Special spaces!!!

The last month or so had a bit of a slow period as my bride travelled to exotic Brisbane to see lots of people and celebrate a few special occasions. One such special occasion was the realignment of the North Yorkshire mob to Brisbane. So, without the motivation of the tour guide, I became somewhat of a stay-at-home, but I did venture to far flung shopping malls to “pick up a few things”.

I find little difficulty with my mate the TomTom in finding the centres but the car-park entrances are far from obvious. Anyway, a much needed study chair, some computer equipment and small speakers to enable us to hear DVDs were achieved.

During that period I did make a two night trip to Madrid. I had never been to Spain before but found Madrid to be an interesting if large city. A walking tour through some of the historic parts and a couple of very fine meals left me with happy memories and a desire to return sometime as a tourist. The fact I was not a tourist was perhaps best typified by my failure to take a camera – hence not much picto-graphically on Madrid, except that I was impressed by the chandelier in the conference room I sat in so, captured it with my phone during a quieter interlude.

On the bride's return, we got moving again and used our spare weekend days for some country drives. This weekend and last, we had Saturday drives to see two very special spaces – sacred spaces!

At the suggestion of our Kiwi friends, we went to Subiaco where two Benedictine monasteries exist.  In the 6th century, St Benedict spent three years as a hermit near the old site of one of Nero's holiday homes, and they later built a series of churches and chapels attached to the cave in which he spent his time. They are of course, now very old and ooze that monastic atmosphere. A second, more monasterial monastery, Santa Scholastica's, is nearby but below the cave. Scholastica was Benedict's twin sister by the way and this monastery (abbey) was where the very first printing was ever done in Italy. You see they were very 'scholastic' there. And a lot of the lovely marble was prefabbed and brought up from Roma.

How do I know so much you say. Well after a simple but very nice five course lunch in the monastery refectory, we joined in an excellent Italian language guided tour of the place and this delightful young Italian woman had us enthralled with her knowledge, clear Italian pronunciation and brown eyes.

Incidentally, the inspiration for Subiaco oval is unexplained – not enough space for a bowling alley in the real Subiaco, much less an AFL ground. And we did kind of hurtle through it on the way out as the storm that had been threatening for hours broke on us and poor Pierre the Peugeot had to bravely deflect some hail stones.

The second special space was entered yesterday at Assisi – the home of St Francis (you know – of Assisi). A delightful Umbrian hill town; a monastery, a bunch of other churches; stunning frescos in the renaissance style (much more recent than Subiaco's middle age ones); and an exquisite dinner over-looking the late evening countryside before a night drive home to Rome. Assisi really is Franciscan, but it is also so neat and pleasing to look at. Of course, why it is so neat is largely because it had to be rebuilt under UNESCO patronage after the devastating earthquake of the 90s. Very hilly but bedecked in pink building stones that change colour as the day fades. Down three levels below the monastery lies St Francis's tomb and an extremely sacred atmosphere of silence with many devoted followers flocking to the place. Our arrival home around midnight meant that we saw the Umbrian countryside lit up by the quite intense population and landmarks like the Spoleto fort glowing and twinkling in their night-time illuminations.




And the final special place – just 100 metres from our front door – my barber's shop. Now I suspect that he has been cutting hair for around 70 years now, so he is really good at it. His eye-sight is not what it may have been so he does have to get very close to see (no specs needed however), and somewhat short in stature, he tells me that I have to slouch a lot if it is to work. Each haircut takes 20 minutes – goes through an exact routine, fine-tuned over many years – but we guys do chat a lot. OK so we chat in Italian which is not so good for me, but I do pride myself that I do speak more Italian than my barber (Senor Marco) speaks English.

We did run into a bit of strife last week over what 'corto' or 'short' means.  You see, when I specified 'non troppo corto' - meaning not too short pal - we then went into a little comparison business where we both showed one another what that meant by holding our thumbs and index fingers like 'so'.  After a bit of negotiation we came to agreement, but I think I agreed to 'only this little bit remaining' while I thought I was indicating 'only this little bit off'.  Great value haircut - will last months.

Marco's barber shop is a real institution around here and all the local chaps go there. It is a busy and special place – in fact so busy that the barber has not had time to, or thought to, turn the calender since Agosto (August) 2007. Now that was probably a very good month, and August is when you go on holidays here anyway, so maybe when you return you just get out of the rhythm of calendar-turning. Or maybe he just likes the picture of the Trevi fountain that graces Agosto 2007.

My pictures this time: First, scenes from the St Benedict Subiaco site (including time out to smell the roses, the glowering storm that eventually wet Pierre, and Santa Scholastica from above - (home of nice lunches and tour guides); a few miscellaneous shots including the parade review on the Italian Military Day from my office's roof; the Tiber in its summer livery of stalls and bars (before the crowds arrive); [all that to separate Assisi – so you don't get your sacred spaces confused] – scenes from Assisi including the Monastery and lush green lawn; views of the town and from the restaurant, and from the gents under the Monastery – we see some great things from toilet windows in Italy; sadly no barber shop pics – but the Madrid chandelier that caught my eye.

Arrivederci!!

A Prince, two Princesses and the peasant!

So long have I sought comment on the Douglas Report and then, when it finally comes …. complaint! I have been too slack poses the commentator and the Report has not been updated. Mia culpa!

But I have been busy and not let grass grow under my feet (a clear advantage of apartment living) …. and there have been distractions.

The visitors have commenced their travels, we have given Pierre a bit of a run, and I have been criss-crossing the Atlantic, dodging volcanoes.

During this past period, we were blessed with a visit by the Yorkshire Douglases. We all had a great time for a week or two and were able to watch William grow before our eyes. He cunningly endeared himself yet further with Grandad on the train back from the airport pickup, initially pressing the back of his head onto my collar-bone before turning meaningfully to give me a William-style kiss – not quite the right sucking action but clearly a sign of affection.

So, I was prepared to carry him all over Rome in his sling.

Note to self: Romans really like cute babies and could not resist young William who remained affable, mostly smiley, throughout. So many attractive young women would walk by us and comment “Isn't he cute!”. Embarrassed, I had to say to them in the end “So is the baby!”.

Babies are such awful time-wasters. But we made the most of the week and eventually had to part. What a prince is William!

On the subject of royalty, I was recently invited to a party where I spent some time with each of two delightful ladies I later discovered were Princesses – Italian Princesses or Principessi. One must have been around 40 years of age and she is part of a very ancient and noble Italian family. The other, perhaps twice that age, very gracious and the daughter of a very famous Italian. Of course, chivalry prevents me from name-dropping but I can say the we hit it off in both instances and I came away with the email of the younger and the hand-written address and telephone numbers of the senior. And I haven't even officially made my debut yet!

We gave Pierre his first sleep over a few weeks ago, travelling to an agro-turismo (B&B in the country) near Spoleto in Umbria. The Saturday was a bit cool and threatening to shower, but we enjoyed our walk around Spoleto, its castle and cathedral. It was a festival of (children's') fun and we stumbled onto yet another parade. This one led by a brass band playing uniquely Italian rhythms, followed by brightly coloured stilt-walkers and creatures, and thence mobs of kids and their carers. The entourage regularly paused along the narrow streets for fun, jokes etc.

The return to Rome on Sunday was an absolutely glorious time in bright sunshine and warm weather. The roads were good in Umbria and the traffic light and sedate. We went to a walled town called Bevagne, where the most beautiful little lanes or vicoli, crept off the main streets and where artists, artisans and retailers had built up a modern contrast to the ancient medieval town. On the stream outside the walls, a fishing club met with huge rods and small floats, and during the morning a 'cycling for fun' club arrived from their ride to cakes and drinks set up in the square. Life is fun in the country.

The accommodation was delightful, we the only guests of an elderly widow. Because an elderly English chap was coming to dinner, (he and his wife are old friends who have moved to, or at least, spend a lot of time in Spoleto), our hostess asked us to dinner. We ate her olives, her vegetables, her tart for desert, and drank her red wine. The Englishman, an aficionado of whiskies, gave us a Scotch tasting class at the end of the meal. Our host refused payment for dinner but sold us 5 litres of her best olive oil.

May is a great time to be in Italy with green grass and wild-flowers everywhere. The leaves are abundant on the trees and it is pleasantly cool ….although, it has been a bit wet. The locals say that twice the normal rain fell last winter and the rain-free period is late in arriving.

Life has been very busy for us. I have just returned from the USA and Canada and my earlier trips to Cairo, Bangkok, the US and England have meant that work has been a 'catch-up' affair. We have been quite busy with our primary business and by-and-large, that has been going well.

One highlight of the US of A was attending my first major league baseball game – our side won (the Baltimore Orioles) allowing me to high-five half of that great city’s population and I came away with the hat.

Last Saturday we let Pierre take us right across the peninsula to Pescara – lunch in a restaurant overlooking the Adriatic and five hours of driving. We did it because “we could”!!

So … no excuses … I will try to post at least once a month, …... but excusa!!!

The photos: Some of the Prince – William in Rome; Stilt-walkers in Spoleto; Fishing in Umbria; The big game at Baltimore; View from the beach-side restaurant - Adriatic Coast at Pescara (we just beat the summer rush hour)

Pierre the Peugeot and Pasqua!!!

It had to happen eventually …... the coming of the much promised car – Pierre the Peugeot!!

On the 24^th March, the proud new parents met Pierre for the first time. Of course, not without a few birth-pains and a very long labour (four months is pretty long for a Peugeot). Armed with an insurance certificate (in order to get a reasonable premium of course we had to import insurance history proof from Oz), roadworthiness certificate (essential for new cars these days – just ask Toyota), our TomTom and a good modicum of 'hope' we set out once again for the dealership. This time re-directed to the Administrazione where an entirely new bunch of people ignored us. All in Italian, an hour or so later we are introduced to all the cute behaviours of Pierre by a delightful mechanic chap who drove the gleaming new(ish – remember it had sat there for four months) car to the car-park and handed over the keys.

At that point, I installed the TomTom (as shown doing so in the photo) and leapt into the vehicle to drive off. If you click on this photo to see the large version, the astute observer may notice a red light shining through the windscreen. That was actually the brake light of the car that backed towards me, unseen until, we having travelled precisely one metre, he nearly ran into me. So our first Italian accident was avoided (just) within one metre of assuming driving control.

Italian new cars are little different to Australian new cars because the first thing you see when you turn them on is a warning light that says that you are desperately low on fuel. You can't ruin profits by putting more than a thimble full of fuel in the new car at delivery. So task #1, after waving to the chap who nearly hit us, and belting out onto the wrong side of the main road outside Pierre's erstwhile home (actually the right side, which is the right side here but the wrong side in Australia), was to find a servo. It was by then the evening peak hour in Rome and a great time to get to know a new car.

TomTom took us onto the freeway. Not a good idea, I thought, when one doesn't really have any fuel – running on the fumes from a proverbial 'dirty rag'. But I took heart because there on the other side of the divided freeway was an excellent servo. I thought “If they can have one on that side, so should we”. And I was lucky to be on my side because the other side was a car-park with very congested traffic all the way back from the lovely servo to the entrance of the tunnel. Wouldn't want to be stuck there with no fuel!!!

TomTom takes a bit of getting used to and when he said (I had purposefully chosen the Irish chap's voice) “Take the second exit” - I thought I did. But it was a U-turn exit that put us back onto the other side of the freeway. Remember ….. the side with the nice servo and the traffic from Hell. So … there we were.... evening peak hour..... brand new car …... no fuel..... about to run out in one of the two lanes that ran through the tunnel..... and cursing the Irish!!! After a gut-wrenching ten minutes we freewheeled into the servo and all was well again. Saved at at last!

I hope I haven't bored you with all this but I am dedicated to truth, drama and pathos through the agency of this blog.

On the following Saturday we went to where we most fantasised about driving to during those cold, winter, car-less days and nights ….... Ikea!!! Well, first to the massive shopping mall next door – Porta di Roma. Not easy to find the car-park entrance but enough parks. Does not communicate with the Ikea car-park so back outside looking for the even harder to locate Ikea entrance, then some time cruising for a parking space in very short supply.

We later discovered that above the parking spaces there are sensors that shine a green light when no car sits beneath and red when the space is occupied – cunning. Does not take into account all those double parked or parked in the isles. But we confronted a sea of red lights. Got one green one however and got the household things too heavy to carry home by bus and metro so were happy. The apartment looks much better now.

The next morning, Sunday, we drove to Frascati for coffee – only a short drive, but mostly spent getting out of Rome itself. Then, over Easter (Pasqua) we drove to show a young Australian friend her first snow, and to the devastation that was lovely L'Aquila before the quake. And on Easter Saturday, to the hill town of Soriano nel Cimini, where an old workmate of mine is holidaying. Wonderful lunch with him overlooking spectacular scenery. Easter Sunday was 'wet' but a good day for a short drive to Rome's current port – Civittavechia where the cruise liners dock.

I think I may have scored some fines over the weekend. TomTom took me to some areas where I wasn't meant to be and I suspect I was photographed for later attention. Also, although the slowest car on the roads of Italy, I think I may have exceeded some speed limits in my innocent attempts to avoid being hit from behind by maniacal speedsters. But I am learning to ignore my Irish mentor and go to more proper places and discovering how very friendly Italian drivers are.... they all want to toot their horns for me …. nice!

Spring has certainly sprung and the flowers are out in many places. The trees are starting to break out in green and, although still cold here, there is starting to be a summery 'vibe' about.

In the park near us is the site of Nero's Golden Palace (Domus Aurea) – all now ruins but interesting. Last week some of the ruins collapsed. No one was hurt thankfully but some small part of the ruins was ruined. They are just not making ruins like they used to!!!

Anyway – the wish here is for Buona Pasqua – happy Easter to you all (tutti)

Photos this time:- Pierre on delivery and in garage (the apartment we rent for him), coffee (caffe) at Frascati, snow at Terminillo, the Appenines with snow in April, beautiful downtown Soriano nel Cimini, the Soriano view from the restaurant toilet, Spring flowers in Rome and a ruined ruin.

Life is full of the peculiar and surprising!!!

Dear Followers – this blog (perhaps a little over-due) I have dedicated to the odd or weird – mostly as captured on digital imagery. [And you thought all the other blogs were “normal”!!!!!]

So first, how does a cunning marketer of Italian sport (football – that which we call soccer) drive his marketing niche crazy wanting to subscribe to the premium channel. Answer: a “teaser”. What you do is sort of provide the game for free. But not all the game!!! So here we see in this photo taken of our TV set, the Roma vs. Milano game (direct from the Olympic Stadium), balanced on a knife-edge at 0 – 0 (it finished up with the same frustrating score!!). But the whole program amounts to the lovely male and female commentators, sitting snugly behind some floral arrangements (on the left wattle or mimosa – the flower for international women's day here). They call the game with great excitement but the video is only of the excited fans in the stands – never of the game. Never see the ball. Never the goals. Never the players, not the referees. Oh! Dear! Makes you want to be there – or at least to pay the extra to actually see the game.

A new meaning to the term “renter”. Here in Rome, you can “share” cars – provided by the transport authority “ATAC”. If you enrol and presumably get the common key you can just grab a car from wherever you find one (in especially marked and reserved bays) and use it. How about that! Seems to be cutting the number of cars in Rome down by …. ooooh... maybe 10!!! A start. They do the same thing with bikes but they seem to get stolen a bit.

Weird air-travel!!! Well, for now the Airbus A380, supports a funky bar down at the rear of Business Class. I expect that it will make way for more seats and paying customers one day, just as the lounge in the hump of the earliest 747s disappeared under the pressure to get more butts on seats. But for now – cool!! And when its late and you can't sleep and the flight attendants start to relax a bit after the main service, they sometimes even invite you to work behind the bar for them. So, “yours truly” serving the Moet, entertaining the staff and making sure everyone has enough little middle-eastern snacks. And a photo of the lounge replete with mood lighting, seatbelts and a representation of the Palm Dubai on the wall.

No photo – but we have previously mentioned the TV games shows that Italy is famous for. A new one has the contestants choose between two options for which the producers have previously surveyed the Italian population. So, “do most Italians prefer spaghetti or lasagne?” – that type of thing. But one notable question asked last week was “Which of these two famous Italian women do people think has the best decolletage?”. This is a topic as close to the hearts of Italians as the topic is to the heart of the displayer. And the contestant got the answer correct!!!

Other weird stuff – no photo (yet!) but buying a car here is really weird. It is paid for, and now registered. We have known the chassis number for four months, it is brand new but has passed its compulsory roadworthy and has a nice little number plate. And I received an Italinglish email yesterday to tell me that I had to pick it up at 4:00pm on next Tuesday. Nice thought except I will be at 30 000 feet over the Atlantic then. So the little macchino remains a myth – unseen – unloved and growing old sitting in the car yard. If that isn't weird, don't know what is.

I had a couple of trips away recently so Nonna visited the lovely family in Yorkshire rather than batch. I had a few days in Cairo – almost like going home again! - and another few days in Bangkok (first time I had ever slept in Bangkok although I had called in for day trips before). My associates were keen to “eat on the street” which (although it did not include bitumen) included weird food like roasted frog. I ate sensibly and found the non-froggy food simple, but fairly tasteless if unbelievably cheap. So, no pictures of roast frog, but a nice one to end with of the morning river traffic on the Chao Phraya.

Ciao belli

Monumental events in Rome!!!!

Wow! A month of big monumental things. The most notable was that it snowed in Rome last Friday!!! Some of the photos in this post show the scene. It is not unknown for snow to fall here and it apparently does every 5 or 10 years but that is always very light. Last week we had quite heavy snowfall over a three or four hour period. Heaviest for 26 years. So the snow coated the ancient monuments and made them pretty and white – for a while. By night fall nearly all the snow had melted away.

Everybody, including us, was very excited. We were having breakfast and aware that it had been raining heavily. But then as we looked out the rear doors of the apartment, the rain seemed to be 'slower' than normal. There was a period of uncertainty when we really couldn't be sure but then the heavens opened and flurries of very large snowflakes started floating and swirling about.

We went about our windows taking pictures (naturally) – as did many of our neighbours. So I walked to work in the snow – something that I never thought I would do in Rome.

The snowfields may have melted, but the photos and the memories remain!!

Another monumental event? Well the scaffolding came down last week. So we now can have daylight in all our rooms and we can see out (terribly important should it snow of course!!). They have done a great job and the apartment is now a lovely shade of 'pink' – not everyone's favourite colour but very neat with cream trim and brown shutters (the old shutters are also to be replaced). I have included a photo for you. We are on the second floor but that isn't counting the ground or zero floor, so we have two floors above and below us. The astute viewer will notice that there are still wires running casually down the walls into windows. That is because of the age and construction of the building that makes running wires through them almost impossible. Seems that they didn't adequately anticipate cable TV.

And the third monumental thing? Well, more of a monumental st@#f up! You know that car that we purchased in November? It seemed only a couple of weeks away from delivery yesterday morning when we went to pay the residue for it, but a paperwork error was noticed by the keen-minded salesman and I now suspect that we will not be driving about Italy for another six weeks. Not all monumental events are good events.

We are about to abandon meat for Lent with Ash Wednesday next Wednesday. And Rome is in Carnevale mode (goodbye meat). This will culminate on Tuesday with 'Mardi gras' - fat Tuesday – the time to pig out before the fasting starts. So there is a good deal of dressing up, mostly of children, who walk through the streets pelting confetti at everyone – the little darlings!! So a picture of the parade down the Via del Corso last weekend.

When you live in a snowy country (as we do) you need those warm wintery clothes (which we have been buying) and we now look reminiscent of eskimos. So maybe some pickies of the Douglases of the North next time. Mind you, we are yet to embrace the fashion for skinning small furry animals and making full-length coats out of them – something about not liking paint thrown at one? But we seem alone in Rome for that reticence and we are here where the fur coats are in abundance. And not just for the opera – at any time of day, as testified by the photo this time of a Gina Lollobrigida look-alike at the local fruit market with her trolley.

Oh! And another monumental event that will enable me to name-drop. A week ago, whilst walking up Via Sistina, a narrow-footpath-ed minor road that runs from the Spanish Steps to one of our regular gelaterias, I thought I recognised this stocky little grey-haired bloke who moved off the path to let us pass. We exchanged those sort of “G'day” nods and walked past, but I became aware of this chap having quite a few mates – maybe eight or so – who walked with him but in a sort of semi-circle around him. Some wore black suits – a bit ostentatious for a Sunday walk even in Rome - and they all seemed very intense. The the penny dropped (or more properly the cent) and I realised that we had just had a moment of fame with the US Defence (Defense) Secretary who must have been passing through after a NATO meeting in Istanbul. Quite proud of myself for noticing but I got the name wrong. I thought he was Robert McNamarra but then realised that this was a name from another era, another warlike 'defense' – my mate is Robert Gates. Anyway, he wasn't assassinated and neither was I.

Ciao ciao ciao from monumental Rome

The Month of the Party!!!

Almost a month has transpired since the last blog posting (28 December) …... a month that included a New Year, two birthdays, a wedding anniversary, a deferred office Christmas party for those who don't 'do' Christmas and the normal run of social events. A small amount of work also occurred and the relentless task of settling into Rome continued.

The end of 2009 included an expatriate dinner at Pasquilinos – a nearby ristorante maybe 150 metres from home – the meal was delivered in relaxed style between 8 and 11:30pm. Then we wandered down to the Colosseum for the turn of the clock. A light rain fell so we had to take umbrellas.

There had been a rock concert next to the Colosseum, but also it seems, we weren't the only ones planning to say goodbye to 2009 near the Forum. The scene was packed!!! I had heard of the sport of 'ambulance chasing' but had never previously imbibed but an ambulance pushing through the crowds was too good to resist so we attached ourselves to the wake of the ambulance and inserted ourselves about 200 metres into the seething mass of Italian humanity.

Then midnight must have 'struck' and a cacophony began, fireworks went off everywhere (including near us), flares flared and hitherto inapparent champagne bottles popped. Perhaps because Champagne is French, maybe because of the restraint imposed by the need to always look 'cool' – but it seems that Italians rather pour Champagne on one another than drink it!! So our umbrellas and wet weather gear had a valuable secondary purpose in keeping the sticky bubbles away from us. Being chiefly Aussies and Kiwis – we drank our Champagne next to the Colosseum rather than use it for ablutions!!!!

2010 duly welcomed, we re-grouped at our place for drinks (sans one Finn who got lost) – he was found at home later that night.

Thence to first Cathy's birthday and then Ian's with the usual wedding anniversary found in between. We find that the 'precious metaphor' for 35 years is coral. Who'd have thought that – all that time and perseverance for something that you stub your toe on in north Queensland.

No big celebration for that but a quiet, romantic dinner at the Trattoria adjacent to us (it was a bit cold for old married folks to walk too far). We were shown to a delightful table for two (tavola per dua) ….. next to a group of four Irish seminarians, out for a bit of Sunday night fun and Italian lessons. So amongst the hilarious tales of what Father O'Callaghan had been getting up to lately, we had some precise, if slow, Italian intercessions - “I like the music and singing” (Mi piace la musica e il canto!!!).

So we celebrate 35 years since walking down the isle with a remake of “Father Ted”.

We are in deep winter here now – not as deep as northern Europe but quite cold enough for Queenslanders. But the rain has eased and we have beautiful clear skies and clear (cold) air. Rome always has tourists, but less now. The sales are coming to an end. They have real sales here where they clear out this year's fashions to make space for the next year (not like Australian stores buying in things for the sales). So for a couple of folk not so aware of this year's fashions, the sales are great!!

Not a sale item, but we have invested in a cool new iMac computer. This is the first iMac blog posting prepared on a machine completely free of Microsoft products – at last!

The photos you ask???? Well, restaurant scenes on the 31 December, before a rainy walk 'down-town' and the first Douglas portrait for 2010 – the wet bits are champers not rain. Then a typical lunch out with the girls and a pose near one of the restaurant's many marble works. The famous turtle (tartaruga) fountain near the Ghetto, the Tiber in flood, view from the roof, ice-skating near Castel Sant'Angelo. Also young Roman mimicry and a couple of unique-ish vehicles on the streets of Rome. And finally – election time again it seems and the quintessential Italian bill posting of candidates' materials – soon to be covered over by the next candidate's bill-posting crew.

Arrivederci – here's to 2010!!!