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
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.
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| My Front Door |
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
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.
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| Michael, MikeBo e Laura a Pranzo! |
Once they were used, the amphorae were discarded at a dumpsite
adjacent to Testaccio. Over the
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.
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| Monte dei Cocci |
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
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| Clothes Dryer Italiano! |
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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