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W E L C O M E T O
T O R T I L L A B A Y . C O M
T
H E W E B S I T E O F
A L B E R T O
V A Z Q U E Z A N D C R A I G
A Y L I F F E
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Souvenirs at the Coliseum, Rome 2006 |
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Souvenirs, Rome 2006 |
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R O M E
I don't know, maybe I just woke up
cranky, but I am really in a bad mood. It is more difficult than I
imagined to be a host and a guide. I am trying to give us all a bit of
different flavors of Rome every day. Ancient Rome, Baroque Rome (the
squares and piazzas) and Religious Rome. I stay up at night making plans
to make it run smoothly and seamlessly but I came to Rome unprepared and
now I have to study. And I didn't book a recommended hotel from Rick
Steve's Guide to Italy. Big mistake.
Alberto is worried because my mother is injured and
she is not starting her days prepared with medicine and water and
everything she needs. And I cannot seem to stop being the
pretentious, effete snob that I am, and I am still giving everyone
lectures on what we are seeing and what the difference is between
filberts and hazelnuts, and who Rafael was and Bernini and so on and so
on...I need to relax, be a tourist, enjoy my vacation and let everyone
do more shopping and the things that they came to do. Everyone gets from
their vacation what they want to get, at the level they want. And Rome
can test everyone's ability to be a sightseeing tourist. We are all open
buckets rapidly filling up with a firehouse of sounds, sights and too,
too much information.
3 days ago, we checked into
our hotel . It is about 4 subway stops from the hotel that Mom and Vicki
are staying in. But the subway stop is closed for repairs. Our hotel, a converted monastery near
the Coliseum is okay, nothing fabulous. But it's only been open for 2
weeks and they are not quite finished doing the details. There is
scaffolding on the entire side of the building that our room is on.
Outside the obscured window to our room is a dark, plank walkway framed
by erector set pipes and fittings to allow the workmen to walk along the
wall.
Every morning, we wake up
startled to the sounds of boisterous singing outside our 3rd floor
window -this morning, it's Santa Lucia, I think- -
Saaaantaaaah Looocheee- aaaaah,
san_ TAAAAAAAAAAAAAH LOOOOOCHEEE-YAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
I pull
back the blackout curtains and see two men painting the wrought iron
trim around the window.
"Buon Giorno, Signores!", they say,
in unison, smiling their big fabulous smiles.
"Buon Giorno, Maurizio. Buon
Giorno, Fabrizio.", I say. Then I go brush my teeth.
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Our view from our hotel
window, Rome 2006 |
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Maurizio and Fabrizio,
Rome, 2006 |
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The Pantheon, Rome, Italy 2006
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Rome Blog,
continued
We arrived 3 days ago in Rome.
We went
straight away to the Pantheon after everyone was checked in to their
respective hotels, and had a nap. Taxis are cheap so that was how we were getting
around. The Pantheon is still probably my favorite building in Rome. So
perfectly proportioned. Eight 40-foot single granite columns across the
front supporting a Greek-style triangular roof. Magnificently huge and
simple at the same time. As Rick Steve's says in his book, Guide to
Italy, 'so broad is the front portico that locals call
"Rome's umbrella", a great place to wait until it stops raining'.
We have
a great lunch at a sidewalk cafe just in front, and I quickly sat
myself first so that I can have The Pantheon in my field of vision while I eat.
Afterwards, we walk a
short block to the church called Santa Maria sopra Minerva. The
church has a little-known Michelangelo statue called Christ Bearing
the Cross. It is a glorious and handsome, and modestly covered naked
Christ and it has Michelangelo's signature muscular and posture styling.
But I am a little disturbed/aroused by seeing Christ's magnificent,
perfectly proportioned naked behind. I'm just in a bad mood, I think.
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Christ Bearing the
Cross by Michelangelo Rome 2006 |
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-ROME
BLOG CONTINUED-
I overhear Mom and Vicki talking
(again) about how small the TV is in their hotel room, so I hustle them
off to Gelateria della Palma, a well-known gelateria down the
street. It is very crowded, so I park Mom outside at a cafe table
and we go in to see the selection. It's astonishing. There must be 100
flavors. Alberto and I love gelato. It's made with milk instead
of cream so it is lighter in flavor, but thicker than sorbetto,
which has no dairy at all. All gelato is made fresh daily and by Roman
law, no syrups are allowed. Hazelnut, for example, is made from fresh
hazelnuts. I go back out to see what flavor Mom wants.
"I'd like butter pecan," said Mom.
"I don't think I know how to say
butter pecan in Italian," I said. "Isn't there some really great flavor
you would like to try that you can't get back in Dallas?"
"Well, what do they have?" said
Mom.
I go back inside to look more
closely. Then I come back outside.
"They have almond marzipan, apple,
apricot, champagne, chestnut, coconut, coffee, cognac, date, fig, Grand
Marnier, hazelnut (my favorite), kiwi, lemon (another favorite), lime,
mandarin, mango, melon, mint, nut, orange, papaya, peach, peanut, pear,
persimmon, pineapple, pistachio, plum, prickly pear, raspberry, rice,
ricotta, rum baba, rum nougat, rum raisin, sour cherry, strawberry,
tangerine, torrone, watermelon, whiskey, zabaglione, and
vanilla. They have chocolate-lined cones, they have shaved chocolate
buried in chocolate called tartufo."
I am holding my ground.
"I'll have vanilla," said Mom.
I say," You can't have vanilla.
You can get that back in Dallas."
She's not looking at me, now. Just
staring straight ahead in stubbornness, a smiling poker face. She looks just like my Uncle
Raymond used to look, before he closed a deal.
"I believe I'll have vanilla," she says
quietly, fraught with meaning, playing the "I'm the Mother" card. Case
Closed.
Oh, I am just so mad.
I stomp back in and get the damn
cones and then leave the group to lick my hazelnut/lemon cone in
solitude. When I return, Mom is still working over that vanilla cone.
"You should try this, Craig," said
Mom.
So I do, and it's a Paean to
vanilla. It's an Italian Opera of flavor. I can taste fresh vanilla
bean, but not too much, and slightly burnt caramel and a hint of mint,
and is that fig?. It is probably the best vanilla I have ever tasted. I
closed my eyes and savor the aftertaste.
Case Closed.
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Store window in Rome 2006
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People-watching in Rome 2006 |
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Alberto, Vicky, Mom in Rome 2006
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- ROME
BLOG CONTINUED -
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Later that day we join the
passeggiata down the Via Corso. This is a wonderful thing about
Italy. Every day around 6 the whole town gets out and walks. It's called
the passeggiata. And the Via Corso is famous for it's shops and
well-dressed people. We head first to the Plaza del Popula with the
obelisk brought to Rome by Augustus after he conquered Eygpt.. We visit
the Santa Maria del Popula church and see two paintings by Caravaggio.
Then we trek down the Via Corso admiring the windows and shopping a bit
along the way.
Vicki, Mom and Alberto are wearing
the pashmini wraps they bought in Florence and enjoying themselves.
Suddenly, it is clearly time to stop walking and find food.
Mom says, " We can stop anytime
now and go eat."
I put everyone in a taxi and we go
the Piazza Espagna, The Spanish Steps. There are no visible open
restaurants. I am so tired.
Mom says, " I thought we were
going to to a restaurant." And I feel very put out and start to
frown. "I don't live here, Mom. I am a tourist too. I am doing the best
I can. And it's my vacation, too. And I wanted to see the Spanish Steps.
I thought maybe there would be a restaurant."
She quickly gives me a hug. "I'm
sorry, honey. This is beautiful." She is obviously tired and in pain.
We park the girls and Alberto and
I scout the area. There is a charming group of tables under umbrellas
near the Piazza Mignonelli not far away. We guide everyone to the
restaurant and order pasta, but first we have antipasti of grilled
eggplant, bell peppers and other vegetables. It is delicious. Our
waiter, Roberto, is charming. We all fall in love with Roberto with the
incredible green eyes. Everyone relaxes. The food is good. We are in
Roma.
The taxi stand is scant feet away.
We do the taxi drop-off shuffle and fall quickly to sleep.
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Vicky in
Rome 2006
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On
the Via Corso, Rome 2006
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The
Spanish Steps Rome 2006
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Roberto the
waiter, Rome 2006
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- ROME
BLOG CONTINUED -
Mom and Vicki meet us at our hotel
since we closer to the Coliseum and the Roman Forum. But first we take
them to another church nearby called San Pietro in Vincoli (St.
Peter-in-Chains). Built in the fifth century to house the chains that
held St. Peter, this church is also famous for its Michelangelo statue
of Moses. And for the first time, the story of the Apostles and
especially Peter seems very real and present. Because, in front of us at the
altar is a glass box that is holding the chains that Peter wore until he
was killed.
I am touched by this. Here is a
story to be told, I think. I am certainly no biblical scholar. But this
is what I have been told about Peter. That here in this church are his
chains. That only a relatively short time earlier, this man, a Jew, an illiterate,
lower-class fisherman from an obscure province in Judea, is out for the
morning on the sea of Galilee, minding his own business, when he is
approached by a stranger who tells him: stop what you are doing, I have
much bigger plans for you. And Peter walks away from his life to join a hardy
band of devoted followers of an unusual and powerful rabbi.
And at the
end of his life thousands of miles away from home, he is in chains and
sentenced to be killed. He has seen this man, who he has followed and
loved, seen him tortured and crucified, and in fear and doubt he denied
even knowing his teacher on several occasions, yet he was told by this
man, not to worry, that he was to be "The Rock", the foundation of a new
way of interpreting God and Life and it's Purpose through the power of
Love.
Now he is is chains, sentenced to die by crucifixion for his
beliefs. He has that very day seen his friend (St.) Paul murdered, a
roman citizen and therefore given the privilege of a quick death by
decapitation. Peter respectfully asks to be crucified upside down, so that in his
humility and respect for Jesus, no one would ever compare him to his
Master. Astonishing.
His is then burned, possibly while
he is still alive, and where his ashes are collected, is built a church
- The Basilica of St. Peter.
I am not a Catholic. I do not
even consider myself to be a Christian. But I would like to know more about this man.
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 The 2006
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Ceiling
of Iglesia San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome 2006
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The Chains of St. Peter, Iglesia San Pietro in Vincoli
(St. Peter-in-Chains) Rome 2006
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--
ROME BLOG CONTINUED -
In the same church is a statue of
Moses by Michelangelo. In Rick Steve's Guide to Italy, Rick says, 'The statue of Moses has horns, due to a centuries-old misinterpretation of ancient Hebrew text which confuses "rays" with
"horns". Michelangelo worked on it in fits and starts for 30 years. It's
powerful and shows a man determined to do what he knows needs to be
done.'
Michelangelo felt that
this was his most
life-like creation.
Legend has it that upon
its completion he struck
the right knee
commanding, "now speak!"
as he felt that life was
the only thing left
inside the marble. There
is a scar on the knee
thought to be the mark
of Michelangelo's
hammer.
Moses by Michelangelo
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"Moses" by
Michelangelo, Rome 2006
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"Moses" by
Michelangelo, Rome 2006
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- ROME
BLOG CONTINUED -
What
Happened to Rome?
"What can one do here with
a single pen?...Everything is just as I imagined it, yet everything is
new." - Goethe
We grab a taxi to the ruins of the
Roman Forum and spend several hours wandering around the site. I am just
not going to talk about what we saw. You've had the history lesson, you
know what is there: the Senate , the Temple of the Vestal Virgins, the
Curia, the Capital of Rome and of the civilized world.
Instead, let me share with you
what we are feeling right now.
Alberto and I have been living in
Barcelona for three months on top of roman ruins, of ancient fish
markets, laundries and wine rooms buried deep under the city. We have
already been to Paris, to Amsterdam and the far flung reaches of the
Roman Empire. It is as if we began this journey at the perimeter, at the
hillbilly outskirts of unruly provinces and worked our way to the core
of the Empire. Now here we are where it all began.
And ended.
Because it did end as all things
must, and there is a valuable lesson here somewhere. This did exist,
because there it all is in front of me. But where did it go?
Rome ruled the civilized world for
nearly one thousand years, 500 years before Christ and roughly 500 years
afterward. And when it died, it disappeared utterly. Completely. And
when it died and disappeared, the world was thrown into blackness. The
Dark Ages. Feudalism. Barbarianism. Rome was sacked repeatedly, all the
schools closed and the libraries. The economy, the infrastructure
collapsed. For nearly 1000 years, the world reverted to anarchy.
Peasants huddled near castles for protection from bandits and pirates.
Ancient Rome was eventually covered in layers of rubble and windswept soil and
grass filled up every space between the columns and every plaza and
every temple. People forgot the Roman Law, how to build aqueducts to
bring water, even to read or to write. Gone. Utterly. How does this happen?
I say utterly, but not quite. In
every Catholic Church, the glory that was Rome lived on. In every
Cathedral and monastery, every cloistered convent, the world's treasures
of art and literature from ancient Greece, Rome and everything in
between was secreted and hidden. (The Papacy and it's opulent
riches had begun.) The stories were written down and illuminated with
drawings and pictures. The words were all not lost, ancient Egyptian,
Greek and Roman parchments were
carefully rolled up and cataloged into cool caverns of libraries deep
beneath the basilicas, much of it was preserved, and incidentally, kept
from the population at large. And the church used this power, this
knowledge, to control the public, often rewriting history
to suit themselves.
The feudal lords and Kings
weren't any better. The rich and powerful city states that developed in
the vacuum of the Empire were formed with a core of privileged families
that stayed healthy, educated and in control for generations and in
partnership with the Catholic Church.
It wasn't until Florence in the 1500's that the
light of the world reappeared in the birth of the Renaissance.
I am dumbfounded by this.
Yet the Forum is an empty place.
And it is lonely and the air inside this space is slack and there are no
winds to carry the eloquence of Cicero and Tiberius. There are crows and
starlings where there should be fresh laundry flapping in the breeze.
Here I stand at the tomb of Julius Caesar, even now there are fresh
flowers scattered on top of his grave, and I am sad because, as
essayist Barbara Grizzuti Harrison says"... all that will ever happen here,
has already happened and is gone."
At the
Forum, Rome 2006
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At the
Roman Forum 2006
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Tourist
Fatigue 2006
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The
Coliseum Rome 2006
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The Spanish
Steps
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Bernini's
Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona
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Trevi
Fountain
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- ROME
BLOG CONTINUED -
At the end of the day, I have a little dessert
for everyone - a little treat, a visit to:
The Crypt of the Capuchin Monks with the famous inscription:
"As you are, so I was. As I am so you will be..."
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Souvenirs Rome 2006
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The Crypt of
The Capuchin Monks
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