Juxtaposition.... not into it

One comes to Italy to escape the modern.  Why do they insist on setting up these exhibits that juxtapose the modern with the clearly more superior Baroque.  I'm not buying it, dudes.  For example, today I bought skin cream that is banned by the U.S. FDA.  Why?  Because it is made out of god knows what, DNA from Etruscan placenta?  What ever it is, it works.  I don't need to be saved from my skin cream.  I want to live on the edge.  Frankly, Italians know a thing or two about living forever.  They all smoke, they drive like maniacs, they're all emaciated and short, and they live to be 105. 
I think it's all about gusto.  Beefy, gorgeous, no-holds-barred gusto.  Lop off a couple of heads.  In fact, that is today's theme, compliments of Salome and Judith:

Today I headed to several churches that I love, those that have on exhibit lovely paintings that I like to visit:

A little Caravaggio after colazione.  Gorgeous.  Then I simply want to be in other people's villas.  So I went to two museums that are in family homes: the Rome National (Palazzo Altemps) and the Doria Pamphilj.  I am so inspired by these elegant homes and the interior courtyards filled with fountains, trees in pots and statuary:

Chock full of glorious statuary, 'collected' by the uber-rich, pillaged from archaeological sites in the wonderful days before people got too picky about moving a couple of rocks, for god's sake.  And then of course, I'm off to lunch.  What a fantasy life.  Sleeping in, walking, art, lunch.....at a wonderful Tuscan ristorante, where I had pasta and black truffles:

And a gift of a tiny glass of vin santo from my charming waiter...who thought my italiano was splendido!

The Sacred

Northern Rome ~ Parioli!

Since I am indulging myself in a whole week in Roma I have moved up north of the Borghese Villa to a neighborhood called Parioli.  It's a fairly posh area, I think, and there are many huge villas of ages past that are now apartment buildings.  There is also a lot of post-WWII stuff as well.  Typical flats with terraces:

Here is the way to the door of my apartment building:

Jasmine is in full bloom all over Rome!  Here is my bed:

I spent the day wandering around the Borghese gardens.  Then made my way to Castel St Angelo because I've always wondered what it's like inside.  It's a huge, mangled, somewhat dilapidated barracks, not unlike the Liberal Arts building at Boise State.  It was a defense building, made to look imposing and impenetrable.  There are lots of romantic stories of popes running for their lives, catapults, cannons, swashbuckling and torture sessions... again, not unlike the LA building back home.  If you're in to weapons, go see it.  If not, the highlight is surely this beautiful St Michael:

And then you have to stroll across the Ponte St Angelo and marvel at M's angels:

  A presto!

Due per Uno

Darlings,
One of the many fabulous things about life in Italy is the 2 for 1 deal.  Every day is 2 for 1.  You get two days even though it's only one.  Perche?  Because every day is split in half.  You get the morning, then a break, then the afternoon.  This morning I enjoyed an early breakfast at Hotel Sonya.  Their signature 'egg cake' thing, a croissant, and a piece of breakfast cake.  Then I grabbed my Roma Pass (slowly it's making sense) and went to the metro to catch the B ttrain to the Colosseo.  You get there, leave the metro station, and there it is.  Huge.  Colossal.  Though the 'colossalness' of it actually refers to a huge statue of one of the emperors that used to be there.  Sorry, I can't remember which one. 
I skipped the Coliseum and headed to the Roman Forum.  So fabulous.  And so peaceful for about an hour.  I am totally inspired by the notion of Vestal Virgins.  So much so that I have decided  I am one.  Really.  These women were very powerful. Consecrated as symbols of divination and glory.  They were chosen at a young age and committed themselves  to live out their days (not all of them) as virgins.  IF, god forbid, one was caught in the fantastically muscular arms of some BASTARDLY fabulous gladiator, she was condemned.  She was given a loaf of bread and a lamp and then sealed away in a tomb.  I'm totally inspired to redo this notion in my back yard:

But of course the rest of the Forum is beyond belief in its beauty and scale.  You simply have to see it in person.  It is the rhetorical punch of architecture in one lesson:

After all of this fabulousness, there is only one thing to do.  Have lunch.  Ho fame.  So I make my way to Ristorante di Giglio.  My waiter was so marvelous.  He let me speak in broken Italian and never once defaulted to his broken English.  I spoke only in Italian!  And at the end, I told him 'Grazie per aver ascoltato il mio italiano malo' he said, 'no no.  E perfetto.'  Glory!

Lamb of God and potatoes, darlings.
And..... how do they get their torta limone so light and their caffe so heavy?  It's divine:

A Roma! Lo adoro!

Ciao ragazzi!
After a fairly comfortable and uneventful flight I am back in lovely Italy.  Even the nonstop drizzle can't get me down.  Of course, everything is molto fabuloso and I spent my first day pushing through the typical exhaustion one experiences after an international flight and being awake for far too long. I checked in to Hotel Sonya, left my luggage as the room was not ready yet, and took off for a little walk.  I went to a Tabacchi and bought a Roma Pass, which is incomprehensible but gets you free access to public transport and a few museums.  First stop was the National Museum of Rome.  Featuring lots of gorgeous busts and statuary from the Glory Days of antiquity, it is housed what used to be Palazzo Massimo.  The building is magnificent.  It is right next to Roma Termini.  In fact, many of the pieces in this museum were unearthed right in this area.  When construction began on Roma Termini (the train station) they realized they were about to build on top of this massive villa and garbage dump of glorious objets.  THEIR garbage is decidedly better than ours because it included items like:

"The Boxer" ~ An exquisite bronze of muscularity with a tinge of exhaustion and defeat.  His broken nose, his scars and wounds, his wrapped hands complete with metal knuckles, his back muscles....so very fab, and his overall nakedness make him quite the thing to behold!  So very Roman.
And his counterpoint:

"The Disc Thrower" encapsulates the Greek fascination with not just athletic prowess, but more philosophically, the moment... that nano-second moment of splendor when mind and body work in unison!  It's the wind up!  He hasn't thrown the discus yet.  You can see the concentration, the mental part of the sport, on his face.  You are witness to his physical training just by looking at his body.  But perfection in sport is mind and body, in sync.

So of course, that means it's time for lunch, at a lovely trattoria by S. Maria Maggiore:

From there, a very long and confusing walk through ruins:

T

And then, in the Church of St Stephen, a tribute to my beautiful sister, Laura.  (In Italian, you would pronounce it LA-OO-RAH).  There is a marble effigy of him encased in plexiglass.  Slots allow people to drop in notes, photos, pleas for help.  I dropped in a photo of my beautiful sister so she can just be there.  

Glory. Glory.

  Like Titian’s glorious Mary I am about to be taken away to the eternal Beauty that is Italy.  I’m heading back to Viterbo, this time as a Visiting Professor.  I will take you along if you’d like.  We’ll see some familiar landmarks….and I do hope the hunky prosciutto man is still there…but even if not, we’ll have quite a good time!

 

I'm back

 

Shopping Obsession

Hunky Prosciutto Man

Breakfast with Anchovy

Nuns in the Forum

Italy beckons again and it's time to figure out how to work this blog.  Why is it so wonky?