corner, and as soon as I stepped out of the shop and into the sun, it started running down my arm. I know how it feels; I think that I’m melting too.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Saturday 21 June: Summer sun and Michelangelo
Today is the first day of summer, although in southern Italy, the heat has been on for a while. It’s almost three months since I came to Rome. I remember walking along the Tiber my first day, when the tiny leaves on the sycamores were just a bright yellow-green smudge along the branches. Now the trees are heavy with dark green foliage that hides most of the limbs. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky today, and the sunlight is everywhere. In Rome, the light is not just something that shines on the city. It has a palpable presence like rain or snow, and sometimes I feel like I could almost swim through it.
When they restored and cleaned Michelangelo’s frescos on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the 80s and 90s, some people were shocked (and even skeptical) at the bright, vivid colors that were hidden under a half millennium of incense and candle smoke. I’m not surprised, though. These are the colors of Italy in the sunlight. Greens and blues glow, yellows and reds shine, and even white burns with an almost incandescent brilliance. Michelangelo knew what he was doing, and I think he got his inspiration every day that he walked outside into the blazing Roman sun.
When they restored and cleaned Michelangelo’s frescos on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the 80s and 90s, some people were shocked (and even skeptical) at the bright, vivid colors that were hidden under a half millennium of incense and candle smoke. I’m not surprised, though. These are the colors of Italy in the sunlight. Greens and blues glow, yellows and reds shine, and even white burns with an almost incandescent brilliance. Michelangelo knew what he was doing, and I think he got his inspiration every day that he walked outside into the blazing Roman sun.
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