Wednesday 2 November 2011

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

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

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

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

Tuesday 1 November 2011

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

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

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

Monday 31 October 2011 (Halloween!)

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

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

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

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

Sunday 30 October 2011

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

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

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

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

Saturday 29 October 2011

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

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

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.