Speaking the Truth

Bocca della Verita

The other day I was on the bus going past the Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin and saw that there was no line to get into the front porch of the church. Usually there are scores of tourists waiting for a moment to approach the Bocca della Verita (Mouth of Truth) and take a picture with their hand in the mouth of the large stone face. ( Audrey Hepburn did this in the 1953 film Roman Holiday.) I jumped off the bus and took the opportunity to get a photo of this ancient Roman artifact.

I have no idea how this 12th century porch became a place for the display of the Bocca della Verita. For centruies people have said that the mouth would bite the hand of liers. It was even used as a lie detector during trials of adulterous wives during the middle ages. The men associated with these accused adulterers must have arranged for this stone to determine innocence. Attempts to identify the stone face have called it an ancient fountainhead or a manhole cover from the near by Cloaca Maxima.

The Cloaca Maxima is a sewer system adjacent to where the church stands today. Dating from the 5th Century BC, the sewer was one of Rome's great technological accomplishments. The first branch of it, which is still used today, drained the area of the Forum. It was later extended elsewhere in the city, with tunnels said to be wide enough so that inspections could be done by men on chariots.

Just outside the city walls I have found another "bocca" at the Hotel Abitart. This is called the Bocca della Bugia, the Mouth of Lies. I wonder if we will ever see lines of tourists waiting to have their pictures taken while they put their hands in this "mouth."

Lunedì Letterario

Barack Obama
Our 44th President
by Beatrice Gormley
December 2008

If you have not read Obama's Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope, this children's biography of the 44th President of the United States can give you many of the factors mentioned in Barack Obama's writings that inspired him to ultimatey seek (and win) the White House. This book is written for 8 - 12 year olds and traces Obama's ancestory from Kenya and Kansas, his early life in Hawaii and Indonesia, and the educational and political career that made him the winning presidential candidate in the 2008 elections.


and to the Big Screen...

Another children's book  is opening this month as a movie. It is Cornelia Funke's INKHEART, originally written in German and immediately translated into English. Both editions were published in 2003. In the novel, Mortimer "Mo" Folchart and his 12-year-old daughter, Meggie, share a passion for books. What they also share is an extraordinary gift for bringing characters from books to life when they read aloud. But there is a danger: when a character is brought to life from a book, a real person disappears into its pages. Cornelia Funke has woven an amazing tail of mystery and suspense that can be enjoyed by adults and children.

INKHEART
by Cornelia Funke
2003

Horse Meat Markets and Restaurants

After New Years Day we found ourselves joining our friend Maria in Catania for a meal of horse and donkey meat. She took us to a street that boasted half-a-dozen macellerie equina e trattorie, "horse meat butchers and restaurants."
On the street and sidewalks butchers displayed their meats while cooks prepared meals on outdoor grills. People young and old, most arriving on motorcycles, pulled up and ordered dinner.
Some stood and ate on the street, others sat at tables on the sidewalk. We went inside to enjoy our meal.


From left to right:

Vincenzo, Larry, Maria, and the staff of Trattoria n'ta za Cammela

Graffiti in Catania

I took this picture at the beginning of January while visiting Sicily.

Lunedì Letterario

The American Library Association (ALA) announced the John Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to children’s literature. Neil Gaiman, author of The Graveyard Book,  illustrated by Dave McKean and published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, is the 2009 winner.

My friend Dee, who teaches at an independent school in New York City, told me about The Graveyard Book this fall and said it was the "hot read" in her 5th grade class. When I was in New York last November I picked up a copy and started reading it as soon as I got on the plane to return to Rome. It is a story about a boy who is raised in a cemetery by ghosts after his family is killed in the opening pages of the novel. (The author was inspired by The Jungle Boy.)

In announcing the winner, the ALA said:  A delicious mix of murder, fantasy, humor and human longing, the tale of Nobody Owens is told in magical, haunting prose. A child marked for death by an ancient league of assassins escapes into an abandoned graveyard, where he is reared and protected by its spirit denizens.

Throwing It Away In Rome

This is a sign attached to the wall of a building

between Piazza Navona and Largo Argentina.

Paraphrased:
By order of the Most Reverend Monsignor, President of the Streets (probably referring to Pope Clement XIII):
For everyone, rich or poor, it is forbidden to throw out (or to direct someone else to throw out) any kind of garbage on this site. Most of all, it is forbidden to make this place a dump. If you make this place a dump, you will be fined 15 scudi for each offense. The Monsignor has the discretion to impose a more serious penalty.
Under the authority of the law, August 30, 1765.

Garbage has always been a problem in cities. Near this sign you can find one of the many trash receptacles that are throughout Rome.

"Taking the trash out" at home means taking our garbage outside to a designated location in the neighborhood. In our condominium of 60 apartments the only trash containers are in our individual apartments. There are no communal trash cans for our buildings. We must go outside the complex and go around the corner. There are white bins for paper and cardboard, blue bins for plastic and glass and green bins for everything else. All Romans are serious about sorting the trash. They know that there is a long tradition of garbage disposal regulations that are enforced by "the president of the streets."

Our neighborhood trash bins

It used to be called a Temple of Vesta

When I was a university student in Rome in 1970-71, this round structure was identified as a Temple of Vesta. After centuries of being know by this name, because of a mistaken comparison with the circular Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum, it is now correctly called the Temple of Hercules.

It was built in the 2nd century BC and is the earliest known marble temple in Rome. According to the legend of the twelve labors of Hercules, as he was passing through Rome on his return from stealing the cattle of Geryon, the monster Cacus made off with a few cattle and hid them in a nearby cave. Hercules located them and slue the monster Cacus. To celebrate his victory over Cacus he made a sacrifice of some of the bulls at or near this site. In the days of ancient Rome this area was named the Forum Boarum, the cattle and meat market. Note: Hercules was considered to be the protector of butchers and cattle dealers.

In front of the temple is an 18th century fountain inspired by Bernini's Triton Fountain (1642-43) in Piazza Barbarini.