S.P.Q.R., jr.

SPQR--Senatus Populusque Romanus...I am a citizen of Roma, that is, as long as I don't open my mouth! And the evidence of this: the ombrelli men no longer approach me with their wares.

I must admit that I worried about the umbrella men. Did they go hungry during the summer months when it didn't rain?

Well, folks, we have the answer...they simply convert to parasols, fans, and hats.



Look at this guy. Doesn't he remind you of the children's book Caps for Sale?



As for me, I am happy to be taken as a native. What can be more flattering?

Happy feet!

Kikka and I share many things, a love of Roma, a love of architecture, and a love of shoes. It is one of the sad things in life that I have both short and narrow feet. I tried to find a simple, strappy, sexy pair of brown T-strap sandals in Italy...notice I said "Italy." They were not to be found...and I checked the stores in Siena, Roma, Padova, and Florence! Yes, there were plenty of sandals with gee-gaws and do-dads, but I wanted classically simple sandles. I knew that when I even considered a pair of orange T-straps for 120 euro that I had reached the point of desperation. I already have a pair of orange shoes and didn't need a pair of sandals to match, so I left the store empty-handed. Kikka, on the other hand (or maybe foot), has the perfect shoe size--37 in Europe. She can find, buy, and fit any pair of shoes.



And obviously, that's what she did! Look at this mountain of Fendi shoeboxes! She is working at Fendi as an intern architect. There are obviously some benefits affiliated with the job! She should get a permanent appointment based solely on what's on her soles!

Look at these happy feet! Just imagine my Italian friend on her scooter tootling off to work in a pair of pale blue Fendis!




There is nothing in this world to compare to Italian design! Oh, if only I could join in! The odd thing is that when shoes come to America they are sized for width. I generally have better luck finding AA or AAA shoes in 6-1/2 in the States than in Italy, even if the shoes are made in Italy. Go figure!



Take a look at these Fendi heels!



As for me, I did find a pair of red sandals, though they were not T-straps, as I had hoped. Well, something is better than nothing, especially when it comes to shoes.

You have heard me allude to the miserably hot weather while in Italy. I did find a way to make my feet happy. It's simply a matter of filling the bidet with the coldest possible water, pulling up a chair, and sitting there wiggling my toes. So maybe my feet weren't the happiest they could have been, but at least I found a way to make them happy. As for Kikka, her feet are definitely happy...and stylish, too!

La mia famiglia italiana

This is my Italian family, the Comellinis. They are the warmest people you'll ever meet anywhere in the world. Kikka and I first met when we were in Roma in 2005. She was one of three Roma Tre architecture students that Davide had selected to spend a semester at the University of Arkansas. One day when we were back on the UA campus, I saw Kikka sitting at a table in the student union looking rather forlorn. I asked if she needed a "mommy hug" which she did and that was the start of our friendship.

Originally, Bill and I had planned to visit Roma together at the start of our European trip. We found a place to stay in centro but those plans had to be cancelled when Bill's mom took a turn for the worse. On the last day in town I found myself scrambling to rebook all of our flights. After giving the Siena paper, Bill had to be back in Oxford, but there was only one ticket. Likewise, there was only one outbound ticket from London to Padova. It was as if the airline gods were telling me "you must stay in Italy that week." I didn't know what to do. The idea of staying in an apartment by myself seemed gloomy. So I called Kikka's house and spoke to her mom. I could stay with them.

Here are the three of us (below) on the evening I first arrived. It was extraordinarily hot, in fact it was hot as Hades all week long. It was Fabiana's birthday and Kikka had made this cake. Behind the smiles for this pictures, there was sadness, however. Fabio's father had passed away a few days earlier and the family had buried their beloved father and grandfather that morning.

Several days later, we went to the Comellinis favorite restaurant (top picture). That was lots of fun and the food was delicious. The maitre-d'/owner/waiter was adorable. He was telling some story in very fast Italian--I could only pick up snippets here and there--but the melodic quality of his Italian was absolutely wonderful. Italians can speak Italian very fast when they want to; I wish I could speak English that fast!

Parking at this restaurant was very limited. In order to get all of us transported, some of the family took scooters/motorcycles. It was so much fun to ride behind Fabio and Alessandra on their motorcycle and watch Alessandra's hair flying from beneath her helmet.



After dinner we took a night tour of Roma--we went up to the Gianiculo and then down the street where the closer you get to St. Peter's dome the smaller it gets--it's a really cool perspectival trompe l'oeil.

Alessandra and Fabio not only took me to the train station on the day I left Roma, they got out of the car and visited with me a while on the binario.

There will be some forthcoming blogs about some more adventures with Kikka and her family, but they are so wonderful that they deserve a special blog of their own.

I hope that Kikka and her family will plan a visit to the U.S. soon and stay with us a while. I miss them already.

The best reasons why Europe is like a second home to me

Recently, Bill told his dad that home is not the physical place where you happen to live, but rather the place where you are when you are with the people you love. I learned from a previous visit to Roma that my love for the city is not solely with the city, but with the friends we find there upon visiting the city. While I have posted many pretty pictures of the places I love, they would not be the places I love quite so much if it were not for our friends whom we find there when we visit. That said, let me introduce you to the people who this year made my visit to Europe so special.

First of all is David, our Yarnton (Oxford), housemate. We did not know him from Adam, but before we had met him he expressed his concern over Bill's mother's health. He is a most excellent housemate, cheery, interesting, and has assumed the role of garbage fairy. (Bill is the dish-washer fairy.) In both instances, the garbage and dirty dishes seemed to resolve their own issues without my intervention. (For the books, I'm the laundry and ironing fairy, but only for Bill.) David is married with a wife and an adorable 5-year old son, Alexander. In addition to his pleasant attitude, his high-Church breeding as a Lutheran makes him an ideal housemate for Bill during this NEH Institute on the Jews in the Middle Ages!





This is Sarah. She was one of Bill's recruits to the Rome Center in 2005 and was our companion in Barcelona once the semester ended. She is an honors English major studying at Cambridge this summer.



Next is Virginia. She is one of the Scoobies about whom you've heard me talk on prior occasions. The most notable thing about Virginia is that when she needed an "aged female specimen" for her brain imaging study, I fit the requirements. She is an Australian M.D. (or medic) who is now getting her Ph.D. in brain imaging. Although she must be pretty smart to have gotten an M.D. and now a Ph.D. at Cambridge, she's a very fun person who is happy explaining the real meaning of "Waltzing Matilda." She's also the one who alerted me (and rightly so) to the grumpy nature of the British Air personnel.





Now the next encounter was a total surprise. While in Cambridge, Bill and I went to the Wolfson lounge to meet Virginia. The World Cup happened to be on TV. When the game was over, Emily turned and saw us. Emily is one of Bill's colleagues at the UA in the English department. She came several years ago for a Cambridge year just like Bill had had.



Next we met up with Simone, another one of the Scoobies. Here she is with her adorable boyfriend, Chris. Bill and I both approve! Simone is going to start a Ph.D. at Bristol in dance history. (I hope I got that right.) They will be living on their new houseboat in the fall.



One evening in London we met up with Terry, Anna, Siri, and Nancy. (Nancy is the little dog, but because of my aversion to using flash and her penchant for moving about, I never really got a good picture of her.)

Siri is absolutely precious. I don't recall ever seeing a 10-month old drink from a cup, but she does. And she eats curry, too. Anna and Terry are wonderful parents. Terry sang a little ditty he had made up for her, and Anna sang a Swedish song. Incidentally, Anna has a wonderful voice.

I was so taken with Siri's sweet disposition that I took lots of pictures of her during dinner.

Here are Terry and Siri.

Here's a picture of Kikka and me. There will be more about Kikka and her family in an upcoming blog. This shot was taken about midnight on my last evening in Roma. Kikka is such a dear. She has only her thesis to write and defend before she graduates with her degree in architecture from Roma Tre. She also spent a semester at the UA School of Architecure. We were very hot when this picture was taken.

Here's Kikka's mom, Alessandra, and me. I spent a day with Alessandra at the MAXXI and then at Ikea. She is an exceptionally patient woman, especially with my Italian. I think Kikka has inherited her mother's artistic talent, as well.

Here are Alessandra and her husband, Fabio. Again, I will be telling you more about the Comellini's in an upcoming blog. Like, Alessandra, Fabio is a most pleasant fellow. It's surprising that he is a professional bomb detonator for the Italian military (actually, he now supervises those who do the risky work)!

This is Riccardo, Kikka's fiance. He understands English quite well but is rather quiet. Thanks to him, I understand "Vivo per Lei" now.

This is Kikka's sister, Fabiana. She gave up her bedroom for me, a near stranger! She may go to university next year to study kinesiology. The most unique thing about Fabiana is that her pronunciation of an American "r" as in "red" is perfect.

Here is Riccardo again.

One evening we went to Riccardo's family's home for dinner. His father took me in and said that their house was my house. His mom was a delight. One of his sisters is in NYC now on an internship with the Human Rights Watch. This is his neice, Mathilda, who is absolutely precious.

Here I am at the Rome Center with Janice at the computer in her all-white office. She handles a lot of the arrangements for the classes. I first met her here in Fayetteville.

Here's a picture of Davide (left) and Francesco (right) at the Rome Center. Davide offered to carry my suitcase down to the ground floor when I left. I don't think he expected it would weigh as much as it did or that I would have been able to carry it to the piano nobile by myself in the first place! Well, I surprised him! Davide and Francesco were my studio professors for the project you saw on my last blog.

This is Diane, Davide's wife. This was a totally unexpected visit. I had asked Kikka if she could recommend any additional modern art museums. She told me about the MACRO which wasn't very far from Diane's atelier. I knew it was pretty close because, unlike Bill, I generally formulate pretty accurate cognitive maps. Of course, if you can fine tune a cognitive map with an iPhone map, all the better. The MACRO is just about 5 minutes away from her studio, so I decided to drop in and pay her a surprise visit. If only I had had the language skills to explain that I was "dropping by." You see, Diane speaks French, Italian, and Spanish. I don't speak Spanish and butcher the other two languages. Nevertheless, she was very patient with my Fritaliano.

On my last night in Roma, I met Barbara, Luca, and their new son, Mattia (as well as their dog, Balu). Barbara is the Italian teacher at the Rome Center. Mattia was so sweet on this very hot evening, he just slept and slept.

Here he is.

And an inadvertent shot with the flash. Fortunately, I didn't wake him up! He's still sleeping.

And here's Balu.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to meet up with Ryan, another Scoobie and our intrepid Antarctic explorer, or with Sarah, Bill's former graduate student. However, Bill and David did meet Sarah today at Stratford-on-Avon. Sadly, too, I missed Emilio, the art historian professor at the Rome Center. I made the mistake of assuming that he was with Carolina and the kids at the sea (that week was so hot that everyone who could was escaping the city for the sea). I only learned hours before I left that he was in Roma. I'm sorry I missed you, Emilio!

As you can see, I have quite a few reasons to consider Europe a second home. Everybody is so kind and patient. Thank you all for making my trip to Europe this summer so special.

Of course, the person who made my trip to Europe seem like I was home was Bill, even here on a Padova bench waiting for the bus to take us to the Venice airport.

In a manner of speaking, "my scar"

When I was a student in Roma during the fall of 2005, one of my design assignments was nearly identical to that of the architecture students. Perhaps most extraordinary is that they were 4th-year architecture students while I was a 2nd-year interior design student. At the time I had not yet learned CAD and one of the classes I was completing in Rome was Presentations, i.e., hand-rendered images. Consequently, I had a few drawings of my interiors that semester that were not required of the other students, while they had some rendered exterior views not required of me. Consequently, I never articulated the exterior of the building I designed, until now.

The site for this assignment was a real place in the center of Roma, exactly where Mussolini had left a "scar" as he cleared away a swathe of land in his efforts (unsuccessful, I might add) to connect Rome with the sea. Since 2005, Bill and I have taken to calling it "my" scar, and I have very fond memories whenever I'm in that area, even today.

One of the things on my "to do" list while in Roma this time was to take some more pictures of the site. Fortunately, bus 881 from Kikka's home terminated right here. The picture above is a composite of one of my old pictures of the site and a Revit rendering of my project. As you can see, the light is kind of flat. The new pictures below, however, are much more vibrant. Once I recover from jet lag I plan to tackle Revit again. I will insert my building into the new pictures. Of course, to do this convincingly means that I have to place my camera appropriately and select the proper sunlight conditions. Well, I'll think about that tomorrow. I'm still too tired to tackle anything more than updating my blog!

One Dante reference I think Bill overlooked

When in Rome, Bill teaches a course on Dante's The Divine Comedy. In the past he has taught at the UA Rome Center on the Corso Vittorio Emanuele, but this summer the Rome Center moved to its new location in the Palazzo Taverna.

The history of the Palazzo Taverna is indeed impressive. Dante supposedly mentions it in his masterpiece, although I'm not sure Bill is aware of this reference. Therefore, I challenge you Rome Center secchioni who might be reading this to see if you can locate Dante's reference. While you're combing your libraries for your copy of The Divine Comedy, I will take you on a little tour of the new Center.

Above is a picture of the large fountain (on axis, of course, with the entry gate) that you see as you enter the courtyard. Remember this fountain because it will appear again in a forthcoming blog. Yes, the fountain is that important. Before you can enter the courtyard, however, you are first drilled by the new portiere. He's not at all like scowling Margherita who scolded everyone with a sharp glance whenever you walked across her foyer on a rainy day. No, the portiere here is a trained professional who executes his job with military efficiency. His only shortcoming is that he thinks Davide runs the University of Arkansass (not Arkansaw) Rome Center!

The Center's entrance, below, is to the right (east) of the fountain.




Parts of the palazzo are medival, although the Center itself is housed in a wing of the building characterized by the Empire style, as you shall see.

On the day I made a trip up the grand staircase, I was schlepping a small, but outrageously heavy, 22" suitcase. I noticed the heavy red velvet drapes but failed to notice the detail work on the ceiling. For that you'll have to visit: http://sites.google.com/site/uaromecenter/uarc-location

Now I had heard rumors, from the top I might add (by this I mean the Chancellor himself), that this was indeed a palace. And it is a palace, without doubt, especially by American standards. For instance, consider this gold wall paper that lines the apparel design studio. (Davide has brought a variety of schools and disciplines under this one, grand roof.)

While the ceilings on the Corso were quite impressive with their plaster reliefs, none matched the delight of this ceiling.

The exception to the wall and ceiling decoration is the office space. Janice's is stark white walls with white laminate writing surfaces. Davide has his own office again. This is at the end of a short hall where one of Diane's lamps provides lighting for the two comfy chairs in the ante-chamber. Like Janice's office, Davide's is also white but with an accent wall of steely gray. There are two paintings, one a very rational and architechtonic painting of a building and the other an abstract; both done by important Italian artists, though I couldn't tell you who they are. The other thing you notice is the large monitor he has on his desk. The desk, I imagine, is one that he and/or Diane designed; it has tapering brushed nickel (or stainless steel) legs and the tops of the legs pierce the surface of the wood desk top. From their home he has brought one of the "flaming" metal cabinets on slender legs, again something that they designed. And there is another floor lamp designed by Diane.

Davide is not only pleased as punch with his new "digs," he is also delighted with the recent history of the building. You see, the Istituto Nazionale Architettura or InArch used this space for over thirty years, until 1990, to house their professional meetings. Davide was pulling up image after image of important Italian architects, like Moretti, who had been photographed within the walls of the new Rome Center.

OK, back to the tour. Coffee anyone? The Center now has it's own espresso maker. And if eye candy isn't enough for you, you can purchase some edible candy from the new vending machine.

Below is a picture of the room where the Fulbright professor (like Bill, hint-hint) will teach. I should add here that when I was first admitted to the Center (by a man I didn't recognize) I wasn't sure I had come to the right place. When I saw that the books were marked D214 or D43, however, I knew that I was in the Center. It's good that some things never change!

On the opposite side of the room are these Empire cabinets. Nice built-ins, huh?

And take a look at the faux marble detailing on the door trim.

Naturally, students need to be surrounded by chandeliers!

Which reminds me of a story my mother once told me. When I was about 4 years old, I went next door to visit the Chatfields. They had emigrated from Russia at the time of the Russian revolution, and Mr. Chatfield had been a successful attorney in Manhattan before they retired to Charlotte. Apparently, they didn't believe in insurance and instead bought art objets. Well, here I am, this little kid holding onto a really expensive objet (let's just say something worth $250,000 at the time--it was damned expensive). My mother walks in, sees me, and says, "Mary Patricia, put that down immediatly." To which Mr. Chatfield replied, "Mary, if she doesn't learn to handle nice things now, she'll never appreciate them." Why do I tell this story? Well, I think of all of the architecture students who will come to the new Center and wonder if they will treat their studio with the same level of respect. I sure hope so. Davide gives a stern speech and rightfully so at the beginning of each semester. I would like to be a fly on the wall next month to hear how it is amended given the improved surroundings. Speaking of the architecture students, I believe that is their studio below.

Look at all of the detailing!

And more murals.

I love this little guy...

And this bird, too. It's soooo Roman.

And just when you thought it couldn't get any better than this, you step into the ladies' restroom with not one, but three, stalls.

One of Bill's students, Michelle, is returning to the Center this fall as part of the European Studies/International Relations program. I think she will enjoy being Cinderella at the ball for an entire semester.

On closing, I will be waiting to see which one of you can find the canto where Dante refers to the Palazzo Taverna. Perhaps I can tempt the first person to post this reference with some brownies made with Lindt cocoa from Castroni's! Jonathan, don't let me down here!