Wednesday, May 29, 2019

ROME DIARY 5: A Man's Home Is His Castle!

La Casa di un Uomo ѐ il Suo Castello!
DIARIO DI ROMA V
Wednesday May 29, 2019
Partly Cloudy 64°F/18°C in Roma, Latium, Italia
Buonagiornata,

First of all, Tanti Auguri e Buon Compleanno to my daughter Dana Lynne on her completion of another orbit around the sun! Happy Birthday, Mia Cara! May you have many more!

And now, on with my Rome Diary! The next time you see a Detective Danny Reagan, or any other TV
My Front Door
cop effortlessly break down a door using his shoulder or his leg, allow me to show you MY door to my Rome apartment. Now that’s a real door! There’s no opening my Rome door with a credit card. No sir! There are F-I-V-E…count’em… Cinque …. deadbolts built into this steel entryway portal!  It’s the perfect addition to a masonry wall.  (I guess they’re serious in these parts when they say, a man’s home is his castle! Back home a front door is lucky to boast one dead bolt and a chain lock (flimsy). A movie about New York City, however, always gets a chuckle with the display of multiple deadbolts mounted vertically on the inside of the door. I think Italians are more artistic. They build the deadbolts into the door. And, it’s always a steel door. It takes me the better part of five minutes just to lock and unlock my door as I come and go. And if that weren’t enough, each window is covered by the built-in steel shutters the Germans call Rölladen. Behind this security screen, a guy can feel quite safe in this big city. Add to that, that I live on the top floor of a seven-story building, it feels pretty safe around here. But then, Rome is considered one of the safest cities in the world. The only time I feel nervous in my comings and goings are the inevitable trips in the apartment buildings’ claustrophobic elevator. Snug doesn’t even begin to describe it.

I’ve mentioned that I was once a first-time traveler, too. But now, since I will be in Rome a little more than two months, I am going to take advantage of the fact that my son is one of the finest
Michael, MikeBo e Laura a Pranzo!
guida turisticas  in the city, to visit some of the high points I missed during those frenzied first days in  Rome.  If you bear in mind that Roma has been functioning as a city, through good times and bad for more than twenty-seven hundred years, then you will appreciate the section known as Testaccio, Rome’s ancient Tiber River trading  center, which is just a short distance upstream from the equally ancient Port of Ostia Antica, which in itself is another jewel in Rome’s treasure chest of places  to see. Laura and Michael took me to lunch at the Mercato Testaccio, an immense open-air food court designed to dazzle the street food aficionado! The   These days, the wine and olive oil that are still traded here are more likely to be brought to market on trucks in glass bottles from around the European Union, than they are shipped by barge from Ostia Antica in large, terra cotta amphorae as they were more than 2,000 years ago.

Once they were used, the amphorae were discarded at a dumpsite adjacent to Testaccio. Over the
Monte dei Cocci
centuries, the amphorae broke apart under the weight until a large, mountainous pile of terra cotta shards was formed. Today, trees cover the terra cotta mountain, and, it has a name – Monte dei Cocci! Instead of recycling as modern-day Romans are expected to do, they were merely tossed on what has become a huge archaeological site. Nestled beneath Monte dei Cocci is Il Mattatoio al Testaccio, a more contemporary slaughterhouse dating back to only the latter 19th and first three-quarters of the 20th centuries. Il Mattatoio is being recycled for use by the University of Rome’s Architecture and Engineering Schools and an exhibition hall for a Museum of Contemporary Art.



I think I’ve told you about the Italians and their disdain for dryers among their appliances. The apartment I’m renting through Airbnb has been newly renovated with all new appliances, EXCEPT for a dryer to accompany my new washer and dishwasher and other new appliances. Instead, a folding clothes-drying rack was left in my closet along with a random
Clothes Dryer  Italiano!
collection of clothes pins. For guys like me, who are old enough to remember their mom running a load of laundry through the rollers of an old-fashioned agitator washing machine, and then hanging everything on a clothesline in the back yard, this is not a real big deal. BUT, to most Americans, it is. So fair warning, my fellow Americans. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

My language skills are definitely improving, thanks in large part to my tireless insegnante di italiano, Patrizia Papi, at the adult education center at Austin Community College and my daily practice sessions on the on-line app Duolingo Plus. This week, when Laura made an appointment for me at a manicurist for me in my new neighborhood, I was able to communicate well enough to guide the cosmetician through both a manicure and a pedicure. For instance, when she spotted my missing toe, I was able to assure her that I am NOT diabetic, but the missing toe fell victim to an infection after a blister broke following four days of walking all over Venezia! I was able to tell the lady that I now live near my daughter and five grandchildren in Texas. (She really perked up when I mentioned TEXAS, as if there is some special mystique for Italians that Texas has that is not shared by California or New York). I have advanced from total ignorance of the language, as in Io non parlo italiano, (I don’t speak Italian) to Sto appena iniziando a parlare italiano. (I am just beginning to speak Italian). My plea of Dov ѐ il bagno, (where is the bathroom?) has softened into Scusami. Posso avere usare il bagno. (Excuse me. May I use the bathroom?)

Last evening after Laura drove Michael and I downtown to Roma Centrale for an informal meet-and-greet with a group of mutual ex-pat friends, we taxied back to my neighborhood for dinner. Along the way, Michael pointed out that the ristorante we were going to was fewer than 300 meters from my apartment. And, so it came to pass that I was able to experience Osterìa Pizzeria NURAGHE! As in any Ristorante, dinner is served in courses. We opted for pasta from the Primi, meat skewers from the Secondi, and the Salate di Polpo (squid) from a selection of Antipasti, along with some salted chips made from Pizza crust. I originally requested the pasta and real clams, but the cameriere told me that that item was very popular and la cucina had just run out of the item. Undaunted, I immediately was persuaded to try pasta di porcini. (Pasta with Porcini mushrooms). The bill for the two of us, including the grande l’acqua frizzante, came to €44.00 ($49 USD).   Il Nuraghe is a small, one-room restaurant with a neighborhood clientele. It was packed with obviously happy diners.  I’ve heard my son tell his tour guide customers at the conclusion of their excursions to get off the tourist track in Rome and go out into the neighborhoods to experience dining out at it’s tastiest! On that, I heartily agree with my son. (Osteria-Pizzeria NURAGHE, via Icilio Bacci 2, Roma).

Next time, another small adventure of an American traveler loose in Rome. For now,
Caio,
MikeBo

[Mike Botula, the author of LST 920: Charlie Botula’s Long, Slow Target! is a retired broadcast journalist, government agency spokesperson and media consultant.   Mike’s book is available from Amazon Books. You can read more about Mike Botula at www.mikebotula.com]
© By Mike Botula 2019

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