Happy 26th Anniversary to us!
Due to technical difficulties, only a few photos from us today. Here's the obligatory photo of our morning view:
We had a leisurely breakfast on the verandas, then lunched at Palatium Enoteca Regionale. Palatium is actually a government-funded wine bar/restaurant whose purpose is to promote the wines of Lazia, the district that contains Rome. Doesn't seem like a good idea, but it works. Service was fast, the bartender/waiter was friendly (waitress was a bit rushed).
Claudia had cacio e pepe and I had sausage and broccoli. Both were very good! Probably not surprisingly, we've found that everywhere we've eaten in Rome the pasta is cooked perfectly and the pecorino somehow tastes better than we've ever had. Sorry, no photos, but here's an image from The Guardian that shows where we ate and gives a sense of the place:
The woman in the striped shirt is sitting right where Claudia sat. That TV in the back runs an in-house produced movie on a loop in which bits from old Italian movies showing people eating or drinking, one presumes in Lazia, with modern clips explaining the wine and food in the old movie. The juxtaposition of old black & white film clips with modern color digital video was not good for digestone!
It is said that what the vandals didn't sack, the Borgheses stole. They collected -- people, art, land, things. Lots of them. They had Pope Paul V in their family, and not by accident, at a time when Popes were as much political rulers of vast holdings and peoples as they were the heads of the Church. Paul made his nephew Scipione a Cardinal. In fact, he was made "Cardinal Nephew," which was an official position of vast power.
Scipione had a great head for business (he set up the family for generations by understanding the power and profit, if not the ethics, of rent-seeking) and he had a great eye for art. He had the ability to discern potential greatness in very young artists. He "discovered" or became patron of several, including Bernini, Caravaggio, Titian, and Raphael. What a batting record! And when he saw something he liked, even if it had been commissioned by another Cardinal, he took it! He (and uncle the Pope) once had an enormous painting stolen from a nobleman's family chapel in the middle of the night. When the theft was noticed and complained about, he had a copy made and made the family pay for it!
Scipione built the first substantial edifice dedicated to showing off art; the first art gallery. This is the Galleria Borghese and we took a guided tour of it and its grounds on Wednesday.
Our tour guide was Stephanie, a Canadian who fell in love with and married a Roman about five years ago. They now have a three-year-old boy (who celebrated his birthday the day we toured with Stephanie). In addition to giving us a general introduction to the Borghese holdings, Stephanie specifically showed us several Bernini masterpieces and a couple of other interesting pieces.
The first interesting painting is the Last Supper by Jacopo Bassano. This differs from da Vinci's, which is all about formal lines and balance:
In Bassano's, a real Jewish seder meal is shown, with a bit of carousing, lots of talking and gesticulation, and even one guest passed out in the dead center of the table. Jesus is standing behind this guy, so he's centered in the frame, and he's looking right at you, the viewer. But where is Judas?
Well, Bassano does tell you, but you have to know some symbolism. See the dog and the cat amongst the feet of the diners? The dog stands for loyalty. The cat is fickle. The apostle who's chair the cat is twining around is Judas. Sorry, cat lovers! We suck!
My favorite piece was Bernini's "David," which is much different than Michelangelo's "David" (the famous one in Florence that everyone envisions when they think of David. David was considered the most handsome man in the Old Testament, and Micky really delivers on the beautiful beau part - a pretty boy Adonis. However, it's not a very dynamic sculpture when you consider what action is about to take place:
Bernini's "David" is much more to the point. He's just announced that he's going to fell the Israelites' big enemy, Goliath the Giant, champion of the Philistines, with just three rocks! And he's just a squirt of a goat herder! Bernini captures the action just as David has loaded a rock in the sling, is starting to swing it, and it assessing the tactual situation; you can almost see his body flexing as one muscle, following the moves of Goliath:
His eyes are staring intensely at his target, the rest of his face is a study in intensity. The brow is furrowed, the lips are pursed. You can almost hear David thinking "All right - I've got just ONE shot at this! Better make it good!"
And of course, he does. Slings the stone, hits Goliath, then runs across the field while he is still stunned, grabs the giant's sword, and chops off Goliath's head! Yeah team!
Photography was not allowed, but take a close look at these images I downloaded from the web. Pretty cool, huh?
As good as all this is, artistically and in terms of craft nothing compared to Bernini's Apollo and Daphne, which depicts the dramatic moment when Apollo catches Daphne, who at that moment is metamorphosing into a tree! Cupid has shot Apollo with an arrow, casting a spell such that the first creature he sees, he falls in love with. Cupid has also shot Daphne with an arrow, but this one makes her repulsed by the first creature she sees. Hilarity (OK, pathos), ensues. This was Claudia's favorite piece.
There's a lot of craft here. Notice Apollo's leg in the air. Tough to do in marble. The sweeping cape (or whatever it is) that is caught by the wind is remarkable - parts of it are so thin that they are translucent. Again, remember that this was all done from one piece of marble. The detailing is fantastic, too. Look at Daphne's toes and fingers as they sprout roots, stems, and leaves. Then "stand back," as it were, and look at the overall piece again, then zoom back in on Daphne's face. Bernini captures the exact moment of greatest emotional impact.
In addition to the art, about a third of the tour was outdoors in the gardens. Stephanie was no horticulturist, so she spent the time filling us in a tidbits about Roman daily life. Did you know that Italians, and Romans in particular, have their own diseases? One is called "congestion." Romans wander around, even in summer (which gets quite hot), all bundled up. They in particular wear scarves and mufflers around their necks. They are deathly afraid of drafts, especially drafts that make the neck and upper vertebrae cold. This is supposed to give you "congestion," which causes the abdomen to seize up, lowering blood pressure, and leading to death. This extends to ice in your drinks. Romans will not have ice in their drinks for fear of shutting down the abdomen, lowering their blood pressure, and so killing them. They call it "cervicale" after the vertebrae level that is most affect by breezes.
"Soffro di cervicale" (I suffer from cervicale)
This condition is considered by at least one of Stephanie's doctors to be real. Her mother-in-law definitely believes in it. Sunday dinners must be fun at Stephanie's house…
Here are some photos of Romans on what I consider a warm day. See how they're all bundled up, and especially protect their necks? I have lots more examples on the other camera, but it's decided not to play well with the other kids in the digital sandbox. Take my word for it, once you know to look, you'll see that all the Italians wear suffocating clothes on even warm days - and make their kids do it, too!
A second pointer is that when crossing the street, a pedestrian must always make eye contact with drivers and stare them down. Even if you are in the crosswalk and you have the green "walk" light, a driver (especially a scooter or motorcycle rider) might push the issue and try to run through you unless you are staring right at him. Or her. Both sexes are deadly here. This seems the opposite of US cities, where making eye contact might just get you shot. Especially in Florida.
Finally, the Borghese park has a Shakespearean theatre in it. Walking by it brought to Stephanie's mind the Italian phrase for "good luck, have a great show." You're probably familiar with "break a leg" for English-speaking theatre. The Italians say "merda!," by which they mean "I hope there's piles of shit for you!" - literally "shit." Where comes this? It's actually more meaningful that "break a leg," which is really just an ironic phrase. Merda refers to a time before cars, when a good show meant that a lot of aristocrats attended and spent lots of money in the theater. And how did aristocrats travel? By horse-drawn carriage. And what do you get if your play is so successful that a line of horse-drawn carriages appears at the beginning and end of every performance? Why, you get a lot of horse merda!
Then home again, home again, tra la la li! We had a nice little plate and prosecco as our before-dinner respite and anniversary celebration:
Dinner was at L'Arcangelo, and in writing up this piece, I learned something that we should have known all along, especially as one of our guide resources states it specifically for this restaurant!
"In Rome, as elsewhere, you have to know what to order at restaurants in order to be fully satisfied. It is a widely accepted notion that not everything on the menu has to be flawless and of equal quality for the restaurant to be considered great."
Boy, we should have researched this a bit more. Service here was excellent. The waiter suggested this wine, and at €26, it was the find of the day:
BUT, we then proceeded to order what turned out to be less that great food (note that we had the same experience at Sorpasso: that is, good and bad choices; more on that another day). The amusee bouche was an excellent broccoli parmesan:
But the appetizer of semolina gnocchi was uninspiring:
Claudia's main course of pork tenderloin with chestnut honey sautéed chicory leek parmesan timbale was delizioso:
But my smoked pigeon was terribilmente brutto, captured well in this photo:
It was presented under a large glass dome, with the tips of a rosemary branch burning and smoking, such that the dome was filled with a cloud of smoke. When removed, the smoke swirled away in a little tornado. Quite drammatico!
Have you ever smelled burning rosemary? Concentrated, burned-for-a-while rosemary? Remember when you were a kid and thought it would be cool to set up a diorama of wrecked plastic models? Airplanes or cars, doesn't matter. And then you thought it was a good idea to see what it looked like on fire?
Same smell.
Ah well, at least the wine was excellent in taste and price!
Ciao for now!
 |
| Wednesday sunset |
