Thursday, December 15, 2005

Rome: DAY 93 SAINT PETER IN CHAINS?

SAINT PETER IN CHAINS?
December 15-16

Thursday was just one of those days.  I haven’t had many in Rome, but for some reason whatever jobs I undertook could not be completed.  Whatever places I wanted to visit were not open.  Whatever I said to people in the stores was not understood. And that was all in the morning.  Because it has been raining on and off for weeks, the motorino is always wet.  It can be wiped off; the problem is the devices that I use to lock up the scooter.  When water enters the lock after a while it starts not working very well - it is rusting.  The solution is something like WD 40, which is not a name anybody knows here.  If you can picture me in the hardware store continuing to say WD40, WD40 over and over and when they don’t understand, I tend to say it louder.  Not wise, I know and anyway it doesn’t work.  They have this stuff I just don’t know the name or what to call it in Italian.  This brings up the major roadblock in trying to have a complete experience in Rome.  My language skills, which were never very good, have completely eroded with age.  I should have started taking Italian before we came for at least a year.  It is a rather complex language with more irregular verbs than English and more tenses as well.  I do OK with food and even grocery shopping, but in most cases it is English or nothing and yesterday it was nothing.  After the WD40 incident (it must have been very funny to watch) I decided to take on the butcher.  The butcher shops are beautiful and if you can make art out of meat, they do it.  Usually, I can just point, but I think the guy just didn’t have the time to mess with me.  Pointing and saying what you think the word for lamb is just won’t cut it.  Not only do you need the word for lamb but what cut you want. Mostly it works, but not yesterday. I left his shop in utter defeat.  Finally, I tried to go to a museum that I have been wanting to see, the Dora Pamphili Gallery.  It must be the only museum in Rome that is not open on Thursday.  So my entire morning was a wipe out. 

Later in the afternoon we go to our Internet spot.  It has been a while since we have gone on line and Kimberly gets on to post the Blog and it is gone without a trace.  It was there when she edited at the apartment and between the apartment and the Internet point it has disappeared.  This is a new first and a disappointment.  It means a rewrite; I am having a day.

It is time to regroup.  We retreat to the apartment where it is warm and homey.  I spend the rest of my afternoon reading and redoing the blog.  Not an unpleasant way to spend the late afternoon and evening.  We have been renting DVD’s from the local Video shop.  It is a specialized place with lots of older movies and off beat films.  The guy that owns the place loves David Lynch and the Coen brothers.  We are having our own film festival with these two directors.  We venture off the path with Colors, a 1988 film about LA gangs featuring a very young Sean Penn and the excellent Robert Duvall.  I am feeling much better; we have divine Chicken Kimberly that any chef in Rome would be happy to serve.  Things are looking up. 

Today, Friday, I know that I must make progress.  It is always the little stuff.  On November 30 my Wells Fargo Debit Card expired.  I am at war with VISA about their crazy 3.8% Foreign Transaction Fee.  I will not use my VISA.  This means going to my Italian Bank for cash.  After yesterday’s problems with language, I ask Kim, my Italian translator and speaker to accompany me.  (I will receive the new debit card soon.)   Going to a bank in Italy makes our banks look like service to the max.  We try to be there at the opening, but there is already a long line and only 2 tellers. After yesterday who knows what will happen?  We get to the teller, Kim says in Italian, “Do you speak English?” the guy says “no,” Kim says three sentences, the guys says,  “Si.”  I hand him my passport and literally one minute later we leave with the cash.  A very impressive demonstration of the lingua franca.

After weeks of hunting, I have found the most beautiful, lovely coffee house a couple of blocks from our house.  I am able to order Due Cappuccini and be understood.  Also, it is delicious.  After Kim and I split up for the rest of our morning, I go to the Galleria Dora Pamphilli and am immediately surrounded by Caravaggio on all sides.  He is the one I would have made a saint - what a painter and so dramatic.  A great gallery in the heart of Rome, 3 blocks from our apartment.  As I am coming down the steps of the Gallery, a gentleman with a Cairn Terrier is walking across the courtyard.  Our paths cross and this wonderful dog is the younger version of Cashew, confident, spirited and happy.  What a nice way to remember my due bambini waiting for us in Sonoma.  The owner tells me that the dog is a champion from England, 10 months old, perfect confirmation, nice dog.   Everyone writes and tells me that they see our dogs walking in Sonoma and they look better and lighter, younger, too than before we left. Maybe we all needed a holiday. 

I have found a pop-up book of ancient Rome for Kimberly.  It is in a bookstore in Trastevere where it is sold out most of the time.  I have placed my order and it has arrived.  I buzz over, meet some other English speakers and have a nice chat.  The book is really great, she will love it.  When I read the labels it is for kids 5 and older.

In the meantime, Kim is on a mission and is exploring churches.  She has hit St Peters in Chains with its Moses by Michelangelo, the chains that bound St Peter when he was a prisoner and the remains of the Macabaies (how did they get our guys?).  It is almost too much for one experience.  Kimbo has a list and she can now check off St. Peters in Chains.  There is no give in in that girl.  She will see it all and with lots of energy.  Who would doubt it?


It is holiday party time in Rome, restaurants are booked, streets are crowded with shoppers, and chocolates are being bought, whiskey too.  The lights are bright and spirits high. 

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