Category: Italy

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Scicli, Sicily and the trip home

Finishing my trip in Calabria and Sicilia…

Our last days of vacation were in the town of Scicli. It was like Noto in that there were tourists as well as people actually working and going about there lives in this city. Noto had considerably more tourists, but Scicli had plenty to offer. There is a canal running through the town with all these little bridges. There are lots of piazzas, I’m actually not sure which was the “main” one. The first big one seemed to be setting up for a big out-door dinner while we were walking through. The second had tons of people just sitting outside enjoying the evening there. The convent, set atop a giant rocky mountaintop, sets the backdrop for the whole city.


(Convento Suore Domenicane del Sacro Cuore di Gesù / Convent in Scicli)

Our B&B gave us a good dinner recommendation, Trattoria del Ponte. The food was great. We were right by the entrance to another room where a child’s birthday party was taking place, which made the night way more entertaining. When we finished dinner I was impressed how alive the city was. Other places we stayed at seemed dead at night (and sometimes during the day).

I think we got an incredibly authentic Sicilian experience here. We were staying at Casa di Pam, a B&B run by Pam and her brother. Just the year before they had moved to this bigger building to accommodate all their business. Though it appeared at the time we and a man also from Rome (though not originally) were the only guests (off season, after all). The other man was looking to buy something near here for retirement. I learned all of this over breakfast. The four of us: the man, Pam, Daniele, and I sat for maybe two hours talking over breakfast. Pam had lived in Rome for a little while, the San Lorenzo area, so we all had so much to talk about. I learned it is very popular for Italians to retire in Sicily where the price of living is significantly lower. I also learned that salaries in Italy are not scaled for region. So a person with the same job makes the same amount whether they live and work in the center of Rome or a tiny little town in Sicily. Which begs the question, why quality of life (and cost of living) have not caught up in these poorer areas. I think there is a large amount of unemployed residents in these areas. There is a political movement from Milan (where the cost of living is highest) to change this and scale salaries for cost of living, but it will probably fail, as so many people benefit from the system. Pam had interesting insight on the local economy. She said there is much more work now than there was years ago for the people who want it, but not everyone does.


(A red Fiat 500 on Ponte Umberto I in Scicli)

That day we started the journey home. In true Daniele fashion, we needed to get one more visit to a beach first (it should be noted Rome has a beach on the same sea). We stopped at a beach near Sampieri. It was a beautiful day for the beach, like every day we had. It was hot and dry. Luckily I can always go into the water when I feel like I’m gong to faint from the heat. We didn’t stay too long because we had so much to drive still.

We stopped at Messina, where we get the ferry to Calabria, to get some pastries for Daniele’s parents (I got one last cannoli). We also picked up some pizza to go from the place we had arrancini on our way in. Daniele got me pizza alla norma, which was the traditional style pasta I had eaten several times on this trip. It’s made with eggplant, peppers, and tomatos covered with grated ricotta salata cheese on top. The pasta is served hot, but this pizza was served cold. It was delicious!

Daniele drove straight home all through the night so we got in at I-don’t-even-know-o-clock. It was how we came down too, but much further this time, since we added the rest of Calabria and a piece of Sicily.

The rest of the pictures from Scicli and everywhere else are in my Calabria and Sicilia album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia#

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Noto Agroturismo, and Modica

Continuing my trip in Calabria and Sicilia…

That night we circled back to Noto, but this time we didn’t stay in the center. We stayed at an old farm in the countryside that takes guests. This industry is called “agrotourism” in Italy and is very popular. The place we were staying at, B&B Anticomar, was really cool. Our room had vaulted ceilings with exposed beams and was all wood (very uncommon in Italy where stone is cheaper than lumber). All the furniture seemed to be antique and was all weird and different. In the morning we pigged out on all sorts of home-made breakfast food served by the owner’s wife. The owner came around and chatted with us, gave us some nice places to check out in the area. But we never went because I wanted to go to Modica… the city of Chocolate!


(Its like the map is dipped in chocolate!)

Modica is a city famous for chocolate. As in regular chocolate, chocolate gelato, chocolate granita, and who knows what. And like any small city famous for something, they are proud of it. At the Sicilian gelateria I frequent in Rome, they have “Ciocolato di Modica” as a standard flavor. I was really excited for this place. In the end it wasn’t the chocolate pig-out I imagined, but the city was way prettier than I expected.

Like many ancient Italian cities, there is the upper/old town and the lower/new town where the old town overflowed past its walls and down the hill. Where we live in Monterotundo, the two are rather separate; we drive to go to the old town. Here in Modica you can walk between them and there are buildings along the incline of the hill that once protected the old center. All the architecture is beautiful. The new town had mostly baroque facades.

We covered the lower, then the upper city, stopping up top for lunch. We found this cool place where I had a tasty black rice dish. Back in the lower city I had a chocolate gelato filled brioche. Imagine a fancy Italian ice cream sandwich. Daniele was having a terrible time because there were on and off showers and Italians hate being out in the rain. Personally I found it refreshing compared to the heat we had been suffering. I couldn’t bring back any chocolate because there were still some days left of our trip and the car gets too hot.I found this considerably more upsetting than getting caught in a little rain.


(City of Modica)


(Chiesa San Salvatore of Modica)

The rest of the pictures from Modica are in my Calabria and Sicilia album: https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia#

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Riserva Naturale di Vendivari, Portopalo, Marzemeni, and Pozzallo, Sicily

Continuing my trip in Calabria and Sicilia…

We left in the afternoon for Riserva Naturale di Vendivari, which is basically a nature reserve. There were paths through some swampy and wooded areas leading to a beach. The beach was really interesting; some squishy plant product covered the sand. There was also ruins of Tonnara. I’m dumb and thought the town was named Tonnara, since it had big signs saying “Tonnara” pointing to it, but turns out lots of cities in Italy, especially Sicily have a “Tonnara” just like they have a port or main square. It is where they fished for and processed the tuna. Obviously, right?

Anyway, Tonnara was really cool, it was basically just ruins that were open to walk through. There were very few other people there. We did pass a middle aged American couple. Before I could say hi and make friends they started talking about us, we were speaking Italian to each other at the time. Nothing bad, just making observations about us clearly in ear-shot in a “I assume you can’t understand me” kind of way. I figured it would be more snotty than friendly to let myself be known as a fellow countryman at that point, besides, I love when people think I’m Italian! (Though it’s only ever the fellow foreigners who do)

(Squishy beach at Vendicari Natural Reserve)


(The ruins of Tonnara in Vendicari Natural Reserve)

Next we went to the town of Marzemeni, founded by Arabs and an important fishing town up until the last century. This was a really small town. It was cute with a color fishing boats in the port. Now a small tangent, Italians do things certain ways and at certain times. I think it’s just that their culture is more homogenous. Hey, they are all Italian after all (except all the immigrants and tourists, of course, but we won’t count them since no one else seems to). This extends to taking vacation in August. In August everyone takes their annual vacation, the radical ones might go in July. Those who stay domestic, typically go south to somewhere with a nice beach like Sicily. Now my boyfriend has a shift-job so he takes his vacation at different times, also he knows me well enough to know it would be pointless to bring me to Sicily in the August heat. So this is June when we were in here. June is off season. It was most obvious in this town. On every street, there was at least one house being renovated, presumably in preparation for the peak season (we actually saw this a lot all over Sicily). Walking through the main square, the locals looked up at us funny in a “who are you?” kind of way. But Daniele loved it. He is convinced the smallest, most hidden, sometimes dirtiest, places have the best food. We actually came back here at dinner time and walked trough the whole town a second time looking for a place to eat. We couldn’t look the first time because restaurants don’t open until 8 PM typically, so we can’t see the menu. There are plenty of places in Sicly that every single thing they make is fish, which I don’t eat, so we need to see a menu before committing. We did eventually agree on a place called Aquaram, right on the port, where seemingly everyone in the town was eating that night. I had a delicious pizza and Daniele really liked his swordfish. Yeah, picking restaurants for our two meals out each day actually ate a lot of out vacation time.


(Colorful boats in the old fisherman village of Marzemeni )


(Church in the old square of Marzemeni)

In between we checked into our hotel in Portopalo, another town just down the road still on the coast, but we didn’t get to explore the town much until the next day. This was our one hotel without included breakfast, so we went to a bar where I got to try the traditional Sicilian breakfast of granita (Italian ice) and a brioche. Sicilian granita is famous for being especially fine and smooth. I don’t remember what flavor I got, but Daniele got the traditional almond flavor– it was so good I didn’t give it back after trying it!

After breakfast we went to the beach. The beach was not that special and kinda “ehh” but there was an island across from where we were. The couple next to us from Northern Italy found the guy you pay to bring you over there in his boat (and back), and we over heard and tagged along. The Island was gorgeous! Cristal clear blue water, it was like a swimming pool. Only the few of us from the boat on the island. Some ruins that I never really got to check out because time for the boat back came all too quickly.

The boat off the island picked us up in time for lunch (they do everything at set times, I told you). We found this kind of cafeteria place higher up in the town with average food. After we saw the rest of the town, including the Tonnara of Portopalo just off the port.


(Edge of the city of Portopalo)

In the afternoon we stopped by the city of Pozzallo. We stayed at the beach for a while first. It was nice to see another city, but the island-beach from the morning at Portopalo was *so* much nicer. This beach had a dirt-sand that left me and my towel all brown and icky and a little damp. There were lots of kids here too, playing soccer and flirting with each other. On the other hand, the city itself was really nice. It had way more going on that the last few towns we had visited. I took advantage of being in civilization to nab some fried goodies that ended up being dinner and my second Sicilian cannoli.

The rest of the pictures from these towns are in my Calabria and Sicilia album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia#

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Noto, Sicily

Continuing my trip in Calabria and Sicilia…

That afternoon we headed to our next city, Noto. Noto Antica lies 5 miles north on Mount Alvera. In the Roman era the city opposed the governor of Sicily, in 866 was conquered by the Arabs, and later became a rich Norman city. In the renaissance, under the kings of Sicily, the city gave birth to many important architects and musicians. However I never saw this original city as it was completely destroyed in the 1693 earthquake.

The new city was built closer to the sea on the left bank of the River Asinaro. It was planned on a grid by Giovanni Battista Landolina. Being rebuild as it was, the new city is itself a masterpiece of Sicilian Baroque architecture, thanks in great part to Rasario Gaglardi, Francesco Sortino, and others.

(Some of the Baroque architecture of Noto)

It is not that strange for cities for be rebuild like this in Italy. In fact the city of Old Calcata, where I spent Halloween last year, was condemned by the government and everyone from the town moved to newly-build New Calcata. Weird, huh?

Anyway, Noto. We stayed at the family owned B&B Federica. They were really sweet. Told us about the festival going on that evening, for the new mayor (actually they were waiting for us to be all settled in to go there themselves). And told us a great place to eat dinner, Trattoria Ducezio. At dinner I solidified a realization that Italians (as a generalization) really like going back to the same restaurants over trying new places.

It wasn’t dark yet (for once) when we were first walking around the city. So we checked out this new mayor celebration, which was basically a big crowd of people in the main street, some with flags. As well as the churches on the give-away-tourist-map, which Daniele (being from Rome) scoffed at saying that even the unimportant churches in Rome are more interesting. He often compares smaller cities to Rome and hates how they put less effort into their tourism industry, but try to take more money out of it. He has a good point, Rome has some amazing tourist sites, and most of them are free. However in these tiny towns you pay even to enter the church. That’s god’s house, who are you to charge an entrance fee?

(Noto celebration for their new mayor)

The next day we covered the rest of the city. We checked out of the B&B right after breakfast, but here is the thing, there are practically no publicly available bathrooms in Italy. Ever. Your best bet is a McDonald’s, and there weren’t any in this little town. My mother and aunt invented the “pee-pee-cino” where you buy a coffee to use the cafe’s restroom, but no guarantee the place even has one, and if it does, it’s probably what the Italians call a “Turkish” toilette. That’s where there is no “toilette” per say, more like what looks like a shower stall just with a bigger hole in the middle and raised sides for your feet. If you are lucky enough to find a toilette, don’t expect a toilette seat or toilette paper. Yes, even in nice places; that has nothing to do with it. It’s just how it is. Now, I’m really good at holding it in for hours and have pretty strong legs for the Turkish (thank you years of biking in San Francisco), so whatever. But I didn’t need a place to pee. I needed a ladies room. See, a bird shit on my shoulder. Twice that day.

Noto was really hot that day, but we covered it all. We saw all the churches and town buildings. We went inside the Madonna del Carmine church. We went through the old convent rooms and to the top of San Francesco d’Assisi Church, where we could see the whole town.

(View of Noto from San Francesco d’Assisi, featuring Corso Vittorio Emanuele and hills in countryside)

Every April Via Corrado Nicolaci is filled with designs of flowers. This street has a steep incline, the palace of Nicolaci noble family on the left and a little church at the top. We were there after the flowers were gone, but the designs were still marked in white and there were pictures around.


(Via Corrado Nicolaci, without the flowers)

We even eventually found sinks for me to wash off the bird poo. After striking out at a cafe and a public bathroom marked on the map, I resolved to wait for lunch. Only to find after we ordered that they didn’t have a public restroom either. But after confirming it was for me, and presumably deciding that I looked respectable enough (she must not have looked closely), the owner decided to let me use their little bathroom in the back. I was luckier the second time I got bombed, we quickly found another public restroom, this one was not locked and even had paper towels. I guess those birds really like baroque architecture.

The rest of the pictures from Noto are in my Calabria and Sicilia album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia#

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Siracusa, Sicilia

Continuing my trip in Calabria and Sicilia…

In the evening we headed to Siracusa where were were spending our third night in Sicily (forth on this trip, there was one night in Calabria). Siracusa was founded 2,700 years ago by the Ancient Greek Corinthians. It was an important Mediterranean power in the ancient world and the birth place of Archimedes.

We were staying in Siracusa, but just outside Ortigia Island or Old Siracusa, where the historical center is and where we spent most of our time. Once we got settled in we took a night walk around the old island. We ate at a restaurant Daniele found online, Sicilia in Tavola, which was delicious!

(Lantern-lit park in Siracusa)

The next day, in the day-light, we really saw all the sights. We started by the ruins of the Temple of Apollo, right there when you first cross the bridge to Ortigia Island. Then we worked our way to the busy Main Square with the main Cathedral. We had walked by all these things the night before, but they looked so different in the daytime. Finally we walked around most of the coast. The waterfront had really interesting architecture in some places, like built-in pools. Also there were views back to the “mainland” (or bigger island of Sicily). Siracusa still has an active port, “Marina di Archimede”.

(Temple of Apollo)

(View of mainland Siracusa from Island of Ortigia)

The rest of the pictures from Siracusa are in my Calabria and Sicilia album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia#

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Gardini di Naxon and Aci Castello, Sicilia

Continuing my trip in Calabria and Sicilia…

Hotels in Italy have limited check in hours, so in the evening we had to leave lovely Taormina and head to our next city: Giardini di Naxon, the next town over. This was 6/11 now. Once we found our hotel, we found dinner at Pianta Pizza, a delicious pizzeria on the main street through town. We spent the next morning at the beach here. It was very different from Taormina, even though it was only five minutes away. Taormina was breathtaking and full of international tourists. Giardini di Naxon was full of locals.

(Beach of Gardini di Naxon)

In the afternoon we stopped by the city of Aci Castello. We just walked around and checked out the castle built in 1076 by the Normans. There was also a wedding going on here. The town is right on a cliff’s edge offering views back to the rest of the gorgeous coast of Sicily.

(Castel of the city of Aci Castello)

All the pictures from Calabria and Sicilia:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia#

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Messina and Taormina, Sicilia

The ferry from Calabria started us in Messina where we walked around a little. It is by far the biggest city we visited the entire vacation. We ate aranchini and pidoni at La Foccacheria. Also picked up some Cannoli. Cannoli are Sicillian deserts (they are actually not that common in the rest of Italy) and these were the best I’ve ever had. The most notable thing there was a glockenspiel-style clock featuring a chicken.


(Chicken glockenspiel of Messina)

That night (June 10th) we stayed in Taormina, my favorite place from this trip. I wish we had spent more time here. That first night, we walked up to the old center, which was up on a hill. It was already kinda late, but the city was pretty happening. It was full of high-end stores and well-dressed travelers. We got a feel for the place then grabbed a bench in a piazza between the Duomo (Chiesa di San Giuseppe in Piazza IX Aprile) and the cliff edge of the town looking down at the sea. That’s where we ate our cannoli from Messina.

The next morning we started off with the beach. It’s not fair that such a beautiful city should also have such a beautiful beach. The beach we went to was “Isola Bella” or Beautiful Island. It was an “island” attached to the mainland by a narrow strip of land. There was an old fort that is no longer used on the island build by the Normans. There were steps carved into the stone and a man-made cave that was used as a boat-dock. Just a perfect background while taking in the Mediterranean sun. We set up our towels on the strip of land connecting the island to the mainland with our feet in the water, there were no waves so you could do that. The water was clear like a swimming pool, all the way through you could see to the bottom.

(Isola Bella of Taormina)

When we were done taking the sun, we hiked from the beach, up to the road, up to the town center, up to the monastery. It was a long steep hike, but along the way were lots of flowers and increasingly beautiful views of the sea below. When we finally reached the monastery at the top there was a wedding going on, so we didn’t hang around long. We worked our way back to the town, where another wedding was going on in the church there, and took in the day-time atmosphere of the city. We saw gardens, tombs, shops, and everything the city had to offer.

(Park in Taormina)

Photos from this day are in my Calabria and Sicilia Album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia

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Calabria

I left Newark, NJ June 7, arrived in Rome the morning of June 8th. That night we left by car for vacation in Calabria and Sicily.

Originally our vacation was not going to start until after the 10th, but scheduling vacation and shifts seems to be a technology that has not yet arrived to Italy. Daniele’s vacation ended up being scheduled to start before I even got back to Italy, never mind the few days I wanted to adjust back to the time-zone. So the same day I flew in we took a little nap in the evening and set off around 1 AM driving south for Calabria.

We arrived in the morning at our first stop, Rose. A very small town in Calabria, easy to reach from the highway or city of Cosenza. There is nothing of interest there and I would not have wanted to visit except this is where my great-grand parents were born. The town is kind of sparse and spread out. The center had the obligatory church, post office, and city hall. The church was a new church built next to the remains of the old. These remains were not much to look at and where the only “old” (in a Roman/Italian way) thing around to see. There were prayer posters and street signs bearing my family names. There were not too many people out and about at 9/10 AM.

(New church next to old church’s ruins in Rose, Calabria)
(Chiappetta was my great-grandmother’s name, it’s everywhere in Rose)

We went to the city hall, which had a shocking amount of people working in it but no one who wanted to acknowledge us. Eventually a man named De Marco brought us in to where they had a cabinet full or giant hand written books. Each book for a year or range of years, with entries for each person born in the town. A note is added on the side when they marry or die. We went through dozens of these books looking for my relatives. We found my Great Grandfather, Lorenzo, easily, but I knew about him. I wanted to find someone still living, even if more distantly related. We found Lorenzo’s younger brother Michelle who had returned to Italy (having not taken well to the US). He had died in 1975 in the neighboring town of Contrada Pizzillara. These were easy to find because I knew the year they were born.

(View of outskirts of Rose, Calabria. That group of houses in the center is Contrada Pizzillara, where my great-grandfather was born )

I wanted to find their younger sister Chiara, who I thought may have a daughter my parent’s age. Unfortunately I did not know the year she was born, just that she was younger. We are talking about 100 years ago, facts get lost, for example half of my family insists Michelle was the oldest. De Marco was patent enough to look through lots of year’s worth of books in search of Chiara. It took especially long because she was born June 3, 1910 in Carbondale, VA, but filed at the end of the 1925 book when her father, Francesco, returned to Rose to add her to the record. In 1925 their first son, Lorenzo was born 27 years earlier; I was getting rather pessimistic by the time we reached these books that my ancestors would have children so far apart. It has a whole story about her (written in Italian) including that her god parents were Tomaso Nicastero and Vittoria Catti. We then looked for Chiara’s daughter, but she was not to be found. Most likely they moved to a neighboring town so the birth record was not recorded in Rose or we are really, really off on her age. I may try Contrada Pizzillara.

(The tombs of Rose were like a city within the city)


We were only in Rose for maybe two hours. After the town hall we walked around the tombs looking for relatives, and there were plenty, but that is only entertaining for so long. I thought I would want days there, but Daniele was right to make it a short stop. There just wasn’t anything else to do. Our next stop was Tropea, on the coast.

(Beach of Tropea)

Tropea was my favorite place we stopped at in Calabria. The beach was beautiful and the old center was, too. If my ancestors had been from here, they may not have immigrated to the United States. Our hotel had a really nice view of the center, which is on a cliff. We stayed here the night of the 9th.

(View of Tropea center from our Hotel)

The next day we went to Capo Vatocano, a beach near Tropea, and stayed there a little while until it started to rain. Then headed to Scilla. Scilla was a decent sized town with *no one* there. It was nice there but hard to find a place to eat. Lastly we took the ferry from San Giovanni to Messina, where my adventures in Calabria ended and Sicilia began.

(Capo Vaticano )
(Some sheep crossing)
(Fort in Scilla)

(Beach in Scilla)

(Saying goodbye to Calabria from the ferry to Sicilia)

All the pictures of Calabria and Sicilia are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia

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Arrivaderci Roma

I am heading back to New Jersey after 2+ months in Rome. It’s just for a short visit (I hope) and then I’ll be back here. It will be nice to see everyone back home, but I’ll miss it here. I wanted to go through a few of the things that I did but never made it into blog posts but I want to remember.

Typically I upload a blog post together with a photo album. So it’s not a coincidence that these are all things that went into my “Rome and Monterotondo” album. I’ll just walk through the whole album.

2/27/2011 We went to Villa Ada. This is another park in Rome. The palace is now used as the Egyptian embassy. This was our first first little outing.

3/3/2011 Daniele makes me some sacchettini or “little sacs” along with the rest of a complete Italian dinner, featuring homemade fresh sauce. I picked them out at the store. They are so cute!

3/6/2011 Carnevale in Monterotundo. This one does have a post.
http://blog.kait.us/test/?p=88

3/26/2011 Parco della Cervelletta. This park is near Daniele’s parents’ house. It has a castle.

3/29/2011 Walking around the center taking pictures, mostly of Tiberina Island.

4/3/2011 We planted our tomatoes. There are more random pictures of them in this album as they grow.
UPDATE: As well as in the Rome album from when I came back for the summer.

4/4/2011 Walk along Via Venito, one of Rome’s more hip streets and the setting for La Dolce Vita (recommended iconic Italian film). Followed by a walk through Villa Borghese.

4/14/2011 Daniele brought me to the important churches in Rome that I still had not seen: San Giovanni Cathedral and Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.

4/17/2011 An Amici di Roma Event. This also has it’s own post:
http://blog.kait.us/test/?p=79

4/20/2011 Walk in park and in Spaninsh Steps. Spanish Steps were decorated with flowers for Rome’s anniversary, April 21st.

4/21/2011 There are lots of whores at night on Via Salaria (the road that takes us home). I have tried lots of times to get pictures, but it is really hard in the dark with us moving in the car. Luckily there are so many. I get lots of tries.

4/24/2011 I spent Easter with Daniele’s family. We went to the beach town of Torvajanica and met some other friends. Then ate the biggest meal ever, of all time. Fun Italian Easter facts: There is no Easter Bunny, but they understand if you compare to La Befana, a witch who gives candy on the eve of the Epiphany – January 5th. They don’t have chocolate bunnies, they have chocolate eggs. The traditional treat is a giant chocolate egg with a prize inside (illegal in US). Story: http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/01/11/surprise-woman-has-illegal-chocolate-egg-confiscated-at-u-s-border/

4/27/2011 Another walk through the center. We hit up the Colosseum, Rose Gardens and a few other spots.

Ahh, Rome, so many good times. Arrivederci (Literally, “until we see each other again”)

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Italian Labor Day

(Man with tri-color beard for Italian Labor Day)

Today was a very hectic and crowded day in Rome. May 1st is the Italian equivalent of Labor Day. Every year the three biggest unions in Italy hold a free outdoor concert in the center of Rome. Also in honor of this holiday, all of the museums owned by the City of Rome (opposed to those owned by the State of Italy) are only one euro today and tomorrow. To top it all off, the Vatican chose to hold the Beatification (first step in becoming a saint) of the late Pope John Paul II this same day. Most Italians thought I was crazy for wanting to be anywhere near the center (think someone from NJ’s reaction to the idea of going to NYC for NYE), but how could I miss all of this?

I went to the Museo di Roma – Palazzo Braschi with Daniele earlier in the morning. I liked it. It told a good story of the different periods of Rome, opposed to focusing on only one. Also it was not just room after room of “Madonna with Child” like so many Italian museums.

We avoided going too close to the Vatican and the Beatification of the late Pope John Paul II. I feel like they could have planned better and chosen a better day, but I’m sure the day has spiritual significance for this sacred ceremony that I am not aware. Most Italians I know chose not to attend and only commented on what a nuisance it was going to be having so many people coming to Rome. It may have been a cool thing to say I was there for, but I’m not that interested in Vatican affairs, so I skipped this to go to the one euro museums and free concert instead.

Daniele headed off to work and I spent the day at this outdoor concert. All of Italy’s biggest artists come to this. The lesser known or newer artists play in the day; the big names play at night. Italians pack into Piazza di Porta San Giovanni and all the space around it. Men from Africa and Bangladesh push through the crowds offering to sell beer, water, or umbrellas for the sun.

I saw almost the whole concert, I was there from about 1:30 PM until it ended at 1:30 AM. In hindsight I should have probably gone to another museum or something else instead of spending so much time there. I left for a little while when I got uncomfortable sitting on the ground. Daniele and I met back up at 10 PM, when he got out of work and we had dinner. When we came back enough people had left that we were able to go right up front. Woo!

The bands and the music were almost all Italian pop. In general each artist came on, performed maybe three numbers, then there was a ridiculously long pause where someone would talk before the next artist. I didn’t really listen, but I presume it was pro-union propaganda. I know very few of the artists, but I listen to enough radio that I recognized a fair amount of the songs, which was fun.

The crowd was largely composed of what I will refer to as European hippies. That is hippies in the modern sense of the word: slightly dirty, typically young people, with dread locks, who may or may not be fighting for a cause. And if you think the American version of these people are dirty, imagine for a moment their European counterparts (you don’t have to imagine, I took pictures). Many of these people had shirts promoting some political message. All of them and most of the “regular” people at the concert were wearing “Stop Nuclear” stickers.

(There were dirtier groups, but I try not to get too close to anyone that might have something contagious while I’m traveling.)

As a back story, as few years ago Italy voted to not allow the development of nuclear power plants and today there are none in the country. As such, they have to buy much of their energy from abroad. A great deal of that comes from France, who has plenty of nuclear power plants, a fair amount of which are right on the Italian boarder. So the risk is still there, but they pay more and to France at that. For to this reason there is a bill now to allow nuclear plants in Italy. However many oppose it and want to keep it out of Italy. End side note.

I always considered Europe ahead of the US in terms of environmental awareness. But I was shocked… SHOCKED at what I saw at this concert. These same people who were wearing “Stop Nuclear” stickers, where tossing the “Stop Nuclear” fliers on the ground; along with other political and environmental fliers and newspapers. All the beer and water that everyone was drinking, the bottles were left right were they were, at most they ended up at a curb. What angered me the most was hundreds of “RAI Radio 2” balloons were handed out to the crowd on only strings. They all quickly ended up in the sky, and soon they will all be in the ocean. Moments after the concert ended the area was filled with machinery and workers who would stay up all night cleaning the mess. They actually used plows to pile the beer and water bottles, effective, except when the tires go over the missed bottles and shoot broken glass to the side. I was taking some pictures after the last act, but literally had to run, yes run, from flying broken glass as the plows started the cleaning. I think every worker in Rome was out sweeping and hosing for miles around– I have never seen such a mess.

(These people must really, really care about the environment to hand out all those fliers)

Umm, guys, I think you forgot your trash…

Run for your lives!

All the pictures from the day:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110501LaborDay#