emails from italy: march 2001

Allora
Thu, 8 Mar 2001 10:44:34

amici ---
here we are, my dear parents and me: bella roma... rain, but no snow. the day we arrived, we slept. Then i wandered over to st. peter"s to take some shots of it during dusk. so beautiful... since the jubilee it has been cleaned up and gorgeously illuminated (as has much of rome)... the sky was a intense dark blue... stars coming out... wishing i had brought a tripod.

then we had dinner with my father"s best friend, which ended up with a crazy drive around the city at midnight. crazy because alfredo is a bit crazy. we went everywhere except EUR (or so it seemed)... crawling our way into the skinniest little lanes (which we were then often unable to get out of)... stopping in the middle of the busiest roads so that alfredo could point something out... and so on... and so on...

yesterday we walked everywhere instead, and ended up at the domus aurea... nero"s golden house which has only been opened recently. golden house makes it seem quite grand... and i"m sure it was 2000 years ago. now, it is interesting, but undergound, very cold, and only fragments of frescos and mosaics and and architectural structure remain.

and today, a walk in the borghese gardens, lunch at alfredo"s house, then i went off on my own to see the newly restored and recently opened galleria di arte antica in the palazzo barberini. a great combination of the superb and the sublime: a raphael restored by estee lauder (it is "la fornarina", a beautiful portrait of a topless hottie who may have been raphael"s mistress)... 2 paintings of putti having orgies with rams... a venus and adonis in which he is wearing a snazzy fuschia outfit complete with furry fuschia hat and pink ribbon... a caravaggio... a holbein of henry the 8th (looking very out of place... how did he get here?).

then there was the tour through the "apartment"... a series of decorated, though not furnished rooms. They were great, and also a little crazy. one was covered with what looked like european battles with iriquois indians... another was a little chapel with a dutch-blue altar... sort of a foldaway altar... there were doors to hide it away if one wanted. but there was also a stern, silent lady leading the tour, and I (per usual) kept getting left behind cause i would take too long and then she would glare at me. Then when we were let out, we were in an entirely different part of the building, and i had to tramp all the way down one flight of stairs and then up the original flight of stairs to get back to the gallery... since I certainly wasn"t finished yet. i was the last person to leave. don"t mention my name if you decide to visit... i don"t think the guards like me.

ciao --

maria

PS: if you would like to unsubscribe from this "maria is travelling and talking about it again" list, let me know. but unless you have a good reason, i will be just a little hurt............... :)

for those of you who have no idea what is going on or why you have gotten this mail, i am in rome and sicily for 2 weeks with my folks, followed by 2 weeks in tunesia with my friend maryellen. why not? it"s not like i have a job or something...

As Romans Eat
Sat, 10 Mar 2001 03:33:47

mangiamo! mangiamo!

yesterday we had lunch at the convent of st. brigid in the piazza farnese. the convent is also quite a fancy little hotel, as well as being very historic... I think st. brigid lived there at some point. Smiling nuns (who all looked about 13 years old) served us (the us being my parents and our friends the pennasilicos', who had the in with the convent so that we could eat there). we were joined by a very important monsignor, who alternated between indulging the pennasilicos' seven year old granddaughter, and telling us (in italian, so we didn't catch a lot of it) about how he received the last blessing from pope john the ? (i forget the number) when he was on his
deathbed. since it was friday, we had omelettes. Not frittata... those italian omelettes you get in the states at brunch places. just a simple omelette, wrapped around mozzarella (i think) and served with cooked cherry tomatoes. and, also, ravioli with tomato sauce, steamed potatoes, string beans, salad, fruit, cookies...

eating in italy really is the best. italians treat food the way that really good parents treat their children. they indulge, but not too much. they only use the best quality ingrediants. they are always willing to talk about food, at length, and with great enthusiasm. they keep it simple so that they can appreciate the essence of the food. and they make it the centre of their lives!

a few days ago we went to a little trattoria near piazza navona. i had discovered it last summer. it is full of locals even though it is in the centre of all things tourist. the menu is handwritten and
indecipherable. but we could make out "amatriciana" so we had that typically roman pasta... tomatoes, panchetta, cheese. delicious. and we had some antipasti from the antipasti table. spicy eggplant and zucchini! the place is called da francesco, for your future reference.

then, the evening before yesterday, we went to a little place down the street from our hotel. called
"la grillietta" (sp?), it was very typical... hidden behind curtained doors, from the outside it looked
like a dive. but inside, it was bright and lively, filled with waiters who looked like they had worked
there forever... the smell of the specialty of the house: the grill... filled with a huge table of
middle-aged and older women out celebrating international women's day. they were DEFINATELY not celebrating by being taken out to dinner by their husbands... they were celebrating by leaving the husbands at home and going out to EAT! and so they did... i think my mother spent the whole evening observing them.

for my part, i had a grilled paillard of veal, and the veal in italy is always the very best.

apart from food... yesterday we had a really wonderful experience. we went to the "scavi" (excavations) underneath st. peter's. you have to reserve tickets, since only perhaps 30 people are let in each day. But we have friends in the vatican... or rather, my mother does!

it was incredibly interesting, showing the different layers of building underneath st. peter's...
particularly the family graves of both pagans and christians (some within the same families) during the roman era. st. peter is thought to be buried there... though they cannot prove it conclusively, the evidence is convincing. and the centre of both the original st. peter's (built during the time of constantine), as well as the centre of the present st. peter's --- i.e. bernini's altar --- are directly above the supposed grave. the spacial unity that was maintained over the centuries is incredible.

tommorow we leave for sicily!!! i'm excited, but i am also always sad to leave rome... especially when the sun is just about to begin to shine.

maria

No Signs Send Help
written wednesday, 14th march

sicily is beautiful. the people are friendly. the food is wonderful. the roads are completely unmarked.

after flying from rome to palermo on sunday, we left the city, headed for the centre of the island, and spent monday and tuesday driving through deserted, verdant countryside, scattered with abandoned farmhouses, jutting rocks, the occasional forest, the occasional cactus farm. we were doing all right at the beginning but then somehow managed to get off the highway and wander for quite awhile along twisting mountain roads that hadn't seen traffic since mussolini. but it was very, very beautiful, and eventually we made it to the town of enna.

climbing up through "bassa" (lower) enna, we reached the old city, perched on the top of a rocky hill. the town isn't beautiful... a little sooty and worn... but has a certain atmosphere, as well as a great castle dating back to norman times, and incredible views from the piazza. we met an old man who hangs out there, collecting foreign banknotes and coins from tourists. he had new zealand, korea, chile... i gave him a georgia quarter. he started asking about silver dollars... after i explained the new pocohantas dollar, he got so excited he had me take down his address so that i could send one to him.

in the late afternoon we left enna for a hotel near the town of piazza armerina. spent a quiet night in the countryside, in the company of two high school teachers from canada who specialize in byzantine studies and classics and rivaled my father for breadth of ancient knowledge. in the morning we all went to see the roman mosaics near the hotel... the reason why the tour buses go to piazza aremina. they were incredible... a huge villa that was covered in a mudslide in the 12th century was discovered in the 1950's, the floors covered in mosaics.

then we set off down the long and twisting road for caltagirone, where there is a large community of ceramic artists. we didn't get lost on this leg of the journey, even though at times it felt like we were. caltagirone was lovely, complete with a michelan guide restaurant (called la scala... i had tagliatelli with a tomato, fennal and ricotta sauce... my mom had salmon steak in a tomato beurre blanc-y sauce with red peppercorns)... and a flight of 142 steps, laid with ceramic tiles and lined with cermaic shops. needless to say, some shopping occurred.

by the time we set out for our final destination of the day, the city of siracusa, it was after 4. as the
fog started to roll in over the hills, we headed in the wrong direction twice. the cover was so thick that i mistook the sun for the rising moon. it was surreal and creepy and lovely, and continued all the way to siracusa.

at times it was so striking and beautiful, as it swept through forests and layered the valley. at other times, i couldn't see ten feet in front of me (i was doing all the driving that day)... who knows what was on either side of us. we did get on the right road eventually, though there was very little traffic and again felt like we were driving off the edge of the inhabited earth. passed through two other towns on the way there, grammichele and piazzolo archiede... both with beautiful baroque squares and churches.

we got to siracusa (only got lost once geting to the hotel). the hotel isn't the greatest... near the train station and the prostitutes, a distance from the old city. but it has parking, is on a wide street, and that's what i wanted at that point.

today... a wander through siracusa. the old city of ortigia is something else... full of crumbling baroque buildings, all with elaborate balconies... little alleys and hidden corners... and a majestic duomo and main square. and, of course, the mediterranean sea and passagiatas to be made while eating cones of lemon gelato.

i feel like all i am doing is writing about food. But if you've been to italy, you'll understand. today we went to a trattoria called la foglia (thanks for the suggestion, mary!) which was a blast. the place is run by an artist and his wife. the inside looks like your sicilian grandmother gone crazy... all artistically mismatching tablecloths, doilies and knickknacks. hand-decorated menus, the owner's sculptures and paintings littered about... and an old painted ceiling with religious scenes dating from ??? let's just say a long time ago.

the food was as inventive as the decor. i had a tagliolini con spada (swordfish). an olive oil base,
with pieces of swordfish, black raisins, wild fennel, hot pepper, scallions and pine nuts. then my mom and I shared a sicilian specialty: sarde a becafico, prepared catania style... two sardines breaded, with egg and breading and other stuff squashed between them. i was being adventurous when i ordered it, but I liked it more than i thought i would.

so... basta! and good night.

maria

Staight Streets, Soft Stone
Thu, 15 Mar 2001 10:23:04 -0800 (PST)

in 16-something or other, there was a huge earthquake in this part of sicily, flattening many towns and destroying much of the major cities of siracusa and catania. today we went to noto, a town a half hour from siracusa (didn't get lost), which is an architectural wonder and a marvel of city planning.

just weeks after the town of noto was completely flattened, a spanish-sicilian architect was called in, and recreated the town as an orderly and graceful baroque creation. palazzos and churches and straight streets... felt a little like a stage set, missing the chaos of other italian towns. ornate carved balconies hang on every golden and pink stone building, (one pallazzo featured bare-breasted mermaids, cherubs and smiling horses) but unfortunately the stone used was on the soft side. that, combined with the wear and tear of pollution, has taken its toll and much of noto has been under scaffolding, undergoing reconstruction, for years. in particular, the entire facade of the
cathedral is covered... and its dome had collapsed several years ago after a severe thunderstorm. but even covered in tarps, the town is striking. (and we had a good lunch, with a "cappriciosa" sauce over pasta... a puree of 30 different vegetables, tasting very healthy.)

looking at noto did make me think of bhuj, and hope that it might be possible for that city to be rebuilt more beautiful than before. though without the help of the baroque period, i have my doubts.

i think i've reached the one week shut-down with my italian... this happened to me last summer, as well. after getting along well for a week, i feel a little overwhelmed, especially when dealing with sicilian accents.

my mom presses on with her italian, though she had a pretty funny experience yesterday. she went into a store looking for a new eyeglass case and asked the clerk:

che una borsa per gli occhi?

which translates as:

is there a bag for the eyes?

needless to say, the clerk looked a little disturbed.

maria

Last Resort
Sat, 17 Mar 2001 08:52:03 -0800 (PST)

well, the sky is cold and grey in the resort town of taormina, and one can't make out mt. etna lurking in the background. listless lions club conventioneers wander the streets looking at gucci display windows and forcing down chilling gelatos. but our hotel is covered with flowers and perched on a cliff and and we have a sweeping view of the sea, even if it is
atlantic-like.

tommorrow we move on to cefalù, and hopefully better weather.

i shouldn't have knocked the hotel in siracusa. though 20 minutes walk from the old city, and on a noisy street, and convenient to the hookers near the railway station, the padrone tino was very kind and quite the character... always dressed in sunglasses and a black velvet suit. he is off this weekend for his annual trip to new york in order to take in as many broadway musicals as is possible in 12 days. he is joined atthe hotel by day clerk rosario --- a very proper mormon convert who is on his way to brigham young university in february --- and night clerk corrado --- he spoke no english, but that really didn't matter since he looked like an armani runway model, and
always smiled.

they all seemed sad to see us go. rosario asked for our phone number and tino gave my father two archeological books. their only other guests were three very young taiwanese girls with pigtails and hello kitty backpacks, who giggled continuously. you could tell they were walking on air just being where they were, and they liked to practice saying "grazie."

maria

PS: oops... there i was poking fun at my mother's italian, and i made a mistake myself. the disturbing question was "c'è una borsa per gli occhi?" not "che." that would have been "what is a bag for the eyes?" maybe that's what the store clerk answered back...

Happy Father’s Day
Mon, 19 Mar 2001 11:15:42 -0800 (PST)

the procession through the streets of cefalu in celebration of the feast of saint joseph just finished, and now everyone who isn't at mass is doing a passagiata down the pedestrians-only main drag... as if following the procession through the entire town wasn't passagiata-ing enough.

we arrived here yesterday, after leaving a cloudy taoramina without ever having really gotten to see etna (a big disappointment for me), but crossed back through the marvelous wilds of inland sicily (without getting lost this time), stopped briefly to poke around the solitary ruined greek temple of himera (dating back to sometime around 480 BC and marking a big defeat of the cartheginians), and then proceeded on to the hill town of caccamo for an excellent
lunch... a real rustic sicilan meal in a restaurant built into a castle. after a rustic antipasto, had
rustic mixed grill (veal, pork and sausage) and rustic giant grilled mushrooms... reaffirming to myself once again that i was NEVER meant to be a vegetarian. oh, and then a rustic ricotta cake...

but enough with the food. though caccamo was foggy, it was clear down by the coast, and both the sky and sea around cefalu were blue and bluer. a fishing village that has grown into holiday town, cefalu is closer to the water and less pretentious than taormina... two things i like. especially the closer to the water bit... i've been jonesing to dip my toes in the sea.

we settled into a lovely little hotel with great views, took a passagiata around town last night, and
spent today exploring... and then the procession...

it began at the magnificent cathedral... very stark and medieval. the cathedral looms over the little
square and "la rocca," cefalu's cliff, looms over the cathedral. as the sky went darker blue with sunset, the procession began... led by laypeople in uniforms with big purple and gold and green sashes and vests and gold medallions, carrying long taper candles and banners, followed by priests and monks and seminarians and a few nuns (most of them african) saying the
rosary. then came the life-sized statue of st. joseph with a toddler jesus by the hand, standing on a big bed of flowers and carried on a palanquin on the shoulders of six or seven men. bringing up the rear was a marching band, playing marching tunes in between the rosary, and then the mass of everyone else following.

after the processsion left the duomo square, my parents followed along while i darted up the side
streets, down little alleyways, etc., etc., so that I could head off the procession and get some good pictures. little old ladies waved me on, down to the main corso... i'd get a few shots of saint joseph and then run up the cobblestones again, and down the next street. finally, though, the light got too low, and I had to stop playing photojournalist and just walk along with everyone else.

it was lovely... through the little curving streets... a mass of people following the statue in the
distance... everyone out on their balconies, overhanging the streets... the band playing on and
on... the night coming in... people greeting each other.... crossing themselves as the statue passed by. i loved looking at the people on their balconies... a little glimpse into the lives behind the lace-hung windows in those narrow little houses in those narrow little streets.

after about an hour of processing, the statue returned to the cathedral (which is stark inside except for the magnificant gold mosaics above the altar)... and mass began...

and now it should be about ending. better go meet my parents... pizza awaits... (and some more
passagiata-ing...)