Category: Lazio

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Castello Santa Severa

Yesterday (actually yesterday, not uploading months old posts for once), Daniele and I visited the Castle of Santa Severa. The castle has changed hands many times, and now the town of Santa Severa* owns it and opened it for the week, by appointment, to see about making it into an open tourist attraction.

*Note, Santa Severa is not a town or “commune” in its own right. It is a “frazione” or borough of Santa Marinella, composed of a few grouped together houses. A clear distinction in Italy where every “commune” has certain amenities (the town hall, police station, train and/or bus station, post office, church, and almost certainly a bar, pizzeria, and tabacchi) and always a town center where you find most of these.

In true Italian style, the castle is a mix of structures all build on top of each other. The oldest date from 5th to 4th millennium B.C. — that’s millennium, not a typo. The location leads to people wanting to live there. The castle sits on its own micro-peninsula sticking out into the sea, with sandy beaches to the right, and rocks that were probably placed there to slow erosion to the left. Our guide said that they estimate the land used to stick out another mile, because they have found remnants that far out. It is easy to understand erosion being a concern for any sea-front castle owner.

The history of the castle is not very clear since it dates to prehistoric times. The consensus is that the area was frequented dating back to 5th to 4th millennium B.C. There are excavations dating from the Neolithic Period (7th to 6th millennium B.C.), the Bronze Age (2 millennium B.C.), and the Iron Age (9th to 8th century B.C.).

We know a little more about the Etruscan Period. The Etruscans were a civilization based in Tuscany from 7th to 6th century B.C. that evolved along with and were later conquered by the Ancient Romans. I first learned about them during my Volterra visit in 2010. In Etruscan times, the place was called Pyrgi and served as a commercial port connecting to all of the Mediterranean, especially Greece and Phoenicia. This Etruscan port mostly supported (and vice-versa) the nearby city of Caere, modern day Cerveteri. A very ancient sanctuary with temples to Apollo and a few other deities was also found outside of the residential area, which spread about 25 acres. Some important relics were found here, one of which is three tablets written in both Etruscan and Punic, proving the strong relationship between the Etruscans of Ceveteri and Cartharage.

Romans dominated the area beginning in 3rd century B.C. Pyrgi became a maritime colony and a huge rectangular fortress was built, surrounded by polygonal wall. These were built on top of the Etruscan and prehistoric structures. This fortress continued to be used until 5th to 6th century A.D. (the Late-Ancient Period). It is believed that the structure was transformed to an important villa by this time. Also in the Late-Ancient Period, an early Christian church was build next to the port dedicated to Santa Severa. Santa Severa was a Pygrese martyr in the third century A.D. This early Christian church was only just discovered in excavations in 2007.

Santa Severa continued to develop on top of the older structures. During the Medieval and Renaissance periods, the village occupied only a quarter of the Roman fortress and had become a huge farming estate as well as a stopover port between Rome and Civitivechia (today where most cruse ships come in to visit Rome).

All of this history and building on top of things lead to a piecemeal fortress-style castle, not a palace like Versailles by any means. I kept low expectations of a pretty simple stone structure going in, and I was pleasantly surprised by what we found. There is a very castle-like Keep in the center, with towers and battlements. There are also impressive frescoes in the two “newer” churches and dug out excavations of the oldest church– an early christian structure build on the remains of an Ancient Roman villa, a grain refinery turned graveyard with evidence of grave robbing, and a secret stairway with direct access to the beach. The whole structure reminded me very much of all of the medieval hill towns here in Lazio that we frequently visit. Which makes sense, since ancient castles were basically walled-in towns. The main difference here being that this entire structure, which could be a small town, has been in the ownership of a single body since at least Ancient Roman times.

Now that the castle is in the hands of the town, the idea is to open it to the public. This week was a bit of an experiment along those lines. I’m not sure about the time-line on those goals or if the idea is to just open it up or keep the guided tour structure. There are already some shops in one of the three courtyards before passing the door where our tour began. We were told no one is allowed past that door unaccompanied. And I’m not sure if I would have enjoyed all of the sites within without our guide, who lucky for me spoke very clear Italian. He was one of the archeologists involved in the actual excavation of Castle Santa Severa and was able to point out all of the cool little things that I would have missed without him. You can follow along our tour with my heavily captioned photos.

We rounded off the day with lunch on the beach in front of the castle. We stayed on the rocky side since the sandy part looked a bit damp. The beach here has been open to the public and a popular spot all along. In fact it had been on our list of beaches to try out for quite some time before Daniele heard about the castle opening. After, we finished with a visit to the neighboring town of Santa Marinella before it started to rain and we headed home.

Photos from the day: https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6008215300922876865

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Gathering Chestnuts

Daniele’s family gathers chestnuts every fall to enjoy in winter. They go to a forest-like park where they know chestnut trees grow and gather garbage bags worth of them.

This fall Daniele, his father Giulio, and I went to gather them. There has been an infection on the chestnut trees in Italy with a bug from Asia. Some of Giulio’s friends failed to find any chestnuts at all, but Guilio knows all the places and brought us to a place where there were less than past years, but still as many as we could want to gather up off the floor.

I had never gathered chestnuts before, so I didn’t know how it was done. We used a basket to throw them in as we went and several backpacks to transfer our hoard to when the basket gets full. The chestnuts themselves grow in little clusters, that remind me of garlic, the way they are shaped and grouped. The clusters are enclosed in a spiny shell, that is already opened and we toss aside wearing gloves.

The chestnuts covered the ground like a blanket, and the sound or more falling punctuated the quiet forest. But there are rules to which ones you take. Most obviously, you toss any with little holes in them; that means there are worms inside. It is hard to see these little holes and we had to toss many after we got home and could see them better. Once or twice we missed the worm hole and ended up with little toasty grubs alongside our chestnuts. Good news is you would never accidentally eat one of these worms. If he didn’t run out of his roasting nut-house in the oven, you would see him when you broke the nut open to eat.

The second rule is you should go down into the forest farther to gather the bigger nuts. Giulio says the bigger nuts are heavier and end up collecting farther down. Daniele and I were so mesmerized picking up all the chestnuts on our way down, that we never made it as far down as him. And, in fact, Giulio had much nicer, bigger, chestnuts at the end of the day.

What do we do with all of these chestnuts? The classic way to eat them is roasted in the oven after a meal– especially on a cold night. You cut a slit into the heard but meaty chestnut, then put it in the oven at 180 Celsius for maybe 20 minutes. They become a little darker, and soft or a little wilted looking. And then you make conversation while casually ripping them open and popping them in your mouth. You may only drink wine (red, normally) with your chestnuts, because water will swell your stomach. Chestnuts behave a bit like bread or rice in this way. In fact, chestnut flour is very common here in Italy.

We had so many, we looked up other things to do with them. Daniele made a delicious soup with chestnuts and porcini mushrooms. It was too much work to do often though. He had to roast the nuts, peal them, blend them, then make the rest of the soup.

Daniele’s mother says you can’t freeze them and have them still be good, but maybe it could work if you cook them first then freeze them after. We didn’t try it, because we were ready for a break from chestnuts when the end of the “season” arrived. I’m looking forward to next year’s though!

Some pictures from our adventure:
https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6013737054044279473

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Coronation Pope Francesco

It was pretty big news here in Rome, and everywhere, last month when Benedict XVI put in notice. It happened really fast, he announced on 11 February that his last day would be 28 February. I was mostly excited that I would be here in Rome for the Conclave. Unfortunately, conclave takes place over a period of time and you never know when the cardinals are going to come to consensus and send out that white smoke. They happened to decide very quickly, conclave started 12 March and they decided 13 March. I missed it. I watched on TV like everyone else, as they announced Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina Pope Francis, or Papa Francesco (after St. Francis of Assisi).

I was able to plan on being in the Vatican for the coronation of Papa Francesco. They call it a coronation from when the Pope was the ruler of the “Stato Pontificio” comprised of modern Lazio, Umbria, Marche, and southern-eastern Emilia-Romania. The new pope would hold a mass, which is special because the pope almost never does the mass, he just does the blessing.

We filled into St. Peter’s Square, passing through security. The square was crowded, but we were able to enter. There were walk ways fenced off separating large areas for the crowds. The round piazza is a bit bowl shaped, presumably for water drainage, however it is not the best design for a stadium-type event.

Before things kicked off, Papa Francesco took a few laps around the crowds on an open top vehicle of some sort. Everyone was going nuts trying to rush to the fence where he was. The only time I saw him get down was near what I referred to as “Campo Argentina”, there were supposedly some disabled people or children there.

The first part of the mass/ceremony took place inside of St Peter’s Cathedral. It was pretty short and we had big screens to view it. The procession leaving the cathedral to the altar set up just outside was rather impressive. There are a lot of cardinals. They all had on their matching robes and were just generally impressive.

The mass was pretty normal. As mentioned, there was an altar set up just outside the doors to the Cathedral. There was an amazing choir to the left, along with the other clergy. The diplomats were seated to the right. Pope Frank gave a great speech on how we are not just Christians, but humans and doing good in the world. This was also the mass of San Giuseppe (Italian Father’s Day), many people had books that they were following along with the mass and songs. I didn’t get one until the mass was over.

I admit I was a bit lost in the mass, as it was in Latin/Italian opposed to my more comfortable English/Latin mass, though I probably understood better than most of the crowd (minus the Italians). Where as the every Wednesday Vatican blessing is repeated in several languages, very few parts were done in multiple languages.

At one point soft yellow and blue (the colors of Argentina) umbrellas seemed to almost be floating down where I knew the fenced off corridors to be. This was shortly after the “peace be with you” bit which was surprisingly fun as no two people I shook hands with said the same thing back to me. Right around then there was also a lot of shuffling in front of me and I took the opportunity to get closer. Then I saw there was a yellow and blue umbrella just in front of us, and beneath it a priest giving communion… duh. Though not that big a ‘duh’ because they normally don’t give communion out in the square. In fact, Daniele says he’s never heard of it.

Obviously at this point the mass was almost over, but I had a really great spot now! I hung around for a little hoping that Papa Francesco might make another round and we could spend more quality time together. But as that looked less likely I asked the Swiss Guard in front of me if anything else was planed, and it was not, so I headed out.

Pictures from the mass:
https://plus.google.com/photos/111221349198606775660/albums/5857941830730346881

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Rome at the Holidays

This year I came back to Rome right after Christmas. This allowed me to spend New Years with my sweetie and to see the holiday decorations in Rome that I normally miss. They strictly take them down after Epiphany. They put trees up in most of the big piazzas but their big thing are the Nativity scenes.

We started with an old special Nativity that was made by the garbageman. It is called the “Presepe dei Netturbini”. It is actually open all year long, so coming this time of year when there is a line to get in may not have been the best idea. It is made to look like Jerusalem and incorporates pieces of rock from all over the world.

Next we went to Saint Peter’s Square (the Vatican) where they had both a beautiful tree and nativity. Different countries in Europe alternate donating the tree to the Vatican. This year the tree came from Southern Italy. It was lit during a ceremony on December 14th. After the holidays the wood is donated to several groups that manufacture toys for children in need.

The nativity at Saint Peter’s Square this year was modeled after Basilicata in Southern Italy, from where it was made and donated. It was very impressive. It had just been revealed Christmas Eve.

The city of Rome also decorated most of its streets with lights. Including a ribbon of lights down Via Del Corso and lamps down the high-end shopping street Via Condotti. Different shops alternate sponsoring the lamps on Condotti, this year they were from Mercedes who also put up a tree at the head of the street where it intersects Via del Corso. Fendi, who have their giant store at the location also have a tree there made of baguette bags. Most of the little side streets in the historical center are decorated as well.


Ribbon of lights down Via Del Corso


Mercedes lamps down the high-end shopping street Via Condotti. That’s the Spanish Steps at the end.


Mercedes tree at Via Condotti and Via del Corso


Fendi tree at Via Condotti and Via del Corso

Piazza del Spagna (Spanish Steps) was probably the most impressive. The church at the top was all lit up and there was a giant tree with a nativity below. Approaching it by way of the sparkling Via Condotti made it all the more magical.

Nativity under the tree at Piazza del Spagna

We didn’t think there was anything at Piazza del Popolo, but walking through there on our way home we found another tree!

We came back for another round on Saturday, January 5. We still hadn’t seen all the big piazzas and that night they would be having Epiphany celebrations in Piazza Navona, so I could check that out, too.

We started with Campidoglio Hill. They had a tree and a small detailed nativity behind glass. They were also setting up another life-size nativity that would be revealed the next day as part of the Epiphany celebrations along with a concert I gathered. But we weren’t free Sunday to come back.

We went next to the Colosseum. I just can’t get used to turning a corner and seeing the Colosseum no matter how long I’m here.

From there we headed to Piazza Navona where it was full of people. Full. Navona is possibly the largest piazza in Rome. It is the ovular one with the three fountains, the middle one is themed after the four great known (at the time) rivers. It is the one they used to flood and stage naval battles in– a big piazza. Along the sides there were vendors selling donut-like sweets and cotton candy, as well as toys and La Befana dolls.

A side note on the history and Italian traditions of Epiphany. While in the United States the Christmas Season is unofficially observed from Thanksgiving to Christmas day, in Italy on the other hand it is very officially observed from Christmas Eve night through Epiphany (January 6). These “Twelve Days of Christmas” are a celebration of the period from Christ’s birth through the visit of the Magi / Three Kings / Three Wise Men. While you may have a Christmas party with coworkers or friends before this 12 day period, generally Christmas and its decorations and hoopla don’t ooze too much out of it. This period is almost immediately followed by the start of Carnevale celebrations, which we in the US are completely lacking or think of as a single Tuesday. Perhaps that’s why we like to make Christmas a month long.

Italian Epiphany traditions are largely aimed at children, and having grown up in the US I can’t describe them first hand. What I have gathered is there is a type of witch named La Befana who is neither good nor bad. She enters children’s homes from the chimney and leaves them candy or small toys in their stockings; bad children get coal.

A few days later we happened to be in Saint Peter’s Cathedral and we saw they had a Nativity set up inside besides the one set up out in the piazza. It was so crowded and the photo can’t do it justice, it was the most beautiful we saw.

The complete album:
https://plus.google.com/photos/111221349198606775660/albums/5836296191021293377

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Rome Summer 2012

I’m just finishing another round in Rome. This trip was a bit shorter because I have to return to NJ for my Italian citizenship appointment, which I’ve had for a year and could not be moved. After that I’ll be state-side until 2013.

I wanted to give a recap of the trip. I was here July 24 through September 17, so only a month and a half really.

We went to the beach any day off we had. Last year we went to Ostia more, which is “Rome’s beach”. It’s a bit crowded there, but they have a great gelateria! This year we mostly went to Fregene, which is a bit north, so easier for us. It’s considered a bit more high class, for whatever reason. I liked it because I like walking around the area and looking at the beautiful villas. However there are less shops, so we pack our own lunch to come here.

We also made it into the center pretty often. Went to happy hours, markets, or just walked around taking pictures. Along the river in the summer temporary bars, restaurants, and markets set up. They are open late at night and light up the whole river. Daniele has been going a bit crazy buying happy hours and dinners on online coupon sites.


Rome’s “Isola Tiberina” all lit up for summer

There is always a lot going on in summer. We were able to organize Daniele’s friends Gerlano and Valentina as well as family for dinners and different things. We went to Magic Land, a medieval kingdom themed park. And we had a nice BBQ picnic for Ferragosto, a holiday the 15th of August.


Gerlando and Daniele at the BBQ

The big thing we did was take two back to back mini-vacations to Umbria. First to stay with cousins, second just for a weekend away. I wrote about those already is separate posts.

All in all a pretty good summer and a good trip, even though it had to be so short.

Next up is a two-week stop back home in NJ. I have that citizenship appointment, my birthday, a bunch of wedding stuff to do (including bridesmaid dress shopping), and a few family parties. Then I’m off to San Francisco for October!

The full photo album from this trip:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20120724Roma#

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Abbazia delle Tre Fontane

On March 14, 2012 Daniele and I visited the Abbazia delle Tre Fontane. This is an abbey built on a site of three springs, the site of martyrdom of St. Paul.

This write-up and photos are from over a year ago, March 2012, but they never made it up. I’m trying to upload old pictures and the accompanying stories now with back dates so they are archived in order.

Today we continued our tour of Italian monasteries with the Abbazia delle Tre Fontane. The place is very beautiful and religiously important. This is the sight where the Romans martyred by beheading the apostle St. Paul on June 29, 67 AD.

You enter the monestary from the Arco di Carlo Magno (Arch of Charlemagne). Much of the original art work has faded because it dates to the 8th century.

Once inside there is an open courtyard with the main abbey (left) and the church of Santa Maria Scala Coeli (right). The Abbey is the largest structure. The church inside is not as fancy as the other two, this is where the nuns and monks perform their daily activities. It was build to the specifications of all San Benedetto monasteries, so the sun comes into the part of the building relevant for the activities prudent for that time of day.

Santa Maria Scala Coeli literally means ladder to the heavens in Latin and is the smallest of the three in the Monastery. It received this name because on this spot in 1138 San Bernardo, while celebrating a mass for the dead in the presence of Pope Innocent II, had a vision in ecstasy of angels leading souls from purgatory to heaven. The church itself is beautiful.

The church dedicated to St. Paul is down a small path. It is not incredibility big, but it is very ornate. You enter from the side and immediately notice the sound of running water. On your left is an altar for St. Peter, on the right an alter for St. Paul. Each has beautiful artwork. Straight ahead are three niches of black marble for the three fountains. They are at different heights but they fit seamlessly into the church architecture. Behind the middle fountain is another altar, but it was closed. In the center floor is a mosaic representing the four seasons taken from Ostea Antica (ruins close to Rome that are similar to Pompeii). Above the entrance door is a plaque dating to the martyrdom stating that this is the place there the apostle died. Like many Italian structures, this building was build on the ruins of another, that was another. The current structure dates from 1599. Every piece in this church has history and significance, they have it all on their website [http://www.abbaziatrefontane.it].

Like Sacro Speco, these monks are Benedictine order, who follow the teachings of San Benedetto. Specifically they are the sub-order of trappisti. There are many orders but the other popular one in Italy is Franciscan, who follow the teachings of San Francisco.

The moto of San Benedetto is “prega e lavora” or “pray and work”. They hand produce and sell many goods for the income of the monastery, including honey, jam, beer, liqueur, chocolate, as well and clothing, gold, wood goods, all sorts of stuff. This particular monastery is famous for their chocolate and having just tried some, I wish I had bought more! They are also known for goods with eucalyptus, and in fact the grounds of the monastery were covered in eucalyptus trees, as well as olive trees, and other herbs. I saw a bay leaf plant that had grown into a tree! Like Sacro Speco they sell a variety of honeys, but a few more options here. I picked up some eucalyptus honey and some pollen to add to the walnut honey we got before (so much delicious honey!). I’m excited about the pollen, it’s a jar of little grains of yellow pollen. You are supposed to eat a spoon of it in the morning for added energy.

I mentioned they make booze. Here they make all sorts liqueurs from herbs, eucalyptus, chocolate, and citrus. Their brothers in Germany make beer and have gotten pretty famous for it. I was looking at a shelf of some of these crafted brews when I saw one I recognized as a particularly delicious beer available in many US bars, probably just mixed in, right? Nope Chimay is made by Trapisti monks. I picked up a color label I’ve never tasted – hope it’s even better than the red!

Full album from this day trip:
https://plus.google.com/photos/111221349198606775660/albums/5868250225318597217

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Zio Amato in Anzio

This is an older post that never made it online. I’m putting it up now with a back-dated post-time. Since this blog is, primarily, my own travel diary.

Yesterday Daniele and I went to visit his father’s brother Amato and his wife Cinzia for lunch. I had not met them before. They live a bit south of Rome by the beach.

Since I have never been to the area and it was a beautiful day we arrived early to walk around on our own. Anzio is an adorable beach/fishing town and we had a great time walking its seaside paths. There was also some type of celebration going on (or maybe just your typical Sunday in Anzio?). I bought a small bag of pistachios from a farmer’s stand that we munched on while walking around.

The port was busy with boats that seemed to have just come into town and were sorting and selling all of their fish.

Ancient Roman Emperor Nero had a seaside home here. It is located right between the sea and the park-like paths that skirt around the beach.

Daniele’s aunt and uncle were so nice. They welcomed us in their house with some prosecco before taking me on a tour of their large apartment. Amato has a patio in the front and a small garden in the back. He grows a few palms and fruit trees including a cherry, lemon, and pomegranate. The pomegranate tree only made one fruit last year and he used it to make liqueur (following the same process as limoncello). Amato collects antiques and all of his furnishings are beautiful antique pieces.

Amato and Cinzia made special vegetarian dishes just for me. And then after lunch, in true Italian fashion, or at least in Daniele’s family, we enjoyed some rounds of cards.

The pictures from this day are buried about halfway down my catch-all album for the 3-month trip to Rome I took January to April 2012:
https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6010435566436983425

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Monastery of Saint Benedict – Sacro Speco

On March 5, 2012 Daniele brought me to the Saint Benedict Monastery of Sacro Speco.

This write-up and photos are from over a year ago, March 2012, but they never made it up. I’m trying to upload old pictures and the accompanying stories now with back dates so they are archived in order.

Saint Benedict Monastery of Sacro Speco

Our trip to Assisi seems to have reminded Daniele of the largely untapped “places to visit” the Catholic Church offers us here. We’ve visited a few exceptionally pretty churches, abbeys, and monasteries, but there are much more we still have yet to see.


Saint Benedict Monastery of Sacro Speco

The two largest orders of monks are of Saint Frances and Saint Benedict. Saint Frances, famously walked from Assisi to Rome. Saint Benedict prayed in a cave and had visions (to simplify things a bit). That very cave was turned into a monastery, which is not far from us in Rome. Benedictine monks also believe in a “work and pray” model which leads to awesome hand made goodies in their shops, like honey.


Monk on a cell phone

This monastery, Monastero San Benedetto – Sacro Speco, in the city of Subiaco, is very old with beautiful stuccoes on the walls. Like Assisi, and apparently any church, the older church is the lower level and they built on above it. Here the lower level showed its age with a fair amount of scratched in graffiti. People are animals.


Monastery of Saint Benedict – Sacro Speco : Stucco of Madonna Saint Gregory’s Chapel in lower/older church covered in graffiti signatures

The amazing thing about this place, and what I really didn’t expect, is the cave is there in its original form built right into the church. It is not covered in tiles or other wise refinished; it is a cave just in a church.

There is another Benedictine monastery below Sacro Speco, Monastery of Saint Scholastica. We took a tour of this one. They had a store so I bought some honey.


View from Monastery of Saint Benedict – Sacro Speco, including Monastery of Saint Scholastica (front left) and city of Subiaco (back right).

As a little bonus there are some Ancient Roman ruins just on the road to Sacro Speco. A villa of Nero. You find old villas of Nero everywhere you go around Rome; dude had a lot of houses.

The rest of the photos from this trip can be found here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/111221349198606775660/albums/5865687971036327841

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Carnevale in Ronciglione

This write-up and photos are from almost a year ago, Carnevale 2012, but they never made it up. I’m trying to upload old pictures and the accompanying stories now with back dates so they are archived in order.

Today we continued breaking me into the Canevale tradition with a different style celebration. The town of Ronciglione has the oldest Carnevale in central Italy, dating back to 1465. Because it has such a rich history, they put on a big show and Italians come from hours away to see the parade in this small medieval town.

The town has a population just under 9k people and 1,200 of them participate in the parade. They are broken down into different “Mascherte” of themed costumed groups with floats and parade down the main street for two hours.

There are also a few horses, but nothing like what we saw yesterday in Rome, just a few and not nearly as well trained. The town used to hold unmanned races, like the ones on Rome’s Via del Corso. While the ones in Rome stopped in 1874, these continued just until last year. During the 2011 Carnevale a horse died in the race and due to the up cry after, the races no longer take place.

This is one of the biggest Carnevales in Italy. It gets super crowded and we were warned about going there on Sunday, the most popular Carnevale day (you would think Fat Tuesday, but lots of people are at work). However, lucky for us (I guess) it was raining and Italians hate to go out in the rain. So, there were less people than normal. I thought there were a lot of people, but the MC said we’re “few but good”. Unfortunately there was going to be a show in the morning that was canceled because of the rain, so, we missed out on that and ended up with a lot of time to kill until the parade in the evening. Luckily it was a really cool medieval hill town to walk around and the rain was just an on and off drizzle. Italians really do hate the rain.

Pictures of Carnevale:
https://plus.google.com/photos/111221349198606775660/albums/5834394206060841921?authkey=CKXm3ffE8rD9vwE

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Carnevale in Rome

This write-up and photos are from almost a year ago, Carnevale 2012, but they never made it up. I’m trying to upload old pictures and the accompanying stories now with back dates so they are archived in order.

Today (Saturday) we went to Carnevale in Rome. The celebration is ongoing starting after Epiphany and going up to the day before Ash Wednesday (Fat Tuesday). Today is a parade with horses and a horse show later at night. Other celebrations included Fat Thursday, also tomorrow will be another parade without horses, and more celebrations Fat Tuesday.

In many cities the celebrations are for the poor people, in Rome the celebrations historically were focused on the ruling class. The style of the parade and performers reflects this history. Tomorrow we’re going to a traditional farmer-style Carnevale in a small town, so I’ll see the difference better.

Including horses is traditional for the Roman Carnevale. Via del Corso, the main street in Rome that cuts across the city was built to have races for Carnevale. The Roman Carnevale of the renaissance period was the biggest in all of Italy. It centered around the horse races held every evening for the eight days of celebrations. In 1874, a boy crossed in front of the horses and was killed in front of the royal family. They canceled the races going forward and it was like Carnevale itself was canceled.

For the parade today on Via del Corso they started with street performers. They came down and stopped and put on a show before moving down the street. Then the horses. There were an incredible amount. The theme was “Travel and Discovery”, there were many riders and carriages holding people in medieval garb, as they would have arriving to Rome many years ago.

After the parade Daniele and I took a short walk, had a snack. We came back in time to get a good place for the horse show that night. They had set up half of Piazza del Popolo as a sand bottom pen for the performances.

The show was a series a world famous horse performers. They had a few trainers. One was incredible! There were also trick riders. One guy had a pony and some type of horse that was the size of a dog. It was so cute!

After the show Daniele brought me to the restaurant that he wanted to bring me for Valentine’s Day, but it was overbooked. It was founded by two vegetarian sisters in 1987, so most of the menu is vegetarian. The food was exceptionally good, even by Italian restaurant standards. The menu included lots of different interesting items that I’m not used to seeing. We shared a Crostini di polenta al pesto di noci (baked polenta square with walnut pesto) for an antiposto. Then for first course I had a Lasagne mandorle e olive (olive and almond lasagna) and Daniele had Tortelli alla Mantovana (special pasta from Mantova with a sweet filling of squash and dried fruit in a butter sage sauce). For the second course I had Polpette di ricotta e Fichi (“meatballs” of ricotta and fig) and Daniele had Crocchette di cannellino alle erbe aromatiche (“meatballs” of beans and mushrooms). Everything was just so amazing. You know those rare meals when the food is so well prepared that you get that super satisfied feeling and you keep waiting for the over eating feeling, but it never comes? It was one of those. Though I did still feel full the next morning. I don’t normally get three courses– but how could I resist! The place itself was adorable as well. The door outside is locked, you have to rind the bell. They fill up every night with reservations. So you are not being disturbed with people coming in and out while eating. They create an atmosphere like they are sharing a meal with you at there home. In fact the small room with only a few tables is decorated like we could be in someone’s home. It’s my new favorite restaurant!

Le Bistrot in Garbatella
http://www.ristorantelebistrot.com/UK/HomePage_UK.html

Photos from Carnevale
https://plus.google.com/photos/111221349198606775660/albums/5834097767310554817