Rome: DAY 77 WAH, WAH, WAH

SEVENTY-SEVENTH DAY

WAH, WAH, WAH

November 29, 2005

For sure my Mother would be surprised, I am sitting in the American Academy Library doing research for my proposed project about when paper took over from proto papers in the Western world.  It comes as no surprise to me that others have done the same thing.  Still, I keep thinking that I will discover some nugget that is new before I am through.  So far, the great god of paper history, Dard Hunter, still reigns as the supreme historian of the paper-making genre.  There is still time for discovery. 

In my Roman world I continue to explore the city.  Nancy Di , our new best friend as guide, led a tour yesterday through Campo de Fiori and the Ghetto.  The subject was Beatrice de Cenci who after being raped and sodomized by her father, killed him for which she was sentenced to death.  She died at the hands of the executioner at the age of 18 by beheading across from Castel San Angelo and before thousands of bloodthirsty onlookers.  The time was the late 1500’s and the pope was making an example to the nobles that he would tolerate no more bad behavior on their part.  It was a bloody time in Europe and Rome with cruelty and torture the norm.  We probably are not so far from this today, but it seems more contained.  No political comments are necessary.  Just to put the geography in place, the De Cenci family compound overlooked the Tiber on a mound right near the present day Synagogue and is currently inhabited by the Rhode Island School of Design as their Rome campus and across the square from the great Roman restaurant “Piperno”.  We will go to RISD tonight for a poetry reading by a friend from the Academy.

We are cooking more at home, the produce and meats here are mostly better then what we get in the states.  Sonoma market and the Ferry Building in SF may be exceptions, but people eat well here.  I am slightly jealous when I hear about Turkey’s being roasted outside because nobody here does any grilling except in restaurants.  I would hate to burn down my building with a Weber but am trying to find some sort of small hibachi that I might be able to use on top of our stove that has a fan hood.  With all of my pals thinking that I will gain 50 lbs here I hesitate to talk about food, but the bread is almost formidable in both the variety and flavor categories.  There are dozens of bakeries in the neighborhoods and they all seem crowded.  Food is not cheap and the good Fornos (bakeries) are very pricey.  One of the group with us on the walk yesterday has moved from Rome to the Albanian capital of Tirana, which is in the 6^th world.  They took us to their old bakery in the Campo, Roscioli, where we bought their Locriano, made with dark flour and very tasty.  Our friends bought a huge loaf of the same; it must have been about 20” in diameter and weighed about 10 pounds.  Since they work for the US government, I assume they will out it in the diplomatic pouch.  I also hope they eat fast because with no preservatives, the bread does not last very long. 

My latest whine is about DVD’s.  We discovered our rental place where we were gouged by the shopkeeper and got home only to discover that the American titles we had brought home had been dubbed in Italian and no feature on the disc to make it play in English.  It is just part of the complicated learning curve that continues to plague me.  We will return them today, refund, refund are you kidding, refund?  One can only hope that the dollar continues to rise against the Euro before our funds run out or are taken from our pockets by Roman Houdini’s.  Wha wha  Under normal circumstances Kim would make me take this out, but I will try hard to keep it in, after all, as we all know perfection eludes even the Roman storekeepers. 

Reoccurring themes remain the 49er’s ineptitude, Stanford losing to ND in the last minute, rain in Rome, being bored by BBC World, the greatest classical station we have ever heard, RAI Radio 3; frustration over not being able to get the internet in the apartment, the incredible view of ancient Rome less then 30 feet from our door, having a motorino to get around on, Kim’s indelible good spirits and desire to see it all and of course the good fortune that has allowed us to be here.