Seeing Italy in Rome

More pictures . . .

The Ponte Sant'Angelo at sunset--truly a magical hour in Rome.

Fiori (flowers) in Trastevere.

A fried artichoke at La Taverna del Ghetto 

Another street-art interpretation of the Madonna and child.

Granita all' caffe--coffee ice and cream, perfect on a hot day.

A fountain, a possibly ancient tub, and a tiny car--that's Rome.

seeing Italy in Italy

I returned from my trip almost two months ago but work has been a nonstop joyride since then, so I've been ignoring this little blog.

I fell a little out of love with Rome on this trip--not entirely, but if we are having a love affair, we are at the point where I start to see flaws and am getting a little bit annoyed on a daily basis. I might say, "Let's spend a little more time apart, shall we?" in the hopes that absence will bring the magic back a little bit.

I'm not sure why this was so--possibly it had something to do with some major work issues just before I left, which caused not a little emotional drama for me, not to mention a broken shoulder blade that was still causing me some pain (although I was given the OK by the doctor to go on the trip). Ironically it was probably the most fun and busiest vacation I've ever had there. I met up with NYC Caribbean Ragazza, aka Arlene, at the Caffe Farnese, went to a wine tasting at Vinoroma, met up with friends at their home outside the city, and hung out with a friend who was in town with Pavement.

This was very much an "outside" trip. I didn't feel like going inside museums or churches, for the most part. I had a few things I wanted to see again (some of them for research on a possible book), but mostly I just wandered. And ate.

This was an entryway on the street where I stayed in Trastevere in an apartment. (My front door was covered in graffiti, which is charming in a different way.) I got to look at it for a while as I waited about an hour and a half for the guy from the rental agency to show up. The jasmine was in bloom all over Rome and it perfumed my visit.

Rigatoni all'amatriciana at the no-frills trattoria in the piazza down the street from my place, served by a slim, supremely diffident twentysomething guy whose family owns the place.

I love taking pictures of peeling posters and patchy walls. I have a Polaroid of some peeling wood in Venice that is one of my favorite photos ever.

In general the window displays in Rome pale to those in Paris, but I liked this one, which references the dominant tones of Rome--ocher and mustard. In fact I saw a man holding up paint chips to the yellow wall in a courtyard of a church.

Peeling street art.

I went to an extremely enjoyable wine tasting at Vinoroma, which you can read more about here. Unfortunately my scent-identifying abilities have degraded once again--wine just smells like wine once again. I really have to concentrate and think about it to say what the wine smells and tastes like, when I just want to get to the drinking.

More to come!

Venice in Chicago

I have often been intrigued by this Venetian-style palazzo on north Lake Shore Drive, one of a very few old mansions left on LSD. While googling for more information, I discovered that it is for sale. For just $4.4 million (marked down from $5.8 million in 2008), you could own this gem, built in 1895 by the architecturally and historically prestigious firm of Holabird & Roche.

Real estate blogs talk about the rooftop deck, but I love that romantic balcony. Of course LSD isn't exactly the Grand Canal and you'll be treated to the sounds of traffic rather than crooning gondoliere, but I love the folly of the place.

current food obsession

Castelvetrano olives--bright green and tender, the taste the very essence of olive-yness. Even better with some olive oil drizzled over them to notch up the flavor.

In other news, I have scored a room at an agriturismo (with half board, so I don't have to worry about being the only single woman eating dinner in a restaurant) in the Maremma, an area of Tuscany I have always wanted to visit. It's known more for its  natural beauty than for art and churches. So looking forward to wandering around the Maremma Park.

Sweet new Italian ride!

No, I did not buy an Alfa Romeo. But a vintage ladies' Chiorda off Craigslist is almost as good!

I have been riding around in scarf and sunglasses, liberally dispensing "Ciao"'s to passersby.

got a ticket for an aeroplane

I'm going back to Italy for the first time in five years! That is really too long to go without re-experiencing the peninsula, but that's what buying a condo will do to your budget. I'm planning on staying in Rome for about half the time to reacquaint myself with the other city that is the love of my life and see some old friends (and hopefully meet up with some expats whose blogs I read regularly), and then stay at an agriturismo somewhere, probably in Tuscany, for the rest of the time. I'm thinking about somewhere near the water, which I didn't get to as often as I would have liked on past trips. I'd love to do a return to the Cinque Terre, since the weather was so disappointingly chilly, rainy, and overcast when I went--but I think that might be impractical and frankly kinda boring. I'd also love to go to some of the less-visited cities and regions in the south, like Matera and Puglia, but this trip is definitely for revisiting old places.

The photo is a Polaroid from some gardens in Rome. During the last few months of my stay in 2002, I decided to trade the digital camera for more old-school photography to try to see details and landscapes in a different way.

the old neighborhood

Here's a view of Via Buonarroti (as in Michelangelo), the street I lived on in Rome, courtesy of Google Earth. My building was the pinky-beige one on the left, by the green car. It was small and a bit institutional-looking--the landlord rented it out furnished exclusively to expats--but more than serviceable. My room looked over a walled-in little courtyard that the bakery next door used as storage. I would occasionally be woken up by the sound of bags of flour being flung into a pile--WHUMP! WHUMP!

That greenery in the distance is Piazza Vittorio Emanuele (not to be confused with the "wedding cake" monument of the same name). Although it's surrounded by gracious 19th-century covered colonnades, when I lived there the piazza was run-down and slightly seedy. Certain days it hosted a food market, which evolved to cater to the immigrants who settled in the area as well as native Romans; it was moved to a nearby location while the piazza was renovated and cleaned up. My friends tell me it's a nicer area now--I'll have to check it out when I go back in May.