National Etruscan Museum

On Saturday we visited the National Etruscan Museum which is located in Villa Giulia, once the palatial residence of Pope Giulius III (circa 1551).  The collection is spectacular and it would seem that pre Roman Etruria, the land of the Etruscans, was a highly developed civilization which had adopted most things Greek, including the religion, the pottery and the myths.  

If you look closely you will see that the lady above is wearing high top shoes with shoe laces. Estruscan art has been preserved in numerous burial sites.  The next time my friend Keith Morrison comments on the way I used to dance, I will tell him that I learned my moves from the Etruscans.

This interesting sculpture taken from an Etruscan temple depicts scenes from the Theban Cycle from Greek mythology.

The museum visit was followed by lunch at Babbettes.  Though it is not far from the Spanish steps it was remarkable in that everybody in the place except us was Italian, including the ones Lynne calls the beautiful people.

Back home, Martin showed off his culinary skills by preparing artichokes Roman style and veal piccata for us.

POTUS in Rome

Obama spent Thursday in Rome, meeting with the Pope, who lectured him on the evil of covering contraception under Obama Care.  He next met the Italian president and then the prime minister before touring the Colosseum. He was accompanied by a fleet of cargo planes who delivered the armored vehicles for his convoy, including an ambulance. The entourage included 100 secret service agents who apparently behaved themselves here, unlike in Amsterdam.  You don't want to mess with these guys, drunk or sober

Also in town and staying with us were Martin and Anna from Stockholm. Martin is the son of our old friends Lars and Eva Maria Vidaeus who live in Maryland and Stockholm. Anna is his delightful girl friend.  

Today, Friday, they were off to the Sistine Chapel while we hit the road for a day trip to Bomarzo the seat of the counts Orsini, one of whom created an extremely weird garden called the Bosco Sacro (sacred grove). It is a wood filled with gigantic statues mainly carved out of the local tufa in situe.

The place must get very little direct sunlight since the magic of the statues is largely due to their being covered with moss.  They languished abandoned and known only to local shepards for 400 years before being rediscovered in the 1930's by Salvador Dali amoung others.

The hike through the garden was followed by a late lunch in Bomarzo at the very unpretentious Trattoria da Zena.  Imagine the perfect Itallian grandmother in her kitchen and you have the lady who runs the place.

Hadrian's (Adriana's) Villa

Not far from Tivoli, which is world famous as the site of the gardens at Vill d'Este, are the ruins of Hadrian's villa or Villa Adriana if you want your GPS to find it.  The complex of buildings and water features sprawls over 120 hectares on a hill top.

Hadrian travelled widely and if he saw something he liked on his travels he would copy it if it was a building or a statue or bring it home if it was a good looking guy like Antinous. This must have thrilled his wife Sabina whose family owned the land on which the villa is built. Here are the lovely threesome.

Hadrian was mightily enamoured by things Greek which explains why he is the first Roman emperor to wear a beard.  After seeing the round colonnaded temple of Venus on the Greek isle of Knidos he built a perfect copy on the grounds of the villa.

Inspired by what he saw on a trip to Egypt he built a water feature to remind him of the canal which led from the Nile near Alexandria to the Sanctuary of Serapis at Canopis.  His copy of the sanctuary with it's dome covered entrance at the end of the canal was used as a huge outdoor dining area adorned with numerous fountains.

On one side of the canal he placed copies of the statues called Caryatids which hold up the porch of the Erechtheum on the Acropolis in Athens.

On the other side of the canal is an alligator shown here with our MOOC professor Diana Kleiner in her younger days.

The visit to the villa was followed by by lunch at nearby Tenuta di Rocca Bruna which is one of your up market agro turismos.

Il Tempo Cambio ( change in the weather)

On Sunday there was a major dip in the temperature accompanied by high wind and rain showers.  We decided to use our reservations at the Agro Turismo Casale di Martignano had head into the country for lunch.  It was typical Sunday in the country in Italy experience with large tables filled with friends and family.  The outdoor roofed eating area was sheltered by lowering the heavy plastic curtains which crackled in the wind.  We enjoyed the views of the lake the fields and a ruined building.

On Monday morning I did my Yale MOOC with Bob Shiller and a cameo appearance by Larry Summers. Lynne finally discovered a local store who had all the ingredients for the raw bits breakfast including rolled oats, chia seeds, and muesli along with Quinoa.  On Monday afternoon when the sun came out briefly we headed over to the very nearby golf practice facility and witnessed how an Italian golfer reacts when he scores a hole in one with yells of ho vinto (I won) modestly directed at his 
opponent. 

On Tuesday morning we head to the Olgiata Golf Club probably for the last time as the golf package they offered us at a good price includes too many rounds for the length of our stay.  They are 
completely inflexible and would not offer us a half package or the possibility of getting a refund for the rounds we didn't play.  However, the golfers are very nice and the foursomes we encountered 
always let us play through.  As a result we finished in about 3 hours.

Diocletian's Baths

The baths, pictured below. which we visited today were the largest ever built and were large enough to accommodate  3,000 bathers.  The highest roof towards the back of the photo is the original roof of the frigidarium whose interior space was converted by Michaelangelo into the church of St. Mary degli Angeli.  Michaelangelo also designed the large cloister.

At the center of the cloister large animal heads emerge right out of the middle of the hedges.

The museum on the site focuses on ancient epigraphy (writing) and statuary. One learns that forgeries were common and that a grocery shopping list for the army could be written on a copper tablet.  

 On the way home I was targeted by a pick pocket who attempted to un zip one of the pockets of my shoulder pack while I was trying to follow Lynne from a very crowded metro platform on to the train.  Luckily I didn't lose anything but it was a matter of luck and I have learned my lesson to be watchful at moments when it is easy to be distracted.  Also valuables will be carried in a safer place even if this means risking castration.

Ostia Antica

Ostia Antica is a gem, much more extensive and better preserved than the Roman Forum area in the center of Rome but much less well known as witnessed by the small number of tourists who were there today.   We were well prepped for our visit by Diana Kleiner's MOOC lecture from Yale University.

Ostia was a densely populated port city and thus had far more multi story condos than single story villas. A bit like Vancouver's west end.  The building below originally had four stories

The mosaics were the most impressive remnants of this once vibrant city.  The one below was on the floor of a ship Chandler's shop.

This mosaic was on the floor of one of the rooms at the baths of Neptune.

Fast food to take out or eat in was readily available including hot meals from Mc Donatellos.

And of course there was a theater.  While the Greeks had to build theirs into hill sides, the Romans who had mastered the technology of concrete built their own concrete hill sides.

Caffè with Lucia

This morning while we were watching the Yale MOOC on Roman architecture in preparation for a day trip to Ostia Antica the phone rang and it was Lucia, Alina's mother and the matriarch of the family, calling to invite us to join her for a coffee.  Boy, did our Italian get a good workout.  She is delightful and talks a mile a minute.  We learned that when she became engaged to her late husband that he gave her a ring and she gave him 100 olive trees.  Eventually they turned their olive farming hobby into a fattoria (an estate) which produces one of the top rated olive oils in Italy and operates as an Agriturismo called Il Fontanaro.  Both she and Alina commute back and forth between Rome and the fattoria which is located an hour and a half away in Umbria near the village of Paciano.  Paciano is practically next door to Panicale where we rented a house during two trips to Italy and were visited there by the Belangers, Elliotts,  and McConnells

After the coffee she took us on a tour of our local area and where across the railway tracks it is all agricultural land and a beautiful place for a walk.  There is an estate there called Castelucia which includes a villa which has been converted to an inn and restaurant with stables and a driving range on the property.  As it was too late to go to Ostia Antica after our morning with Lucia so we headed downtown to the Trastevere district of Rome for lunch, a visit to Santa Maria in Trastevere (see photo below) and walk through the area and it's botanical garden.  At lunch we struck up a conversation with a woman who is a director of a hotel in St. Moritz.  Our initial encounter with the Swiss lady at an outdoor table was off to a bad start when she lit a cigarette sending Lynne scurrying inside only to change her mind again and Insist that we would have to eat outside regardless. 

Scioperi e Carciofi ( strikes and artichokes)

Today the buses, the metro and commuter rail service have stopped due to a general strike throughout the country.  Too bad about our two month old reservation to get into the Palazzo Farnese (French Embassy) to see the paintings there by Caracci.  The Ministry of Infrastructure actually has a web site where one can view the dates and nature of upcoming strikes.  There will be strikes affecting rail service on April 12 and April 15.

On the brighter side the weather was fantastic yesterday when we took the train into town for lunch and to visit the ruins of ancient Rome.

 We also met with Cristiana to swap Italian for English conversation.  She is a doctor at a hospital here and has three daughters including one who is taking a Masters degree in Economics at Oxford and another studying economics at the Dauphin in Paris. She worries about meeting people on the internet and her worst fears were realized yesterday when she met us.

The worst thing that happened yesterday was watching our train home roar through our station without stopping.  The best thing was discovering carciofi alla Romana.

Room With a View

We have a very Roman view from the apartment, one of a blue sky and umbrella pines.

The area we are in seems to be adjacent to a national park but so far we have not found any way of actually entering it, probably because most of it is being actively farmed and the farmers don't want people trekking through their fields.

Wide awake at 3:15 AM, I spent the rest of the night watching a recorded broadcast of last night's rugby match in Paris between France and Ireland.  France threw everything but their bidets at the Irish but came up short 22-20 and Brian O'Driscoll retired with a Six Nations championship.

We headed out this morning to reconnoiter the area. After Jane found an ATM for us we drove to to a restaurant recommended by Alina.  I Casali del Pino is a farm and an agro tourism establishment.  It was apparent that they were fully booked as the outdoor terrace was covered by tables set up to receive dozens of families for Sunday lunch.  Lynne mentioned Alina's name and this sent someone scurrying to bring out a small table and two chairs which were placed on the grass next to the terrace. 

The meal was excellent, including the pasta with a ricotta and lemon sauce, the risotto with articokes and asperagus, the thin slices of pork in a prune sauce and a caponata of grilled vegetables.  We gratefully accepted the complimentary desert sweets including  a couple of ciambellette and a couple of marmalade crostatas.

Settling In

We arrived in Rome as scheduled and our one checked bag, the cargo bag containing our two golf bags, arrived too, but with some delay as the baggage guy managed to get a stroller stuck in the over sized luggage belt and took forever to free it.  Jane, the dulcet voice of the Tomtom GPS, didn't regain consciousness until just before we had to exit Rome's beltway, the Grande Raccordo Anulare.  However, she did get us to our destination.  The intercom at the gate to this gated community of apartment blocks went unanswered but a very helpful Roman pointed us the way to the entrance of the right apartment block where we took an elevator up to the top floor and found the daughter of the owner, the lovely Alina.

Alina is a delight and she was so worried that we might need assistance while she was away that she took us upstairs to meet the couple who live in the attic.  The male member of the couple, Davida, showed me how to repressurize the the hot water system and warned me that failing to turn off the adjustment valve would result in bursting all of the pipes.  So far, the number of things here that work slightly exceeds the number that don't, with the latter category including the can opener.  Fortunately muscle assisted by a small amount of jet lagged brain power meant that we had tomatoes in the minestrone. Tomorrow I will try to figure out how to reverse Lynne's decision to use the bath tub stopper as a stopper for one of the bathroom basins which is now permanently stoppered.  All of this is so Italian.

Sleepless in Seattle

Because we are traveling on Aeroplan points on Lufthansa we cannot afford to miss our flight and this means overnighting in Seattle.  The only consolation is that the Thirteen Coins restaurant is next door to the Radisson.  Dinner comes with entertainment as we sit at the counter and watch a team of chefs cook for thirty or forty diners.  They do several of my favourites including Crab Louie,  pan fried oysters and calamari.  Lynne goes for crab cakes or frittatas.  I over did it with the oysters and was sleepless in Seattle.

The morning of the flight found us back at the Coins for a breakfast that should last us until dinner on the flight this evening. Meanwhile we are hanging out in the lounge playing hangman in Italian.  Lynne got strung up on the word " cazzo " and objected loudly when she learned what it means in English.

Off to Rome

We will arrive in Rome on March 15 where we will put our destiny in the hands of Tomtom who will hopefully guide us to our apartment on the outskirts of Rome.  Our host Alina has advised us that Mama will be there to answer the intercom and let is in.  This will start our immersion as Mama only speaks Italian.  In preparation we have been attending the lectures of an excellent Yale university course on Roman Art and Architecture.  This will give us a much better idea about what all those fallen columns and crumbling buildings in the center of Rome near the colosseum actually once belonged too.