villa adriana

Today Juliette and I traveled by train to Tivoli and then by bus to reach Villa Adriana (Hadrian's Villa). Villa Adriana is one of the oldest villas in Rome, built around 118 BC. The plan is unique and was incredibly progressive for the time. Luckily I had a Master architecture with me, who explained the use of pivots, geometry, topography, water, and materials. The buildings (or ruins) were stunning, as was the attention to detail (check out the tile/mosaic patterning of the arches and walls). 

il vatticano

The Vattican is still standing, just in case anyone was worried. Piazza San Pietro is still crawling with pink tourists, and people still queue up for mass. As I was walking through the Piazza I overheard a tall man in a long black priestly robe say in an American voice into his iPhone, "Yeah, you know...it's really great to be here. I think I made the right choice." Go figure. 

festival di letteratura

The letterature festival internazionale di roma has been happening for about a month, but we just found about it last week. The topic for this year's festival is "la vita dolce," and for each night of the month-long event, well known authors and musicians respond to a topic like " affetti," "denaro," piachere," destino" and "ossessione." The event is free, and but it takes place in the Roman Forum, so people queue up at 7pm for first-come-first-serve tickets for the 9pm show. Juliette and I went twice last week, first to  "destino," where we heard Massimo Cacciari (Italian), Jamacia Kincaid, and Sapphire (the author of "Precious") read their works, accompanied by a pianist named Alessandra Celletti. Both Cacciari and Sapphire read in Italian, and Jamacia read in English with Italian "subtitles" projected onto the screen behind her. The last night we saw "sfide," with Giacomo Marramao, Herta Muller and Maurizio Maggiani, accompanied by 3 Untitled DJ's. Although I couldn't understand much of the readings, Italian is beautiful to listen to and the music was stunning. And of course it's always nice to be in the Roman Forum with the Romans. 

cibo di toscana

The food in tuscany is good. Here's a bit of what we ate: charcuterie e fromaggio, 

spaghetti alla carbonara (although I have to say, this didn't hold a candle to Rick's...). We made a point of sampling at a number of different fornos. 

We went out to eat and had homemade seafood pasta. I thought it tasted great, but the Sienens that we were with said that it lacked egg and tasted terrible. Everyone agreed the fish was delicious, and so was the wine. 

And so was the grappa, although we ended up needing to eat some cheese at 2am to soak up all that liqour...luckily, Giuseppe came to our rescue. 

Siena!

After Florence Perla and I took the bus to Siena. We spent a day wandering around the city, sitting in the piazza and watching people. Siena is a gorgeous little city. This is the main piazza, Piazza del Campo. 

The Duomo di Siena was astounding. I really like imagining the planning of a building like this. For example, how could they ensure symmetry on this beast?

There's an annual horse race in Siena called the Palio, which is a VERY big deal. The Palio is a bareback race around the piazza del campo, with more than 1000 spectators crammed into the center of the piazza. Siena is broken up in to contrade (neighborhoods), each of which has a special flag and colors that displayed in the street. There are 17 contrade in Siena, but only 12 (I think) spots, so not all contrade get to participate. Weeks before the Palio, each participating contrade demonstrates their braun by marching their colors around Siena, beating drums and tossing flags. The race is won by the horse that best represents the contrade, not the jockey.  

firenze!

Before heading to Siena Perla and I spent the day in lovely Florence. 

We also had a chance to watch the Mex v. South Africa match with a South African, a Mexican, a Columbian, and some Israeli's. Viva Mexico!

roma perils

I have a lot to report (and photos to share) from my whirlwind weekend in Tuscany with Perla, but first:


For anyone who has ever wondered how the women manage their stilettos on the cobblestones: today I saw, for the first time, a woman get her long, blue heel stuck as she was crossing the street in morning rush hour traffic. Although it appeared to be wedged quite tightly between two stones, I watched her yank it out, nod at the stopped traffic and continue on. 



Crossing the street in Rome is like an extreme adventure game. There are as many motos as smarts, fiats, volvos, mercedes, small european vans, large public busses and the occasional tram, and they all race as quickly as possible around tight cobblestoned corners. 


While there are crosswalks, the Romans do not appear to gravitate to them and so crossing the streets becomes a test of fate: "do I really believe this car will stop if I walk in front of it?" I am taking my cues from the locals and striding out with confidence and so far, my will to live seems to be strong enough.