Bruckner's 6th Symphony in the neighborhood

This evening the Vienna Philharmonic performed Bruckner's 6th Symphony at the Basilica of San Paolo. I usually change busses at the Basilica, so on my way home from work this evening, I stopped by to see if I could get in. A group of young German priests had an extra ticket that they gave me. Benedict XVI was also there, and I am sure he got in without a ticket.

The basilica is the principal church of our neighborhood, so we often stop in. But, there is a special excitement when you enter and the Swiss Guards are at the door and are posted at locations all around the basilica.

This picture is a stock photo I found online. (I left my camera at school.) I was seated in the group just in front of the second pillar from the right, in the side aisle. I had a good view of the conductor, and about 20 seats to my right I could see the Bishop of Rome with his white cap, among all of the cardinals with their red caps and the bishops with their purple caps.

Lunedì Letterario

La Bella Figura

An Insider's Guide to the Italian Mind

by Beppe Severgnini

2007

This book presents a tour of Italy that is partly geographical and partly conceptual. Over the course of 10 days, reader is taken from from Milan to Tuscany to the far south: Sicily and Sardinia. But the places are merely excuses for little essays on beaches, restaurants, cellphones, airports, condominiums, piazzas, gardens and offices.

An examination of traffic signals is an example of Severgnini's guide to the Italian mind. He explains that in Italy, red lights come in many varieties. A rare few actually mean stop. Others, to the Italian driver, suggest different interpretations. At a pedestrian crossing at 7 a.m., with no pedestrians around, it is a “negotiable red,” more like a weak orange. At a traffic intersection, red could mean a full red, but it might, with no cars coming, be more of a suggestion than a command. It all depends. The red-light mentality explains volumes about Italy and the Italians. We think it’s an insult to our intelligence to comply with a regulation. Obedience is boring. We want to think about it. We want to decide whether a particular law applies to our specific case. In that place, at that time.”

I found this book to be full of insights that help me understand the Italians around me.

The Quirinale Palace and Stables

The Quirinale Palace was built in 1573 by Pope Gregory XIII as a papal summer residence. It served as a papal residence and housed the central offices responsible for the civil government of the Papal States until 1870. Today it is the residence of the President if Italy. 

The stables for the palace are across the piazza and were built between 1722 and 1732. In 1999 they were converted into a gallery called The Scuderie del Quirinale.
This is the passage from the entrance to the upper level for the galleries. It is a ramp, built to allow horses to get to the upstairs stalls.

Situated on the highest of Rome's seven hills, there are great views from the Scuderie del Quirinale. After visiting an exhibition you can pause at the window near the elevator and enjoy the Roman skyline.

Bellini

In Italy, Bellini can be different things. It is a 20th century drink, a 19th century composer and a 16th century artist.

Vincenzo Bellini (1801 – 1835) was a Sicilian opera composer.

The Bellini cocktail consists of puréed white peaches and Prosecco. The original recipe was made with a bit of raspberry or cherry juice to give the drink a pink glow. The Bellini was invented sometime between 1934 and 1948 by Giuseppe Cipriani, founder of Harry's Bar in Venice. Because of its unique pink color, which reminded Cipriani of the color of the toga of a saint in a painting by the Venetian artist Giovanni Bellini, he named the drink the Bellini

Today we enjoyed a visit to the Scuderie del Quirinale for a wonderful exhibition of Giovanni Bellini, 1430-1516. There were 70 paintings which make up about 75% of his known works, both sacred and secular. The exhibit allowed us to experience large altar panels and small devotional paintings. The expressions on the faces depicted by Bellini were mesmerizing, and I found myself enjoying his treatment of landscapes, with detailed flora and fauna. The galleries were painted a very dark red and the lighting was focused only on the paintings, making the intense colors seem almost alive.

I was not able to take photos in the exhibition, but here are two reproductions so you can appreciate this exciting early 16th century artist.

Lunedì Letterario

The World According to Bertie
a 44 Scotland Street Novel
by Alexander McCall Smith

2007

For my birthday in September I received this book as a gift and enjoyed reading it on the bus as I travelled across the Tiber River to and from work. It is a series of snapshots presenting the lives of people living in the same building at 44 Scotland Street in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is a captivating depiction of Edinburgh at the beginning of the 21st Century. The Sunday Express said: "A joyous, charming portrait of city life and human foibles, which moves beyond its setting to deal with deep moral issues and love, desire and friendship." While reading The World According to Bertie I could not help but think of Armistead Maupin's series Tales of the City which depicted the lives of the residents of 28 Barbary Lane in San Francisco from the mid 1970s to the late 1980s. Both authors guide the readers into the personal lives of a group of people who are acquainted with each other because of where they live, with unexpected crossing of plotlines in unexpected places.

Shopping for Dinner

On Saturday we had six colleagues from school join us for dinner. The menu included meat loaf, a Middle Eastern carrot salad, marinated cucumbers and onions, a potato pie with pesto, and a macedonia (fruit) salad.

My first stop was the butcher across the street. The butcher ground together 1.5 kilo of turkey breast and .5 kilo of pork. Next stop was the grocery on the corner where I got a dozen slices of pancetta, sliced super thin... almost like bacon in the USA. Then it was off to the open air market down the street. At one stall I got some fruit for the macedonia. At another stall I bought some Parmesan cheese to use with the meatloaf. Another stall was the source for the red peppers and cucumbers. My final stop was to get some parsley, and because it was close to market closing time, the vendor gave me the bunch for free.



These are the turkey meatloaves ready for the oven. They are made with onions, red peppers, eggs, Parmesan cheese, parsley and bread crumbs. They are topped with the pancetta.

This is the potato pie, ready to serve, with pesto and pistachio nuts.

Roman Photo Location Revealed

Saturday’s mystery picture was of EUROMA2, the new “centro dello shopping” that opened this past Spring here in Rome. It has 230 stores and boasts of 4,000 parking spaces. It is open until 10 pm every night, including Sunday.

Some of the places in the food court have interesting design features.

I was happy to find a SUBWAY sandwich shop!

It is hard for Italians to be away from their soccer game. The food court has several TV monitors so that your boyfriend can watch the game while you eat your MacDonald's french fries.