the Rome Blog

Here’s a quick link to a New York Times story about the increasing numbers of foreign chefs working in Roman restaurants.

It’s an interesting story, and one can’t help noticing that many of the best pizzas in Rome are made by Egyptians. (Just as the best British fish & chip shops are often run by the Chinese.)

The New York Times today carried this article about the destruction being done to the historic Via Appia by the road’s modern residents.

It highlights the problems of having a national park that’s 90% privately owned, and owned by people who are often more interested in maintaining their privacy, or making a quick Euro, than in preserving the past.

Let’s talk pesto for a moment.

Despite dire warnings from the BBC last year that the supply was about to dry up, the supermarket shelves are still giving up a bountiful supply of this tasty sauce. However, I’ve never been particularly impressed with the pesto that you can buy in jars. Even Sacla’s range leaves me a little cold, although perhaps that’s because I’ve been eating it regularly for at least a decade (more…)

Well, there it is. Been and gone.

(I’m prepared to accept that my cameraphone in no longer at the forefront of modern technology.)

This year I finally made it to Notte Bianca, where among other things I saw Maximum Silence (above), an installation of coloured baubles in Circus Maximus (more…)

I’ve just noticed (because Amazon emailed me about it) that Aprile, Nanni Moretti’s 1998 follow-up to his terrific film Caro Diario, is being released on August 13 on (Region 2) DVD in the UK. Here it is on Amazon.co.uk. (more…)

Staying in a convent can be a peaceful, inexpensive alternative to a hotel but one disadvantage is that there’s likely to be a curfew. Generally starting somewhere between 10pm and midnight, the curfew means that convent accomodation isn’t generally for the late night crowd. However, if you’re an obsessive reader and like to round off the day’s explorations with a book, it can be perfect.

The first time I stayed in a Roman convent I spent my evenings of politely enforced solitude reading My Secret Book, a comparitively little-known work by the Renaissance poet Petrarch. The book, which Petrarch apparently never intended for publication (hence the title), takes the form of three imagined dialogues between the poet and St Augustine, in which Petrarch deals with his unhappiness by confronting his various vices and weaknesses (more…)

I wandered down to the Basilica San Paolo yesterday afternoon in order to take a look at the market they’re holding for the feast of St Peter and St Paul. As I was leaving, an Italian started following me, calling:

“aooo!”
“tspspspsp”
“hey!”
“giovane!”

I realised he was talking to me (actually, I’d seen him fall in behind me), but I was also being given a great lesson in ways to call a stranger in Italian so I walked on.

“biondo!”
“ragazzo!” (more…)

A couple of weeks ago I had a friend come to visit me in Rome, and I took advantage of my new status as tour guide to make another visit to Ostia Antica. Walking down a hallway somewhere near the thermopolium, we were surprised to find a small owl curled up in a niche in the wall:

(thanks to Rachel for the photograph)

Actually, having a friend visiting Italy was a great excuse to visit Ostia Antica again (more…)

2007 being the bicentenary of the birth of Giuseppe Garibaldi, I’ve been reading My Life, an abridged edition of his memoirs published in English by Hesperus Press.

None of the wounded complained; the only cry that could be heard from those under the surgeon’s knife was “long live Italy!”. When a people reaches this point, it is time for the Pope with his tiara, the foreign bullies and the domestic tyrants to pack their bags and leave. (more…)

 

A couple of Sundays ago I was walking along the bank of the Tiber when I saw what I first took to be an otter paddling along near some reeds in the Tiber. I’m told it was actually a strange little creature called a nutria (more…)