Rome: DAY 2

SECOND DAY

September 14, 2005

Yesterday was our first real day in Rome.  Out early with no jet lag to investigate the hood.  We headed out the back gate of our palazzo and next to the old Roman wall that was built by Aurelius, 161-180 AD.  That would be Marcus Aurelius, just in case you wanted that info.  We found our neighborhood street complete with Banks, car dealers, bars, the Herald Tribune, and even an elegant Meat and Cheese store.  Not having much language is an impediment but so far not a complete stopper.  Kim is trying and can make herself understood.  We came back to coffee at our own little bar in the Academy.  It all seems so unreal. We do lots of chatting with other residents and fellow travelers Everyone is pleasant and friendly. We decided to walk down the steep steps toward Trastevere for lunch and some shopping.  Our friends Paul and Stan have given us several restaurant ideas and we settled on a place next to the Santa Maria church called Paris.  Of course, in our silly American way, it is only 12:30 and nobody eats lunch at 12:30.  We are just a little mortified and go to the supermarket to get supplies for the room.  Soap, paper towels, cereal and a few snacks to tide us over between many meals and it all costs pretty much the same as in the US. The Euro is still rather expensive so our dollar is about .80 Euros.  So the same is about 20% more expensive.  We go back to a lovely lunch at Paris and proceed to drink a bottle of red with our meal of a salad, pasta and a main course.  I fall to the table for my nap -just kidding and we struggle back up the steps to our room.

My thoughts on the Academy may change, but my immediate picture is of a place designed for students and scholars in a quiet Academic setting.  The visitors (us) are designed to fill up the place and provide more revenue for the Academy.  The senior staff seems stuffy and pedantic, with a casual wave of the hand for us extra folk.  Kimberly is much more forgiving and open.  So while the regular inmates are super friendly and nice, I feel we are baggage to the in-house people.  We took a tour of the library with the head librarian.  She is nice but reminds me of a teacher who has too much to do and reminds you of it all the time.  Still there is lots of good material to be found if I ever get started on my project.  We also had a conversation with Pina with the main objective being my desire to buy a motor scooter.  Pina is the associate director for the school.  She is beyond crisp and slightly arrogant.  It is clear we are supposed to be on our own all the way.  Most questions were deflected and not very helpful.  No matter, she is probably right, and we need to do it on our own.  I wish she could do it in nicer way. 

We saw the 15 presentations of the second group of fellows and they were profoundly excellent.  Imagine trying to explain your dissertation to a group of super intelligent people in five minutes.  I would have thought it could not be done. Mostly, I was wrong and we ended up getting the point.  Some of what we came for was to be around these smart guys, many of who are women.   Once again, we had dinner at the Academy with lots of talking.  We are going to dinner outside tonight with Nord and Charles.  Charles was a fellow and is returning to visit,  He is the President of the Cultural Landscape Foundation in Washington DC. and is very bright and knows lots about San Francisco and many people that I know.  His friend Nord has done lots of things but is currently writing Visual Criticism for Art Forum.  We will stay in the neighborhood.  More adventures to come as we are off to Central Rome for an afternoon of gelato and sightseeing.