THIRTIETH DAY
EUR
AND ECSTASY
October
13, 2005
Today
is Yom Kipper and we are in Rome. At the synagogue here they separate women
from men. I haven’t been very good in my
attendance for many years and I suppose this one will be no exception. This morning I had a wonderful meditation and
spent the last few minutes thinking about some of the people that I missed the
most. It is delightful to have the time
and space to get my mind really clear.
Usually this journal covers the day before so that I can ruminate on
what is happening and give it a chance to sink in, but for two reasons I am
going to combine yesterday and today.
One, to all the true believers, Happy New Year and many more. Two,
tomorrow we will go to Fabriano and must leave very early so I don’t know if I
can get to this journal again for a few days.
I am excited about our trip and the chance to drive again in the Italian
countryside. While our route begins on
Expressways, it finishes in the country and Umbria is supposed to be bella
paese (beautiful country). We are hoping they will let us into the handmade
papermaking mill. I have my doubts, but
the museum is enough if that is all we can get.
Yesterday,
Kimberina left for Italian class down by the Spanish Steps. I think it is difficult, but she is trying
hard and knows lots of vocabulary. She
is getting it and it’s her desire to be at the head of the class. I am free and the sun is shinning. After my workout I go to EUR, a city within
Rome that was started by Mussolini in the late 30’s and completed in the
50’s. It was designed to be the model
city enlightened by the Fascist ethic of big facades without much ornamentation
and on a large scale. It lives up to the
original design concept. The buildings
are large and the city very modern looking.
It is about 20 minutes south of our neighborhood on big roads and every
motorcycle and scooter is going at top speed.
I take my time and get there in about 21 minutes. The town plan is a large square with massive
governmental building, museums, churches and business buildings in the center
surrounded by residential apartments and houses on the perimeter. There is a
long artificial lake at the far end and a huge stadium at the back end of the
town. I think it is conceptually
interesting, but it reminded me of Las Colinas, a new town style development in
the Dallas area. Not exactly a compliment for either spot. As usual, I got lost
coming back but then got found and made it back with no problem. We have to go back to EUR because in the
Museum of Roman Culture they have a large model of Ancient Rome circa 4th
century. It is worth another look.
Late
in the afternoon, I met my friend and patron Kristin Jones. She is considering an intaglio project for
raising money for her Tiber Wall Project.
The printer, a man named Senino, has a great little shop for his own
work. He is in charge of all those copper
plates we have been tracking at the Colla Graphia. Like most of the older Italians, he speaks no
English. We have already established
that I speak no Italian beyond a salutation.
Kristin does lots of translating and we will meet later to decide if she
will go ahead with her project. As
usual, the arts are difficult and big public projects take years and lifetimes
to accomplish. She is brave to try, but
it probably doesn’t pay the rent.
Our
early morning process involves Kimberly making coffee in the communal
kitchen. The Italians use some old style
Italian espresso maker (not those great looking ones in the bars but small
stainless steel pots with two chambers, one for water and one for where the
boiled water now coffee bubbles up with the coffee in a small container inside
the water compartment). They are not
easy to get the hang of and the coffee produced is muddy and strong. We always add water, but I end up usually
going down to the bar and having the real thing with some of the other
guests. The Barista is a funny guy named
Gabrielle, now named Gabe by me. He is good
and so is the coffee.
We
are going to go shoe shopping and then to see Bernini’s the Ecstasy of St
Theresa at the Church of Santa Maria Della Vittoria. We get “Romed.” This is a word that I am making up to suggest
that somehow for a variety of reasons things don’t seem to work out the way we
plan them. Today we have run into a gigantic parade of disabled people asking
the government for more rights and benefits.
They are coming down Via Cavour and all streets leading into Centro Rome
are shut down for miles. First of all,
the shoe store was not that great and when we got to the Church it was 5
minutes until noon when it would close.
Every scooter and rider broke every traffic rule and still it took us an
hour to get to the destination. Kim was
great fielding the map from the back of the scooter and we did better than we
had any right to expect, but still 5 minutes with Bernini in this old Baroque
church is not enough. Our batting
average for seeing art in churches is not high.
What is so unbelievable about the whole Rome thing, is that I am getting
used to it.
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