Weddings and visitors

A very busy time of it since the last posting!!!

After much anticipation the wedding occurred and we now have three sons and a daughter (in-law) – a very nice feeling.

The wedding was delightful and very meaningful with around 40 guests, the majority of whom hold Australian passports. All of this in the beautiful northern English “Lakes District” with reasonably balmy weather and with a whole bunch of very happy guests. The bride and groom certainly made sure that the visitors were able to share their joy.

It was also something to get the five (and later six) Douglases together all at once. The new Mr and Mrs Douglas are beaming – as the photos show.

We also shared a little of the honeymoon by staying over for a while in the yurts at Rydal Hall. And while there, Cathy received surprise visitors from fellow teacher, Trish and family who travelled up from London to rendezvous. A really delightful surprise and an opportunity to get an update on the news from home in return for that from Rome.
Back in Rome, we were visited by first Tristan and then James with a brief overlap that proved that our apartment is not the biggest in Rome. We survived but there was a modicum of “dodging” to avoid serious injury. Three we can easily handle but four “large ones” does rather stretch the boundaries.


With two sons to entertain and introduce to the Rome that we have come to know and love, each with only a few disposable days, we relied heavily on the “standard tour”. Villa Borghese, the central city monuments (Navona, Trevi, Pantheon), St Peter’s and the forum/colosseum.

On the night before departing for England and the wedding we went to a performance of “The History of Rome Part I” performed by the local “Miracle Players” with the forum as a backdrop. This wonderfully witty and highly educational production was good enough to see a second time, so we took James (it plays every Friday night for most of the summer). Our “post theatre” dinners were conducted on the Tiber Island (Isolde Tiberina) in one of the temporary ristorantes that sets up for summer.

The Tiber comes alive at night with loads of bars, stalls and eating places stretched out along kilometres of the banks. The nearby Trastevere also bops late at night with all sorts of entertaining possibilities.


We have all been to the forum now. Large, mostly unrestored but fascinating, perhaps the highlights are Augustus’s house with intact frescos and the site of Julius Caesar’s cremation and associated speech by Mark Antony.

Both boys left independently, each on the sort of cheap fare arrangement that takes the “long route” home – both via Helsinki. They made it safe and sound and settle down to the good life in Brisbane. Lach and Emily hope to visit in August, so we cannot wait for that. And today we were thrilled to receive Julie and Clare from Melbourne – each so petite that the apartment will continue to seem big even with them here. So, it is great to receive visits. As for the rest of you – “Where the hell are you!!!!”.


We have travelled half way around the world to chase animal diseases and I find that most of the fun is in Brisbane with not one but two Hendra virus outbreaks in the State. My last news was that two people were also sick as a result – not good news but we trust they will bounce back quickly.



It is now high summer here and although some days and nights are hot and a little sticky, for Brisbanites this is just fine. The summer will be short and I would reckon, it will be particularly “sweet”.

I Love a Parade!!!!

June has been (is being) a busy month for us. Summer has finally arrived in Rome and the skies are blue, the air humid and the Romans in their summer clothes.

Life was somewhat disturbed in Aventino during the first week of June. First, the Italian National Holiday saw the road past the Colosseum and Forum blocked with temporary stands to facilitate a major military parade. Then, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) hosted a major conference – A High Level Conference on Climate Change and Soaring World Food Prices. This was frequented by lots of heads of State and big wigs, necessitating lots of security. So Viale Aventino was closed off for the week, the Metro Station (Circo Massimo) closed, buses redirected and the 3000 odd staff at FAO told to work from home.The “red zone” reached almost to our unit, so Cathy could come and go, albeit she could not sleep so well for the helicopters overhead. This didn’t affect Ian, who planned to be absent all week, so travelled to Washington DC with two colleagues. A week of storms, security checks, overly large portion sizes at restaurants and shopping. We three “did the malls” at night as well as any all-American teenager.

For souvenirs, Ian returned with a jacket, two pairs of Levis and a stinker of a cold.

But parades were the norm for the month. One Sunday afternoon, a somewhat spontaneous parade went past the bottom of our street – best we could make out, from the costumes and music/dancing – this was a Romany or Gypsy event. This group of people make Rome their home for the summer, so maybe that was just announcing their arrival.

We “holidayed” to Florence (Firenze) for one weekend – a town we had briefly visited in 1997. Spectacularly beautiful! Full of renaissance charm. And a town of parades also. Mostly led by tour guides with umbrellas stuck in the air. A very dangerous phenomenon – one needs to exercise extreme caution lest a gaggle of frantic tourists runs completely over the top of you.

But the weekend of our visit was the first weekend of the twice a year medieval football competition – games on Saturday and Sunday evenings in the arena (a sand-based stadium on Piazza Santa Croce). These games are living museums but involve considerable violence and more than once the tradition has been banned because of the blood and broken bones. Having seen the players parade, we can well understand this – built mostly like brick out-houses, these guys look “tough”.They formed the focus of an otherwise gentile and colourful parade through Florence en route to the arena. Perhaps best understood by a local, hundreds participated with very serious expressions, slow marching to slow-beat drums and with some variations, including a single but very nice cow, and four ancient cannons.

So, if you like a parade, Italy in summer is the place to come.

Next weekend, we join the parade to the north of England for a very special event – but more of that on the next blog no doubt.

Getting married in Roma & other “stuff”

We have come to a close of a delightful, somewhat “laid-back” weekend in Roma.  Tomorrow it is a national holiday in Italy – the rough equivalent of “Australia Day” with the main drag past the colosseum and forum now decked out in temporary stands, elaborate enough to house the top officials for a military march past.  Our own “main drag” Viale Aventino will also be closed off for the march.

Ian is off to Washington DC for the week so he will miss the parade and the continued closure of the area for the major conference to be held Tuesday through Thursday on Climate Change and Soaring World Food Prices – hosted by FAO, with some 3 000 delegates including at least 35 heads-of-state.

So we started the weekend in style on Friday night at the British Embassy which abuts Porta Pia to the north of the centre of the city.  A concert band from the Sussex area was on tour (read holidays) and gave its third and last performance in the embassy grounds.  They were great, although we arrived very late so had a brief concert.  Then we all went to drinks at the embassy’s social clubrooms – the second storey bar effectively sits atop the ancient Roman wall (for which Porta Pia forms a gateway).  A glorious venue, a delightful, warm evening and good company.  This followed by a simple “band 

dinner” at a local but friendly trattoria.

We spent much of the weekend utilizing our new found cyber capacity, now having a wireless internet facility and Skype – what a wonder is Skype – keeps us in touch with the world.  Our Skype name can be obtained on application – email us – and we can bother you on weekends also.

And today, we walked to places yet “unwalked to”.  Including the Victor Emmanuel II monument where, for a modest fee, you can get a lift to the roof for “the view of Roma”.  Within is the equivalent of the Canberra War Memorial and around it the forum and some delightful churches.  The most interesting of which is probably St Joseph's of the Carpenters (San Giuseppe dei Falegnami) where you walk down into the dungeon or cell where St Peter was supposedly incarcerated - the Mamertine Prison.  The story goes that a spring emerged in his cell with which he baptised people.  The spring and a post where prisoners would have been chained are still there.  Although Rome is reputed to contain enough pieces of the actual cross to build an ark,

 this story is actually quite credible because if St Peter was incarcerated in Rome as history dictates, then this cell would have been a likely place to do it.

So our travels take us into many churches – and believe us, Rome has no shortage of churches.  They vary from the delightfully simple (eh! a few of them) to delights of marble, mosaic and gold.  The smaller ones are very popular for weddings, and are set for bride and grooms’ seats and kneelers with mum and dad seats and kneelers at either side of the altar – much as we experienced last year in our introduction to church weddings in Mexico.

We also see the wedding parties in parks and monuments getting photographed and leaving the churches with all their guests.

So, some differences.  First, no attendants.  We are not sure who witnesses but clearly no bridesmaids or groomsmen.  The brides are all cloned into long off-white strapless dresses.  Convertible Volkswagons are a popular “ride”.  But almost all the guests attach white poesies and ribbons to their radio aerials for the trip – they then depart the church as a pack and noisily sound their horns.

Confetti is “in” at present – but very large paper hearts and coloured rice.  I can just imagine Father Giovanni advising that this should not be used in the church precincts – but hey, who follows instructions here.

An exhausting, hot but thrilling walk, punctuated by a beer/prosecco and ice cream at our local bar and a quiet night blogging.

There do seem to be a lot of weddings going on in Rome at present.  Is it the season?  Is it the age group?  Do they do it often?  Either way they look delightful and seem to have a ball.  Their weddings must be memorable, Roman style – here’s to the marriages.

 

 

The Neighbours



As you now are aware, we have settled in Aventino. We have made a “Google Maps” map that marks our abode and Ian’s office – (apologies that earlier versions of this post left you in limbo but) the reference is:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=115571076803304747106.00044cc76915ffaf6874f&z=17

Click that and you should go to Google Maps and to our marked map. Then click on satellite and you will get a great view.

In our apartment building there are clearly some other people but we do not see or hear from them much. A couple of people above us frequently seem to come home very late, walk around and listen to music – but they are not really a problem. A young woman and a German Shepherd reside in the basement. The other apartment on our level, owned by our landlady, is being renovated – has been for some months now. The builders have been a headache and she has sacked a few. The latest “sackee” was quite enthusiastic and made a small hole in our living room with his coal chisel – mistakes happen – “Eh!”

We look out over three sides of the building (from the first floor) – with pleasant gardens to the north and east, and a tall apartment building blocking out much of the street noise about twenty metres to the south. The western sun is blocked by the other apartment and stairwell on our floor.

To enter our flat we negotiate three doors – one to the street, one shared with the next-door unit and our own door. We don’t have a terrace but we are very secure. From the door next to the street, about ten steps down our marble spiral staircase, we can see two churches within 200 metres and there are at least another three further up the hill. Our street rubbish bins are 50 metres up the street on our side – blue for bottles, glass and plastic, white for paper and green for general rubbish. We have never forgotten to put the bin out – it’s always out.

Turning left outside our door, we walk past the entrance to the nearby apartment building, veer left past the service station, dodging puddles of oil on the cobblestones and the traffic. The servo does not have any clear start or ending and just “merges” with Via di Santa Prisca. So on weekday mornings, as the rat-runners whiz up the street, and as others jockey for a place at the servo pumps, and as the mechanics and customers wheel and deal for the day’s repairs, we blissfully stroll around and on the roadway with an eye to the on-coming vehicles.

That obstacle behind us we are then on Viale Aventino, a broad avenue that runs from its intersection with Via di Santa Prisca to the Circo Massimo (and to my office). Probably six lanes wide, Viale Aventino is in three parts. A central corridor is a busway and tramway with raised platforms where the buses and trams stop. Only two bus routes run through this centre path along with taxis and limousines and ambulances and police cars. Oh! And some Romans in a hurry and prepared to break the rules. Other buses take the two lanes either side of this central “divider”, along with the bulk of other vehicles – mostly small cars and “motos”.

At the traffic lights, the motos manouvre until they are near the front and when “the flag drops”, the throttles twist and with a massed whine, but not much speed, this herd of vespas moves in a wobbling, but unstoppable cloud across the intersection.

As a pedestrian, one has choices. Those with death wishes jaywalk. The careful and patient find the remnants of paint that used to mark zebra crossings and cross (basically jaywalk). Or there are some pedestrian lights, some automatic, some requiring a button push. The green, amber and red symbols (or sometimes the “avante” and “stop”) are interesting. When green goes to amber, the Roman gets to guess how long will elapse before the red. If misjudged, he or she finds themselves in front of the whining vespas. A lot of ineffectual horn tooting results, some uniquely Roman hand gestures and a fair amount of “Eh!”ing.

So we walk towards the city, past a small pizzeria, and alimentaire, and currently some delightful hedges of star jasmine in full perfume. Onwards are three bars (coffee and alcohol) with street-side tables, the supermercado, a ristorante, a pharmacy, two hairdressers, an antique restorer, a moto dealer, and a lot of other places that we are yet to really work out. Around the corner, with the UN flag fluttering to our right, we are on Via del Circo Massimo and we are walking along the valley between our Aventine hill and the Palantine hill, past the Metro station (Circo Massimo).

To our left is Rome’s rose garden, currently open due to the climax of this year’s international competition and looking a picture. Up the hill from the garden, we come to a road that runs past three old churches and two parks, one of which is the popular “Orange Garden” with its spectacular views over the Tiber. The most distant of the churches has a connection with the Order of Malta and a Maltese Cross flag. It also has a “spy-hole” in a gate that enables the viewer a “peak” at St Peter’s Basilica in the distance. Usually, the tourists are lined up to look through this hole. Santa Sanselmo also has a delightful gift shop with all sorts of treasures, some of which have a religious angle to them. The church is well guarded by the Carabineri due to its neighbour being the Arab Republic of Egypt’s embassy.

There a couple of very sweet (very expensive) hotels on the hill and a range of apartments, villas and convents running down to our home. The Aventine hill has an air of serenity to it, even at its base where we live. Although we tend to walk into the Centro historico, or old city, we are well supplied by buses and metros. We have been attending some great private dinners at colleagues’ apartments across Rome lately and find little difficulty in getting around, with only one cab needed.

A certain lack of clarity on our part led the driver to want to take his two “gringos” to the Hotel di Santa Prisca rather than to Via di Santa Prisca. A certain outrage on our part that we were being taken for anything other than residents, but a certain lack of enthusiasm (and Italino) to argue the point … it was a nice night so we got out and walked the last kilometre home. After all, it is a nice neighbourhood.

A somewhat unusual blog this time – we are coming to you from the north of England – northern Yorkshire in fact. We have settled into our final Rome residence, but more about that at some future blog.

My office had a four day weekend including May Day, so we took the opportunity to travel to visit Lachlan and Emily. We flew into Liverpool (John Lennon Airport) and drove a "renta" the two or so hours to beautiful Skipton. This is a significant market town, a centre for the district, not far from the well-known tourist haunt of Bolton Abbey.

Photo: The scene of a Turner painting - and reputed to be the most beautiful view in England ("and hence - the world") near Kirkby Lonsdale and "Ruskin's Walk"

Our expectations of this part of the world (given we had never before been to the north of England) were far exceeded – had a delightful time. First, of course, we saw L & M again. They are just great and seem really very happy and well settled. But we were also the tourists, on this Spring weekend that is notable for Skipton as the “water festival”. You see Skipton is connected to Liverpool (and the rest of England) by the Liverpool-Skipton canal, so this weekend the canal boats gather at Skipton and there is a carnival atmosphere with crowds of people, decorated boats and street entertainment and partying.

On Thursday night we walked through he woods around the castle with Lachlan and had our first taste of the dry-stone walls that enclose the fields, the sheep, and the wildflowers (especially the blue-bells).

Lach worked at nearby Settle on Friday so we drove him there in the early morning and went on to the Lakes District, eventually finishing beyond Lake Windermere – so many stunning views. After pick up he took us via the scenic route through the dales and moors to the “Tarn” or lake/loch.

Photo: Skipton Castle and the Keep

On Saturday we pottered about and went through the Skipton Castle before driving to Bolton Abbey for a short “bush walk”. The weather was glorious and the locals were our on the banks of the river in force, barbequing and swimming (at least the brave few swam).

The blue skies and warm conditions could not last and Sunday was cold and damp, but it did not stop us walking to church and venturing out to see the canal boats and activities. Pub food does wonders for one’s outlook on life.

Skipton enjoys street markets on four days of the week in the High Street in addition to many interesting and varied permanent shops. This is James Herriot country and it is not hard to translate the present habits with the “all Creatures Great and Small” narratives.

Photo: Bolton Priory

So, as an avid collector of peculiar hats from all parts of the world, I made some very good purchases from the market – a “county hat” (the standard peaked cap), a “trilby” and a “deer stalker”. Why would Ian purchase a deer-stalker? Elementary my “deer” Watson! One never knows when one is confronted by a stag, or a night out playing “Cluedo”.

So our photos this time are all English. Must toddle off now – almost tea time.

We are falling a little behind in the “blog-world”, but much has happened this last four weeks and it has been difficult to put cyber-pen to cyber-paper. The news is all good and we can take a deep breath and now post something meaningful.

I (Ian) have been an inhabitant of Lazio (the region of Roma) for a full four weeks now and even Cathy has been here for more than a week. We (Ian at least) is in his third separate “accommodation” in that time and next week, all being well, we will move onto our fourth and final abode.

Abode #1 was five nights in a single room in the Gambrinus Hotel where I had stayed previously. This room was probably the smallest hotel room in the world but it had all mod cons and was comfortable (albeit one could not yawn and stretch for fear of bursting through the (padded) material wallpaper. A forced eviction on Good Friday saw me move to a much, much larger apartment (abode #2) – but one that just didn’t quite “work”. The bathroom and hot water system from hell, the bed heralded by the Michelin group as the least comfortable in the northern hemisphere, and conveniently situated between the nightclub district of Rome (Testaccio) and where all the happy-go-lucky and drug-fuelled revellers walk past at anytime between midnight and dawn, yelling loudly in Italiano. Not to mention the trattoria beneath.


Evicted from this as well after just two odd weeks, the apartment was taken over by two priests. Perhaps they will not be home much because they will either be in prayer or drug-fuelled and loud at the Testaccio nightspots. Anyway, we plan to, at an appropriate time, press anonymously on their intercom and greet them with “Bless me father, for I have sinned!”. At least in annoying them.





Abode #3 is really sweet and much larger than the Gambrinus – but this in itself is misleading because it packs into its 30 square metres of neatness and renovation – “compactness” – perhaps best exemplified by the shower that ejects itself in the middle of the bathroom floor – just a wall and a curtain on three other sides. We are very happy here. It is truly less than 5 minutes from work, in the suburb of Aventino.

The Circo Massimo is within view of our gate, although we do not see this as we are a semi-basement at the back (with our own private terrace mind you). The magic evaporated slightly when, during the culinary crescendo of dinner on Saturday night, we turned on just too many electrical devices and blew the fuse. Of course, not knowing much about the Aventino fuse conventions, we could not fix that. All we could do, courtesy of the laptop light, led to nought. A desperate Sunday morning call to our landlady, Margheurita, did not achieve much as we had to wait til our doorman, Mossimo, returned on Monday morning. We had worked it out but the fuse box we needed was locked from us in the bowels of this building. An interesting couple of nights and cold showers – sadly our little stock of fresh food in the fridge had to go to the great street bin of Aventino.


We are finalising negotiations on a larger place, still in Aventino, but perhaps in a less highbrow area of it. But it is sweet and Roma leaps out of every ounce of it. If this happens, we move into the currently being renovated abode #4 in just over a week.

Incidentally, Aventino is the “Hamilton” of Rome, so close to the business end and it reeks of history.

We are starting to feel Italian and must be looking a little Italian because Italians are starting to ask us for directions. And, indeed, we are starting to know how to satisfy them.

Ah! Roma! Delightful restaurants, good wine, a city of drop-dead beautiful people in tight jeans – (these are apparently highly uncomfortable as they cause very snooty expressions). We need to master a little more Italian – but Cathy has begun formal lessons and Ian is surrounded by it all day.















It is hard to walk any distance from any of the abodes, without being stunned by the beauty and uniqueness of the eternal city and its inhabitants.

So, Rome at last!

But not without some traveller's tales getting here. I departed Brisbane airport at 12:15pm on Saturday the 15th – the Ides of March. Seemed a somewhat appropriate date for an assault on Roma – a six-month campaign. The QANTAS (domestic) jet was spot on time and I was soon winging towards Sydney and it's international terminal. After a brief transfer, again spot on time, we were invited to board. I must have been in the first group of 20 passengers and had just settled into my seat and overhead compartment when we were called upon to 'de-plane' so that the mechanical fault could be repaired – always an encouraging sign for flyers.



But this aircraft, one of only two Airbuses of its type in the QANTAS fleet, was out for the count, so they diverted the other (of its type) from duties getting folks to the Grand Prix in Melbourne and we “swapped” - over four hours late. My connection in Hong Kong had a two-hour transfer and sadly they did not wait for me. At three in the morning they put me up in a very nice airport hotel room and told me that I was booked on KLM to go to Rome via Amsterdam at 11:00am. Nervously worrying about sleeping through, I arose to check out at 8:00am but was too early at check in because I was wait-listed only and had to “wait” which I did for 90 minutes until I was given a ticket.

I have to admit that the flights into and out of Honkers were very good and I was able to sleep. The hotel room was handy because I was able to shave and shower and started again somewhat refreshed, but the first and last legs were ordinary and the whole process turned what could have been 24 hours from airport to airport into a marathon.

I arrived in Rome just after 10:00pm local time (or 7:00am Brisbane time – on Monday). So that was a 43-hour trip (door to door – 46 hours).

I understandably crashed in my hotel room in Rome. A dangerous thing to do in a hotel room that is only 5 feet wide (I could not stretch without putting my hands through both walls. The same hotel where I stayed when last in Rome but then it was a small room that was two or three times the size of this one. However my mini room had all mod cons and was very neat. I just had to be careful when I moved about.

The hotel was booked before departure from Brisbane and I chose only to reserve for five nights, thinking I might change into more permanent accommodation. When that didn't happen and I asked to stay on, I was told that the hotel was booked out over Easter. So I had to make some sudden plans and moved into an apartment on Good Friday. I will only be here for a few weeks pending better digs coming along. My present abode is very Italian. Also a little tired and a little noisy, being a corner apartment on a busy street, in a “night club district” – read an area where Italian yobbos greet the wee hours of the morning with a loud delight in their language. The stairwell is being renovated and looks like London during the blitz, and there are six flights of stairs to this, the third of four floors.

But I was able to have a home-cooked meal on Good Friday night for the first time – spinach and ricotta torteloni cooked to the accompaniment of some Italian opera courses on Mac's iTunes – Hey! When in Rome!!!

This apartment is but 15 minutes walk from my office so that is a pleasant distance. The hotel was 45 minutes walking, pretty much across the centre of Rome. It was near the Porta Pia. A straight walk down the Via XX Settembre (viente settembre - 20th September) that continues as the Via del Quirinale, past the Presidential Palace. Thence down a narrow street lined with ruins and hotels (and ruined hotels) and you are on the road to the Colosseum. I work about 800 metres past it.

The twice a day walk for five days was delightful. The Forum on my right and very few tourists about, just commuters and street sweepers, unlike in the middle of the day when the whole area is invaded by Lonely Planet-clutching, camera-clicking and excited visitors.

The mornings and evenings have been very brisk – one or two days quite cold but I really enjoyed the exercise of walking especially after being restricted in planes for two days. I am already feeling much fitter and as I tend to hit the sack early for the first few days (8:00pm is 5:00am according to my body clock), my meals were solely a solid breakfast and a light lunch in the office cafeteria. So I might have lost a pound or two to boot.

Apart from the cold, the weather has been very changeable with a night time electrical storm, drizzle, rain, some brief hail and a wet Easter.

Observations so far in Rome? Well, I have now been here longer than all of my other trips combined, no dramatic differences this time, although being a resident now, I have learned how complex everything is. I doubt that it is even easy for the Romans, and they speak the language at least. I now understand why they left the place to conquer Gaul and the Britons – they wanted to avoid filling in forms and paying fees!!!

But apart from the Italian language – still pretty much a mystery to me – crying out that I am in Rome, there are lots of other spectacular “flags” – the (frequent) whining of ambulances as only they can whine here (reminiscent of so many European movie soundtracks); the proud “SPQR” on every manhole (Senators & Patricians of (Quo) Rome???); the small coffees and the need to pay for them somewhere other than where you obtain them and drink them; skin tight jeans and snooty or painful expressions; communal rubbish bins on the streets; dogs in restaurants; the morning an evening clip-clop of horses hooves as they travel to and from the tourist haunt of the colosseum; yep!! This is Rome.

'Til next time

Your obedient “The Douglas Report” correspondent