stockholm

friends! i'm heading to stockholm, sweeden for the weekend. i'll be sure to post pictures and updates when i return! 

finalmente!

Something very exciting happened yesterday: one of the men who works at the bakery that I go to EVERY morning to get my two pieces pane azimo to eat with my lunch *(more on this in a second) knew what I wanted. Of course it's very likely that he knows what I want every morning (since it's always the same thing) but just likes to hear me stumble over the compisition of the sentence, but for whatever reason, a string of small miracle occured: I walked in, he looked at me, asked me if I wanted two pieces of pane azimo, I said yes, I paid, and I was on my way.


*I was really excited when I discoved pane azimo: it's like a thin, whole wheat and sesame seed cracker with a wheaty, nutty taste and just enough crisp. Yesterday my italian friend pointed out to me that pane azimo is the equivelant of italian matzah! So not only do I walk through the Jewish Ghetto every morning to get to work, but--and I find this a little bit remarkable--I enjoy the unleavened bread of my ancestors each day at lunch. 

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.