Friday 4 November 2011

Off to the airport soon. I should be home by 10 tonight Eastern Time.


Arrivederci, Roma!  Ritorno a presto!

Thursday 3 November 2011

My last full day in Roma! It was cooler today, but still got up to 70 and still sunny.  I got up early and went across the river to the centro storico for some last minute shopping. I was early enough to see the market stalls open in Campo dei’ Fiori.  I walked up to Piazza Navona, where a few artists were taking advantage of the early morning light to draw, paint and sketch.  I had coffee at a caffé near Navona and strolled around the city as the workday started. 

On the way back to Trastevere I bought a few more postcards and some stamps. I sent out postcards my second or third day here, but nobody has mentioned that they received them yet. I decided to send out a few more just in case. The Italian postal service is notoriously unreliable, and it is not unusual for postcards (and more important items) not to make it to their destinations.  The Vatican has its own postal service that is more reliable, but I didn’t go all the way to St. Peter’s and wait in line to buy Vatican City stamps to mail cards. I’ve mailed letters from Rome that arrived in the US in less than a week. I’ve also sent some that took three weeks, or never arrived at all. This is why Italians still fax rather than mail important documents.

In the afternoon I took a last walk around Trastevere before going back to my apartment to pack.  I made some calls and went out for dinner the last time. I would have gone back to Tony’s, but they are closed Thursdays.  I went to another place I like on Piazza San Calisto and had salad, a grilled sausage and a potato stuffed with sausage and cheese.  At dinner everyone was talking about the euro crisis with Greece.  Would Greece default? Would they have a referendum on the euro zone bailout? Would the prime minister of Greece resign? Would the prime minister of Italy resign (they’re trying to force him out)?  As bad as the economy is in the US, it’s worse in much of Europe.  Italy is struggling not to end up like Greece and Ireland. 

After dinner and a final gelato (stracciatella and fiore di latte) in Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere I headed back to my apartment to get ready for tomorrow morning’s flight.  

Wednesday 2 November 2011

This morning was yet another beautiful day in Roma. I caught the bus up the Gianicolo to the University for the next day of the conference. More interesting sessions this morning!  Once again walked down the hill after the day’s sessions were in order to take advantage of the excellent weather.  Once I reached Trastevere I caught the tram to Largo Argentina since I wanted to visit the city again before leaving Roma.

The day was not very eventful; I just spent my time visiting some of the major monuments again. I strolled past the Vittoriano and walked up the Via dei Fori Imperiali again, the Forum Roman on my left and the Imperial Fora on my right, heading toward the Coliseum.  Once I reached the amphitheater I crossed the street and came back down the other side in order to inspect more closely the Forum of Augustus and Temple of Mars Ultor. Then I headed toward the Pantheon for one last visit.

One thing I noticed today was the changing fashion in Roman women’s shoes.  When Gary and I were in Roma a few years ago all of the Italian women were wearing shoes with extremely long pointed toes.  They almost looked like something a medieval court jester would wear!  Then, when I was here on sabbatical in 2008, the women were mostly wearing extremely high heels, very Sex and the City.  Right now boots are apparently current fashion in women’s footwear.  I saw lots of very high boots, way up over the knee. Many of them had turned-back cuffs and big buckles.  They look almost like pirate boots, something Johnny Depp would wear in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.  Italians love their fashion!  Roman men are particular about fashion too, but their footwear is not as extreme as that of the women.  I just stomp around everywhere in sneakers, which is expected of Americans, Canadians and Australians.

I stopped at a pizzeria on the way back to Trastevere and had dinner: pizza with sausage, mozzarella and arugula.  Back at the apartment I did some laundry in the high-tech mini washing machine next to the bathtub. I don’t know what’s in the laundry detergent that I buy here, but it smells so good I almost want to pour it over ice cream and eat it.  I wish you could by this stuff in the United States.  Before bed I read the news online.  All Europe is in an uproar about the Greece bailout.  Italy is trying desperately not to be next (actually, I think that Ireland, Spain and Portugal are ahead of Italy on likelihood to default).  I finally went to bed. The next day would be my last full day in Roma. 

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Today I presented my paper at the conference. I went early to the University, where a number of interesting sessions were going on. I splurged and took a taxi on my way to the conference, since I didn’t want to walk up the steep hill in a jacket and tie.  The great thing about an interdisciplinary conference is that you can something that’s completely new to you.  I decided to sit in on a few sessions covering topics ranging from higher education to sustainable development to literary theory. 

I planned to listen to the paper immediately before mine just so I’d be in the proper room on time. Much to my surprise the speaker was a Penn State professor from one of our campuses in the Philadelphia area!  After her very interesting paper I introduced myself to her as a fellow Penn Stater.  I was happy to hear her praise the library!  Then it was my turn.  My paper dealt with religious imagery in public art, architecture, and literature in the reign of Caesar Augustus, the first emperor of Roma.  The presentation was well received.  Afterwards I had a couple of good discussions with members of the audience about both the subject of the paper as well as ways to incorporate research in the humanities into the curriculum for courses in the physical and applied sciences.  This conference is pretty cool!  I also talked to a graduate student from the Middle East about historical climatology, a subject in which I have taken a recent interest. 

The sun sets early since Daylight Saving Time (called Summer Time in Europe) ended.  It was dark by the time I left the University, although it was still warm.  Being in no hurry I decided to walk down the steps on the Viale Glorioso. This is one of several stairways leading from Trastevere to the Gianicolo.  This particular stair is very wide, probably thirty feet or more, and consists of a couple of hundred stone steps with five or six broad landings.  I took my time walking down the steps in the dark.  I figured that if I slipped, I’d probably start rolling and not stop until I hit the Tiber.  I made it down the stairs without incident and walked along the Viale di Trastevere, the main street through this part of town.  Along the way I stopped for dinner: bucatini all’amatriciana, long and slender hollow tubes of pasta in a spicy sauce of tomato, pancetta, garlic and hot pepper flakes.  Then I made my way back to the apartment and made some phone calls on Skype before reading a while.  By then it was almost midnight so I got ready for bed, glad that my presentation had gone well.

Monday 31 October 2011 (Halloween!)

My conference started today at the American University of Rome.  The campus is on the summit of the Gianicolo, the hill right behind Trastevere.  It’s in a nice residential neighborhood, and tall, elegant 19th-century palazzi with gardens and courtyards line the streets. Even though tomorrow would be November there were flowers blooming everywhere. The view from the top of the hill is fantastic. You can see the Vatican and St. Peter’s huge dome to the north, and east the entire city is spread before you.  The weather was once again sunny and warm and I enjoyed it while it lasts, or until I leave Italy.  Although on paper the university is only about ten blocks from my apartment, it is straight up the Gianicolo, which is the highest and steepest hill in Roma (although it doesn’t technically count as one of the seven hills, being on the west side of the river).  I took a bus and arrived in a few minutes.

Since this is an international interdisciplinary conference there are scholars from every continent (well, not Antarctica that I could find) and in every discipline.  Engineers, anthropologists, historians, musicologists, clinical researchers, historians, and others are presenting on topics from contemporary Hebrew literature to human rights in emerging economies.  Most of the papers are highly interdisciplinary. I was particularly struck by home much current research combines philosophy, literature, history and other humanities fields with the applied sciences such as engineering and medicine.  Interdisciplinarity really is the future of academic research.

Today is Halloween in the United States. There doesn’t seem to be any acknowledgment of it in Roma though.  Tomorrow of course is November 1, All Saints’ Day, which is a national holiday in Italy.  In the afternoon after the conference sessions I walked down the hill back to Trastevere.  For dinner I decided on another traditional Roman dish, rigatoni alla coda di vaccinara, rigatoni with oxtails and celery.  If you’ve never had oxtail, you should definitely try it-sort of like the beef equivalent of chicken wings. 

After dinner the evening was clear and warm so I strolled around Trastevere and sat a few minutes on the steps of the fountain in front of the basilica before heading back. I wanted to make sure my slides were all ready for Tuesday, when I present my paper.

Sunday 30 October 2011

I awoke very early today. The weather was holding up again: sunny and upper 70s so I decided to take advantage of it once again and go for a long tour around parts of town.  I crossed the river at Ponte Sisto, walked to Piazza Venezia, and strolled along the Forum Romanum and imperial forums.  The marble ruins glowed golden in the early morning sunlight as I headed toward the Coliseum, its vast bulk shaded with the sun behind it.  I shared the streets with only a few people at first, the numbers increasing as the morning advanced.  Rounding the Coliseum, I headed toward the Circus Maximus, the great chariot racetrack taking up the entire valley between the Palatine and Aventine Hills.  A little more than a week ago the Circus had been flooded by the huge storm the night before my arrival.  By now the water had all drained, and the entire Circus was filled with activity.  The Italian government is putting on a military exhibition here, and the Circus was filled with soldiers, tents, helicopters, and even military boats.  I walked along the Circus with the Aventine Hill next to me and the Palatine across the way.  The Palatine Hill was the most valuable real estate in ancient Roma.  In the Republic the most important and wealthiest senators lived here. During the Empire the emperors pretty much bought everyone else out and turned the entire hill into the immense Imperial Palace (the word palace comes from the name of the hill).  The huge ruins remaining are mostly just the foundations of the palace.  Most of the marble, bronze, and other materials was taken over the centuries to adorn the churches and palaces of medieval, Renaissance and baroque Roma. 

On my left side was the Aventine, another area of prime real estate even after twenty-five centuries. I passed a rose garden with dozens of varicolored bushes still in full bloom despite the fact that it was almost November.  I could smell their fragrance as I passed them.  I came to the far end of the Circus Maximus and headed to the Piazza della Bocca della Verità This area in antiquity was the Forum Boarium, the cattle market.  An ancient church stands here, Santa Maria in Cosmedin, famous mostly for the Bocca della Verità, or Mouth of Truth. This is a large marble drain cover or fountain from ancient Roma in the shape of a face with open mouth. In the Middle Ages it was mounted into the portico of the church, and legend said that if you put your hand in the mouth while testifying, the mouth would bite your hand off if you lied. As always, there was a long line of tourists waiting to have their pictures taken with their hand in the mouth.  Gary and I did this long ago, so I didn’t wait in line but entered the old church instead. Since late antiquity Santa Maria in Cosmedin has been home to Greek Catholics, and the Eastern rite is still used here. Since it was Sunday a Greek mass was being held.  The ancient building was filled with the smoke of frankincense.  I stood in the back for a while and listened to the ancient liturgy sung in Greek, then went to a side chapel.  The chapel’s altar was surmounted by a crystal case containing a skull crowned with wilted flowers. This is the relic of St. Valentine (yes, that Valentine).  I wondered what folks would think if next February 14^th I distributed cards decorated with a photo of the skull.  At least it would be a change from the usual bow-carrying cupids.

In front of the church is a small piazza and baroque fountain, where I rested for a few minutes before continuing on. On the other side of the piazza are two temples dating back to the Roman Republic: the round Temple of Hercules and the rectangular Temple of Portunus, the god who protected harbors. Portunus is undergoing more restoration right now. These are two of the best-preserved temples in Roma after the Pantheon.  Right past them is a building dating from the Middle Ages with earlier ancient Roman marble architectural fragments built into the exterior. This juxtaposition of art from different periods is one the things I really love about Roma.

I crossed the Aventine Bridge and headed back to Trastevere.  Once I arrived at my apartment I called Gary. While speaking with him I discovered that, unknown to me, Europe had gone off Daylight Saving Time the night before, a week before the US did.  This means that for the rest of my stay I’m only five hours ahead of home instead of six.  I spent the rest of the day preparing for my conference, which begins on Monday.