Daniel C. Mack

Friday 4 November 2011

2011-11-04T01:43:00.002-04:00

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

Arrivederci, Roma! Ritorno a presto!

Thursday 3 November 2011

2011-11-03T18:05:00.002-04:00

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

2011-11-03T10:35:00.000-04:00

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

2011-11-03T03:24:00.002-04:00

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!)

2011-11-02T10:26:00.002-04:00

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

2011-11-01T05:31:00.000-04:00

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.

Saturday 29 October 2011

2011-10-31T18:09:00.002-04:00

Another gorgeous day! Not only was the sky nearly cloudless, but also it hit 80 degrees. I’m told there was snow at home. I thought I’d spend a lot of time outside enjoying the weather today. I decided to start at the north end of the city and work my way back to my apartment in Trastevere. I took the tram to Stazione Trastevere, from there took a local train to Termini, and caught the metro to Piazza di Spagna. The Spanish Steps are always a fun place to hang out, with the row of palm trees and Bernini’s fountain in the piazza. I love this fountain. The water pressure is low, so Bernini designed it to look like a leaky little boat spouting water. I climbed the Spanish Steps for the great view of the city from the top. The sky was clear and I could see across the rooftops of the city: terra cotta tiles, roof gardens with geraniums and roses still in bloom, and the domes of Roma’s many churches, including the gigantic mass of St. Peter’s across the river. The steps themselves were covered with people as they usually are. A group of school children were running up and down the stairs, chased by a pair of nuns in long dark habits. The poor sisters were about as successful in rounding up the kids as they would have been trying to herd cats.

From Piazza di Spagna I headed south, not really going by any particular route but wandering around through the little side streets and alleys that run off the few straight main streets in the city. The area around Spagna is good for shopping if you’re looking for fashion or house wares. Since I didn’t need any Prada or Fendi, and already have a couple of espresso machines, I bypassed these for bookstores, looking for stuff to acquire for the library. Since it was Saturday and the weather was good there were many street musicians playing in the piazzas and crossroads. A trio of violin, accordion and double bass was particularly good, playing transcriptions of Italian works from Vivaldi and Corelli as well as medleys of popular music. Like most Italian street musicians they threw in the theme from The Godfather for good measure. Near Piazza Reppublica I heard small brass ensemble play a strange swing version of the Star Wars soundtrack. The trombonist had on a Darth Vader helmet, minus the face mask. And at Piazza Venezia a steel band performed as a group of fairly inebriated American students listened and danced on the steps of the Victor Emmanuel monument. They had figured out that in Italy open containers are permitted, the legal age is apparently six, and you can buy alcohol pretty much anywhere at nearly any time of day. I hope they didn’t also discover that the carabinieri would bust you for hurling on a national monument. At least a friend held her hair for her while she noisily lost her pasta and Peroni.

I returned to Trastevere in the afternoon by way of Tiber Island, home to the Temple of Asclepius and the corpse of the Apostle Bartholomew (by way of Jerusalem and Sicily; his arm is in Canterbury, UK). Dinner was insalatone (a huge salad) with mixed greens, water-buffalo mozzarella, pickled vegetables and prosciutto. Since I had walked so much today I decided to indulge in a little gelato. I had Gary’s favorite, stracciatella. This is the Italian version of chocolate chip but much better. They make it by drizzling a stream of melted dark chocolate onto the gelato as it’s being churned. The chocolate hardens on contact with the cold gelato and shatters, and little shards of chocolate end up in every bite. Notes and reading, and then bed.

Friday 28 October 2011

2011-10-31T12:29:00.000-04:00

Since it was once again warm and sunny I decided to walk around town as I checked out a couple of bookstores for library acquisitions and also hit a few sites for my research. I crossed the Ponte Sisto and walked up to the morning open-air market at Campo dei’ Fiori. I love this square; in the morning it is filled with the stalls of vendors selling fresh vegetables, fruit, meat, herbs and spices, flowers, house wares, and other goods. There is always a flurry of activity and it’s fun to watch. From Campo I headed to Piazza Navona, one of the other great open spaces in downtown Roma. Navona is shaped like a long oval because it was originally the site of the emperor Domitian’s racetrack. Now the space is famous for its three fountains, with Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers in the center, in front of Borromini’s church Sant’ Agnese in Agone. Piazza Navona is a favorite place for artists to set up shop, and I strolled around for a few minutes to see the pastels, watercolors, and sketches for sale.

One of my favorite restaurants in Roma besides Tony’s is in Piazza Navona: Tucci, right across from Bernini’s fountain. Since it was lunchtime, I decided to stop for traditional Roman pasta: spaghetti alle vongole, with the sweet little clams from the Tyrrhenian Sea. Quite tasty! When I was preparing to leave, the waiter thanked me and told me that I was bello e grasso, come un vescovo (handsome and fat, like a bishop). I was pretty sure this was a compliment so I thanked him and left an extra euro.

From Piazza Navona I walked northwest to the Ara Pacis Augustae, the Altar of Imperial Peace. The Senate dedicated this monument to Augustus to commemorate the end of a century of civil war throughout the Roman world. The Ara Pacis is one of my favorite monuments in Roma, beautifully decorated with bas-relief of the imperial family, the leaders of the Senate, and scenes from Roma’s mythical past. This monument is a major source of iconography for my research so I spent a while there taking notes and photos.

I returned to Trastevere in the evening and made a salad for dinner, which I ate on the steps of the fountain in the piazza. The last thing I did that day was tag a bunch of photos to upload. I have some online now at http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielcmack/collections/72157628004994184/ if you’d like to take a look.

Thursday 27 October 2011

2011-10-28T12:00:00.000-04:00

The weather this morning was perfect: 70s, sunny, with a light breeze. I decided to go back to the heart of ancient Roma: the Forum Romanun, the Coliseum, and the Imperial Forums. The water from last week’s flash flood storm had finally drained so I was able to do some closer examination of some sites. The city wasn’t too crowded for once, one of the nice things about this time of year (the tourists swarm Roma in May and June). Outside Julius Caesar’s forum a clarinet player was performing next to the Temple of Venus Genetrix. He asked me what I wanted to hear. I told him Mozart’s clarinet concerto, and to my surprise he started in on the first movement! I gave him two euro.

The area around the Coliseum was packed as usual. There are always guys dressed as gladiators and centurions around the amphitheater who will pose with you (for a fee) for photos. My quest is always to sneak a picture of someone in costume doing something anachronistic like smoking, talking on a cell phone, or ogling a passing woman (that’s actually not anachronistic). This time I was able to get a couple of pics of a centurion who was so lazy that he didn’t remove his hoodie before putting on his breastplate. The hood was pushed back over his armor and cloak and looked pretty funny.

I decided to head north a little, so I went to the Coliseo metro stop and rode the subway a couple of stops. I got out and wandered around, finally climbing the Quirinal Hill to the old royal palace, now the official home of the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano (not to be confused with the Prime Minister, the notorious and soon-to-be-booted-out Silvio Berlusconi). This is at the top of the highest of the seven hills of Roma (the Vatican and Janiculum Hills across the river don’t count) and the view was spectacular. It was also time to eat, so I wandered down the hill to find someplace to have lunch. On the way I passed the Trevi Fountain, so of course I stopped and threw my coin in, thus ensuring my eventual return to the Eternal City. I threw one in for Gary, too.

I strolled a few blocks away from the fountain to find lunch (never eat within three blocks of a major tourist attraction) and settled on an outdoor table in the shade. The waiter said that they had just finished baking cannellini stuffed with veal and ricotta, which was as good as it sounds. I finished this with caffe freddo, sweetened cold espresso, so I’d have the necessary caffeine jolt to complete my walk around town. Since I was in the area I stopped at two of the great baroque churches in the area, San Ignazio and il Gesu. These are both Jesuit churches, and both are opulently decorated with polychromatic marbles, gilt bronze, and priceless works of sculpture and painting. Both of these churches have astonishingly impressive frescoes covering their vaulted ceilings. I no longer try to take photos of church ceilings because they are just too big and too high unless you have the right lenses and a tripod. The priests usually won’t let you set up a tripod anyway. I overheard a couple of American college students in il Gesu debating, only half joking, whether they should go to confession to confess what they did the night before. I wish that I could have overheard what exactly it was that they needed to confess so badly.

Eventually I made my way to Largo Argentina, where I caught the tram back to Trastevere and went back to my apartment to write up some notes before dinner. That evening I video-chatted with my parents on Skype for a while (hi, Mom and Dad!) and read some more before going to bed. I meant to get to bed halfway early and made it by midnight (in Roma that is early), since tomorrow is supposed to bring more sunshine and I want to get up early. Gary tells me that it’s cold and wet at home so I intend to make the most of the good weather here.

A note on photos

2011-10-28T03:26:00.001-04:00

I haven't uploaded pics yet because my wifi is slow (about 90 seconds per pic!). I promise to upload some this weekend. I'll keep you posted.

Wednesday 26 October 2011

2011-10-27T16:37:00.000-04:00

I woke up early, about 5 am, and it was pouring rain. We’ve had good weather since I arrived (having missed the flash flooding). I spend most of the morning writing up notes from my research. Since I was in the apartment for a while, I starting inventorying some of the things in this place. I had stayed in this same flat last year, when it was nicely furnished (nearly all IKEA) but there wasn’t a lot of “stuff” around. Since then, someone has obviously moved a bunch of personal belongings into this apartment. Here’s an inventory of some of the new contents:

· A white piano

· A baroque cello with rosewood pegs and fingerboard

· A 70s-era coffee table book of Liza Minnelli paper dolls

· Eleven ashtrays

· Two wide-screen televisions, neither of which I have turned on

· Over 400 DVDs of opera and European-language theater

· A doll house

· A huge abstract painting that takes up one wall of the living room

· A cotton candy machine

· An ironing board (my desk; I set it up in the living room by the window overlooking the piazza)

· A cool wooden bar cart

· Two little-kid-sized chairs

· A brass rhinoceros

· A dying (I think) olive tree

· A Gone With the Wind poster in the bathroom over the bidet

I was also surprised to find that some things I left here a year ago are still here:

· A half-full bottle of Listerine

· A blue rubber bath mat (I like to travel with one since I nearly broke my neck once in a shower in Venice)

· A half-full bottle of body wash

· Three business cards (my own)

· A pair of socks that I’m pretty sure are mine because they’re size 13 and I’ve never met an Italian with feet that big

About 11 am the rain let up, and by noon it was sunny and warm again. I left to do some research for the afternoon. The weather stayed very pleasant, so for dinner I bought a porchetta (panino stuffed with roast pork and mozzarella) and a salad and ate on the steps of the fountain in the piazza. I returned to my apartment to read before bed. I love reading books on my iPad because I don’t need a light and I can bump the font up enough that I can read without my glasses. When I noticed that it was nearly 1 am I decided it was time for bed.

Tuesday 25 October 2011

2011-10-27T15:57:00.000-04:00

I got up this morning and got ready to shave, only to discover that I had no hot water. Showering was not a problem because I take cool showers rather that hot showers every morning anyway. But have you ever tried to shave in cold water? If I had been more patient I would have boiled water to shave, but instead I did the dreaded cold-water face-scrape. When I was done I looked sort of like my rare ginormous steak from Sunday’s dinner. Before leaving to do research I emailed my landlady to let her know that I needed hot water.

I went to a couple of museums near Termini, the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme and the Terme di Diocleziano. Palazzo Massimo has an incredible collection, including a bunch of statuary from the reign of Augustus and his dynasty, which I surveyed for religious iconography. This museum also houses beautiful frescoes from the villa of Augustus’ wife Livia, as well as tons of other great art. This is one of the best museums in Roma, it’s right near the main bus/train/metro station, and there’s never a line to get in. If you’re in Roma, go! Just a block away is another museum, the Terme di Diocleziano, partially built from the ruins of the emperor Diocletian’s immense public bathhouse. This bathhouse, or rather its huge and impressive vaulting, was a major inspiration for St. Peter’s basilica. Now the ruins house one of the world’s greatest epigraphy collections: tens of thousands of inscriptions on stone and other media, attesting to nearly a thousand years of Roman civilization. One of the great things about an inscription is that it is both a text and an artifact: you are looking at not just a copy, but also the original text, that the ancient Romans read.

I had lunch at Campo dei’ Fiore, one of the great public spaces in the centro storico. Deciding on pizza, I had the traditional Roman pizza capricciosa, a very thin crust with prosciutto, artichoke hearts, olives, mushrooms, and fried egg. Molt bene! A very loud and fairly drunk party of Canadian tourists took up several tables nearby. Amusingly, the over-50 folks in their party could barely walk and were constantly reprimanded by the college-age kids with them to shut up. They didn’t know what anything on the menu was, so they asked me to translate. I told them that I didn’t speak Canadian. Once they realized that I was kidding them, I told them that I did speak Wisconsinian, and that was close enough. When they finished the youngsters couldn’t get a couple of their seniors to walk straight and they ended up calling a small fleet of taxis to take them away.

Returning home I found a note on my door from the water company saying that my water was going to be shut off. Luckily I had heard from my landlady by then, who said that the water issue was being fixed. My doorbell rang (a first), and two workmen came in to fix the miniscule hot water heater. I won’t have to butcher my face tomorrow morning!

Monday 24 October 2011

2011-10-27T04:14:00.000-04:00

I spent this morning doing research for a couple of different projects. I continued my walk through the city, exploring the topography of Roma in various periods as I gathered additional information for research. One of my favorite things about Roma is the jumble of different time periods here. Much has been lost over the centuries, but much also remains. Temples and monuments from the Roman Republic and Empire, medieval churches, Renaissance palaces, baroque sculpture and architecture, and buildings from the last few centuries all vie for your attention as you wander the streets. At the height of the Roman Empire, Roma was the largest, richest, most populous city on earth, with a million or more inhabitants crowding into the sprawling metropolis. After the fall of the Empire, the population dwindled, and in the Middle Ages, only a few thousand people were left, most of them associated with the Pope and his court at the Lateran. The city revived in the Renaissance and again became a great center of scholarship and art. Michelangelo, Raphael, and other artists embellished the church and palaces of the city. Roma was transformed during the Baroque period, when artists and architects like Maderno, Borromini, and most of all Bernini filled the city with their work.

One fascinating area in Roma is right downtown, the Area Sacra di Largo Argentina. When the Metro was first being constructed a century ago they uncovered a series of temples, some of them dating back to the Republic in the second and third centuries BC. This metro stop was never built. Instead, you can look down into the excavated area and see the ruins of the temples. Nearby, now under shops and other buildings, are the ruins of the Theater of Pompey the Great, where Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March 44 BC. Largo Argentina is also the home of the famous cat sanctuary, which I visit every time I come to Roma. The city is home to a huge community of feral cats. Many of these used to live in the Coliseum but have been mostly chased out of the amphitheater. Some now live in the cat sanctuary. Here cats are fixed, fed, and treated if they are injured. There is a small hospice for cats unable to survive on their own. Many of the cats spend their time in the ruins of the old temples. I love looking down into the excavations and seeing dozens of cats frolicking among the columns, altars and temple foundations. You can visit i gatti di Roma online at http://www.romancats.com/index_eng.php.

I returned to my apartment in the afternoon and wrote up some notes from the day’s research, then went out for dinner of pizza and salad. Actually, it was salad on a pizza, which seems strange to Americans but is very common here. A slice of pizza with cheese and maybe tomato is topped with arugula, spinach, or other greens. I supplemented this with a couple of arancini, and ended with a little gelato (pistachio and zambaglione). In Italy you pay for ice cream by the size of cup or cone, not by the number of flavors. The Romans think there’s something wrong with you if you only order one flavor. I’ve seen folks cram ten different flavors onto a three-euro cone. I ended the evening with a stroll around Trastevere, a little reading and bed.

Sunday 23 October 2011

2011-10-26T16:34:00.002-04:00

Today I got up and took a morning walk along the Tiber. Roma in autumn is fantastic. The weather is warm, and it’s been mostly sunny so far. The sycamores along the Tiber are barely starting to change from green to yellow, and the palms and umbrella pines are always green. There are flowers still blooming everywhere: roses and geraniums, and some locals swear to me that the azaleas often bloom a second time in October.

I skipped breakfast because I had plans for lunch: Sunday dinner at Tony’s for their famous bistecca grande, an enormous 2-kilo (4 ½ pound!) t-bone steak. I like Sunday dinner in Rome; it’s the one time that people gather for a big meal during daylight. Most Italians eat dinner late: 9 or 10 pm, or even later. But on Sundays families and friends gather, often at restaurants, for a midday meal. I arrived at Tony’s around 1 pm and was greeted with the usual double-cheek kiss and given a table outside, where I could watch the activity on the street. The street is narrow, cobbled and winding, and to see it you would never guess that it’s actually on a bus route. Cars aren’t allowed except for police and taxis, but the #125 bus comes by every 20 minutes or so. Sometimes the fit is so tight that diners have to move their tables to let the bus pass! It’s funny to see the reaction of tourists eating at an outdoor trattoria on what looks like an alley in a little Mediterranean village when they suddenly see the #125 come running past. Admittedly it’s not a big bus, but still.

It would be heresy to eat a steak without an appetizer, so I order antipasto di mare: marinated clams, mussels, squid, octopus, celery, and carrots in oil. I love it when I get extra tentacles with my cephalopods! This would have been enough for lunch, but it was only the beginning. My ginormous steak arrived as I had ordered it: molto crudo, sanguinissimo (extra rare, very bloody). I have had this several times before, and I’m always amazed at the size of the thing when they finally bring it to the table. It looks like a mastodon steak from the Flintstones. I ate half and took half home with me.

Two American students, young women studying in Germany and visiting Rome for a few days were sitting at the next table. I talked to them for a while and we compared favorite gelato flavors (my current favorite is zabaglione, flavored with sweet wine and egg yolks). They had arrived on the day of the huge storm and told me that the rain was so hard that it soaked through their suitcases and drenched their clothes inside. At my urging they ordered a giant t-bone to share between them. As they were eating it, one of the students remarked, “I guess I’m not much of a vegetarian.” This struck me as pretty amusing, considering that she was carving up a huge piece of cow as she said it.

Tony would not let me leave Sunday dinner without dessert, so I had panna cotta (baked custard) with chocolate sauce. After all of this food I needed to digest, so I walked to nearby Piazza Trilussa where I had stayed during my sabbatical a few years ago, across the footbridge Ponte Sisto, and into the centro storico. There was an afternoon recital at one of the churches, a very good string quartet. They played works by Beethoven and Bartok, both of whom I like very much. Live music is everywhere in Roma, and most of it is good, so I like to take advantage of it when I can. Afterward I walked back across the Tiber to Trastevere, made some research notes, and went to bed.

Saturday 22 October 2011

2011-10-25T15:34:00.002-04:00

I got up this morning and made my usual breakfast in Roma: low-fat granola with fat-free yogurt and 4 espressos. After consulting some notes I headed for the centro storico, the historic center of town, to spend the day examining various sites. I’m giving a paper that deals with topography of the ancient city so I wanted to walk around some of the places that I’ll be covering.

The central part of Rome in the bend of the Tiber is now completely full of shops, restaurants, cafes, and businesses. In ancient times, this was the Campus Martius, the Field of Mars, dedicated to Rome’s war god. In the Roman Republic it really was a field, where soldiers could drill and where some of the elections for high-ranking magistrates were held. Augustus turned the Campus Martius into a park with monuments supporting his regime and family, including the Ara Pacis Augustae (the Altar of Imperial Peace), the original Pantheon which was rebuilt a century later into the magnificent structure that still exists, and the Solarium Augusti. The Solarium was a gigantic sundial so big that the pointer was a huge obelisk brought from Egypt. This cast a shadow on a park-sized pavement of marble and not only told the time, but pointed out Augustus’ birthday. Later emperors continued building in the area. Domitian built a racetrack that eventually became Piazza Navona (hence the shape). In later ages the entire area was taken over by shops and housing until it reached its present crowded state. Many of the main sites in Roma are in the centro storico, including Campo dei’ Fiori, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, the Trevi Fountain, and a zillion medieval, renaissance and baroque churches.

After spending the day in the centro storico, I crossed the Ponte Sisto, a fifteenth-century footbridge across the Tiber joining the centro to Trastevere. For dinner I bought some of my favorite Roman street food: suppli and arancini. These are balls of risotto with various fillings (meat, mozzarella, tomato) that are then deep-fried. I stopped at the market and bought a handful of fresh mixed greens for a salad, and sat on the steps of the fountain in Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere to eat. A woman was playing cello in the piazza. She had recorded piano accompaniment, and played works by Schubert, Saint-Saens, and Mendelssohn. The cellist was extremely good, and I sat in the late afternoon light for a long time listening to her. One thing I love about Roma is the (usually high) quality of the street musicians.

After the impromptu concert I returned to my apartment, did some reading and writing, made some calls and went to bed.

Friday 21 October 2011

2011-10-25T05:55:00.002-04:00

Friday 21 October 2011

Sorry for the late posting; I had some blog accessibility issues.

Wednesday night and Thursday morning, while I was flying to Rome, the city had one of its worst thunderstorms in years. Low parts of the city flooded, including the Coliseum, Forum and Circus Maximus (the Romans had built these in valleys between the hills and installed extensive drainage systems, which were apparently more effective than the modern storm drains). People were canoeing in the Circus Maximus! Some low-lying parts of the highway from the airport at Fiumicino into town were under water, which is why it took almost an hour and a half for me to get to my apartment on Thursday. You can read about the flooding here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/8841553/Severe-flooding-shuts-Colosseum.html . I finally got into town, unpacked, went shopping for some necessities, had a salad at Good (one of my favorite cafés) and went to bed early.

Friday morning I went into the center of town to see what was going on. The water was everywhere, and the Coliseum and Forum were both closed because they were still flooded. I could still look down into the Forum Romanum and the Imperial Fora, where there were huge pools of standing water everywhere. I walked through town, around the Vittoriano, and up to Piazza Navona. It was also somewhat waterlogged, but not closed. I saw an advertisement for a string quartet recital in on of the area churches for the next evening, and I added that to my agenda.

The day was sunny and warm, about 70 degrees. I was wearing light chinos and a short-sleeved polo shirt, which meant that I was sweating. The Romans, of course, were all wearing coats, hats and scarves. Several folks had on hats, and a few had scarves with hoods pulled up. The flooding did not prevent the women of Rome from wearing their usual stylish shoes on the wet and slippery cobbled streets. I have figured out how Roman women can walk on cobblestones in high heels: the cracks between the cobbles are all filled with cigarette butts and wine corks.

I came back to my apartment in Trastevere, made some notes for the paper I’m presenting at the conference, and made a couple of phone calls (free-I love Skype!). Early evening was setting in with a clear sky and warm sun, so I went for a stroll around Trastevere before dinner. I stopped at the Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere, one of the great ancient churches of the city right around the corner from my apartment. Some of the most beautiful medieval mosaics in the city are in this church, and the columns of the main nave are re-used from ancient Roman temples and palaces.

I ended my walk with dinner at Tony’s. This is my favorite place to eat in all of Rome, maybe in the entire world. I’ve been going there for years now, and dine there every time I’m in Rome. As I approached, Tony and a couple of the staff whom I know came running up to give me the Italian hug and double-cheek kiss and welcome me back to Rome and Trastevere. A new waiter, whom I hadn’t seen before, brought a menu over, but Tony waved him away, saying that he knew what I wanted already and would bring me dinner. First came a big antipasto misto with grilled eggplant and zucchini, marinated beans, a slice of corn frittata, bruschetta with tomatoes, prosciutto, and mozzarella. The main course was spaghetti alla carbonara, one of Rome’s traditional pastas, and one of my favorites. Tony came and talked to me for a while, giving me news of the neighborhood and telling me about the huge storm that I had just missed.

I decided to skip the offered dessert and ambled over to Piazza di Santa Maria, where I had a little gelato (lemon and mango) sitting on the fountain in front of the basilica. It was dark, so I headed home, made some notes, and went to bed.

Oggi sono ancora trasteverino!

2011-10-20T09:37:00.000-04:00

I've arrived in Roma safely (after failure of several forms of transportation). Getting settled and then going out. More tomorrow probably; I haven't slept in over 36 hours.

Off to Roma!

2011-10-19T05:54:00.003-04:00

I'm leaving soon! Will post tomorrow after I get settled. Ciao!

Getting ready to go to Rome

2011-10-16T15:45:00.001-04:00

I leave for Rome in a couple of days! Why is it that I only blog when I'm going to Italy?

Home and jet lagged

2010-10-16T04:11:00.000-04:00

After a long but uneventful flight, I'm back home. Gary picked me up at the airport in the evening. I went to bed exhaustee, only to wake up wide awake three hours later.

Arrivederci Roma!

2010-10-15T00:18:00.000-04:00

I leave in an hour for Fiumicino (the Leonardo da Vinci International Airport). Should be home by 7 pm Eastern time/1 am Roma time. I threw my coins in the Trevi Fountain, so I'll be back.

Thursday at the museums (probably last post before I leave)

2010-10-14T13:59:00.003-04:00

Thursday is my last full day in Rome; I leave tomorrow morning. I did some research this morning, skyped Gary early before he left for work, and went back one last time to two branches of the Museo Nazionale Romano: the Terme di Diocleziano, which has an amazing collection of ancient inscriptions; and the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, which has an excellent collection of Roman sculpture, mosaics and paintings.

I went to the Terme first to go through parts of the inscription collection one last time. I love this place; you enter through a big courtyard that is literally crammed with ancient Roman marble. Statues, altars, funerary monuments, pieces of buildings, and other fragments fill the gardenlike courtyard, and there are usually cats playing among the sculpture. The museum is built into part of the ruins of the immense bathhouse built by the Emperor Diocletian. As great as this museum is, it is seldom crowded. I’ve never had to stand in line here, and you can often go through entire galleries without seeing anyone else.

The branch of the museum in the Palazzo Massimo is just across the street and down a block. Some of the most important works of Roman art are housed here, and I’ve put up some photos of them. Two life-size bronze sculptures are featured in one gallery, including a really great bronze of an old boxer taking a break between rounds. Take a look at the pics and note the lead weights on his hands; sort of the opposite of boxing gloves! The use of lead hand weights for boxing matches is well documented in ancient writings as well.

One gallery houses several well-known sculptures of the Julio-Claudian family, the first dynasty of Roman emperors. The most famous is a life-size statue of Augustus himself, portrayed as Pontifex Maximus, the head of the state religion. The emperor is portrayed as a priest togatus capite velato, with a fold of his toga pulled over his head as a veil. Roman priests and magistrates covered their heads this way for religious rites.

One room in the Palazzo Massimo reconstructs most of a room from the villa of Augustus’ wife Livia at Prima Porta. The walls are covered floor to ceiling with frescoes of a lush garden with flowers, trees, and birds. Above the paintings are painted stucco reliefs. The colors are predominantly greens and blues, and seem almost as vibrant as when they were new two thousand years ago. This is really a beautiful chamber, and I got a few good photos.

I the late afternoon I made my way home so I could start to pack and prepare for my flight. I leave early tomorrow morning, so this is probably my last post before I get home. There is a final set of pics posted at http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielcmack/sets/72157625163134648/. These are mostly pics from these two museums today. More from the US after I return. -Dan

Ruins, dinner and my puppet theater

2010-10-14T05:29:00.000-04:00

Wednesday was another busy day in the city, checking sites and taking what photos I could in the little time I have left in Rome. I revisited some of Augustus’ monuments, including the portico he dedicated to his beloved sister Octavia and the theater named for her son, his nephew Marcellus. Marcellus would probably have been named Augustus’ heir, but he died young. Augustus only had one child, a daughter Julia, who caused him so much grief because of her promiscuity that he exiled her (no monuments named for her!).

Before I left for town, I realized that I had not taken any photos of the puppet theater in my bedroom. I’m not sure why there’s a puppet theater there; maybe the owner collects them because there’s another, smaller one in the living room. Anyway, I went into the city and spent most of the day there. I came back by way of the Jewish quarter and got some nice photographs of the great Synagogue on the banks of the Tiber.

This was my second-last night in Rome, and since my final evening would be spent packing, I decided to have one last dinner at Tony’s. I ordered a mixed plate of antipasti and spaghetti alla carbonara, one of my favorite traditional Roman pastas. As always, Tony and Alex came to talk to me. They always bring me a cloth napkin too, something that only regulars get. They also brought focaccia al forno, thin crackling bread hot from the oven. This isn’t on the menu and they only make it once in a while, usually when things are slow. Tony doesn’t seem to charge for focaccia al forno; he just brings it as a special treat to regulars and favorites. I get it every time they make it. You can’t believe how good this bread is; you can taste the delicious wheat flavor. You have to eat it while it’s still hot. This may be the best bread I have ever eaten in my life.

After dinner I took an evening walk through Trastevere. Dogs were playing in the piazza next to the fountain so I took a couple of pictures. The evening was warm and pleasant, and the lights on the churches and cafes of Trastevere became brighter as the sky became dark and night set in. I headed home, skyped Gary, checked my email, took some notes, and went to bed next to the puppet theater.

I posted another set of pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielcmack/sets/72157625036315619/ .

Tablecloth subscriptions

2010-10-13T05:07:00.000-04:00

Tuesday was another beautiful day. I spent most of the day in the city, visiting and re-visiting various sites and museums. Since I was in town, I stopped and had pizza for lunch. I ordered the classic Roman pizza capricciosa, a thin crusted, wood fired pizza with mushrooms, artichoke hearts, buffalo-milk mozzarella, olives, prosciutto, and fried egg. I love it when they serve this pizza with the egg still runny so you can smear warm liquid yolk all over the other toppings. I also had antipasti of mixed cured salami, cheeses, and pickled vegetables. Very tasty!

As I was walking through the city after lunch I came across a white panel truck, which stopped at nearly every restaurant and bar. At each stop, folks would load huge sacks of some kind into the truck in exchange for stacks of something wrapped in paper. After I had seen this transaction at several establishments, I became sort of curious to see what was going on. Closer investigate revealed that this truck was delivering subscriptions of tablecloths and napkins. The sacks being loaded onto the truck were stuffed full of soiled linen, and the wrapped packages were stacks of freshly laundered tablecloths. The vast majority seemed to be the traditional red and white checked cloth. Now I know when so many restaurants in Italy have the same tablecloths: they subscribe to them! Sort of like diaper service, but hopefully less messy to launder.

I returned home in the late afternoon, skyped Gary, and caught up on email and reference questions. My friend Margaret sent a great YouTube link. This video features tigers, panthers and other big cats in an animal sanctuary, playing with Halloween pumpkins. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcT4paZfflg&feature=fvwk.

Since I had eaten lunch out, I ate dinner at home. On my way back to my apartment I had stopped at a local bar to buy a spit-roasted chicken (yes, in Italy you can buy these in many bars). I had good rolls from the local baker and some slices of smoked mozzarella, so I made sandwiches for dinner. I went out to the piazza for a little while and listened to the jazz ensemble playing next to the fountain, then went back home, talked to Gary for a minute, and went to bed.

Rainy Monday in Rome

2010-10-12T12:43:00.002-04:00

Monday was a quiet day. It started raining Sunday night, and Monday morning it was really pouring. I spent a lot of the day at the academy library. In the afternoon I returned to my apartment for lunch and skyped Gary. By mid-afternoon the rain had let up, and the sky looked like a watercolor painting: blues and greys running together, with little bits of sun peeking through here and there. I decided to go to the Vatican and visit St. Peter’s Basilica. You really can’t visit Rome without going to St. Peter’s!

I’ve written in the past about the immensity and opulence of St. Peter’s, the biggest church in the world. Since everything is ginormous, there is a sense of proportion that keeps you from realizing just how big everything is until you’re standing next to it. The holy water fonts are in the form of fat little baby angels (yes, art historians; I know they’re called putti) holding a bowl of water. Once you approach, though, you realize that the fat little baby is as big as I am! The length of the nave on the inside is longer than two football fields. The subdued sky was a vivid contrast to the white, tan and gold of the basilica’s exterior, and the interior illumination made the colored marble and gilt bronze inside the basilica seem to glow. Either because it had been raining or because it was Monday, there weren’t many people in the huge church. A priest was saying mass at one of the dozens of side altars (only the Pope can use the high altar), but otherwise the church was quiet. I spent some time walking around and looking at the art; a lot of it is by Bernini, one of my favorite sculptors and architects.

After returning to Trastevere, I spent a quiet evening at home. I ate a salad and some fresh bread from the wood-oven bakery, wrote up some notes, and went to bed.

I put up a few pics from Sunday. Check out the giant steak at http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielcmack/sets/72157625009418769/.

Sunday steak

2010-10-11T15:18:00.002-04:00

Sunday was another beautiful day. The morning was partly overcast, with the early sun shining through the mass of white and blue-grey clouds rolling in from the Mediterranean. The bells of Rome’s 1,100 churches rang throughout the morning, trying to persuade the city to attend services (most Romans only go to church on major holidays, although a few, mostly older women, go to mass daily). I cleaned the apartment a little, went through my email and caught up on the news, and prepared for Sunday dinner. Sunday is the one time that Romans eat their main meal mid-day rather than the evening (on weekdays, Italians eat dinner at 9 or even 10 pm). Sunday dinner is a family-and-friends affair in Rome, and is often eaten in one of the thousands of trattorie of the city. I am always amazed at the behavior of Italian children in public. They often accompany their parents to dinner, parties, and other outings. I have never seen a parent reprimand or punish a child publicly in Italy; I have never seen an Italian kid doing anything that would deserve it. I’m sure that they misbehave sometimes, but they don’t do it in public.

Since this was my last Sunday in Rome this visit, there was only one place to go: Tony’s, famous for their bistecca fiorentina, an oak-grilled t-bone steak weighing a full two kilos; that’s nearly four and a half pounds. While I was in Rome on sabbatical a couple of years ago I had partaken of this caveman meal several times. I had last eaten there a few days ago, and Tony and Alex, the Egyptian headwaiter, asked me to return on Sunday. Since I’ve been pretty good about eating on this trip (except for the gelato), I figured I could handle a little cholesterol. Tony greeted me, Alex gave me a great seat outside in the shade, and I started off with a mixed salad of greens and vegetables with porcini mushrooms. It’s mushroom season right now, and the shrooms are spectacular. After the salad came the steak, looking like a hunk of mammoth-meat from The Flintstones. The piece of meat was literally four inches thick. I had asked for it al sangue (bloody), and I was not disappointed. The outside was deliciously charred, but the steak bled when I cut into the red center. Just in case this wasn’t enough food, the steak came with a side of potatoes roasted with rosemary in the meat’s drippings, as well as grilled tomatoes and radicchio. It took an hour for me to eat the entire thing. Although I swore I couldn’t eat another bite, they brought me a slice of torta made with ricotta, dark chocolate, espresso and orange. I had arrived at Tony’s about 12:15; it was nearly 2:30 by the time I left.

In serious need of a stroll to walk off some of my monstrous meal, I went down to the Tiber and walked along the embankment across from the synagogue and Jewish quarter. The day had turned sunny again, warm but not hot. During the past few days the leaves on the sycamores had just begun to turn, but were still mostly green. The palms and umbrella pines stay green all year. Flowers were still blooming everywhere. Other folks were out for their Sunday afternoon walk as well, families with children and couples dressed to the hilt to walk the dog. I headed back into Trastevere, went up to my apartment, and skyped Gary. We talked for a while, and I did a little bit of work. By now it was turning to evening, so I went back out to enjoy the last light of day on the steps of the fountain in the piazza. I took a short stroll through the maze of Trastevere, then called it a day and headed home.

More pics coming, including exclusive photos of the biggest steak you’ve probably ever seen.

Etruscans, rally, and laundry

2010-10-11T06:57:00.002-04:00

Since it was the weekend, on Saturday I decided to take the day off work and visit the Etruscan museum. This museum is housed in the Villa Giulia, a beautiful suburban villa in the northern part of Villa Borghese, Rome’s large public park. I took the tram to Largo Argentina and caught a bus there. The museum is excellent, filled with fantastic Etruscan antiquities. The Etruscans were a strange people who dominated central Italy before the Romans (Tuscany is named after them), and much of their history and culture is still only partially understood. When Rome was only a small city-state it was dominated for a while by Etruscans. The Roman Republic was founded in 509 BC after driving out the last Etruscan king. Unfortunately, I only got one photo in the museum before a guard yelled NO FOTO! at me (there were no signs). I spent the morning going through the well-displayed and labeled exhibits of vases, weapons, sculpture, jewelry, and funerary monuments. They do permit photography in the outside areas of the villa, which include a reconstructed Etruscan temple, so I took some pics there.

In the early afternoon I headed home. A tram took me to Piazza del Popolo, where I unexpectedly encountered a huge rally of labor unions, activist groups, and students protesting the government. I heard shouts of Berlusconi fascista! and Berlusconi va*******lo, so I assumed that they weren’t fans of the current prime minister. I was about the only person crossing Piazza del Popolo in my direction; going the other way were about 10,000 other people. I took some pics of the rally in Popolo. The entire atmosphere was very festive; despite the anti-government shouts, people seemed to be having a great time, dancing and drinking wine while the speakers were talking. The piazza looked quite cheerful with hundreds of balloons and banners decorating the baroque buildings and ancient obelisk in the center of the square. Needless to say it took about twenty minutes to cross the piazza. Walking down the street to Piazza di Spagna was like walking against a parade. I eventually made it to Largo Argentina and caught the tram back to Trastevere.

At home I skyped Gary and we talked for a while. Then I decided to try a new adventure: laundry in the little, high-tech washing machine next to the shower. It’s not very big, and six pairs of socks and boxers made an entire load. I remembered to put the drain hose into the bathtub (otherwise the water would drain all over the floor and drip into the shop below me). The machine was actually very easy to use, but slow; a load takes over an hour to wash. There’s no dryer, but the apartment has a drying rack, which I unfolded and set up in the living room. The best part of doing laundry was the detergent, which smells so good you almost want to drink it. The scent is muschio bianco, or white moss. I don’t know if white moss is edible. I’ll have to find out.

It was getting late, so I skyped Gary again, then went for a walk to Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere, my usual evening hangout. The night was warm and the piazza was busy with both trasteverini and tourists. An accordionist on a unicycle entertained the crowd for a little while, followed by an ensemble of guitar, saxophone, double bass and electric piano. They were pretty good, and played traditional Italian music interspersed with pieces directed at American tourists, including Frank Sinatra songs and the theme music from The Godfather and The Sopranos. After a small gelato (limone) I went inside, checked my email, and went to bed.

Some new pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielcmack/sets/72157625131027846/.

Friday in town

2010-10-10T15:34:00.002-04:00

I walked all over town again on Friday. Museum in the morning to check out some inscriptions, then I decided to got to Piazza Montecitorio, where the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Italian legislature, meets. In the middle of the piazza is a big obelisk that Augustus brought from Egypt after he conquered to country. This obelisk was originally the gnomon (pointer) of a huge sundial, the horologium Augusti. There is an inscription on the base of the obelisk that I have been trying to photograph for years. I never get a good shot because the light is difficult (the piazza is surrounded by tall buildings that block most of the sun). Once again, I got a few shots, but they’re not really legible. The trip was not wasted, though, because the obelisk stands right in front of Herder, an excellent bookstore, in which I identified several additions for the library’s collection.

Since it was nearby, I took a stroll over to Piazza di Spagna and the Spanish Steps. Hundreds of pots of seasonal flowers often decorate the steps, but this time they were bare so people could sit there and enjoy the autumn sun. At the foot of the steps is one of Bernini’s least monumental work, and one of my favorites: the Barcaccia fountain. Since the aqueduct that supplies the water for this fountain is at low pressure at this point, Bernini designed the fountain to look like a leaky old boat. Piazza di Spagna was as busy as usual. This is a fashionable district, filled with boutiques and outlets for major Italian designers. One fashionable lady was taking her wiener dog for a walk. She kindly let me take a pic of the pup.

I decided to walk back home, although it’s a hike (I needed to walk of my daily gelato). On the way I stopped by the Trevi Fountain, beloved by tourists, pickpockets, and fans of Fellini’s La dolce vita. I love this huge fountain, which symbolized for me everything I love about Rome. If the Trevi were in Paris or London, it would be set in the center of a huge square or beautiful garden. It’s in Rome, though, and the fountain is actually bigger than the piazza it’s set in (a Roman once told me that piazza is Italian for “parking lot”). This is a great place to people-watch, so I stayed a few minutes. I noticed that the orange jeans that men wore two years ago have given way to dark denim that is so shiny and stiff that it looks like it has been shellacked. Also prominent is a hairstyle, often seen on boys and men from ages about 10 to 30, that I call the “modified Caesar hedgehog.” Picture the guy’s hair about two inches long all over. Now imagine a line drawn from ear to ear, going right over the top of the crown of the head. All of the hair behind this line on the back of the head is spiked up like a porcupine. The front half is then slicked forward into Caesar bangs that are plastered to the forehead. I’ve seen lots of guys with this hair, and I am surprised that it doesn’t melt in the sun. I left Trevi and headed for home.

Speaking of the sun, the beautiful day suddenly started to cloud over. Huge, dramatic clouds came rolling in from the coast just as I was crossing the Tiber near the Vatican. Since I was near the Ponte Sant’Angelo I decided to try a couple of artsy photos of one of the angel statues with a background of clouds and sunlight (they’re on Flickr). I headed back for the final leg of my walk, strolling along the Tiber to Trastevere. At home I stuffed some salad greens and mortadella into a roll for dinner, which I ate on the steps of the fountain in Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere. I skyped Gary and talked for a while, caught up on email, took some notes, and went to bed.

Some more pics

2010-10-09T03:07:00.000-04:00

I've uploaded more pics here http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielcmack/sets/72157625121707680/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielcmack/sets/72157625122006666/. More blogging and pics coming!

Happy Homecoming!

2010-10-08T09:42:00.002-04:00

So will Penn State beat Illinois?

Ten Ways in Which Rome is Like State College

2010-10-08T02:53:00.002-04:00

Thursday was a fairly uneventful day. I got up, did some research, and hit a couple of museums, to which I will be returning in a couple of days. The weather continues to be beautiful, so I’ve been walking a lot. I’ve gotten used to cobblestones again, too.

I skyped a few people today, including Gary, my mother (hi Mom!), and my friend Anne, who let me see her beautiful newborn daughter Lily (I wish I could sleep like that!). The evening was so fine that I decided to go out to the piazza for a few minutes before I went to bed. Sitting on the steps of the fountain and watching the people in the square around me, I started to think about how, despite their differences, people everywhere are a lot alike. So here are my

Ten Ways in Which Rome is Like State College:

10: In both Rome and State College, ice cream is serious business.

9. People are on their cell phones all the time.

8. All sense of courtesy is abandoned while riding public transportation.

7. iPods.

6. Lady Gaga is playing everywhere.

5. Alarms start blasting every time the power goes out.

4. It’s hard to decide which are more dangerous, the drivers or the pedestrians.

3. Every clock is set to a different time.

2. A lot of students seem to be majoring in alcohol.

1. The town goes crazy with insane fans whenever there’s a home football game.

More photos coming soon!

Working on Wednesday

2010-10-07T12:32:00.000-04:00

Wednesday was another beautiful day in Rome. In the morning I went to the academy library again, and ran into a colleague from ALA. Every time I’ve ever been in Rome, I’ve seen someone I know from the US. We chatted a while, mostly about how glad we were to be missing East Coast American weather. I did some more work in the library, stopped for coffee at the Bar G on top of the Gianicolo (this was a place where I hung out when I was in Rome during grad school), and came home to the apartment. Gary skyped me and we talked for a while.

I went downtown in the afternoon. The day was perfect: upper 70s and sunny. It’s amazing to see roses and rhododendrons blooming in October! The flowers, umbrella pines and palm trees were a contrast with what I hear about the weather back home. I caught tram 8 to Largo Argentina. The streetcar was so packed, I felt like a sardine. I am astounded at how many people will cram into a bus or tram car in Italy. The shuttle on game day in State College isn’t even close. Not only were people standing on the seats rather than sitting to make more room, but also two teenage girls were actually passed overhead like fans at a concert. Since it was so warm outside, it was stifling in the tram, and the blend of clashing perfumes, colognes, and unwashed American college students was nearly overpowering. Despite the heat, most of the Romans were wearing jackets, and one woman actually had on a scarf and mittens.

We finally got into town and I took some photos of various archaeological sites and hit a couple of bookstores to look for stuff to buy for the library. Since the weather was so fine and I had done so much walking, I figured I deserved gelato, so I had a small cone with fig and apple. I walked it off by walking back to Trastevere rather than cramming into the tram again. Along the way I ran into a charming older couple, dressed to the nines to take their four dogs for a walk (yes, Anne, they have dachshunds in Rome!). I asked if I could take a picture of their dogs, which they graciously permitted, and then chatted with me for a couple of minutes, letting me practice my Italian on them and asking about the mid-term American elections. Italians love to discuss politics, both their own and anyone else’s.

Before could cross the bridge at Tiber Island back into Trastevere I had to wait for a military convoy to pass down the lungotevere. Rome is filled with soldiers and military police right now. In many European cities it is not uncommon to see soldiers stationed around town, and in Rome always has soldiers around. They often carry huge automatic weapons as they stroll around town, and I’ve seen carabinieri direct traffic with assault rifles strapped to their chests. However, I’ve never seen this many in Rome at one time. Even on duty they manage to look stylish in that way that seems to be innate to Italians. Some officers at government buildings wear dress uniforms that look almost napoleonic, right down to the gilt hilts on the sabers they wear at their sides. The soldiers are always extremely polite, nodding a greeting and calling me signore.

In the evening I ate a little salad at home, sitting by the window and looking out at the piazza. I wrote up some notes, answered a couple of reference questions (Dead Sea Scrolls, Greek poetry), and inventoried my laundry. I haven’t tried out the mini-washer yet, but it looks like I will soon: I’m down to one pair of pants, two shirts, and two pairs of socks and boxers.

I’ve finally posted some pictures. The uploads take a long time because the file are big (12 pixel camera), so I’ve been selective. You can see my Flickr set “Rome October 2010 here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielcmack/sets/72157624985334135/detail/.

Skinny yogurt in a saucepan

2010-10-06T00:53:00.000-04:00

Tuesday I got up early again and got ready to go back to the academy library. I had my usual breakfast of yogurt and granola. The yogurt carton says Magro! in huge letters. Since this means “skinny” in Italian I assume that it’s low fat. The kitchen in my flat is nicely equipped with cookware, dishes, and utensils, but for some reason there are no bowls. I eat my breakfast out of a small saucepan.

Shaving is a little bit of an adventure here. The sink in the bathroom is the proper height for your average Italian, meaning that it’s about waist-level for me. I have to bend almost in half to get my face close enough to get wet. Other than that, though, the bathroom like the rest of the apartment is pretty nice. There is a tiny washing machine next to the shower. Maybe Wednesday I will try it out. I’ll have to remember to put the drain hose into the bathtub.

I caught the 115 bus up the Gianicolo and hit the library to check some references for topography and inscriptions from the late Republic and early Empire. The library does not have wireless; you have to plug your notebook in with an Ethernet cable if you want Internet. There are also a few public workstations to use. I took my iPad this time because it’s lighter and took notes with it. A few hours of epigraphic research goes a long way; when I finished for the morning I headed back down the hill to my apartment and a quick skype chat with Gary. Then I headed into the city to visit another of my favorite monuments, the Ara Pacis Augustae, the Altar of Imperial Peace that the Senate dedicated to commemorate the peace that Augustus brought to the Roman world (by military conquest, political shrewdness, and being the richest person alive at the time). The day turned very warm and sunny, a contrast to what friends at home tell me the weather is like there.

The Ara Pacis is a great work of sculpture in white marble. An open enclosure, decorated with superb reliefs of religious symbols and a procession of religious and political figures, including Augustus and the imperial family, surrounds the altar itself. Mussolini had the monument put in a hideous building that looked like a Fascist-era airplane hangar. It is now housed in a museum on the east bank of the Tiber. The museum was designed by the American architect Richard Meier, and I love it. It’s very minimalistic and in my opinion is a great setting for the altar. Lots of Italians hate it, mostly because an Italian didn’t design it.

In the late afternoon I headed back to Trastevere and stopped to get something for dinner: a couple of arancini. These traditional Roman street snacks are deep-fried balls of risotto with a center of vegetables and buffalo-milk mozzarella. I took them home and had with a salad, eating once again on the steps of the fountain in Piazza Santa Maria di Trastevere. A couple of Australian college students tried to hit me up for a “loan.” I asked them if they had any collateral. They changed “loan” to “handout,” and I told them that I was a poor student too. I don’t think that they were amused. Then I went to the little market in the middle of Trastevere (I was out of skinny yogurt). Just as I was entering, the power went out for the entire block because of some construction going on. This of course then set off a bunch of alarms (just like at the library at home!). Eventually the power came back and I got my yogurt.

I took a walk around Trastevere as it was getting dark. Since so many places are closed on Mondays, Tuesday tends to be a little rowdy. Much of the rowdiness comes from American college students studying abroad who discover early on that Italians will sell alcohol to anyone over the age of nine. I’m really glad that this apartment has double-glazed soundproof windows. I headed home, checked email, read a little, and went to bed.

Starting work

2010-10-05T02:55:00.002-04:00

I got up early Monday to head up to the Academy. I say “up” because it’s at the top of the Gianicolo, the highest hill in Rome. I saw that Gary had posted pics of our cats, Erik the Red and Xander the Great, on Facebook. Take a look at them if you haven’t seem them!

The American Academy in Rome was founded in the late 19^th century to promote the humanities and the fine arts. It’s in a beautiful villa on top of the hill, and has an excellent library for Roman studies. I can catch the 115 bus a couple of blocks from my flat and be there in a few minutes. I could walk, but the Gianicolo is both high and steep, and my knees weren’t up to it today. I spent some time there looking for materials on the topography of the city during the reign of Augustus, the first emperor. I’ll be going back tomorrow.

The bus ride down the Gianicolo is more exciting that going up. The streets are narrow, steep, and switch back and forth in a couple of hairpin turns. This being Italy, the bus dodges cars and fleets of motor scooters. It’s actually easier to stand on this bus than sit, because you’re likely to get thrown out of your seat at some of the turns. After leaving the bus, I stopped on my way home at one of the street stalls on Viale di Trastevere to buy a new moka pot; the one in my flat has a bad gasket. Six euro wasn’t a bad deal. I also bought some fruit at the frutteria and bread at the bakery. I skyped Gary, and then went across the river to a couple of major Augustan monuments, the Portico of Octavia and the Theater of Marcellus. Octavia was Augustus’ sister and Marcellus her son. Marcellus would probably have been Augustus’ heir had he not died young. The emperor built these monuments to honor his sister and her son. Augustus sort of owed Octavia, since he married her off to Mark Antony, who eventually ditched her for Cleopatra. Both Cleopatra and Octavia had children by Antony, and after Cleopatra and Antony’s death, Octavia raised their children with her own (the lives of the Julio-Claudians is a soap opera, for sure).

It started to rain in the evening, so I returned home to eat a dinner of salad and fresh bread baked with rosemary. The city is beautiful in the twilit rain, with all of the lights shining on the colored stucco walls and tile roofs of Trastevere. Many restaurants and clubs (and museums) are closed on Mondays, so Monday evening is comparatively peaceful. I wrote up some notes and got ready for the next morning, when I would return to the Academy for more research.

I promise that photos are coming!

Sunday dinner at Tony's

2010-10-04T13:51:00.000-04:00

Sunday was a beautiful day in Roma. I got up early and had breakfast at home (granola and yogurt, coffee and juice) and did some work. Then I went for a walk along the Tiber and back into Trastevere for Sunday dinner, the only day that Romans eat a big meal at noon (well, closer to 1 or 1:30). I decided to go to Tony’s, a place where I hung out a lot while I was in Roma on sabbatical. As I approached the trattoria I saw Alex, the head waiter, a friend I made the last time I was here. He immediately recognized me and grabbed me. I got the two-cheek kiss, and he asked me how I’d been the past two years. Alex gave me an outdoor seat in the shade and ran inside to get Tony, the owner. Another double-kiss and handshake, and then the whole staff came out to welcome me back to Trastevere. It was great! The Sunday special is lamb grilled on oak, so I had that, and they gave me a big tray of mixed antipasti (roasted vegetables, frittata, beans, olives, prosciutto, salami, and greens) and a glass of wine, none of which they charged me for. What a great welcome back to Trastevere!

After dinner, I took another walk through the neighborhood and had a gelato (lemon, wild berry, and pear), which I ate on the steps of the fountain in Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere. This ancient and beautiful church, one of the oldest in the world, is the center of Trastevere, and the piazza is the social center of the neighborhood. Tourists and trasteverini alike were hanging out in the square, on the fountain steps, or in one of the cafes around the piazza. Several people had their dogs with them, and these were running around playing. In Rome, people take their dogs nearly everywhere: cafes, bars, restaurants, sometimes even church (although they usually leave them on the porch). They often let their dogs run loose, but I’ve never seen one bother anyone, beg, or jump on people. The dogs do, however, often play with each other, and sometimes chase each other. Two of particularly frisky mutts were chasing each other around the fountain in circles, when one finally ran up the steps and dove into the water! The other dog followed of course, and then they jumped out of the basin and did what wet dogs do: they shook water all over everyone within ten feet. It was quite amusing, because the main recipients of this canine baptism were a group of grimy American students who looked like they could have used a dunk in the water themselves. The entire square burst into laughter. It was a memorable moment.

In the evening I skyped Gary, caught up on my email, answered a couple of reference questions (yes, I am still working), and prepared for Monday morning, when I would register for a Reader'Card at the American Academy in Rome.

An autumn day in Rome

2010-10-04T01:52:00.000-04:00

Saturday I slept in until almost noon. I needed to catch up on some sleep. I Skyped Gary and talked to him (and the cats!) and then got ready to go downtown. I have a great bathroom here, with a nice shower (the bathmat works great, Emily!). The shower has an adjustable massaging showerhead, with one really strong setting that I refer to as “sand-blast.”

Only a couple of blocks away from me is a tram stop. Tramline #8 goes right to the middle of the centro storico, the old center of the city. I got off at Largo Argentina, one of my favorite spots in town. In the middle of the square is an archaeological site with four ancient Republican-era temples. It also houses the cat sanctuary that I visit every time I come to Rome. They feed, fix, and care for some of the millions of stray cats in the city. The cats roam free among the ruins, and it always amuses me to look down and see first a couple, then several, then dozens of cats sunning themselves on broken marble columns and stairs, just a short distance from where Julius Caesar was assassinated.

Rome in autumn is fantastic. The weather is warm, 70s during the day, and it’s been sunny so far. The sycamores along the Tiber’s embankments are still green, and there are flowers everywhere. At night it cools off to the 50s and 60s. The city is busy, but not crowed with tourists the way it is in May and June. I strolled through town heading toward one of the most beautiful public spaces in the world, Piazza Navona. This long, oval piazza follows the outline of an ancient Roman chariot racetrack. It’s often full of artists and street performers, and today was no different. I decided to have a traditional Roman meal there, one of my favorites: spaghetti alla carbonara, pasta with eggs, cheese and pancetta. A nice green salad with oil and balsamic vinegar and some good bread made dinner on Piazza Navona a perfect relaxing supper.

After eating I headed for possibly my favorite Roman monument of all, the Pantheon. This temple is the best preserved of all ancient buildings in Rome, and has been in continual use for nearly two thousand years, first as a temple to all the gods (that’s what pan theon means in Greek), then as a church dedicated to Saint Mary, Patroness of Martyrs, and now as the burial place of the kings of modern Italy (except for Victor Emmanuel III, who let Mussolini run Italy while the king spent World War II hunting on the royal game preserve in Tuscany; no wonder the Italians voted the monarchy out and established a republic after the war). The Pantheon is amazing: one huge domed chamber, the largest dome ever built until the Superdome. The temple has survived so well because the dome was cast as a single casting of concrete. Shrines around the perimeter of the chamber used to house statues of the great gods of the Roman state. Now they are chapels to saints or tombs of royalty. The artist Raphael is buried here too. A single red rose is usually on his tomb, and there was one today.

I left the Pantheon and continued my walk throughout the center of town. I came to a church (actually, there are usually several churches within spitting distance in downtown Rome) and saw folks heading inside, so I followed them. The church was preparing to celebrate Mass. As soon as I heard the organ play Frescobaldi I decided to stay. No, I’m not Catholic, but I like good music. The organist and choir were both very good, and I figured that following the liturgy would prep me for all the Latin I’d be reading the next two weeks.

It was well after dark when I left, so I did what all Romans seem to do after mass: I stopped for gelato. Now is not the time to wax poetical about ice cream (it’s actually ice milk), so I’ll just say that Rome is worth visiting just for the gelato. Italians think you’re crazy if you only get one or two flavors, so I had stracciatella (heavy vanilla with dark chocolate pieces worked into it), pistachio, and hazelnut. The weather was perfect, warm but not hot with a soave zeffiretto (a gentle breeze), so I walked all the way home. The walk made me feel less guilty about the gelato and carbonara. I got home late, after 10 pm (20:00 here), and went to bed.

Getting settled in Trastevere

2010-10-03T16:23:00.000-04:00

The flight out of State College on Thursday was incredibly rough. It was raining, and the plane was a two-propeller puddle jumper. A few times we actually bounced so hard that overhead bins popped open. It was sort of an exciting way to leave home! We still landed safely in Philly, and I whiled away my seven-hour layover listening to 17^th century chamber music (Marin Marais and William Lawes) and watching episodes of Robot Chicken. I knew the iPad would come in handy!

It was raining all day Thursday in Philadelphia. The weather wasn’t bad enough to cancel flights, but the planes were backing up on the runway because takeoffs were slow. We boarded on time, and to my delight I discovered that the only two empty seats on the entire plane were next to me. I had an entire row to myself! This meant that I could actually stretch my legs out, and when the passenger ahead of me reclined, it didn’t demolish my kneecaps. Once we pulled out of our gate the pilot announced that there were 25 planes ahead of us waiting to take off, so we were delayed for over an hour. Once we got in the air, the trip was uneventful. The on-flight entertainment looked wretched, so once again I turned to my own programming via iPad. This also gave me a chance to peruse my favorite catalog of all time, Sky Mall (I wonder who actually buys this stuff?). The food was edible (barely), but at least they didn’t charge for it. I tried unsuccessfully to sleep (I’d been awake since about 4:30 am and it was now almost 11 pm). Finally, I gave up and watched more Robot Chicken (Seth Green is a comedic genius!).

I love the night flight to Europe. You fly through and over the darkness into the dawn. The sun came up, and out of the left windows we could see the coast of Tuscany and Lazio; on the right side, the sun was shining on the silver and blue waters of the Mediterranean. We landed smoothly, and I made it through passport control in just a few minutes. I got my luggage, turned down several black market cabbies, and caught a city taxi into town. The driver knew exactly where I was going, and soon we were winding through the narrow, cobbled maze of alleys that is Trastevere, the old medieval neighborhood on the west bank of the Tiber south of the Vatican, at the foot of the Gianicolo hill. On the way I phoned the agent for my apartment, who told me that it was still being cleaned, but I could pick up my keys and drop off my luggage.

The apartment is very nice: sunny, with huge windows and double-paned glass to shut out the night noise of Trastevere. There is a full kitchen with gas stove and oven, a bath with shower, a living room on the corner, and a separate bedroom. The ceilings are high, all the walls are whitewashed, and it’s comfortable and full of light. As soon as they were done cleaning I called Gary via Skype. Free international videophone! It’s the only way to call. We talked a while, and then I unpacked. I was exhausted, but decided to stay up as long as I could to adjust my sleep schedule. I went shopping for groceries: juice (blood orange and pomegranate), fresh fruit and salad greens, coffee for the moka pot, bread hot from a wood-fired oven, and cold cuts (prosciutto, mortadella, and turkey breast).

By now it was Friday afternoon, and I was starving. I decided to have my first meal at my favorite cybercafé in Rome, Good, about five minutes away. I ordered a liter of water con gas and a huge mixed salad of greens and roasted vegetables. I strolled through Trastevere, happy to discover that I remembered my way through the warren of winding alleys and streets. Finally I went home, checked my email (the apartment has wireless!), talked to Gary again, and went to bed early because I hadn’t slept in about 30 hours.

In Roma

2010-10-01T11:31:00.000-04:00

I arrived safely and am in my apartment. More tomorrow because I have to finish getting settled and then go to bed; I haven't slept in about 30 hours.

Off to Roma-arrivederci!

2010-09-30T05:51:00.000-04:00

I'm done packing and getting ready. It's 5:30 am and raining. Thunderstorms and heavy winds predicted for the entire day, so I'm really hoping I get out on time. The next time I post, I'l probably be in Roma (or laid over in Philly!).

Laundry, packing and whatnot

2010-09-29T11:43:00.000-04:00

I'm doing laundry and packing for tomorrow. I'm trying to travel light this time: one carry-one, a computer bag, and one medium-size checked case. In addition to what I'll wear traveling, I'll have two pairs of pants and half a dozen shirts, a sport coat and tie (I have to look presentable for some venues, and this is Italy!), and the usual unmentionables. There's one other thing I like to travel with, a rubber bath mat for the shower. Europeans apparently have suction cups on their feet, because they never have bath mats in their incredibly slick showers. Having nearly killed myself more than once slip-sliding around in a European shower, I now travel with one.

Off to Roma again!

2010-09-28T14:54:00.000-04:00

I realize that I haven't posted here for over two years, since I returned from Roma last time. Since I'm going back to Roma to do some research, I thought I'd start posting again.

If you're following me, please let comments!

Friday 27 June: My last day in Roma

2008-06-29T15:49:00.000-04:00

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.

Thursday 26 June: Concert in Trastevere

2008-06-29T15:16:00.000-04:00

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.

Wednesday 25 June: A brief discourse on gelato

2008-06-29T12:52:00.001-04:00

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!

Tuesday 24 June: Sleep, or the lack thereof

2008-06-29T12:23:00.001-04:00

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!

Monday 23 June: Top ten traffic blunders of Italy

2008-06-27T11:11:00.002-04:00

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).

Sunday 22 June: Melting

2008-06-27T11:11:00.001-04:00

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.

Saturday 21 June: Summer sun and Michelangelo

2008-06-26T18:28:00.000-04:00

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.

Friday 20 June: Laundry and iconography

2008-06-26T17:11:00.000-04:00

I really needed to do laundry. With the heat, I am going through shirts like crazy, not to mention socks and boxers. Thinking about the heat also had me on a line of research, and I needed to check some references. My question was, which should I do in the relative cool of the morning, and which in the afternoon? Finally, the thought of sitting in the un-air-conditioned laundromat at 3 pm while it was 90 outside (temperatures are the only thing I can’t do in metric) was unbearable, so I got up early and hit the place when it opened at 7:30. I struck up a conversation with the guy who works the place, whom I’ve come to know a little bit. He’s from India, and although Italian is probably about his fifth language, his is excellent, way better than mine. We usually speak in English. He told me a funny story about some American college students who came in the other day to wash their clothes. It seems that one guy took his entire backpack full of clothing, and without emptying it, threw the whole thing into their biggest washer. When it was done, he threw it into a drier, which he set for about two hours. After the drier stopped, the guy just took out his pack and left. Apparently the laundry attendant was either too shocked or too amused to intervene with advice. Or maybe this guy had a method the rest of us just haven’t tried.

I spent the afternoon on a line of research in honor of the blazing sun outside. Apollo, god of light, was identified with the Greek Helios and Roman Sol, the sun god, by the age of Augustus. Apollo was also Augustus’ personal patron. There is a lot of solar imagery in both the art and the literature of the age of Augustus, and this extends to the topography of the Augustan city. Temples and other monuments reveal this solar iconography, which is most blatantly displayed in the obelisks that the emperor brought back from Egypt to adorn Rome. For thousands of years before the Romans, obelisks had been solar symbols in Egypt, and Augustus incorporated them into his programmatic topography. The most conspicuous one is the huge obelisk that served as the gnomon, or pointer, of the immense sundial laid out in a huge marble pavement in the Campus Martius. The inscription on the base reads that it commemorates Egypt being brought into the Roman Empire, and is dedicated to Sol, the sun god. There are a lot of primary sources, including historical and literary texts, inscriptions, and artwork, that can be linked to this, as well as an enormous amount of secondary literature. This should keep me busy for a while.

Thursday 19 June: Hot hot hot hot hot

2008-06-26T17:10:00.000-04:00

I’m not even saying anything else about today. I did get some work done, though.

Wednesday 18 June: Italy may be a center of fashion, but…

2008-06-26T16:36:00.002-04:00

As I was on my way to some ruins today, I started thinking about how well many Italians dress. In Rome, they have a saying: fare una bella figura. You can translate this as “cut a fine figure,” “make a good impression” or even just “look good.” It starts with being appropriately dressed, but goes way beyond that. It means to live and move and act gracefully and decently in society. The way you speak and act is even more important than your clothes. Otherwise I’d be out of luck, since I generally go around in polo and cargo shorts (except the Vatican, where you have to wear long pants). Even I put on a jacket and tie to speak with library and museum administrators. You want to look sharp, but not be so ostentatious that you draw attention to yourself. Social graces aside, fare una bella figura does start with appearance, although it doesn’t end there.

Fashion is obviously a big industry in Italy. Gucci, Versace, Armani, Fendi, and the rest are everywhere. Many Italians dress extremely well, even if they’re just running to the store. And yet, I have seen some incredible fashion tragedies, some so heinous that they were laughable. Here is my list of the top ten fashion don’ts I’ve seen in Italy:

1. Age- and shape-inappropriate animal print stretch stirrup pants (well documented by Gary on Flickr; check out his photos from Naples).

2. Purple and orange jeans on old men (both colors in the same pair—plain orange jeans are very popular for men of all ages here).

3. Hats, vests, and other accessories made of aluminum foil (and not worn by small children or the homeless).

4. Multiple facial piercings connected by chains festooned with Swarovski crystals (a man in his 60s).

5. Habited nuns with Hello Kitty accessories (near the Lateran!).

6. Suspenders worn over a wife beater, with no other shirt (this may be a retro look; maybe the 1930’s are coming back into style).

7. Two inch long toenails worn with sandals (this was a friar, so maybe it’s part of a vow).

8. Sequined eyebrows not worn to a costume party or drag show (at a bakery in the middle of the afternoon).

9. Black lace body stocking under a black and red crushed velvet bikini (at the laundromat, so maybe everything else she had was dirty).

10. The single worst fashion mistake of Italy: the return of the mullet (mostly boys and men of all ages; in the most egregious cases, it’s worn with a mohawk or afro, or is dyed a different color from the rest of the hair).

Tuesday 17 June: Roman summer

2008-06-26T15:50:00.001-04:00

I know that the solstice is a few days away, but summer is definitely here. There’s a reason I wanted to come to Italy in the spring: the heat. If you know me, you know that I don’t do heat very well. At 60 (Fahrenheit) I am comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt. At 70, I want to go around in my boxers. At 80, I do go around in my boxers (well, not at work). And over that, I melt. It’s in the upper 80s at 11 am these days, and even the Romans have stopped wearing coats. Some of them still have on sweaters, though. I get hot just looking at them.

There is not one cloud in the sky, which by mid-day is no longer blue, but almost white. The sun is a huge, blazing disk of gold and white fire. It drenches the landscape with a storm of clear light, throwing the details of nature and architecture into stark clarity. Luckily many of the streets are narrow and surrounded by high buildings, and remain in the shade most of the time. When you walk into an open piazza, it’s like stepping into an oven. By mid-afternoon marble, bronze and steel are too hot to touch, and nearly everyone goes inside for siesta. This does not do me much good, since I don’t even have a fan, much less air conditioning. Neighbors told me, open your windows at night and close the cool in during the day. I tried it once, only to come home at 2 pm to a furnace that had melted a chocolate bar onto the table. The windows stay open all the time. I try to plan my afternoon to be in someplace air conditioned: a library, museum, or archive. The churches aren’t air conditioned usually, but marble and travertine keep them cool on the inside, and if I’m done with research for the day, I’ll wander into churches to see the stray Caravaggio or Raphael or Bernini.

Later in the afternoon, between 4 and 5 (or 1600 and 1700, as they say here), the breeze starts. A wind blows down the streets and alleys, and my side windows catch it and send it through the apartment and out the front window. If I’m home, I take a quick cold shower, and just stand in the breeze drip-drying. The evenings and nights cool some, but it’s still over 80. Closing the windows isn’t an option, even to close out the din of Trastevere at night. I’ll take the racket over the heat any day. The coolest and quietest part of the day is between 4 and 7 am, after the clubs have closed but before the street cleaners start their hazmat work. I should catch some much-needed sleep while it’s comfortable, but sometimes it’s just too pleasant not to enjoy, so I’ll get up for a while, sit at my window, and watch the sleeping street until the first pink glow in the sky tells me that the sun is back to bake Rome for another day.

Monday 16 June: I cani di Trastevere

2008-06-26T15:48:00.000-04:00

My neighborhood is filled with dogs. Not stray, but pets. All day long you see folks walking their canine buddies through the cobbled maze of Trastevere. The law requires them to have a leash, but apparently not that the leash actually be attached. Usually, dogs just walk alongside their humans, and generally follow them into stores, restaurants, and caffès (but not churches). In the US, you’d get thrown out in a hurry, but here nobody seems to mind. I certainly don’t! Often, when I’m at Good having a caffè doppio and checking my email, someone’s puppy will come up and sniff around. They’re usually clean and well groomed, and their humans don’t mind stopping for a minute to let you pet and play with them. I was at one of my favorite pizzerias once, Cave Canem (beware the dog in Latin!), and a family had a huge German shepherd with them. He sat under their outside table, very well behaved, until a woman at another table dropped a piece of food. The dog turned and sniffed and whined, but didn’t get up until the man asked the woman who dropped it if it was okay for the dog to eat it. She said yes, the man spoke to the dog, and the poor pooch jumped up so eagerly that he turned the table over, pizzas, salads, wine glasses, and all! I nearly choked laughing (I know, schadenfreude!).

There are a few large dogs, but most are smaller breeds. Dachshunds are especially popular. One guy in the neighborhood drives around on his scooter and his dachshund follows him on foot. The first time I saw him sprinting over the cobblestones like a long, low bolt of dark red lightning, ears streaming behind him, I couldn’t even tell what it was. Despite the crazy traffic here, I’ve never seen a dog come close to being hit (I hope the dachshund doesn’t try it in Piazza Venezia!). The only problem with dogs here is nobody makes any effort to clean up after them. They relieve themselves anywhere they please, with the exception of churches and ancient Roman monuments. Another reason to keep your eye on the cobbles!

Sunday 15 June: Muggy!

2008-06-26T15:47:00.000-04:00

A hot and rainy day. I didn’t do much of anything today except sweat. I know that’s not very exciting, but every day can’t be an adventure!

Saturday 14 June: A visit from Penn State friends

2008-06-25T09:05:00.000-04:00

It was Saturday, and I had visitors coming! Two friends from the Libraries at Penn State, Jennifer and Sylvia, were on vacation in Europe. They had been to Dublin and Amsterdam, and were now kicking around Italy. Their flight back to the US was Sunday morning out of Fiumicino, so they were coming down to Rome from Tuscany for their last night. They knew that I was in Rome, and had emailed to see if I’d take them around town for one-afternoon whirlwind mini-tour. I was excited to have guests again, so I caught the bus to Termini and met their train shortly after noon. They were staying with someone they had never met in person: Emma, the friend of a friend who had stayed once in Sylvia’s house. By coincidence, I had the same mutual friend (my buddy B) and I had corresponded last year with Emma when I was looking for a room in Rome. In fact, it was Emma who directed me to the web site that led me to my apartment. It really is a small world.

It was great seeing familiar faces again! And the first thing I made Jen and Sylvia do was break the law. It wasn’t intentional: we had money for the bus, and some of the buses on the route we were taking to Emma’s place had ticket machines on board. When we got on the bus, though, there was no machine, and the bus started rolling. I thought, oh well, with my luck, this will be the first time in nearly two decades I’ve been on a Roman bus and they checked for tickets. However, Fortune smiled on us, and we got off the bus without any trouble. We went up a couple blocks and found Emma’s apartment. She has a fantastic place on the upper floors of a building near the Campo dei’ Fiore. Among other things, Emma is an artist, and her colorful canvases and other works decorated the walls of her beautiful and airy apartment. Best of all, she has not one, but two rooftop terraces, one about the other. Amazing views of the rooftops of the Centro Storico! Sylvia and Jennifer got settled in, and then we sat down for a drink with Emma. She’s Australian by birth, and a long-time resident of Europe and Italy. It’s always fascinating to discuss world affairs with people other than Americans, especially when they’re as interesting and well-informed as Emma. She had some work to do, and we agreed to meet her back at the apartment in the evening for dinner. Jenny and Sylvia had also graciously brought along gifts for both Emma and me. I got a box of extremely savory waffle cookies from Amsterdam, and a collection of samples of Irish whiskey from Dublin. I was pretty sure I could put both to good use.

Since we were on foot and only had a few hours, Jen and Sylvia and I decided to hit a few of the most famous and impressive sights in Rome. We walked up to the huge, hideous Victor Emanuel Monument and around it past Trajan’s Markets and strolled along the Forum Romanum. The afternoon sun lit up the marble of the ruins, adrift with wild flowers. The poppies of the spring were now joined by wild borage, and the blue and red blossoms blazed against the stone in the golden light. We walked the length of the Forum and approached the Colosseum. You can’t go to Rome and not see the Colosseum! The crowds were just starting to thin out, and we walked all the way around the huge amphitheater. In need of a snack, we crossed the street and headed in a couple of blocks (you never eat right across from a major monument; the prices are too high). The snack ended up being salad, pizza, and the local white wine Frascati. I had also told Jennifer and Sylvia about my favorite Roman junk food, suppli, balls of mozzarella surrounded by rice and tomato, and deep fried. They were intrigued, so we had suppli as well. Sylvia and Jennifer agreed that they are addictive!

From the caffè, we headed back along the Via dei Fori Imperiali for a look at the imperial forums and Trajan’s Market and column. Heading back into the Centro Storico, I led Sylvia and Jen to the Trevi Fountain. They each made a successful coin toss into the fountain, so they’ll be returning to the Eternal City one day, hopefully for a longer visit! Trevi was filled with visitors as always, and we wove our way through them and out into the maze of medieval alleys in central Rome. Crossing over to the Piazza della Rotunda, we made a quick stop into the Pantheon. The cool, vast interior was filled with late afternoon light from the single opening, thirty feet across, in the top of the dome. Our walk back to Emma’s place took us across Piazza Navona, so Jennifer and Sylvia were able to experience one of Rome’s favorite gathering places.

Back at Emma’s apartment, the three of us joined Emma and a Roman friend of hers for a glass of wine on her amazing rooftop terrace. The sun was getting low, and a nice breeze cooled us as we sat amid the plants, looked over the rooftops, and discussed EU politics and the US election. I love hearing non-American perspectives on these topics! We finally left for dinner at about 9 pm, which is normal for Romans. Emma took us to a great place nearby, where we had a huge variety of antipasti, including breads and grilled vegetables. The food was excellent, and the conversation better. It was great, having dinner with two friends from back home, plus a new friend whom I had previously known only virtually. We all had a blast, as well as some outstanding food and great wine. After dinner, Emma led us to her favorite gelateria for ice cream. It was a perfect way to finish a great day! Being late, I left Jennifer and Sylvia in Emma’s expert care, walked through the Campo dei’ Fiore and across Ponte Sisto, and home to Trastevere, where the evening was just starting up.

This had been a great day! I had a fantastic time showing off the key points of my favorite city to Sylvia and Jennifer, and I think they had fun, too. It was nice to have visitors from home again.

Friday 13 June: Museums and inscriptions

2008-06-24T19:56:00.000-04:00

Today I hit some museums again. The National Museum of Rome has five branches, and the two I am most interested in for my research are the Palazzo Massimo, which houses one of the world’s greatest collections of classical sculpture, and the Terme di Diocleziano, built into the ruins of the Baths of Diocletian, with an incredible epigraphic collection. I’ve been to both of these before, but wanted to return to check some things that had come up in my research.

I spent the time mostly viewing the epigraphic stuff. Thousands of inscriptions on marble, travertine, and other material, make up the bulk of this incredible collection. Many ancient literary texts exist in manuscript form, on vellum or papyrus or some other fragile material. Very few manuscripts from antiquity exist. Texts are usually copies of copies of copies of copies, and there is a huge field of study devoted to comparing manuscripts, dating them, and establishing a stemma, a sort of family tree, of which manuscripts are copies of which sources. With inscriptions, this is not the case. Of course, an inscription can be a copy of an earlier one. Usually, though, these are the original texts from the ancient world. Many of these are short and simple, like the writing on a grave marker or the dedication of a gift to a temple. A lot of Roman inscriptions, though, are important historical documents, and include official lists of magistrates, proclamations of the emperors, decrees of the Senate, and similar texts. Usually, with some research (and help from a knowledgeable librarian) you can find the text of an inscription published in print someplace. It’s amazing, though, to see the actual texts that were put up in public my Julius Caesar, or Augustus, or Trajan. And when you have the text in front of you, and it’s carved in marble, and there are records of the actual item dating back to the time it was created, you know you’ve got the real thing in front of you.

Thursday 12 June: Hitting the books

2008-06-24T19:55:00.000-04:00

During Gary’s time in Rome, I’ve actually been pretty good about my research. I would hit the books while Gary went for a walk around town, or went running along the Tiber, or worked out at the palestra. But I’m now down to my last few weeks in Rome, and I have some loose ends to tie up. Today I spent the day in full OCD mode, organizing notes, checking bibliographies, updating drafts, and making lists of sources I still need to check. Before I knew it, it was dinner time, and I hadn’t eaten all day! If you know me, you understand what a rare occurrence this is. I realized that I was starved, and craving carbs, I headed out to Cave Canem, one of my favorite local eateries. I started with a salad of mixed greens, just so nobody could say I wasn’t getting my vegetables, and then had a huge baked potato stuffed with sausage and gorgonzola cheese. You have to try this sometime; it’s really good, especially when you’re hungry. Since Rome was starting to really heat up these days, I followed dinner with lemon gelato in the piazza.

An anticlimactic day after spending a month with Gary, kicking around Italy from the Veneto to Amalfi. Still, I got a lot of work done.

Wednesday 11 June: Arrivederci Gary!

2008-06-24T19:53:00.000-04:00

All good things come to an end. Today Gary had an early flight back to the US. We got up about 5 am, meaning an hour and a half after Trastevere went to bed. Fortunately, Gary had packed the day before and we were ready to go pretty quickly. We had a quick cup of coffee in the apartment, and then dragged the luggage down the street to the taxi stand at Piazza Trilussa. Gary was taking one of my huge suitcases back with him, filled with stuff I didn’t need for my last few weeks, as well as a bunch of stuff we had bought as we traveled through Italy. We figured that it would be easier for him to take, since I could help him get it to the airport. We caught a cab and arrived at Fiumicino about four hours before his flight was scheduled to leave. Gary and I both like to get to the airport with lots of lead time, and today it was a good thing we did. After checking the enormously unhelpful bank of monitors for information on departure, and asking at two desks, we found out that we had to take a shuttle to another terminal for Gary’s flight. Once we got to this terminal, they told me that I had to leave, since I wasn’t ticketed, and Gary had to go on through baggage check and security. We had hoped that Gary could check his bags, and then we’d have a chance to have coffee and breakfast together, but it was not to be. We said our good-byes, and I watched until I saw Gary go around a corner. Then the guard threw me out. Luckily, there was another shuttle waiting, and I went back to the main terminal and took the train back to the Trastevere station, and from there caught the tram back to my neighborhood.

Gary’s phone didn’t have international roaming, so he wasn’t able to call me while he waited. He did eventually get through security and baggage check though, with only one bag overweight (the other was eight ounces under the maximum). He had a flight of almost eleven hours to Cincinnati, followed by a wait of several more hours, before getting back to State College after 9 pm. I spent the day doing research at home and checking his flight status. Luckily, that day I was able to piggy back on someone’s wireless. It’s pretty cool how you can now track a flight online and watch its progress on a map.

I finally heard from Gary after he made it to Cincinnati, and then when he got home. After traveling for twenty-four hours, he made it back safe and sound, although tired and jet lagged. He said that the cats were ecstatic to see him! Old Eddie, who thinks that Gary is his mother (we got Eddie when he was about six weeks old, and he’s now pushing nineteen), would not leave Gary alone, and followed him everywhere he went in the house. Erik the Red, who is always glad to see people, did the same. Even Xander, our sociopathic misanthrope kitty, greeted him and let Gary pick him up and pet him! The cats, house and yard were fine, Gary reported. There had been a little problem with a radiator in a downstairs room leaking, but our great cat sitter Jane had notified our friend Amanda, who called a plumber and had the hot water turned off. Gary would deal with that the next day.

I was glad that Gary got home safely, but I wished he were still here. I went back to bed after speaking with him, and tried to get a little sleep before the city began to wake up.

Tuesday 10 June: Shopping in the Centro Storico

2008-06-24T18:57:00.000-04:00

Gary and I got up early today. It was Gary’s last day in Rome, and we wanted to go back to see some of our favorite sights together. We walked across Ponte Sisto to the Centro Storico, and once again visited the bustle of the Campo dei’ Fiore’s produce stands, flower vendors, and stall of gastronomic delicacies. I love seeing the fruits and vegetables laid out like jewelry or piled high in bins. Produce looks completely different in an outdoor stall than it does in a grocery store. We wandered the maze of medieval lanes that connect the major thoroughfares of the downtown district. This part of Rome is fascinating because of the way that a large, main avenue lined with modern shops and banks branches off on both sides into crooked, narrow alleys that are largely unchanged since medieval times.

In what is becoming a first and last day in Rome tradition, Gary and I stopped in Piazza Navona for lunch. It was bright and hot outside, and the sun shone on dozens of artists working in the piazza. Sketches, watercolors, pastels, and oils were all represented, and the artists were offering everything from caricature portraits done on the spot to landscapes and views of the city. We retreated to the shade of the umbrellas of one of the restaurants on the east side of the piazza and had our traditional meal of spaghetti alla carbonara, pasta with cheese, egg, and bacon. Salad and gelato completed the meal, and since it was Gary’s last day, we had a bottle of prosecco, the sparkling wine that is Italy’s answer to champagne.

We left Piazza Navona and stopped at La Sella, a nearby leather shop. They’ve been making and selling leather goods in Rome for generations, and their small shop is crowded with handbags, brief cases, wallets, portfolios, and other leather. We’ve shopped there in Rome before, and wanted to pick up a few items. Besides, the wallet I had bought there in Rome a few years earlier had become damaged, and Gary was going to by me a replacement. I found the identical wallet, which I had initialed DCM. They don’t even charge for personalizing! Leather shops are great just for the aroma. You can smell the leather from outside as you walk by.

After leaving the shop, we meandered toward the Trevi Fountain. As always, this is a great place for people watching (and pickpockets). Gary and I have thrown so many coins in this damn fountain that we’re pretty much guaranteed several return trips to the Eternal City! We both love this place, though; the most recent of Rome’s major tourist attractions. It’s not even three hundred years old, a baby compared to the Forum. The magnificent sculpture of Neptune riding an oyster shell is so cool; he looks sort of like he’s snowboarding from the way he’s standing, sort of leaning back a little with one foot forward. The tritons (mere-dudes) leading the water horses are almost worthy of Bernini (and if you’ve been reading this blog, you know how I feel about Bernini!). And I love how the horses’ hooves turn into webbed flippers. One horse is struggling against its triton, and the other is letting itself be led peacefully; this represents the sea in storm and calm.

Since we were in the neighborhood, we stopped at the Gesù, or more formally, La Chiesa del Sacro Nome di Gesù, church of the holy name of Jesus, the mother church of the Jesuit order. Built in the second half of the sixteenth century by Vignola and della Porta, it is the model of late Renaissance Counter-Reformation architecture. A balanced, classical façade leads directly into the huge interior. There is no porch or vestibule, and no side aisles so characteristic of the ancient and medieval basilica model of many Roman churches. Instead, the interior is one vast space, with side chapels opening directly onto the nave. This was to allow for the largest possible congregation to hear the preaching for which the Jesuits were famed, and to allow everyone a view of the lofty pulpit. Most of the interior decoration is 17th century baroque, and there are several incredibly lavish chapels and side altars. Two works of art stand out, though. The first is the amazing perspective painting on the ceiling of the main nave, Gaulli’s “Triumph of the Name of Jesus.” This huge work overflows its frame, and figures spill out of the work and down the curve of the vault. There is a large mirror near the entrance, angled so you can get a view of the entire painting. The other that stands out is the altar-tomb of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order. This is probably the richest altar in Rome outside of St. Peter’s. Huge columns of lapis lazuli and gilt bronze frame the urn and altar containing the saint’s body. Above is a larger-than-life bronze of Loyola, and the whole thing is topped by a large, opulent sculpture of the Trinity.

Gary and I eventually headed back to Trastevere and began to pack up Gary’s stuff. He is taking a bunch of my stuff back, since I won’t need some of it any more (like my jacket and ties), and is also carrying the Venetian glass and Sorrentine ceramics. As dinner time came, we were still full from lunch, so we had a simple meal of panini followed by gelato in the piazza. We tried to get to sleep early, since Gary had an early flight in the morning.

Monday 9 June: Filming Angels and Demons; or, Gary and Dan see famous movie stars

2008-06-24T06:43:00.005-04:00

Gary only has a couple more days in Rome, and his favorite part of town is the Centro Storico from the Campo dei’ Fiori to the Forum and Colosseum, so we decided to visit the area again. We left in the morning while it was still relatively cool. Rome is already starting to get hot; by the end of the month it will be a furnace. First, though, we headed to the Vatican. The line at St. Peter's had been hours long the entire time Gary was here. We decided to go early, and we found no line at all. Gary and I entered the huge basilica and just wandered, admiring our favorite sculptures and monuments. Mass was being sung in a side chapel, and the sound drifted faintly through the vast space. We spent an hour in the cool interior as we visited the many altars and chapels that crowd the immense interior.

We left the Vatican and walked into the already-growing Roman heat, and headed toward the Pantheon. There was a huge crowd in Piazza della Rotunda in front of the Pantheon. A group of people had wardrobes of clothes, cameras and microphones on booms, and batteries of lights. I thought maybe they were making a commercial or something, but Gary said, “No, it’s too big for that. They must be filming a movie.” He stayed outside to investigate while I entered the Pantheon. I’ve described this incredible structure before, with its vast dome made in a single casting of concrete. Well, I had taken a seat for a couple of minutes to rest, when Gary came in looking for me, saying, “Look! Tom Hanks is out here!” I followed Gary outside, and right there in front of us were not only Tom Hanks, but Ron Howard, too. They were filming Angels and Demons, Dan Brown’s prequel to The Da Vinci Code! We had front row seats, right on the top step of the portico of the temple, and were able to watch them rehearse and shoot a couple of scenes. We realized that half the people in the piazza were extras. Priests and nuns in a variety of habits (many of which you seldom see outside the Vatican these days), street performers, vendors and hawkers, and even families of tourists were all standing around, waiting for their cues. Gary pointed out how cool it was that everything looked so randomly placed, but was really tightly choreographed. We watched the spectacle for a while, and Gary got some excellent pics for Flickr; check them out at www.flickr.com/danielcmack. He got a couple of great close-ups of Tom Hanks and Ron Howard. I’m not a great fan of Brown’s prose, but I thought The Da Vince Code made a better movie than book, and I bet Angels and Demons will, too. Now we have to see it just to see if we’re in camera view!

We finally left the Pantheon and the filming, and headed back to Trastevere. On our way back, near Campo dei’ Fiore, we passed a group of college aged young women, who yelled “Penn State!” at us. Gary was wearing Penn State polo, and they had spotted us. They were students from University Park here for a few weeks. We stopped and chatted with them for a while, and discovered that they were living in Trastevere too. We gave them a few tips for food and shopping, and Gary pointed them toward the filming site. By the time we reached the apartment it was hot, and time for siesta. We rested during the afternoon heat, and then had a dinner of salad and pizza. Monday night is the quietest in Trastevere because half the restaurants and most of the bars are closed, so we had another decent night’s sleep.

Sunday 8 June: Laundry and pasta

2008-06-24T05:58:00.000-04:00

One chore today: laundry. I had almost nothing clean left, and Gary had worn most of his during our trip to the south. We headed out in the morning for the lavanderia. Our route passed through Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere, the main square in the neighborhood. We go through this piazza several times a day, but I had never been there early Sunday to witness the aftermath of Trastevere’s Saturday evening revelry. The square was literally ankle deep in trash of all kinds, from broken bottles and discarded gelato cups to pizza boxes and discarded clothing. The morning hazmat team was just arriving to clean up. I’m amazed at how the local practice appears to be just trashing the place and then cleaning up, rather than enforce any sort of use of waste cans or recycle bins. We realized how women can walk on the cobblestones in high heel Manolos without breaking a heel: the cobbles are completely filled in with wine corks and cigarette butts.

Laundry was uneventful. There is a bar across the street to get a caffè, and down the block a nice gelateria with outside window and tables under a tree. We amused ourselves there for a while, and then went back to the laundromat to watch MTV Italia while our clothes finished drying. The station’s lineup is funny. American pop and rap alternates with Italian songs, many of which are hilariously bad (well, probably not any more so than US pop, but the novelty of it being in Italian is a contributing factor). We had plans for the morning and wanted to get to bed early, so we had an early dinner at one of the best restaurants near the apartment, on Piazza Santa Maria della Scala. Gary had his favorite, the classic Roman spaghetti alla carbonara, and I decided to have the same. Gelato in the piazza, and early to bed. Sunday night is the second quietest night in Trastevere after Monday, so we actually got some sleep.

Saturday 7 June: Return to Roma

2008-06-24T05:40:00.001-04:00

Today Gary and I had to leave the paradise that is Sorrento. Fortunately, we did not have to go until the afternoon, so we were able to spend several hours hanging out by the water, just chilling and watching the constantly changing spectacle of sun, sea and sky. A little rain in the morning gave way to the bright sunshine of southern Italy. We kept going out onto our terrace for yet another last look at the magnificent sight of the volcano sleeping over the sea.

A taxi quickly took us to the station, where we boarded the local Circumvesuviana that had brought us to Sorrento. The trip to Naples, where we would catch our train to Rome, was less than an hour. The Circumvesuviana is a lot like public transportation in Rome: they almost never check for tickets, unless you’re part of a group of Italian ragazzi in their early teens. Of course, one such group was on board, and we had gone only a couple of stops before some rail authority in a very impressive uniform (all Italian uniforms are impressive!) hauled the boys off the train for riding illegally. They never asked to see anyone else’s tickets.

Once again, Gary and I were taken by the contrasts of the countryside leading up to Naples. Huge tenement complexes alternated with fields of tomatoes and pastures of water buffalo. We encountered a few more stacks of uncollected trash; apparently, the government still hasn’t resolved that crisis, either! Once in Naples, we found the track for our train to Rome, and having a couple of hours to wait, we headed for the one place in an Italian train station where you can find both seating and a free restroom: the local Mickey D’s. We were thirsty, so we ordered Cola-Cola Light, apparently Italy’s second-favorite soft drink after Orange Fanta. I decided to get a couple of regular hamburgers. When I asked for them, the guy at the counter said “no salsa, no salsa.” Well, I didn’t quite know what he meant, since I don’t expect sauce on a Mickey D burger, so I said fine. “No salsa” apparently means “we are going to serve your burger completely plain, without pickle, onion, or ketchup.” Gary and I were sort of amused by this, so I went back up and ordered two more hamburgers a few minutes later. The same guy told me, “Now it’s after 3:30, so you can have salsa.” Sure enough, these burgers had onions, ketchup, and pickle (Gary always gives me his pickles). I don’t know the significance of 3:30, but it was funny.

The train to Rome was unpleasant, to put it mildly. Until then, we had been impressed by the Italian rail system. This train was not only filthy, with trash on the floor and half the seats, but it was also sweltering. It must have been 90 in our car! If you know me, you know how I feel about heat. I’d rather freeze than break a sweat. Luckily, the trip was less than two hours (I love high speed rail!), and there was a great breeze if you stood near the door connecting cars.

Other than the crappy train, we arrived back in Rome without incident. The apartment was stuffy because it had been closed up. It cooled quickly once we opened the big windows. It was now past 8 pm, and we were hungry, but too tired to sit in a restaurant. Trastevere is fortunately supplied with a range of eating establishments, so a couple of slices of pizza a taglio and a bottle of wine to go set us up for the evening.

Friday 6 June: A lazy day in Sorrento; or, The joys of doing nothing

2008-06-23T07:25:00.002-04:00

When Gary and I travel, we like to see the sights with an emphasis on nature and on art and architecture. That’s why we go on cruises and walks, and visit museums, churches, and palaces. We also like to eat good food! That’s not all we do, though. We like to spend some time relaxing by doing nothing. Gary and I had earlier decided that Friday in Sorrento would be our “do nothing” day. No planned tours or visits, just hanging out relaxing by the pool, chilling. And that’s what we did today.

The weather alternated between sunshine and light rain. Even the rain was great, though, because it rained when the sky was clear overhead! It was the strangest sight, to see that huge open sky overhead, the monstrous clouds high up around us on all sides, but the sun shining down on us as the rain fell in a gentle shower. This didn’t stop us from chilling pool-side; when the rain would start, we’d just go in the lobby until it ended. Gary actually did go for a walk into town, where he discovered Sorrento’s only bancomat (ATM). It was mobbed by tourists, mostly British, complaining that it was the only ATM in Sorrento. It was sort of odd, because all of the shops and restaurants in Sorrento, even those with credit card signs, always asked if we could pay cash when presented with plastic. Gary asked about this at Il Delfino, and said that if they wanted us to pay cash, there should be more bancomats in town. To this the proprietor replied that Sorrento did not need another bancomat! I guess they just expect tourists to walk around with hundreds and thousands of euro in their pockets.

Anyway, doing nothing was the point of the day, and that’s basically what we did. If you haven’t done it, try it sometime. No plans, except maybe dinner, no goal, and no structure. Just lie around the pool or wherever. Sure, read if you feel like it. Chat with other guests. But don’t have an agenda, and just hang out. It’s amazing how seldom we actually do it. You'll look back and think, what did I do that day that made it so great? Oh yeah, I chilled!

Our one plan for the day was dinner. We returned to Il Delfino for a second dinner, something we almost never do, because the food was so incredible. More sea food, this time spaghetti allo scoglio. Scoglio is a rock, like a stone on the bottom of the sea with sea creatures stuck all over it, and this dish features all the shellfish and other critters that live on the sea stones: clams, mussels, shrimp, calamari, and rock lobster, all steamed whole in their shells in garlic, tomato, and wine, then tossed with pasta. Following this was a misto fritto di mare, fried mixed sea food. Sardines, whole baby octopus, squid, oysters, and pieces of sea bass were dipped in a light batter and quickly deep fried, then brought to the table scalding hot and eaten with lemon. Gary has a great picture of me dangling a little octopus by one tentacle into my mouth on Flickr.

Once again, we returned to our nearby hotel and watched the sun set over the bay from our terrace. The golden light turned orange, then red, and the entire ring of the bay’s shore glowed in the late rays of the sun, a ring of fire around the darkly sparkling water. Clouds passed overhead, and an occasional light shower would sprinkle down for a minute and pass. Then evening came, and night fell on Vesuvius and his bay.

Thursday 5 June: A cruise around Capri and the Amalfi Coast; and the best seafood ever

2008-06-23T06:40:00.001-04:00

Last night it rained briefly. We got up and watched it for a while from our terrace. It was beautiful, the rain falling on the dark sea, and the lights of Naples sprawling across the far side of the bay. In the morning the rain was gone, and it was sunny and clear. Gary and I had a nice breakfast in our hotel, and then caught a cab to the port (I didn’t want to walk all the way up the cliff and then back down again). Today we were going on a cruise around the Sorrentine peninsula, past Capri and Positano, to Amalfi. We had coffee at a caffè on the water, then waited for the Metro di Mare, the cruise shuttle that serves the Bay of Naples.

Our ship was a decent size, and was fairly fast. We boarded with a bunch of other tourists and headed out into the bay. What amazing views! Far off on the other side of the bay we could see the Neapolitan skyline. To our left was the peninsula, and our hotel at the very end of the buildings along the water in Sorrento. Once again Gary and I were amazed by the colors: the deep blue of the sea; the clear, lighter blue of the sky, the pastel buildings of Sorrento, and the many greens of the trees and shrubs that covered the land down to the water. As always, ruling the view was Vesuvius the great, looming over your shoulder every time you turned around.

The water was filled with vessels of all kinds: fishing boats collecting that evening’s dinner, tourist boats and pleasure craft of all kinds, and a couple of enormous cruise ships serviced by a constant stream of shuttles carrying their passengers ashore for the day. As we headed out further, the water turned choppy. Gary stood most of the trip, and took many excellent photos. Check them out at www.flickr.com/danielcmack! My knee didn’t let me balance for long, but I had a great seat in the open top level of the ship. As we headed out to sea, we passed the last reaches of the peninsula, and ahead of us Capri rose from the waves. This island looks like a huge pointed stone that some immense Titan flung out into the water. Its peaks rear up steeply from the waves, and there are beaches around the shore. For thousands of years Capri has been a refuge for the wealthy and powerful. Tiberius, the second Roman emperor, spent his last several years here, ruling the Empire from his villa on Capri because he despised Rome. It is here, in the Villa of the Monsters, that Tiberius indulged in some of the more grotesque behavior imaginable, which he passed on to his heir and successor Caligula (see Suetonius’ Lives of the twelve Caesars if you want the disgusting details: it’s like an ancient Roman Jerry Springer show!).

Out at sea we were completely dazzled. The clear Mediterranean sun sparkled on the water, now blue, now so purple it looked almost black, but always with a shimmering surface reflecting the light. As we passed the island of Capri we could make out the hotels and villas that still dot the island. Rounding the tip of the peninsula, we turned and sped along the southern side of the stretch of land. Here we passed small islands like mini-Capris, more like big rocks sticking out of the sea than islands. Even these had a few buildings on them. A medieval watchtower on one looked like it had been abandoned for ages, while another hosted what looked like a weather or oceanographic outpost.

We were now around the peninsula with the Amalfi Coast on our left. Sheer cliffs dropped down into the Mediterranean, with terraces of pines, palms, and other vegetation. Most amazing, though, were the houses and villages on the steep cliffs. I can’t imagine the roads it must take to reach them! Then ahead we saw that we were approaching Positano. This ancient town is a beautiful riot of brightly-colored houses, churches, and hotels on an immensely steep slope leading right down to the water. Once again, Gary got some great photos for Flickr. In the sky, huge billowing clouds of white and gray began to pile up behind the mountains, while the sky over the sea stayed clear and sunny. The brilliant light reflected off the shining water and the rainbow hues of the town, made even more vivid by the dark green cliffs and towering clouds behind them.

We continued past Positano, and finally arrived at Amalfi. This resort town has long been a favorite of celebrities, and we had a couple of hours to wander the piers and streets lining the shore. As we left our ship, we noticed that, in true Italian fashion, a number of women were sunning themselves topless on the beach. To our amusement, this brought out the cameras and camcorders of several tourists, mostly elderly British men. Gary and I bought drinks (the ubiquitous Coca-Cola Light), sat in the shade, and admired the view. Amalfi stretched above us in tier after tier of houses, hotels, and villas. High up were medieval battlements, towers centuries old. I can’t imagine what it must have been like building up the cliffs back then; it would be incredibly difficult and dangerous even with modern construction equipment. The streets along the shore in Amalfi are lined with shops selling souvenirs, ceramics, and various tasty treats of the region. We wandered the beautiful shoreline until it was time for our return journey.

The trip back to Sorrento was the same as we had taken out, only in reverse. If anything, the photo-ops were even better in this direction because of the light. The clouds over the shore had mostly dispersed, and as the sun headed west, the afternoon light shone on the faces of the cliffs, turning them ochre and orange. We rounded the peninsula, once again skirted Capri, and headed back to Sorrento. Gary and I didn’t want to get off the ship; it had been such fun, with such incredible scenery. Make sure you check out Gary’s pics!

The evening ended with dinner at Il Delfino, a restaurant very near our hotel, and recommended to us by the singing taxi driver. I’m glad we went there, because this ended up being the single best meal of my entire life! Gary had a salad to start, and I had the house antipasto di mare, a marinated combination of octopus, clam, oyster, mussel, sardine, crab, and shrimp, all in a lemon-garlic marinade with hot pepper flakes. As delicious as this was, the second course was even better: risotto alla pescatora, a seafood and rice dish in a spicy tomato broth that may be the single best thing I have ever eaten. Gary’s pasta course was outstanding, homemade ravioli with meat sauce. For his entrée, he ate chicken grilled in herbs and lemon. I had asked for that evening’s best fish, which was sea bass baked in lemon and garlic. The entire fish was cooked and brought whole to me, and the waiter filleted it at the table. Amazing! We finished with lemon and chocolate torts with gelato and shots of limoncello, Sorrento’s famous lemon liqueur. Stuffed, we walked back to the nearby hotel and finished the evening with cocktails and dark chocolate on our terrace, watching night fall over the bay. The moon and distant lights of Naples sparkled off the dark water, and in the distance we could see the silhouette of the great volcano sleeping across the bay.

A quick note from Roma

2008-06-20T08:58:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone! I haven't really been derelict in posting; I've just been incredibly busy the past week or so.

It's very hot in Roma now, and my 400-year-old palazzaccio doesn't have air conditioning, or even a fan. This means that the cybercaffes, which are air conditioned, are packed. I can't always get online. I have notes from the past few days and will be posting them over the weekend.

Saluti caldi!

Dan

Wednesday 4 June: Sorrento: sea, sky and sunshine

2008-06-12T15:50:00.000-04:00

Yesterday’s afternoon and evening in Spaccanapoli, the center of Old Naples, did have one spell of absolute, utter serenity: Gary and I took a break from the fascinating parade of people to visit the tiled cloister at the church of Santa Chiara. This old medieval church is in the heart of Naples, but the cloister is an oasis of peace. In the mid-1700’s, the cloister was tiled with hand-painted tiles featuring scenes of daily life in the Bay of Naples area. There are farmers in the field, villagers dancing at a festival, hunters and dogs chasing deer and boar, and other gorgeous images. Gary took a picture of people playing bocce ball while a donkey watches from the barn window! Check it out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielcmack/2555162637/in/set-72157605468698645/. The church and cloister suffered serious fire damage in the mid-20th century, and is being beautifully restored. There is also a small museum with access to an ancient Roman bath house at a lower level of the site.

It’s a good thing we had that rest yesterday, because last night we got no sleep at all. The hotel is beautiful, clean and comfortable. It’s also a sauna. Our room was about 90 degrees all night long. We just couldn’t sleep, and woke very early and showered (twice!) just to cool off. We did have a good breakfast at the hotel, and then ordered a cab to take us to the train station for Sorrento. However, a local couple stole our cab from us, so we walked around the corner to the taxi stand at the Duomo (you cannot hail cabs from the street in Italy; it’s illegal for the drivers to stop). Our amiable taxi driver whizzed through the horrid traffic of Naples. They are never going to clean up this city until they do something about the traffic.

Gary and I got out of the cab at the train station for the Circumvesuviana, the local electric train that goes around the towns at the base of Vesuvius and out to the Sorrentine peninsula. We rode first through the sprawling suburbs that surround Naples. What a study in contradiction! Rows of high-rise low-income housing alternate with truck gardens of vegetables for the area and for export. The soil is incredibly fertile because of the trace elements brought up from deep within the earth when Vesuvius erupts. This is the only place you can grow tomatoes and legally call them “San Marzano” tomatoes, the best kind for Italian sauces. We even saw herds of water buffalo, the critters that supply the milk for true mozzarella di bufala cheese. The real thing is nothing like the “mozzarella” you buy in the dairy case.

We finally left the suburbs and came to the series of small towns built on the coast of the Sorrentine peninsula. At the tip of the peninsula is Sorrento. This was originally the Roman town of Surrentum, a resort town even then. In the 18th and 19th centuries it became a popular vacation spot for Europeans, especially the British, because of its sunshine and natural beauty. I had spent one memorable afternoon and evening in Sorrento when I was messing around at Pompeii in grad school, and for years have wanted to go back. The train ends at Sorrento, and the town is built on the cliffs overlooking the bay. We caught a cab driven by a bald guy with a while handlebar moustache who sang arias from Rossini the entire trip (Rossini was Neapolitan, and is a local favorite). The streets are narrow and switch back and forth in tight, hairpin turns as they wind down the cliffs to the sea. The traffic was the opposite of Naples: everyone must constantly back up, pull over, and give way to oncoming traffic, and everyone does it with a wave and a smile. The town is beautiful, and so different than the great cities of Italy. Instead of the majestic marble ruins and terra-cotta colored pallazzi of Rome, the dignified Renaissance facades of Florence, or the riot of styles in Venice, there are simple but elegant houses and hotels painted lemon yellow, bright pink, and pastel green, the colors of sherbet. Everything is cheerful, sunny, and bright. The landscape is filled with lemon and orange trees in fruit.

Gary had made us reservations at the Hotel Admiral, an old British resort that has been very nicely renovated and painted bright yellow. The hotel is right on the water, and is the last one at the end of the marina. We had a sea-side third floor room with a private terrace over the water. The walls were white, with a cove ceiling in sea blues and greens, turquoise tile floors, blond wood furnishings, and blue and yellow linens. The bathroom was huge by European standards, and best of all, had a full-size tub with fixed shower head higher than my head. I had my first comfortable shower in three months! The tile in the bathroom had squid and cuttlefish painted on it. The management even left us a complimentary bottle of champagne in a chilled ice bucket. The lobby was bright and airy, with a bar attended by a liveried bartender. It opened onto a deck with swimming pool, built about fifteen feet up right over the sea. The pool was filled with sea water. Gary and I immediately cleaned up and headed for the pool.

The vistas in Sorrento are astounding. The huge blue sky looked even bigger when immense, billowing clouds floated overhead. The water of the bay rippled in an endlessly changing pattern of sapphire and turquoise in the sunlight. Behind us rose the cliffs with beautiful resorts on top, the steep slopes dotted with citrus trees. To our right we could see the marina, ahead of us sail boats were moored, and across the bay, over thirty miles away, we could see the sprawl of Naples and its suburbs. But most impressive was the constant presence of Vesuvius. The volcano was directly across the bay from our window! It loomed over the bay, dominating the vast panorama laid before us. I spent the afternoon in a lounger by the pool in the activity I had been awaiting for months: doing absolutely nothing. I didn’t read, or listen to music, or talk. I just reclined and watch the sea, sky, clouds, and sunlight. The sky was huge, a deep but clear blue. Gigantic clouds would pile up on the mountains behind us, reaching higher and higher in tiers of white and gray, until it seemed like they would finally reach the sun. Behind these, even higher yet, were distant cloudy wisps like remote veils flung from space by some goddess or angel. Banks of clouds would move past each other in what seemed to be some intricate pattern that you could eventually decipher if only you watched long enough, and they cast their shadows across parts of the shining water and blue-green landscape across the bay. Cloud shadows chased each other across the slopes of Vesuvius. Through all this, the sun shone clear and bright. I couldn’t decide if it was choreography, or a contest, or a battle, but the interplay of the elements was endlessly fascinating, and I watched it for hours. And beyond everything was that vast sky, so deep and clear and compelling that I almost felt that I could fall into it forever if I would just let go of my chair. Two of the most beautiful places I have ever been are the hills of Tuscany and the fjords of Norway. Here on the peninsula it seemed like the two had been combined and moved to the tropics.

Later that afternoon Gary and I walked into town. Since Sorrento is on the top of the cliff and our hotel is on the water, that meant walking uphill for twenty minutes. There are actually steps in places up the cliffs, but I didn’t relish the idea of a stairway of 500 steps so we stuck to the road. The town is filled with hotels, shops, and eateries specializing in the incredible seafood of the bay. One of the main crafts of the region is ceramics, and we passed shops filled with majolica painted with Renaissance patterns, country scenes, roosters, and the famous lemons of Sorrento. I had gone hog wild already on glass in Venice, so I restrained myself from stocking up on platters and pitchers which would never make it home in one piece. I settled for some nice hand-painted majolica wine and oil bottle-stoppers. Going back to the hotel was easier, since it was down hill. We stopped for dinner at a restaurant right on the water. In front of the restaurant were two and a half swordfish, caught just an hour or two before. Check Flickr; Gary got a pic of one just before they cut my steak off it. I had an antipasto of raw marinated seafood like Italian sushi: swordfish, salmon, and tuna in herbed oil with raw octopus (by now you have figured out that I like octopus the way I like Bernini and Bach). Gary had a tasty veal pizzaiola, and my steak was a cross-section of the swordfish, grilled over an oak fire.

Gary and I watched the sunset from our private terrace three floors about the pool deck. The sky slowly turned darker and deeper blue, but the clouds glowed orange from the sun long after it disappeared. All around the bay we could see the lights of the towns in the distance, and Naples was a glow slouched along the remote shore. Signals on ships in the bay sparkled on the dark water. The cliffs behind us were fragrant and rustling with the scent of orange and lemon, and over all slept the immense, quiet volcano. Gary took some great pictures of evening over the bay; check them out on Flickr.

See pics of "Angels and Demons" filming!

2008-06-09T09:13:00.002-04:00

Gary and I were at the Pantheon in Rome today, and Gary realized that Tom Hanks and Ron Howard were right there in front of us, filming "Angels and Demons," the prequel to "The Da Vinci Code." Go to www.flickr.com/danielcmack to see Gary's pics of them filming the scene!

Pics on Flickr!

2008-06-06T11:26:00.001-04:00

Pictures of Gary and Dan in Naples and at Pompeii are now on Flickr at www.flickr.com/danielcmack. Check them out! -Dan

Tuesday 3 June: A day at Pompeii; an evening at Spaccanapoli

2008-06-06T06:48:00.000-04:00

We got up at 5 am today to get ready for our trip to the digs. We stopped at a caffè around the corner for coffee and cornetti, and caught a cab to the Circumvesuviana station. The Circumvesuviana is the local electric train that serves the communities around Vesuvius, the southern Bay of Naples, and the Sorrentine peninsula. The trip to Pompeii takes about a half hour. We arrived at the Pompeii Scavi stop and entered the site as it opened at 8:30 am. I recommend early arrival for several reasons. First, it’s less hot in the morning. Second, the light is better than when it is directly overhead. And third, everyone else goes late, and since Pompeii can get packed, it’s nice to be there when there are fewer people. Gary and I were alone most of the time. I’ve written about Pompeii before, and how amazing it is to walk through this town frozen in time and catastrophe. Just as I had a couple of months earlier with Beth, so Gary and I encountered many dogs, mostly sleeping in the sun. I lost my sun hat, but Gary found it for me (I had apparently taken it off in the Botanical Garden). We visited the Forum, with its basilica, monuments, and Temple of Capitoline Jupiter, as well as the temples of Isis and of Apollo. We spent a few hours in Pompeii, and saw the large and small theaters, a couple of the baths, and walked through the streets of shops, houses, and apartment buildings. It was pleasant out, sunny and warm but not hot, with a nice breeze. We enjoyed the quiet with so few visitors there.
In the afternoon we returned to Naples. After cleaning up in our room, we spent the evening hanging out in the old neighborhood of Spaccanapoli. We had a late lunch during which I had incredibly good seafood pasta (more octopus!). We ate gelato sitting on an old stone bench people-watching, which we later continued from an outdoor caffè. The people of Spaccanapoli are fascinating. The place is a zoo, and makes Trastevere look conservative. It seems like hairstyles of the early 1980’s are making a comeback here, especially for women. I haven’t seen such big hair since I was in college. The purple and orange lycra made a nice contrast to acid-washed denim and leopard-print stirrup pants. The two winning fashion statements both went to people over seventy. One was an elderly man, walking down the street in boxers and a wife beater, carrying his stove-top espresso pot. Gary said that he was just out of bed and looking for coffee. In the ladies’ category, the winner was a septuagenarian in tight zebra print pants who was picking through trash cans, occasionally crying out in glee as she discovered some treasure. Folks were everywhere on the narrow street, hanging out of windows and balconies, sitting on benches and in outdoor bars, or just leaning on the buildings hanging out. The traffic was incredible, much worse even than Rome. Vespas and even cars darted between the tables of outdoor caffès. Children much too young for drivers’ permits zipped their scooters in and out of the traffic, and cars and taxis barreled down the cobblestones with wild abandon. We saw old women lower baskets on strings from their fifth and sixth floor windows, waiting for a passer-by to take out a note and money, run an errand, and deliver the merchandise to the basket, which would then be raised back up to the window. We could have stayed there all night, but eventually we went in after a dinner of panini on the street, and went to bed.

Monday 2 June: Off to Naples, and an unplanned trip to Salerno

2008-06-06T06:00:00.001-04:00

When we made our reservations for the train to Naples, we made the mistake of thinking that the agent actually knew English. We told him that we wanted to leave Rome around 9:30 am. It’s a good think we checked the tickets closely the night before we left; he had us arriving in Naples at 9:30 instead, which meant that we had to leave Rome at 7:30! Luckily we are both early risers, and the extra two hours would end up being useful for us.

Napoli is a colorful city. By “colorful,” I mean “frequently lacking in 21^st-century conveniences often taken for granted by many Americans.” Naples is a big city, 3 million people in the metropolitan area, and it is one of the poorest large cities in Europe. For centuries Naples has been a study in contrasts: home to famous artists and musicians and their wealthy royal patrons, but also to some of the greatest poverty in the Mediterranean. An independent nation for a long time, the Kingdom of Naples was often ruled by foreigners, including the French and Spanish. It became part of the united Kingdom of Italy in 1860. Modern Italian politics often focus on the widespread poverty, poor living conditions, and immense corruption in the local government of Naples. Most recently, the refuse workers and government have been at odds, and there are parts of Naples where trash has not been removed for six or seven months. The European Union has found Italy in violation of human rights for this, and has ordered the Italian federal government to intervene. Garbage is gone from the tourist areas, but our train drove through many areas of low-income high rises surrounded by trash heaps.

As we approached the city, the train ran parallel to the subway for a couple of stops. We were waiting for our stop, which had not yet appeared. I finally asked a train employee if this was our stop, and he said yes, but don’t get off yet. Then the train started moving, and I asked when we could get off. The guy said at the next stop. I asked where the next stop was, and he said Salerno! If you know Italian geography, you know that Salerno is a city past the Bay of Naples, about a half hour by express train. Gary and I were sort of annoyed, but it was not a big hassle, since we just rode for a half hour, saw the Bay and the volcano, and got off at Salerno. We took pics to show that we were there, and then bought tickets back to Naples. The whole thing took an extra two hours, so it was a good thing that we left Rome two hours early. It all worked out in the end.

In Naples we decided to walk to out hotel, since its website said it was “a few meter’s walk from the train station.” It was in fact about a half mile away, and none of the streets ran directly to it. Gary did eventually find it for us though. Hotel Caravaggio is right next to the Duomo, the cathedral of Naples. Right outside the hotel is a huge spire, built in the seventeenth century, to thank Naples’ patron saint for saving the city from plague. Our room was big, clean, and comfortable except for temperature. It was sort of warm, and we opened the large windows into the courtyard for ventilation. This also allowed us to hear a woman scream constantly at her huge brood of undisciplined children.

Gary and I cleaned up, unpacked, and strolled through Spaccanapoli, the old central part of town, a neighborhood of winding streets, shops, and five- to ten-story apartment buildings, mostly from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We would explore this area in more detail later; now we were on our way to the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, home to an outstanding collection of antiquities, including many of the most important and well-known finds from Pompeii. The building is nearly two hundred years old, and the museum is in the process of renovation. The renovations are excellent. Rather than cramming dozens of pieces into one small space, a few select pieces are displayed, often against a plain but brightly-colored background, which shows the pieces off much better. Another practice I wish more museums would adopt is how the Naples museum is displaying some of its architectural fragments. Pieces of columns, arches, doorways, ceilings, and so on are presented at the height and angle of their original position. For example, there was an ornately-carved marble fragment from inside the top of a large doorway. Most museums would just have it on a shelf or stuck on a wall. Here, it was suspended from the ceiling, facing down, at the height of the entrance that it once decorated. You can walk underneath it, look up, and see it just how a first-century Roman would have. Column capitals, wall fragments, and other architectural elements were also displayed this way.

The museum is full of frescos, mosaics, bronzes, and glass from the ancient world, especially Pompeii. The concept of ancient Roman (or Egyptian!) glass astounds me, considering how I have gone through martini glasses and other stemware. The art in this collection rivals the Capitoline and Vatican Museums in Rome as far as antiquities go. A famous part of the collection is the Gabinetto Segreto, the “Secret Cabinet.” This houses many works of erotic art from Pompeii. Established in the early nineteenth century, the Secret Cabinet used to be off limits to everyone but scholars. Now anyone can enter it and see the bronzes, marble statues, frescos, and mosaics in the collection. If you are unfamiliar with classical erotic art, just search gabinetto segreto or roman erotic art on Google images. Make sure you turn off your safe search filters or you’ll miss the best stuff! Some of the pieces are strange to modern eyes, a lot aren’t, and many are as amusing to us as they probably were to the Romans. Gary and I had the great good fortune to visit the Secret Cabinet just as a group of school kids arrived. They were in the perfect age range: eleven to fifteen, and included both boys and girls. The girls made sure that everyone know just how shocked and embarrassed they were. On the other hand, the boys were almost rolling on the floor laughing, pointing out to their friends their favorite details on each piece, and sometimes offering anatomical comparisons. It really was the highlight of the visit.

We left the museum and walked back to our hotel, stopping at the cathedral on our way home. The Duomo was literally around the corner; in fact, two walls of the courtyard around our piazza are formed by an angle of the church’s nave and transept. There was a nice variety of art and monuments in the cathedral, from the medieval period, through the Renaissance, Baroque and up to the present. We had dinner at a pizzeria in Spaccanapoli, only about three blocks from us, and then went to bed early, since tomorrow we were leaving early for Pompeii.

A quick note from the sunny south of Italy

2008-06-06T04:05:00.002-04:00

Once again we have been without reliable or usable Internet access. Don't worry; I've been recording our experiences, and will soon post about our journey south, our unexpected visit to Salerno, the chaos of Naples, our trip to Pompeii, and several amazing days among the lemon groves, palm trees, sapphire sea, and sunshine on the Sorrentine peninsula and Amalfi Coast. Lots of pics coming soon to Flickr! -Dan

Sunday 1 June: Gary’s top ten favorite phrases from his Italian phrase book

2008-06-03T00:46:00.001-04:00

As we started packing for the Bay of Naples, Gary went through his Italian phrase book looking for useful items. He studied Italian in college, and has been getting around very well without a phrase book. This book has been useful primarily for its entertainment value. Gary picked out his favorites:

I would like to take water skiing lessons. Vorrei prendere lezioni di sci d’acqua.
Someone’s been knocked down! È stata investita una persona!
He’s drowning! Sta annegando!
There’s a burst pipe! Si e roto un tubo.
The outlet in the bathroom doesn’t work. La presa di corrente del bagno non fuziana.
What are the snow conditions like today? Quali sono le condizioni della neve oggi
My son’s missing! Mio figlio è scomparso!
The garbage has not been collected for a week. Non portanovia la spazzatura da una settimana. (This one might be useful in Napoli!)
It hurts when you touch it. Mi fa male quando lo tocca.
He’s passed out. È svenuto.

I detected a couple of themes in Gary’s phrases. Why don’t you see if you can combine them into a story?

Tomorrow: We leave for Napoli!

Thursday 29 May: Borghese in the rain

2008-06-03T00:43:00.000-04:00

This morning it rained, but Gary and I didn’t care. We had timed admission to the Galleria Borghese, one of the world’s great art collections. The Villa Borghese is a park in the north of Rome, once a private estate of the Borghese, a princely family with many members serving as cardinals and Pope throughout the centuries. One of these was a great collector of ancient Greek and Roman art, and patron of artists of his day. The Villa Borghese was founded as a private park, with a palace in the center to display the art collection. Through the centuries the family added to the collection. A later prince married Napoleon’s sister Pauline. She posed nude for the sculptor Canova in the early 19th century; this statue is in the collection. Eventually the city bought the entire park and palace, which were then made available to the public.
The Galleria Borghese is one of the greatest art collections open to the public. The first floor is sculpture, including works of classical antiquity and later European sculptors. There are several works by Bernini, including his famous Apollo and Daphne, an amazing work showing the god pursuing the nymph, who turns into a tree to escape his amorous advances. The second floor of the palace features an incredible collection of painting, mostly Italian, and includes major works by Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Correggio, and other masters of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. If you ever get to Rome, and you have any interest at all in art, you must go to the Galleria Borghese!
The park of the Villa Borghese is a beautiful place to stroll, boat, and picnic. It was raining today, so Gary and I did not stay. I had been here in April with Beth, and Gary and I had a picnic here three years ago. I am sure we will be back before we leave Italy.

Wednesday 28 May: Hot on the Gianicolo

2008-06-03T00:42:00.000-04:00

It was roasting hot today, and I spent the morning doing research while Gary when to the palestra. In the afternoon we took a bus to the top of the Gianicolo. This hill, the ancient Janiculum, is a huge ridge on the west side of the Tiber. Trastevere lies at its foot, and north of the Gianicolo is the Vatican Hill. From the Gianicolo you get great views of Rome in all directions. Gary and I took some pics; check them out on Flickr.

Tuesday 27 May: Vatican and Lateran

2008-06-01T07:06:00.000-04:00

Today Gary and I had timed admission to the Vatican Museums, my third trip there this time in Italy. The last time we had been there together was in 2005. By coincidence, we had scheduled vacation in

Italy

just a couple of days after Benedict XVI was inaugurated as pope. Most of the crowds that had come for John Paul II’s funeral and Benedict’s inauguration had left, but much of Vatican City was still under lock-down from the conclave, and huge sections of the Vatican Museums had been closed to us. These included the parts we were most interested in, the classical sculpture galleries. We therefore decided to hit these galleries first thing today. Gary helped me look for sculpture related to Augustus and his dynasty. We were amazed at the rudeness of the tourists. We saw several people not just touch works of art, but actually grab parts of sculpture and pull on them! I though one man was going to pull over a famous monumental statue of the emperor Claudius (Augustus’ great nephew, by the way). After the sculpture galleries we found ourselves swept along the human current that the Museum relentlessly directs toward the Sistine Chapel. All roads may lead to Rome; certainly all hallways in the Vatican eventually lead to the Sistine Chapel. Once again we admired the genius of Michelangelo on the ceiling and on the front wall, amazed to think that nearly a half century passed between when he painted the two works.

The Vatican is like the Louvre; it’s just too big to see everything in one visit. After guzzling a couple of bottles of water (it was again really hot in Rome), we ate a quick lunch of pizza in Prati, the neighborhood near the Vatican where we had stayed three years ago. Then we caught a variety of subways to go to the Lateran. Tickets to the Vatican Museum will also get you into the Lateran Museum, so we thought we’d check it out. Besides, being a Borromini freak, I love the Lateran and am always glad to go there. Good thing, too; the nuns told us that the Lateran Museum is closed on Tuesdays. We went home for dinner of salad, and Gary cleaned the apartment while I wrote up some notes. Luckily for me, Gary is much better about cleaning than I am.

Monday 26 May: Laundry, cats and palestra

2008-06-01T07:05:00.000-04:00

This morning we finally tackled the laundry from our trip north. This rather uneventful but hot morning was followed by an afternoon of research for me, and exploration for Gary. I did some work on Augustan iconography and topography, while Gary went exploring central Rome on his own. He walked down to the Area Sacra in Largo Argentina, the location of the old Republican temples and the cat sanctuary, and spent some time making feline friends down town. Gary

took some great cat pics, which you can see on Flickr.

Being ambitious and eager to work out, Gary went for a run along the Tiber. The river’s banks through the city were built up in the late 19^th and early 20^th century, as they had been in ancient Rome. After the collapse of the Empire in the fifth century the embankments fell into decay, and the Tiber flooded frequently over the next fifteen centuries, depositing meters of silt over much of the ancient city. For example, the Pantheon used to be on a hill. Now the piazza in front of it slopes down toward the temple, because it is built on top of over fifty feet of soil left by the Tiber over the centuries. Most of the Forum Romanum itself was under earth until the nineteenth century! Now the river is enclosed in embankments as it flows through the historic center, and you can take steps (lots of steps) down to walk, or in Gary’s case run, along the river.

While I’m on the topic of Gary and exercise, I’ll mention that he has also discovered the palestra, the gym about twenty feet from my front door. He can use the gym all day for 5 euro, which is a pretty good deal in Roma. The place is not huge, but Gary says that it’s clean, comfortable, has great equipment, and most of all, the people are very friendly. He has been going to the gym or running during the day while I’m working on my sabbatical research (I get my exercise by walking all over Rome and climbing steps all day long, which for me is a big deal). I'm actually getting around better than I have in years!

Sunday 25 May: Summer comes to Roma

2008-05-31T08:13:00.000-04:00

We woke up today to discover that while we were in the north, summer had suddenly come to Roma. It was HOT! Even Romans had switched from parkas to light jackets (still worn over shirts and sweaters). Gary and I stayed in the area today, unpacking and sorting laundry. We went to Good for coffee and Internet, and began to catch up on email and such. We also started going through the hundreds of pics we had taken in Firenze, Siena, San Gimignano, and Venezia. I also spent a couple of hours on research. Gary made us a fantastic salad of mixed greens, roast turkey, and provolone cheese for dinner. We both read until late, then bed.

Saturday 24 May: A day along the lagoon, then back to Roma

2008-05-31T08:11:00.000-04:00

Gary and I had breakfast at Ca’Riccio, and then caught a water bus to the Santa Lucia section of Venice. Seeing mixed fried shellfish on a caffè menu, I made Gary stop for a second breakfast! Please note in the Flickr pics that this was topped by a whole, deep-fried, spiny shelled lobster. We then hit the shops, where the glassmakers of Murano sell their wares. Every now and then I go into magpie mode: I see something shiny and I must have it. I have been collecting glass, and I sort of went overboard during my last morning in Venice. Gary did convince me to restrict myself to small pieces that could be easily packed, and the shops were very good about packing and wrapping items for me. I’ll wait to see if my finds make it back to the

before I post pics.

We stopped for lunch (two hours after my second breakfast) so I could have seafood in Venice one last time. An uneventful four hours on the Eurostar first-class high speed train brought us back to Rome just as it was getting dark, and just as Trastevere was coming alive. We bought some pizza and took home with us for dinner. Tired from traveling, we went to bed and actually slept.

Friday 23 May: Around the Republic of Venice

2008-05-30T05:39:00.002-04:00

Gary and I had a good breakfast at our b&b and headed out to the Public Gardens at one end of Venice. The weather in the morning was clear and warm with a nice light breeze, and we walked through the groves and flower beds of the park. In the center is Caffè Paradiso, a beautiful caffè with excellent outdoor lounge furniture, an interior art gallery, fantastic coffee, and outstanding service. We enjoyed a couple of coffees there and then walked toward the heart of Venice, the Piazza San Marco. The sun was bright, so I bought a dashing gondolier’s hat, a straw boater featuring a bright blue ribbon with VENEZIA printed on it. Gary and I stopped at a pizzeria for lunch, where he had a good pizza with sausage, and I had pizza frutti di mare, complete with squid, mussels, and a whole baby octopus! Chomping the octopus whole made a good photo-op, which you can see on Flickr.

The common picture of Europe in the Middle Ages is a land of kings, knights, and castles. However, for centuries, the wealthiest and most powerful nation in Europe wasn’t a kingdom; it was the Republic of Venice. An independent trading empire for over a thousand years, the Republic was ruled by powerful noble families whose wealth was based on trade and shipping, and who elected a leader for life, called the Doge. Every year, with great pomp and ceremony, the Doge would cast a gold ring into the Adriatic to represent Venice’s marriage to the sea. The upper classes of Venice were famous throughout Europe and the Mediterranean world as leaders of fashion, benefactors of art and literature, and patrons of music. The Republic of Venice lasted until 1797, when it surrendered to Napoleon Bonaparte and the army of the French Republic (soon to be French Empire). Napoleon had plans of setting up a capitol in Venice, but never got around to it (he was sort of busy conquering the rest of Europe, fighting Britain and Russia, and eventually being deposed). The heart of the old Venetian Republic, as well as of modern Venice, is Piazza San Marco. Right on the lagoon, this huge paved piazza housed the Palace of the Doge, a gorgeous Gothic fantasy of inlaid brickwork, marble columns, and ornate windows. On the other side of the piazza is the gigantic Basilica of San Marco, home to the relics of Saint Mark the Evangelist. This huge, opulent church is in the Byzantine style, covered inside and out with mosaics, with altars, side chapels, and artwork in the Gothic, Renaissance, baroque, and later styles. The floor is wavy and uneven because it is so old, and it is supported by literally millions of pine tree trunks driven as piles through the water a thousand years ago into the clay at the bottom of the lagoon. The basilica is a dazzling confusion of artwork that you have to see to appreciate. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the plum musician’s job in all of Europe was that of music director at the Basilica San Marco, a post held by Gabriel Gabrieli and Claudio Monteverdi.

Gary and I had a guided tour of the key sights in Venice scheduled for the afternoon. It was now starting to drizzle a little, and since I had unfortunately left my dashing gondolier’s hat at the pizzeria, Gary bought me a fetching blue parasol printed with American blue jeans pockets, which I could use to keep off either rain or sunshine. Our tour took us around the Piazza and the Doge’s Palace, through the basilica, and to some of the key points in the city, including the elegant little marble church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli, the great church of San Giovanni e Paolo where many Doges are buried, and the house of Marco Polo, the thirteenth-century Venetian trader and explorer who crossed Asia to China and lived for years at the court of Kublai Khan. We also saw the great opera house La Fenice, “The Phoenix,” named that because it burnt down in the nineteenth century and was rebuilt on its original site. Unfortunately, it burnt down again in 1996, and only the façade remains. Concerts are held all over the city to raise funds for its restoration. Out tour ended at Rialto, home to the famous bridge as well as the main produce and seafood markets of the city.

After our walking tour we had a break for a couple of hours, so we got out of the rain for a caffè corretto at Gran Caffe Chioggia, one of the world’s most prestigious coffee houses right on Piazza San Marco. It had better be prestigious; coffee with a shot of brandy for two was almost thirty dollars! Luckily the rain was clearing up, the sun came out, and the clouds rolled away. The timing was perfect, because Gary and I had scheduled a late afternoon cruise around the Venetian lagoon and down the entire length of the Grand Canal. Out boat was an elegant private craft with enclosed cabin and small open decks on the front and back. Six of us, the captain, and the tour guide got aboard for a “three-hour cruise” minus Gilligan. The weather was perfect. The sun reflected off the water and cast light on the amazing churches, palaces, and other buildings on the water’s edge. Byzantine, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, baroque, and rococo buildings vied for our attention in a glittering array of prismatic marble, colored mosaics, and inlaid stone and brick work. Palaces and basilicas fronted the canal, their main steps leading directly to the water. Gary and I took lots of pics; they’re on Flickr at www.flickr.com/danielcmack. As we cruised, we had glasses of Prosecco, the tasty sparkling wine of the Veneto. Words can’t describe the incredible and bizarre beauty of Venice as seen from the water: historic buildings, rich and exotic materials, flowers and gardens, all combined in a riot of color along the ever-present and ever-changing water.

After our cruise we had dinner on the edge of the lagoon. Gary had one of his favorites, spaghetti alla carbonara, and I had what I had been waiting for: risotto frutti di mare, rice with mixed shellfish. It was incredibly good, and we were amused by the antics of the diners at the next table. They were being attacked by small sparrows looking for crumbs. The woman obviously had a phobia about birds, and was flailing her arms and shrieking like Tippi Hendren in The Birds. Sparrows might be annoying, but I’ve never found them that terrifying myself. We ended the long day with gelato before bed.

Thursday 22 May: Gary and Dan go to Venice

2008-05-30T05:37:00.000-04:00

After breakfast Gary and I caught a cab to the train station to get the Eurostar to Venice. The only waiting room in station was above Mickey D’s, where we watched in amusement as health inspectors and tourists alike stumbled across a women’s room flooded with sewage. We were glad to board out comfortable first-class coach! The trip north passed through Bologna and Padova. As we left the hills of Tuscany the landscape became flatter. We approached the Veneto and began to smell the sea air. The train passed through Mestre, the huge city on the mainland where most people actually live, now that real estate in Venice proper is unaffordable to most people. Finally we got out at Santa Lucia station on the edge of the mainland and the lagoon.

Venice is incredibly beautiful and truly strange. You always hear about the canals and the water, but the reality of seeing it is amazing. I thought that it would be a city with some water ways crossing it, much like Copenhagen or Amsterdam. Venice, however, is completely and far out into the lagoon on the Adriatic Sea, and the water is everywhere. Buildings, or groups of buildings, are islands, and over a hundred canals run between them, connected by hundreds of bridges. There are short streets on some of the islands, but these are not even the size of alleys. They are just hallways, and two people can barely pass each other. There is no traffic: no cars, no Vespas, not even bicycles. All goods are delivered and taken away by hand trucks, and this includes trash. Streets only run a short way, and then encounter a canal. At the canals, the streets either end or they go over a bridge to the next island. The canals are the true streets, and home of the Venetian traffic.

To get to our hotel, Gary and I boarded a water bus. These are called vaporetti, “little steamers,” although now they run mostly on diesel. The buses, taxis, police cars, ambulances, and all other transportation are boats. We got on a bus that headed out to Murano, the island of glassmakers in the lagoon. Gary realized that we were on the wrong bus! (I would have stayed on it until I ended up at the airport). Gary figured out the right stop to switch to another line that went directly to our street. Right across from the water bus stop at our landing point was another beautiful island with walls of terra cotta, covered in cypresses. We learned that this was San Michele, the cemetery island, where Venetians have been buried for the past couple of hundred years, along with such eminent foreigners as Ezra Pound and Igor Stravinsky.

Gary and I departed the bus and walked along the narrow corridor between buildings that was the “street.” Like Rome, in Venice there are gardens, flower boxes, and plants everywhere. We soon came to our bed and breakfast Ca’Riccio, on the fifth floor of a building. Our room was beautiful, with ceramic tile in the bed and bathrooms, crystal chandeliers, and no working wireless.

After we unpacked we headed out to explore the city. At the foot of the Rialto Bridge we stopped for a late lunch. Gary had tagliatelli bolognese, and I had spaghetti frutti di mare, with all sorts of seafood in it. We then boarded a water bus that went in a loop around the entire main part of Venice in about an hour and a half, and rode the whole circuit to see the sights of the city. We stopped at a pizzeria near our room for dinner, where a little dog kept walking in and begging for food (you see this in bars, caffès, and restaurants all over Italy). We returned to our b&b for a good night’s sleep.

Wednesday 21 May: A day in Tuscany

2008-05-28T13:31:00.000-04:00

Gary and I got up early today, had a good breakfast in our b&b (rolls, coffee, and excellent jam), and walked to the train station to meet our tour bus for the day’s outing in Tuscany. The weather was warm but not hot, and the sun was bright between clouds. Our bus was a double-decker, so we rode in the top. We were headed for Siena, an old Tuscan town and medieval rival of Florence, about an hour and fifteen minutes away. The drive was beautiful, with olive groves, vineyards, and fields of grain and poppies. Centuries-old villas, farms, and churches overlooked orchards and fields that had been cultivated for thousands of years. We arrived in Siena and met out tour guide Adele, and native of the city whose family had lived there for a thousand years. Siena was an important and rich independent republic in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, until it was conquered in 1555 by the Medici and eventually incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
Siena is a beautiful medieval city, full of well-preserved churches, palaces, and civic buildings. For centuries it has been divided into seventeen regions called contrade, each with its own flag, church, fountain, and social hall. Membership in these is hereditary, and children receive a parchment at birth certifying membership. Throughout the city are colorful street lamps shaped like cornucopia. We also saw the original home office of the Monte dei Paschi bank, the oldest operating bank in the world. This fifteenth century building is still a working bank! In the middle of town is the main square, the shell-shaped Piazza del Campo, with the beautiful medieval town hall and campanile, one of the highest in Italy. This square is the location of the Palio, a horse race held twice each summer for the last eight hundred years. Horses and riders representing Siena’s various contrade race around the square, and the winner is awarded a banner. The entire affair is celebrated with a huge festival featuring medieval costumes, parades, and music, and draws visitors from around the world.
From Campo we walked to the gorgeous Duomo, the cathedral of Siena. This beautiful Gothic church, decorated in red and green marble, is an incredible sight. The façade is very ornate, and the interior lavishly decorated. The floors feature excellent marble inlays of religious scenes and allegorical figures. To preserve them they are mostly kept covered except for a few weeks each year. Also, a few are left visible and are roped off. One of the side altars in the cathedral features four small statues by Michelangelo.
Gary and I stopped for lunch at a pizzeria on the Campo, where we had some of the best pizza I have ever had in my life, and I’ve eaten pizza all over Italy and the USA for decades! During lunch a huge storm of wind and rain came out of nowhere. We walked a short distance in the rain to meet up with our bus, and struck up a conversation with a mother and daughter from Perth, Australia, who were touring Italy. The man escorting our group back to our bus was going way too fast for most of us, including me and the Australians, and Gary ran up to him and told him he had to slow down. Back at the bus, the driver told me that it was too dangerous for me to use the bus’ restroom while we were parked, and I had to wait until we got to the highway. As soon as his back was turned I picked the restroom lock with my apartment’s ginormous skeleton key.
Next was an hour’s drive to the old medieval town of San Gimignano. This drive was even more stunning than our earlier trip. The storm had passed, and shafts of dazzling sunlight alternated with the shadow of clouds rushing across the rolling Tuscan hills. It seemed like every ridge and cliff was topped by a villa, monastery or abandoned tower, while houses and farms the color of terra cotta stood among orchards of silvery-gray olive trees and fields of sangiovese grapes destined to become Chianti wine. You always hear about the beauty of the Tuscan countryside, but descriptions can’t come close to describing it. I shot several pictures of our approach to San Gimignano, the city of towers. This ancient town once had 76 tall towers, from which individual noble families defended their part of the city. When one family was conquered by another, its tower was knocked down. Fourteen remain, along with well-preserved streets, houses, churches, and shops of Tuscan stone. The city is on a tall hill, and the streets are all very steep. Luckily for me, a couple of months in Rome have gotten me used to hills, but it was still a workout (for me; as usual, Gary trotted around like a mountain goat). The town is now filled with shops selling local wines, food specialties, and crafts, especially the painted ceramics of Tuscany.
Another late afternoon drive through the Tuscan countryside brought us back to Florence. For our last night, we decided to dine on one of the city’s favorite foods: steak grilled on oak fire. I washed mine down with a very nice local Chianti classico; Gary, who doesn’t care for red wine, had an excellent pinot grigio. That evening we hung out with the college kids again, with whom I traded some recipes. Before bed we packed for the next day’s trip, which would take us to Venice.
If you ever have a chance to go to Florence, Siena, San Gimignano, or anyplace else in Tuscany, do it! The food is excellent, the wine superb, and the art you see everywhere is matched in beauty only by the fantastic scenery. We have lots of pictures on Flickr at www.flickr.com/danielcmack. Take a look!

Tuesday 20 May: Dan and Gary visit David and Venus

2008-05-28T05:58:00.000-04:00

Today it rained on and off; a good day for visiting museums to see the art for which Florence is famous. We had timed admission tours for two of the great museums of Western art: the Galleria dell’Accademia, home to Michelangelo’s David, and the Uffizi Museum, with the world’s largest collection of Florentine art. Good thing I booked our entrance online months ago; there were folks standing in the rain for four hours waiting to get into both galleries!

The Accademia in Florence was founded in the 18^th century as the world’s first professional school for training artists in drawing, painting and sculpture; before then, budding artists trained as apprentices under master artists. The Galleria of the Accademia is a small but excellent collection of mostly Florentine paintings, tracing its development through the Byzantine, Gothic, early and high Renaissance, Mannerist, and Baroque styles. The works in the gallery served as models for the students. The high point of the Accademia, however, is the hall of sculptures by Michelangelo, culminating in his famous David. You first pass several of the master’s “unfinished” sculptures. These are works that are partially carved from blocks of marble, which Michelangelo considered to be complete even though they appear to be only half finished. It’s really interesting to see how he could create a figure out of a hunk of rock. Michelangelo used to say that he did not create an image from a block of stone. Rather, the figure was already there, trapped in the marble, and all he did was carve away the excess stone to free the statue from its rocky prison. Finally, you come to the renowned David, which he sculpted when he was only in his twenties, and which immediately made him the most famous and well-paid artist in Europe. Everyone is familiar with the image of the nude David poised in thought before pulling out his slingshot to whack Goliath. Although we’ve seen pictures and copies of the work all our lives, including the full-size replica in the piazza downtown, it is still amazing to see the original in person. To think that one person, with only chisel and hammer, could take a big piece of stone and create the textures and tensions you see in the statue is amazing.

Gary and I had a break for lunch between tours, so we headed across Ponte Vecchio for pasta. We stopped at a little place where two workers were beckoning passers-by with very amusing gestures. The man would extend both arms in dramatic arcs, one raised to point to the sign showing the day’s pasta special, and the other spectacularly held out in a gesture of welcome. He looked like he was striking a pose from grand opera. The woman was standing next to a menu sign, making Vanna White-like gestures towards it with both hands, muttering what appeared to be a welcome under her breath, although she was about thirty feet away from the people she was trying to entice into the restaurant. You will probably see both of us imitating these poses in Flickr pictures for the next several months!

After lunch we toured the Uffizi gallery. We quickly ditched our tour guide, who went into way too much detail (“now look at the folds of the gown on the second angel from the left in the back row behind the Madonna”); at her speed, we would be in the museum until August, and miss the masterworks we wanted to see. The Uffizi is an amazing place, filled with famous Florentine, Italian, and other European works arranged chronologically, tracing the development of Western painting. Giotto, Piero della Francesca, Michelangelo, Titian, and Raphael are all represented in abundance. We spent hours viewing the paintings, the high point of which for me was seeing Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, always one of my favorite works. I love going to museums and finally seeing in person the masterpieces that I have always read about and studied.

That evening Gary bought panini to take home to our b&b for dinner. A group of students from a university in the Pacific Northwest was staying there as well, and we hung out with them for a while before calling it a day. The students amused us with tales of collegiate antics from their home institution, and we responded in kind. We then headed to bed, since we were getting up early the next day for a trip around the Tuscan countryside.

Monday 19 May: Riding the sharp end to the Renaissance; or, Gary and Dan go to Florence

2008-05-26T10:00:00.001-04:00

This morning we got up early, caught a cab to Termini Station, and waited for our train. Gary and I were on our way to Florence. We were riding the high-speed Eurostar in a first class coach, what Martin Amis calls “taking the sharp end.” The seats were comfortable, and at 150 miles per hour, you don’t even feel the train move. The college kid next to me spent the trip trying to convince us to vote for Ron Paul in the November election. He didn’t catch it when I repeatedly referred to his candidate as “Rue Paul.” As we rode north through Tuscany, we watched the countryside roll by: groves of olive, vineyards of grapes, and field after field of poppies and wild rosemary.

In less than two hours Gary and I were in Firenze, birthplace of the Renaissance. From the late thirteenth through the sixteenth century, Florence was a major center of world culture. Writers like Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and artists such as Giotto, Botticelli, and Raphael developed and defined a new era of scholarship and the arts. We were eager to begin exploring the city, so we caught a cab to our b&b. Our driver was boldly aggressive and quite verbal, frequently shouting at pedestrians and other drivers who thwarted his path. To my delight, he employed some of my favorite Italian obscenities, including v@ff@nc~l*, c@zz*, and f!g@. Glenn would have really appreciated it. We soon reached out destination, a pleasant and clean b&b with a comfortable but tiny room and unreliable wireless. After getting settled, Gary and I headed to the center of town to see some of the great masterpieces of the Florentine Renaissance.

In the middle of town is the magnificent Duomo of Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore, the cathedral of Our Lady of the Flowers. Begun in the thirteenth century by Arnolfo di Cambio, the church is best known for its great dome built by Filippo Brunelleschi in the fifteenth century, and the Gates of Paradise, the golden doors to the Baptistery sculpted by Lorenzo Ghiberti in the early 1400’s. The façade of the church is striped in green, pink, and white marble, which sounds sort of like a 1950’s bathroom, but to see it, it’s a great visual effect. The day was overcast with occasional light drizzles, and the marble glowed in the muted light. Gary and I visited the church and the lower crypt, which houses medieval tombs and archaeological artifacts.

Still in church mode, we walked a few blocks to San Lorenzo, the church of the Medici family, which houses some of their tombs. In the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, Florence was a republic, and the Medici was one of its leading families. They made their money in banking and trade, and were patrons of scholarship and the arts. Over the centuries some members of the Medici family became pope, and others married into the royal families of Europe. Eventually tiring of electoral politics in Florence, in the sixteenth century the Medici ended the Republic and established a monarchy, with themselves as the Grand Dukes of Tuscany.

Leaving San Lorenzo, we stopped at a Greek restaurant for lunch. There have been Greeks in Florence since the Renaissance, when Greek-speaking scholars from the eastern Mediterranean fled the Turks and came to Italy, where they contributed to the revival of classical learning that formed the basis for the Italian Renaissance. Our food was fantastic-Gary had chicken souvlaki, and I had mixed grilled meats and vegetables. During our meal, a huge storm hit Florence with first a torrential downpour of rain, and then hail the size of grapes. We were eating outside but under a cover, and were able to watch the storm to great advantage. When the rain let up we headed to our b&b for a short siesta, and then back to town to see more sights.

Not far from the Duomo in central Florence is the Piazza and Palazzo della Signoria. The Signoria was the main governing body of the Republic of Florence, and in its piazza stood the original David by Michelangelo. The original was moved indoors in the 19^th century, and a reproduction stands in its place. One side of the piazza houses a loggia covered with ancient and Renaissance sculptures by some of the great artists of the day. Even if you’re not an art fan, you might recognize the piazza from the movie Hannibal; it’s where Lector commits an extremely original and visually stunning homicide. From there Gary and I walked to the Ponte Vecchio, an old medieval bridge covered entirely with shops. For centuries the bridge has been home to stores specializing in luxury goods, and now sells mostly very expensive jewelry and watches. We admired a diamond and emerald crocodile pin with a 10,000.00 euro price tag.

In a light rain we stopped at a caffè for dinner, gnocchi al ragu for Gary and tortellini primavera for me. From there, we strolled back to our b&b, checked email with our bad wireless connection, discovered that it was too slow to upload pictures, and then called it a day.

Pics on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielcmack/sets/72157605244288213/ in the set "Dan and Gary go to Florence." Take a look!

Sunday 18 May: Gary and I go to ancient Rome

2008-05-25T05:56:00.000-04:00

Gary and I spent this morning getting ready for our upcoming trip to the north of

Italy

. Once we were all packed and ready to go, we decided to head out to the main sites of ancient Rome. You know that I can never get enough of them, and Gary loves the heart of Rome too, so we crossed the river at Tiber Island, walked through the Portico of Octavia and past the Temple of Apollo and the Theater of Marcellus, then went around the Capitoline Hill and walked along Trajan’s Markets, the Imperial Fora, and the Forum Romanum. On Sundays the street is closed to traffic, and street performers, musicians, and vendors of every type covered the way.

Continuing along past the Forum, Gary and I then aimed for the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine. The huge bulk of the Colosseum glowed orange in the late afternoon sun; it was a great visual effect that we tried to capture on camera. We were hungry by now, so we went past the amphitheater and down a side street a few blocks to get away from the high-priced, tourist-oriented restaurants near the ancient center. We found a nice pizzeria on a side street and ordered a liter of the house white wine. Gary had lasagna and I had roast sausages with potatoes (quite tasty!). It was getting dark, and we had a long evening walk back to the Tiber along the Circus Maximus at dusk. The circus was the site of the chariot races, and in its heyday it was the largest public venue ever constructed, with seating for 350,000 people. That’s over a third of a million, or better than three Beaver Stadiums at maximum capacity! Several writers recorded that you could hear the roar of the crowd for miles outside of town. The emperor had a private box connected directly to the Imperial Palace so he and his retinue wouldn’t have to go outside. Not much remains of the Circus Maximus except a long, grassy valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills, but you can see how huge the area is. When pilgrims descended on Rome for the funeral of Pope John Paul II and election of Benedict XVI, over fifty thousand people camped here. Although it was dark, a few clouds on the horizon caught the last purple and crimson of the sun, and Gary and I each got a couple of good photos of the sunset on the circus. Crossing the river to Trastevere, we stopped in Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere (our piazza!) for a drink before bed. Tomorrow we leave for Florence!

Saturday 17 May: Laundry and lemon

2008-05-19T16:44:00.000-04:00

Not a whole lot going on today. Gary and I did laundry in preparation for our upcoming trip north. Near the laundry we found the cheapest caffè/bar in all Roma! This gave us a place to go while clothes washed. For the drying cycle we went to a nearby gelateria and had ice cream until clothes were done.

The great high point of the day, though, was when Gary found his new best friend. As I was uploading photos at Good, he went to the fruit stand next door and bought the world’s biggest lemon! Gary is now lemon-obsessed, and we have been taking pics with it all over the place. It will be traveling with us in the near future, so keep an eye on Flickr for it!

For dinner we headed over to Cave Canem (Beware of the Dog in Latin), famous for its stuffed potatoes and its pizza. Gary had pizza with potatoes and sausage, and I had a potato stuffed with sausage and gorgonzola. It was amazing! Early bed in the din of Trastevere.

A note on posts while I travel

2008-05-19T12:34:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone! Gary and I are on the road for a while, visiting Florence, Siena, and Venice. While we travel we have only sporadic internet access, so email, blogging, and Flickr might be slow. Don't worry though; I'll keep updating when able! -Dan

Friday 16 May: A new saint and a new restaurant

2008-05-19T12:07:00.000-04:00

Good opened an hour late this morning because the worker opening it had been out partying the night before and was hung over. Gary and I walked through the ‘hood as we waited, admiring the new anti-fascist graffiti stenciled on several walls. Flickr has a pic-a little girl tossing a swastika in a garbage can. Very cool! We took a peek inside Santa Maria in Trastevere while we waited. Good finally opened, we had coffee and got online to upload pics and check our mail.

In the afternoon we decided to check out a local church was had not yet seen, Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. As the story goes, the ancient Romans tried to execute Cecilia by steaming her to death in her own sauna (there is a Roman house with a bath complex under the church). When this didn’t work, they cut off her head but did such a bad job that she lived for three days. Thirteen centuries later, in 1599, workers were renovating her church and discovered her body completely uncorrupted, in its original robes and position. The architect and sculptor Maderno was present, and made a life-size statue of her body as he saw it. It’s lying in a black marble niche in front of the altar, and we wanted to see it. Cecilia is also the patron saint of music, and there are pictures of her playing harp and organ all over the church.

That evening Gary and I decided to have a traditional Roman dinner, so we went to Lagane e Ceci right around the corner. Our waiter Alessandro was very accommodating, and brought us a huge sampler of Roman favorites for antipasti. The grilled and marinated vegetables were great, but I especially liked the trippa alla romana (tripe with tomato and celery—Google it if you don’t know what tripe is!). Gary particularly enjoyed one dish until he discovered that it was veal brains! The lamb liver was also fantastic. Gary had bucatini all’amatriciana, hollow tubes of pasta in a spicy sauce with bacon, and I had giant rigatoni in a ragu of lamb and pork. After dinner we were so stuffed that we just headed home to bed.

Thursday 15 May: We go to town twice

2008-05-18T06:56:00.001-04:00

Gary and I got up this morning and walked across Ponte Sisto into the Centro Storico. Since we walked right past the church of San Andrea della Valle, and since I am a fan of the architect Maderno, we went in for a minute to admire the big dome, second tallest in the city after St. Peter’s, and the amazing frescos on the ceiling. Then we stopped at Caffè Sant’Eustachio for coffee and chocolate cornetti. Caffè Sant’Eustachio has perhaps the best coffee in the entire world, literally! We then strolled to the Pantheon and walked inside. Gary loves the Pantheon as much as I do, and we are both amazed every time we go in. The recent restorations show the yellow, green, and maroon marble columns and paneling to advantage, and the huge dome, the biggest in the world until the 1960’s, never fails to impress. The painter Raphael is buried here, and there were fresh violets on his tomb.

We then headed over to Piazza Navona, another favorite place of ours. The square was mostly full of artists of all types: caricaturists, folks doing sketches of Roman scenes, watercolors, and pastel drawings. Since we were right there, we went into the church of San’Agnese in Agone, designed by Boromini, Bernini’s great rival. The church is not huge, but is extremely lavish with colored marble, gilt bronze, paintings, and sculpture. We headed home, and I actually grilled panini in the closet kitchen for lunch!

In the afternoon we caught bus 23 to Piramide station, got on Metro line B to Termini, the main station in town, switched to Metro line A, and got off at Piazza de Spaga to see the Spanish Steps. We took the elevator to the top of the steps (yes, there is one; it’s sort of hidden in the Metro stop) and walked down them. This was the first time I had ever seen the Spanish Steps without flowers. Instead, they were completely covered with people: tourists, local Roman sunning themselves, and the inevitable teenage couples making out. There are great views of Rome from the top of the steps, and we have some on Flickr.

From Spagna we headed toward the Trevi Fountain. The district we walked through is the central business and financial part of town, and home to Fendi, Versace, Armani, and other Italian designers, as well as luxury shops for jewelry, clothing, art, and specialty food items. Gary took a photo of a shop called “Expensive!” Arriving at the Trevi Fountain, we just sat and people watched for a while. The place was not as crowded as it sometimes is, so we were able to get nice seats near the front. We each threw coins in (the third time this trip for me!), thus guaranteeing our return to the Eternal City.

For dinner, we stopped in Piazza Navona again at Tucci, one of our favorite restaurants. Gary had spaghetti al ragu and I had gnocchi with an amazing gorgonzola sauce. Our friend Sandy had given Gary money for us to have a bottle of wine in Roma. We bought a bottle of Frascati, the white wine from the Alban Hills outside of town, and we drank a toast to Sandy. There are pics on Flickr! Exhausted from a day of walking all over the city, we headed home and went to bed early.

Wednesday 14 May: Augustus and angels

2008-05-16T02:45:00.000-04:00

Gary and I got up and got ready, had breakfast at home, and I made sandwiches for a picnic. Then we headed across the river into town for Gary’s first full day in Rome. He wanted to see the Ara Pacis, and I am always prepared to go back there to overdose on Augustan iconography, so we caught bus 23 to the Piramide stop, took Metro B to Termini Station, switched to Metro A, got off at Flaminio, and strolled through Piazza del Popolo. We then walked down to the Ara Pacis. On the way we stopped and ate our picnic lunch in a little piazza just north of the Ara Pacis. Gary loved the new museum, which had been still under construction the last time we were in Rome. We are wondering was will happen to it. Rome just elected a new mayor in April, and he hates it (the museum, not the Ara Pacis itself). He had said that if he was elected he would tear it down. We’ll have to see if he carries out his threat! Besides the altar, the museum has exhibition space for temporary exhibits. The current one is an interesting, multi-room work with installations by Mimmo Paladino and ambient music by Brian Eno.

Gary then thought we should take a look in St. Peter’s. You know that I am always ready for Bernini, so I agreed and we walked across the river to the Vatican. Well; the line just for security at the basilica was about three hours long, so we decided to go in another time. The were setting up a big sound stage and thousands of seats in Piazza San Pietro, so they must be preparing for some big Pope event. Gary had a good idea: why don’t we go someplace we hadn’t been to before, Castel Sant’Angelo? We had been past it many times, but never inside. There was almost no line, so we got our tickets and headed in. Only after we got inside did I realize that there is no public elevator, and you have to walk all the way up to the top to get to the museum inside, usually up steep, uneven, and poorly-lit ramps. I got my exercise for the day! Castel Sant’Angelo is definitely worth going to, though. It was originally built as the tomb of the Roman emperor Hadrian, and was one of the great monuments of ancient Rome. After the fall of the Empire, it was robbed of its marble, but the concrete and brick core of the structure remained, and it was renovated as a fortress. Several Popes have taken refuge there during wars and civil strife. Inside are dungeons, beautifully frescoed apartments, and collections of art and of weaponry. There’s a nice caffè at the top with spectacular views of the city. We also got some more angel pics to add to the set for Sandy on Flickr.

It was getting toward dinner time, so we caught a bus back to Trastevere, cleaned up for dinner, and headed toward one of my favorite restaurants just around the corner for dinner, the home of the ginormous t-bone steaks. The staff are buddies of mine, and every time I walk past the place (which is daily, since I live about thirty seconds away) they ask me when I would be in for another steak. Well, how often can you actually eat a two-and-a-half pound steak? This was a special occasion, though: Gary’s first full day in Rome. He wisely had a filet (still pretty big), and we had salad and antipasto, and of course I had a bloody t-bone. We even had dessert: I ordered some chocolate thing that was really good, and Gary had a strawberry torte with tiny, fresh alpine berries. Pics of the day’s adventures (and food) are on Flickr.

Tuesday 13 May: Gary arrives in Roma!

2008-05-16T02:42:00.000-04:00

I never did sleep much; the club outside my window was playing bad disco until 3 am. I got up at 6, got ready, and was out the door by 7. I walked through the drizzle to Viale de Trastevere, caught the trolley to Stazione Trastevere, and then the train to Fiumicino. I’m getting familiar with this trip! Gary’s flight, due in at 10 am, was listed as “on time.” It was really an hour late, but I didn’t know that until after it landed. I waited at the New Arrivals gate, and finally at about quarter after 11, there was Gary! He had a good flight, had been able to sleep some, and his luggage was there, so we immediately left the airport to find a city cab into town. By law, the flat rate for official cabs from Fiumicino to the city is 40 euro. Of course, to get to the cab stand you have to run the gauntlet of limos, shuttles, and private cabs, all of whom pose as official municipal taxis, but charge twice as much. We finally got into a taxi and headed through lunch rush hour traffic toward Rome. Of all the cabbies in the city, we had to get the one who didn’t know his way around Trastevere. He stopped and asked directions twice and finally let us out about three blocks from my apartment because he couldn’t get through the street. We didn’t care, we were just happy that Gary was in Rome.

We got Gary’s stuff inside and unpacked, Gary cleaned up and changed, then we went for a short walk around the neighborhood. We got pizza to go at the bakery across the street (some plain tomato, some with thinly-sliced potato and cheese, and some pizza stuffed with mortadella and buffalo-milk mozzarella) and took up to the room for a snack. It was now official siesta time, so we had a short nap.

It was still raining on and off that evening, so we stayed in the ‘hood, looking in shops and eateries at the merchandise and food. For dinner we went to a really good place near Santa Maria della Scala, the same place I had the rigatoni with oxtail. Gary and I ordered antipasto, salad (with mozzarella and walnuts-tasty!), wine, and our traditional first-day-in-Rome dinner: spaghetti alla carbonara, with eggs, cheese, and pancetta. Pics on Flickr! Dinner was great, we were beat, and the rain kept the partiers mostly inside. That night was the best sleep I’ve had in months.

Monday 12 May: Gray day, but Gary’s on his way!

2008-05-13T14:15:00.000-04:00

A short post today. Rain on and off all day, so it was a good day to finish cleaning. Gary had tight connections in Cincinnati and in New York. As he would make a flight, he’d send me a quick text message so I knew he was on the next leg of his trip. The plane out of Cincinnati was nearly an hour late, and his connection at JFK was very brief. Finally, at nearly 1 am my time, I got a text that he was on his plane for Rome! I tried to sleep for a few hours, since I was getting up early to catch a train to meet Gary at the airport.

Sunday 11 May: Life is too short for...

2008-05-11T15:48:00.001-04:00

Happy Mother’s Day! Did you call your Mom?

A busy but uneventful day as I get ready for Gary to arrive Tuesday (hooray! It’s been six weeks!). While cleaning and such, I got to thinking about things I’ve learned just from living in Rome the past while. There are more than ten things that Rome has taught me, and you can learn these in other places as well. They may not work for everyone, and of course there are other important things in life too. Still, here are the ten things I thought of today that Rome has taught me that life is too short for:

Life is too short to drink bad coffee.
Life is too short not to have plants and flowers everywhere.
Life is too short not to stop for a drink with friends.
Life is too short to forget what you did and saw today.
Life is too short to ignore the history all around us everywhere.
Life is too short not to listen to live music.
Life is too short not to have wine with dinner, at least sometimes.
Life is too short not to stop to see the art.
Life is too short to worry about what others might think.
Life is too short not to keep in touch with friends.

Saturday 10 May: Archaeology, absinthe, and glass

2008-05-10T15:53:00.002-04:00

I did some more work at the Theater of Marcellus and Temple of Apollo today, looking for specific iconographic motifs that might be visible on the exposed ruins. They’re still working on parts of the Portico of Octavia, which was a huge complex. There could be some promising stuff waiting to be found there. I hope so; it will be another excuse to come back to Rome!

On the way back, I stopped at a caffè in Trastevere and struck up a conversation with two American college lads. John Cabot University is in Trastevere, right around the corner, and students come here and study for a semester, a year, however long they can convince their parents to fund them. These guys were bewailing their terrible absinthe hangovers. There is no drinking age in Italy, at least none that I have ever seen enforced, and it is not unusual to see teenagers (and younger), usually American, taking advantage of this. Also, absinthe has made a big comeback in Europe. Most EU countries lifted their bans on it in the ‘90’s. Now, there are a lot of myths and half-truths about absinthe. First, it has never been illegal to possess or drink it in the USA; only illegal to sell it (this is no longer true). Second, the hallucinogenic and narcotic effects of its primary component, artemisia absynthum or wormwood, have been greatly exaggerated. The real reason people become so ill from absinthe is the alcohol content: usually at least sixty percent, and sometimes as high as eighty. That’s 160 proof, worse than 151 rum. Of course you will become ill if you do several shots of it, and these two young scholars apparently drank a bottle each. They asked me for a hangover remedy; I recommended caffè corretto, with a shot of grappa. In their condition, I figured it couldn’t hurt.

Out for a walk around the ‘hood in the afternoon, I came across W&T Arte, a great little store selling handmade glass. It features lamps, light fixtures, jewelry, and other items made of blown glass and glass beads. The stuff is absolutely beautiful, and there are several lighting fixtures with glass beadwork in teal, turquoise, and sea greens and blues. One of these would look fantastic in our living room. I think I have discovered the perfect souvenir! Take a look at the shops website at http://wtarte.tripod.com/.

Friday 9 May: Haircut, riot, and movie

2008-05-09T12:12:00.003-04:00

Today was a lot of fun! I hit the Academy early to check some citations. This was the day for the Libraries Awards ceremony. Since Gary and I were the two who nominated Susan for the University Libraries Award, I gave her a quick call to congratulate her (Hooray Susan! You rule! Congrats also to Wendy and Karen for the Margaret Knoll Spangler Oliver Libraries Award!).

Looking in the mirror, I saw that I was getting a little shaggy. With the rapid approach of Roman summer, I decided it was time to get a haircut. There were several options, including beauty salons very nearby. I decided to go to the old barbershop instead. First, they charge 6 euro instead of 20. Second, they have stacks of Italian comic books to read while you wait. Third, it’s a fun place with three barbers, the youngest about 60. I think the oldest must have cut Mussolini’s hair. Of course, he was the one I wanted, and got. He asked me what I wanted, and I told him corto sul posteriore, corto dai lati, un po’ meno corto sul capo (short on the back, short on the sides, a little less short on the top). The old guy suddenly exploded into a buzz of scissors and comb, his hands flying all around my noggin. He never got out the electric clippers, but in five minutes I had the best haircut I’ve had since my fluorescent mohawk days in Youngtown in the early 80’s. I’ll get Gary to take a pic when he gets here.

I decided to go for a walk around Trastevere because it was so nice out, and because every time I go, I discover a new shop or caffè or shop. Turning a corner, I was suddenly confronted by a huge crowd of people watching a priest in full robes beat a bloody woman to the ground with an enormous club! I was sort of taken aback, but then saw the cameras and lights on the other side of the street. Someone was shooting a flick in my neighborhood! It was too cool, so I hung around for a while. Next came a bunch of rioters, young folks dressed like college students and hippies. They were running from police in riot gear carrying large automatic weapons, including grenade launchers. I talked to a group of actors, students who were obviously enjoying themselves immensely. They were all filthy in torn clothes, and wielded a nice collection of foam rocks, cobblestones, sticks, and clubs for fighting the police. I asked them how much the stuff hurt if you got hit with it. They responded by first pelting me with rocks, then beating me with clubs and boards. It was like getting hit by a sponge, and our brawl ended up being the most fun I’ve had since Beth was here. The gang dubbed me Il gigante (The Giant) and made me stay and have gelato with them. They were eager to pose for a photo-op, especially when I told them that it would be on the Web. One of the cops posed too, in a nice threatening stance. I never did find out what the movie is about; I’ll have to see if they do more filming in the area. All in all, a blast of an afternoon. Check out the pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielcmack/sets/72157604965523500/.

Thursday 8 May: On the street where I live: a morning stroll through northern Trastevere

2008-05-09T04:18:00.001-04:00

I talk a lot about Trastevere, and folks have asked me for more information. The name means “across the Tevere (Tiber)” because in ancient times, the west bank of the river was not within the city limits. Being on the same side of the river as the Vatican, Trastevere came under the protection and rule of the pope after the fall of Rome. The current labyrinth of streets, allies, and multiple tiny piazzas dates to the Middle Ages. I live in a new building, and it’s 17^th century!

I took a walk this morning around my neighborhood, while it was relatively quiet. You can see some pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielcmack/sets/72157604944477490/. I started at Ponte Sisto, the footbridge across the Tiber that takes you downtown. At the end of the bridge is Piazza Trilussa, a small, busy square that is a popular meeting place for young people, and also the site of my local black market. From Piazza Trilussa you can go down several different streets that quickly take you into the jumbled warren that is Trastevere.

Via del Moro is a great street. Every other doorway houses a bar, caffè, trattoria, or restaurant. Most are closed in the morning, so you don’t really see them in the picture. There are some really cool shops here as well. Polvere di Tempo is an amazing little place specializing in timepieces of various types. It sells sundials, astrolabes, sextants, hour glasses, and other chronometers of all types, as well as jewelry and souvenirs. There are several interior design shops specializing in both antiques and in contemporary Italian design. At the corner of Via del Moro and Vicolo di Renzi is Forno la Rinella, my amazing pizza and bread bakery. They fire up the wood oven every morning at 5 am, and I wake up to the smell of the first batch of fresh bread. There’s even a little palestra (gymnasium) on this block. It’s about the size of my single room apartment, and does a brisk business. Further down Via del Moro are more bars and eating establishments, several shops for clothing, jewelry and accessories, and a bakery that specializes only in chocolate! I’ll have to get pictures of this place when it’s open. The street then takes you to Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere, the heart of the district, and favorite hangout of the trasteverini. Going back to Piazza Trilussa, our gateway into northern Trastevere, you walk down Via Benedetta/Via di San Dorotea, past several designer boutiques, and finally come to the most excellent wifi caffè, Good. Good is comfortable inside and outside, has a fun and friendly staff, offers great coffee and food at decent prices, and has free wireless that works most of the time. All this, and the music of my college days too! I haven’t heard this much Human League and Thompson Twins since I lived in Youngstown in the 80’s. They also play some great tunes, like early B52’s, Violent Femmes, Ramones, and The Smiths. And of course, every third song is Madonna. Just down from Good is a local fruit stand I go to a lot.

Further down the street you see the Porta Settimiana, once a gate in the old papal walls. Via Garibaldi and other streets lead uphill out of Trastevere to the Gianicolo, the Janiculum Hill, whose summit houses the American Academy in Rome, monuments to the heroes of Italy’s unification in the 19^th century, and many luxury villas, some still private residences. Turning the other direction, you head back into the heart of Trastevere, where Vicolo del Cinque, Via della Scala, and other cobbled roads meander through the district. Every block or two is a little piazza, usually with a church. I am within a five minutes’ walk of at least a dozen Catholic churches: Santa Maria in Trastevere, San Crisogono, San Calisto, San Egedio, San Dorotea, San Giovanni de Malva, Santa Maria della Scala, San Francesco a Ripa, and several others. The first two (S.M. in T. and San Crisogono) are historically and artistically important, and the others all house at least some art or have historical significance of some type.

Past Piazza di Santa Maria you go through Piazza San Calisto and finally come to Piazza San Cosimato. This square hosts the weekday open air market from 7 am to 1 pm. You can get fresh fruit, vegetables, flowers, and other produce here, as well as small household goods. I do a lot of shopping here.

I love this little neighborhood in Trastevere. The morning is a good time for a walk, because it’s pretty quiet, probably because everyone was up partying until 3 am the night before. If you ever come to Rome, make sure you schedule some time in Trastevere. You won’t find more local color and good food cheap anywhere else in Rome, or on earth.