Rome: DAYS 73-74 ROMA SQUARED

SEVENTY-THIRD DAY

ROMA SQUARED

November 25-26

As I sit in my warm and cozy breakfast nook, rain and lightening reign down from the skies, thunder too.  It is Saturday night and we have just returned from a wonderful small music event at the already mentioned Biblioteca Angelica.  Tonight two guys, a wonderful pianist and a poetry reader (in Italian) alternately played and read the concert.  The young and avid pianist was quite brilliant and the reader very emotive and fine.  I did not understand a word he said (Kim caught more words but not a sense of the poems), but it was about thanks to God etc.  It sounded terrific.  The program was Debussy Sonatas that were quite romantic and fervid.  In the middle of the program a thunderstorm hit Rome.  The pyrotechnics were grand and in this beyond belief library, it was a light and sound show. We are only blocks from our apartment, but when it is raining hard, you will get soaked. Yesterday, we found a place to have Vietnamese food, but when I went back today to make a reservation it was marked, Closed.  It seemed easier to make our dinner at home than to brave the rain and so we had a great pasta Carbonara. 

Roma is a place where the sirens are always going.  During the concert the intermittent noise was annoying.  On the street, the noise is oppressive and constant.  There are about 10 different kinds of Police roaming around from the guys who are working for the prison system to the military police. Because this is a capital of a country, there are lots of guys with guns and uniforms of different varieties.  Today on the motorino I was turned away from the front of the Ministry of Justice by a cop who had a totally different uniform than I had ever seen.  I was glad he didn’t ask me for my papers with some sort fascist salute.  The streets are very crowded and personal space is at a premium.  Nobody gets out of anyone’s way and it seems as if we will all run into one another.  I am constantly being bumped, shoved or pushed aside, mostly by little old ladies.  The truth I suppose is simpler then I am able to admit.  We walk probably at a factor of 10 more than when we are at home. 

Today we went to the former stables of the Pope across from the President’s palace on the Quirinal. It is called the Scuderia del Quirinal and has been converted to a magnificent gallery.  The architect for this project, Gae Alentui, is quite famous and for good reason.  She also did the train station at Quai d’Orsey in Paris.  The Parisian project is much larger but certainly no better.  The galleries here are sumptuous and well done.  The exhibit features artists who are using materials beyond oils and going for different materials plus new concepts of spatiality.  The Italian artist Burri is the featured person, but the show includes many Americans including Rauschenberg, Dine, and Twombly.  A good show in a good place.   

Friday seemed like the day after Thanksgiving and the Italian unions turned it into a day off by calling a general strike of all public workers against the proposed Berlusconi government budget.  They came to Largo Argentina less then 6 blocks from our apartment draped in their union flags and colorful scarves and hats.  Quite a sight to behold and of course, everything stopped for the day.  We did do our normal shopping rounds in the Campo including the Internet stop.  We went back to Margherita in the Ghetto for lunch, now my favorite place.  We were seated next to an Italian couple and started a lively conversation.  The man spoke lots of English, having attended a conference at Stanford, and he and his architect wife ended up talking with us through the entire lunch. He is an environmental physicist and works for the agency responsible for green things in Italy.  The usual complaint about no money for this kind of work surfaced and he was a striker.  They gave us some tips about the neighborhood and we ended up going to the movie rental store, joining the “movie club” and renting a couple of DVD’s.  It will help relieve the tedium of BBC World and Euro News, our only 2 English language stations. By the way, we do get Al Jezzera and of course Russian, Bulgarian, and Romanian TV stations as well as many more.