Addio Silvio

"Goodbye Silvio!  We won't miss you!"

Several of you have asked how the current political situation in Italy is affecting us.  The answer is that so far it hasn’t very much.  As the calls for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to resign became more strident and actions in the Italian parliament and Europe as  a whole generated uncertainty, the value of the U.S. dollar against the euro has fluctuated, and we see that at the ATM (known here as il Bancomat).  But beyond that little has changed thus far.

Last night was a climax in the drama as Berlusconi went to the Palazzo Quirinale to tender his resignation.  The Quirinale is the residence of the President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano, who is the lawful head of state.  (For a pretty good description of the Italian political system, see the article in Wikipedia.)    There were thousands of Italians in the piazza in front of the Quirinale celebrating the departure of a man who is seen by many as both a national embarrassment for his personal behavior and largely to blame for Italy’s precarious national finances.  Although he left his own residence to cheers of “Silvio, Silvio” from remaining supporters, his arrival at the Quirinale was met with jeers of “Buffoon” and worse, and his car was pinged by small change (monetina) being thrown at it as insult.  There was even a chorus (and orchestra!) that rendered the Hallelujah Chorus in celebration of his resignation.  I borrowed these pictures from on-line newspapers:

The jubilant crowd outside parliament Saturday night.

They were so happy by the time they climbed to the Quirinale 
that a choir and orchestra delivered the Hallelujah Chorus.

How many street demonstrations include cello and bassoon in their music-makers?

Sunday morning all was calm, and the piazza looked like this, sunny with people strolling around and lots of news media equipment scattered about.  On one corner I found a correspondent taping a broadcast in English, holding up the morning papers one by one, translating the headlines.

Mostly tourists Sunday morning in the piazza of the Palazzo Quirinale.

Lots of news crews still set up.

Reading the Italian newspaper headlines for an English-speaking audience.
This is Corriere della Sera, the most even-handed paper, which has a
respectful photo and a headline of "Addio di Berlusconi, via libera a Monti."
(Goodbye to Berlusconi, the way is clear to [Mario] Monti.)

A left-leaning paper,  la Repubblica has an unflattering photo through the car window
and says, "Berlusconi lascia, la piazza in festa." (B. leaves, the piazza has a party.)

Libero is a far right paper and Berlusconi supporter.  The scare tactics start already:
"Arriva il signor tasse. OCCHIO AI PORTAFOGLI"
(Mr. Tax is arriving. WATCH YOUR WALLETS.)

il Giornale is owned by Berlusconi.  The photo shows a serious Silvio  as he leaves parliament.
The headline is Monti, Il Precario  ([Mario] Monti, the interim—implying uncertain results.)

There is a lot of fear and skepticism being voiced over what the new government must do, will be able to do, and what will happen if it fails to reduce the national debt and the nearly 7% interest rate it currently must pay on the debt bonds.  The hope is that a so-called non-political technocrat, Mario Monti, will succeed where political deadlocks caused failure in the past.  The fear among many is that the extreme right, strong Berlusconi supporters, will manage to block necessary reform by using scary publicity and refusing to join any moderating coalition.  Not so different from American political tactics, I’m sorry to say.

There are two direct effects we might see from future actions of the government.  If the valued-added tax (VAT) is raised, prices will go up.  (The VAT is generally incorporated into the shelf prices rather than shown as a separate line item because the rate varies by product and specialty.)  The more painful effect is likely to be strikes by the big unions.  I’m sure they think they’re making a point with the politicians when they do it, but mostly the transit strikes impact the commoners (like us) who depend on the buses and trains to get to work or shops—and the tourists who are a critical part of the economy.  We’ve had our plans disrupted a couple of times so far this year by transit strikes.  If the street cleaning and garbage pick-up crews strike it will really be unfortunate, but it won’t help Italy out of its financial hole.

If you want to know more about Silvio Berlusconi or his exit or Italy’s financial situation I would recommend the London Guardian.  Here’s a link to start you out.  Meanwhile we’re going to continue ignoring as much of the political chaos as possible.  I think a glass of vino and a bit of formaggio  would be good about now.  Or maybe the bye, bye berlusconi cocktail.

Roberto 

The First Week of November in Roma

Someone suggested that I send out some random photos from Rome each week, especially if I haven’t got a more topical episode ready to post.  So here are snippets from last week.

We heard Mozart’s Requiem presented in the church of Sant’Ignazio di Loyola, with orchestra, organ, soloists, and a choir from Germany.  Unlike some church concerts, this one was very well attended, and also unlike some churches, this one has excellent acoustics—just the right amount of reverberation time.  Maybe that’s because the vaulted ceiling isn’t as high as it looks.  The trompe l’oeil painting makes the unusually shallow barrel vault look much higher.  If you look carefully at the left end wall, you can see where the structure really is, just above the window.  The imaginative architecture and characters that seem to float out into space have been surprising church-goers here since Andrea Pozzo created the fresco in the late 1680s.

The nave vault of Sant'Ignazio di Loyola a Campo Marzio

November 1, Ognissanti (All Saints’ Day), is a national holiday in Italy, and when we went to the expansive and woodsy park of the Villa Borghese we found a great many Romans out for the day, many with children along.   But there were those who preferred the ambience of boating nel lago (on the lake) near the Greek temple.

We had come to the Borghese to see two of the Rome Film Festival showings, but we had time between them to both stroll the park and visit the Galleria Borghese, home to some of Gianlorenzo Bernini’s most striking sculptures.

The palloncino vendor was doing good business.

A great place for barche a remi (rowboats).

This documentary was about how Italians remembered
 Christmases past and how they expected things would go now. 

Pluto assaults Proserpine in the Galleria Borghese.

One of the best things about living here is that we have time to poke around and sniff out great shops and food.  In this case it’s a great food shop, and sniff is exactly the right term.  Here’s a picture inside Innocenti Biscottificio, where dozens of freshly baked varieties of cookies, meringues and the like are sold by the kilogram.  We think this may be one of the best shops we’ve ever found.

Baked goods wherever you look.  Yum!

We get lots of exercise walking, but to keep everything ticking over properly I try to make a couple of circuits a day up the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill) from our apartment at its base.  There are several routes, but the one I go up most often has this scala (staircase) at the top.

How many steps will earn me a biscotto?

Near the end of the week we went to our last Film Festival show, this one at the main venue that had red carpets and a fair amount of glitz.  The movie we saw was a French noir thriller called Nuit Blanche—high tension from beginning to end.  Just as we came out of the theatre, we found that Richard Gere and his wife were arriving for a special presentation and award.  I tried for a picture of him, as did the rest of the crowd, but was jostled too much.  But here’s what the scene looked like just before he came into view.

Lights, cameras.....

Yesterday afternoon was bellisima.  Here’s Il Fiume, the river, with the small island of Tiburina at the right and the Ponte Cestio connecting to Trastevere on the left.  The bridge is named after the ancient Roman Cestii family that built the original version of it in the 1st century BC.  This one dates from about 1892 when the massive enclosing concrete walls were built along the Tiber to control flooding.  A couple of weeks ago when Rome had its nubifragio (cloudburst), the river covered the walkway around the island and lapped at the bike path.

Torno subito.

Roberto

Bel tempo, mal tempo

On the whole we’ve had beautiful weather (bel tempo) since we arrived in Italy.  In June and July we had an occasional thunderstorm in Bologna, mostly at night.  Sometimes it was quite hot, and we went months without taking a jacket or sweater out of the closet, but we were never inconvenienced by rain.  The same has held here in Rome with clear, bright days, though the change of season has brought cool nights.  However, just over a week ago, on October 20th, Rome was blasted by mal tempo, as a monumental cloudburst (nubifragio) from a strong thunderstorm (temporale) caused disruptive floods (alluvione, inondazione, diluvio) in several parts of the city.  Trastevere and most of Rome got 127 mm (5 inches) of rain in under three hours.  Several Metro subway stations, including the critical one where the lines cross at Termini Station, were closed by water pouring through vents and down stairwells.

Some of the flooding in Rome on October 20, 2011

We’re up quite a bit from those low areas (many were swamps and marshes centuries ago), so we didn’t get that kind of trouble, but water pouring off the Gianicolo hill went racing down our street, and high winds brought down some tree limbs.

A river floods down Via Luciano Manara

Wind-fall on Via G. Mameli at the base of the Gianicolo

What happened here is nothing compared to what blasted the Liguria region of Italy south of Genoa on October 25th.  The beautiful Cinque Terre coastal villages were struck by horrible flooding of water and mud (fango) and landslides (frani).  These pictures from news outlets give an idea of the damage.  Here’s a link to video of the flood through Monterosso al Mare, the northernmost of the Cinque Terre villages, and you can look at others like it that appear with the link.

This is what Vernazza, one of the cinque terre,  looked like before this week's storm.

Here the flood is in full spate.

These two show aftermath.  Look at the gloop in the railway tunnels.

There have also been floods and landslides down near Naples and snow above 1000 meters up north.  An Italian geologist/climatologist on TV the other day said the increasing amount of extreme mal tempo here is the result of  global warming, and I won’t say he’s wrong.  But today in Rome it’s another bel giorno, high near 21°C (70°F), low tonight 11°C (52°F), some puffy clouds drifting by now and again, and the forecast (previsione) is for more of the same tomorrow.  I’ll take it while I can get it.

Roberto

Trastevere

The region of Rome where we’re now living is called Trastevere (trahs-TAY-veh-ray), which means “across the Tevere.”  Although the ancient Romans called the river that flows through Rome Tiberis, and we still call it the Tiber, sometime in the dim past Italians started calling it Tevere.  What Trastevere is across from is old Rome, the centro storico where you’ll find the ruins of the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, the Pantheon and many of the other sites we associate with the city.   Vatican City is on our side of the river, upstream just to the north.  To the west beyond most of the commercial and residential development, the land rises sharply to form the Janiculum Hill (Il Gianicolo).  Some heroic battles of Italy’s 19th-century unification struggles took place up there, and from overlooks amid patriotic monuments in the ridge-top park there are spectacular views over the city—and you can watch the noon cannon being fired.

General Garibaldi, military leader of Italy's 19th-century unification battles.

Busts of notable Italians from all fields line paths in the park atop the Gianicolo.

St. Peter's and Vatican City, looking northwest from the Gianicolo.

Looking east from the Gianicolo.  A line of trees and a curved building mark the River Tiber. 

Every day at noon the army fires a cannon from the Gianicolo so that all the city
church bells will be coordinated.  The day I took this picture the church bells started early....

We have been having a good time exploring our immediate neighborhood—figuring out whether one of the 10 bar/caffès within five minutes-walk of our apartment is the best; making the acquaintance of food vendors in the daily open-air market in Piazza di San Cosimato; testing the products of various pasticcerie, biscotterie, and pastifici (pastry, cookie and fresh pasta shops); and discovering likely ristoranti and other types of shops.  Though the tourist crowds are diminished at this time of year, by evening the narrow medieval streets are invitingly alight and people are out and on the lookout for just the right trattoria, gelateria or enoteca (wine bar).

A few of the places for coffee within five minutes walk of our apartment.

Morning scene along the west side of Piazza di San Cosimato

Piazza di S. Cosimato.  The big sycamore tree shades a well-used playground.
The daily fruit, veg, meat, cheese and fish market is to the right.

One of six or eight produce vendors in P'za di S. Cosimato.

This old-style pasticceria also makes hand-dipped chocolates
and Sicilian sweets (below) as well as giant chocolate Easter eggs.

Innocenti Biscottificio makes dozens of varieties of delicious cookies.

This mouthwatering pile of whipped cream-filled profiteroles bound by thick, rich chocolate,
 came from Trastevere Pasticceria di Fabrizio Mattei, six minutes away from us.  I timed it.

Street vendors along Viale di Trastevere.

Setting up for pranzo.

Night scene in Trastevere.

As perceptive readers of this journal will have noted, ancient structures and fine art are like magnets to us.  Some of Rome’s oldest Christian churches are in Trastevere and contribute in both categories.  And there’s an ancient Roman aqueduct up on the Gianicolo along with ruins, fountains, city walls and villas from many eras.  Though little from antique Rome survives above ground in the lower reaches of the district, there are medieval buildings to be found, and some original sections of the ancient Via Aurelia paving remain in modern Via della Lungaretta (see the map above).  So we’ve been busy taking closer looks at our local sites, and I expect some will appear in future articles here.

The present church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, with 12th-century mosaics on the front,
replaces one built in the 4th century AD.

A Roman aqueduct, restored in 1612 and still in use,
 runs over the top of the Gianicolo from the west.

Villa Doria Pamphili is also on the Gianicolo.  The grounds make up Rome's largest public park.
The perimeter is about 19 km.

Speaking of future articles, we’ve been living in Rome for over three weeks now, yet I’ve been unable to get together a blog entry since we arrived.  Why is that?  Partly it’s because Rome has been consuming, offering so much to see and do that days and evenings get filled up.  Even though we’ve seen many of the historic attractions during past stays, there are always more, and many of those ancient places call to us over and over.  In addition there are countless current events:  concerts, theater and opera productions and other unexpected exhibitions and presentations.  For example, the International Rome Film Festival starts this week.  The descriptive catalog alone is 107 pages long.  Luckily we don’t feel drawn to all the films, but sorting out the ones that do sound good and trying to work them into our calendar and budget is a job in itself.  Then, since Rome is big and busy, we have to allow 20-to-45 minutes travel time each way on public transit. 

The frequent trams of line #8 run up the center of Viale di Trastevere
and take us over the river to the centro storico.

Lots of public transit routes but not always enough frequency
can make for crowded trips.

The catalog for the film festival and our tickets.

I have also been taken aback by the volume of information already posted online about Rome, its history, and artifacts—surprise, surprise, others have been here before me.   There seem to be blogs and websites describing every market, food store, restaurant, fountain, statue, church, painting, mosaic, ruin, bridge, road and edifice, including those still buried or no longer existent.  So at first I wasn’t sure I had much to add.  But now I find that not everyone sees things the way I do or is as easily amused, so on we go.

Roberto

Mounted police ride up Via Goffredo Mameli outside our apartment.
Mameli wrote the words to the Italian national anthem and died after one of
the battles on the Gianicolo in 1849 at age 21.