Sunday, October 10, 2010:
The week went by pretty much as usual. Thursday, Cheri and I went along on the history walk to two churches on the Trastevere side of the Tiber River.
The first church, the Basilica of Santa Maria, which I had been to before. It is first official church dedicated to the Virgin Mary by Pope Giulio I (337-352).
The interior is filled with beautiful XIII century mosaics narrating the life of the Virgin Mary. Then we walked through the small alleys (streets) of the neighborhood where we found an American Steak restaurant!
It was interesting to see how some of the sidewalks in Trestevere were built much higher than the street to give the people who lived on the streets a “front porch” so-to-speak where they could sit, talk to neighbors and children could play without worry of the traffic speeding by. Granted, these buildings were built before the traffic was too “speedy” but it certainly makes for a safer neighborhood now!
The second church, San Francesco a Ripa (Ripa refers to the edge of the near-by Tiber River) is dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi who visited in 1229. The present-day church was built, starting in 1603 and finished in 1701; the original structure on this site was a Franciscan convent. The Italian Army used the church as a barracks from 1873 to 1943.
There is a famous sculpture by Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini in the church, Blessed Ludovica Albetoni, finished in 1674. One interesting part of the church was a very small cell where Saint Francis lived. The cell is kept locked and the only way to get inside is if you can get one of the church workers to take you there. Ferro convinced the church worker to take us upstairs to see the cell, but he didn’t seem too happy to do it. A few other “tourists” followed along. He told us the story of Saint Francis, but his accent was pretty heavy, so it was hard to understand.
There is an altar inside the cell now, and the ceiling has been raised at least two feet from its original height. There is a stone set behind a grate on the wall that Saint Francis supposedly used as a pillow. My photo of the stone is too dark to show up well; the cell was dark, there were no windows.
Friday morning Cheri and I left town to attend an international graphic design conference in Bologna, Italy. It was a week-long event, but we went for the last two days. We met, bright and early, at 5:15 am. This is an interesting time of day in Rome. Walking through the quiet streets of the Ghetto, both bakeries are busy getting ready for the day, while the rest of the neighborhood is sleeping. I always feel like I’m walking through an empty movie set early in the morning. The buildings are so tall and close together and the lighting is so unique nothing seems “real”. As I was getting ready to step out to the main street I passed a man washing his car! Who washes their car at 5:15 in the morning?! If nothing else, Cheri and I had a “trial run” for when we leave on the north field trip. We thought the busses started running at 5 am. When I met Cheri on the street she was standing by a different bus stop than I had expected. The night bus had just passed by and she was reading the sign to see what time its shift ended. The sign said the last run of the bus was at 5:10 am, but that its last destination was the train station. At our normal bus stop the express bus we wanted didn’t start for the day until 6:30, but the other bus we could take started at 5:30. Our train was leaving Rome at 6:15, so I said, “we can catch the 5:30 bus and still have plenty of time to catch the train.” It is only a 15-minute bus ride to the train station, so we stood waiting for the day bus routes to start. Just about that time, we see another night bus speed around the corner! It was 5:25, so it was either late or it takes 15 minutes to get from the start of the route to our corner. Still, bus 64 was starting at 5:30; we were ok. More people had joined us on the platform, many with luggage. We started reading the sign again and wonder that bus 64 may start its route at 5:30, but there were at least six stops from the beginning of the route to where we were standing. Two groups of people decided to take a taxi, so they wouldn’t miss their planes. We stood there a little longer and decided we were cutting it too close for comfort. Bus after bus came, but no 64. We cut across the street to catch a taxi when we saw bus 64 turn the corner to Largo Argentina, so back we ran to the bus stop. It was 5:45 am. We pulled into the station at 6 am and walked as fast as we could inside to check the boards to see which platform our train was on. Thankfully, our train was NOT on the farthest away platform, we boarded about five minutes before the train pulled away! I know they have travel warnings out for American citizens in European countries right now, but the security at the Rome train station has not changed. There is NO security at the Rome train station, no bag check, no metal detectors, nothing. Good thing for Cheri and I or we would have missed our train.
Cheri has never been to Bologna, so it was new to both of us. I had googled “hostels close to Piazza Maggiore” and found Hotel Centrale with an available double room with a bathroom “ensuite” and a free breakfast. According to the website, the hostel was about a five-minute walk to Piazza Maggiore, and from the train station, we only had to take one bus, then walk 50 yards to the hostel door. It was right! It took 15 minutes to take the bus and then walk to the hostel, and it took about five minutes to walk to Piazza Maggiore. The hostel was very clean, included towels (not all hostels provide towels) and a hairdryer, and the breakfast was exceptional. We were too early to check in when we arrived, so they stored our bags in a private room while we left to go to the conference. For an international conference, their web site had much to be desired. We really were NOT sure where the conference was located! We knew where the Barilla packaging exhibit we wanted to see was located but not the conference itself.
We arrived at the building the exhibit was in at 9:40 am, and the doors were locked. A person inside mouthed that the doors would open at 10.
We walked around Piazza del Nettuno, where in the center you can find Neptune’s Fountain, an early work (1566) of Giambologna’s and his first major commissioned piece by Pope Pius IV.
Piazza del Nettuno connects to Piazza Maggiore, a large square in the center of Bologna where you will find the Basilica of San Petronio, which is the fifth largest church in the world and dedicated to the patron saint of Bologna, Saint Petronius. They are still working on the façade of this church. We didn’t go inside, but can hold 28,000 people! That’s a big congregation! There was some kind of Bike Race celebration/promotion going on when we got there, which made things even more crowded.
We entered the exhibit at 10 am and found that all conference events were to be held in the same auditorium. The morning session of “conversations” started an hour late, but no one seemed to care. Italians are much more laid back about things like this than Americans. We thought it was unprofessional and even a little rude. Then, every speaker spoke in Italian. Granted, the conference was in Italy, but their website said all events, except for two, would be in English. When they broke for lunch, one of the conference organizers introduced Cheri and I to a sculptor and environmental artist, Gordon Young, who was leading one of the workshops for students. He was a lot of fun to talk to.
We left to get something to eat and do some site seeing before the evening session. It looked like it could rain all day, but it never did. I had gone on a site to find the “major attractions” in town, not knowing if or how much time we would even have to look around town.
Bologna has two famous towers in the Piazza de Porta Ravengnana called Torri degli Asinelli (97 meters) and Garisenda (48 meters). They both lean, but the taller tower (Torri degli Asinelli ) is more upright and people can climb to the top of the tower for €3. I’m not sure when it is open, but we really didn’t have time anyway. They warn you that the staircase is quite narrow in case you are claustrophobic.
We also walked down through a small market area: fruits, vegetables, bread, chocolate and fresh fish!
When the evening session started, everything was in Italian again. This time one of the organizers sat between Cheri and I and interpreted what the speakers were saying. When the evening session was over, we were told that on Saturday there would head phones available to hear interpreters and that the session would start at 10 am, instead of at 9 am, which is what was printed on all of their materials.
We were up early, had a nice breakfast, then decided to do a little site seeing before the morning session started. We walked down to an area called the Seven Churches.
It’s one large complex of seven churches built together. It’s really neat. The oldest part was built in the 5th century over a temple of the goddess Isis. The newest part is from the 13th century.
There was a huge flea market, mostly old furniture and jewelry, in the piazza in front of the seven churches. We knew we were going to be late getting to the conference, but we figured we could be “fashionably late” and they could easily start an hour later than they had told us. When we arrived, the speaker was speaking Italian, so we got our headsets. The auditorium was packed. There wasn’t anywhere for us to sit. After the first three speakers, the audience was told that the evening session would start at 3 pm instead of 6 pm as scheduled. This was good news for us because our train was leaving Bologna at 6:50 pm… but from their website you couldn’t tell what time any events were taking place, so we had thought we’d get back to Rome before it got too late. At 3 pm, Gordon Young took the stage, our headsets came off and about 90% of the audience put theirs on. Young is from Scotland, so he was speaking in English. Andy Altmann from Why Not Associates, a graphic design firm from London, followed. They have collaborated with Young on a number of different projects that specifically involve typography. We were thrilled to see both of these presenters. It was time for us to leave. The hostel had graciously held our baggage for us while we were at the conference, so we stopped by there to pick up our luggage and crossed the street to catch the next bus back to the train station. It took us 15 minutes to do all of this, so we were at the train station EARLY. We were both a little hungry, but we didn’t want to walk anywhere so we checked out the vending machines. I’d had a craving for M&Ms the day before and guess what was in the vending machine! That’s right – M&Ms! – they were good!
Overall, Bologna seems to be a “newer” city than Rome, or at least the parts we were in. They had their narrow streets, just like Rome, but most of the buildings we saw seemed “newer.” There are a lot of smokers in Rome, but everyone seemed to smoke in Bologna. I guess the surgeon general hasn’t been promoting the dangers of smoking in Italy. There were large masses of students everywhere, and they all smoked. Between the smoking and the amount of coffee Italians drink, I wonder what their longevity is like?
It’s Sunday and good to be home. I would have liked to sleep late, but Cheri, Brenda and I had already made plans to go to Porte Portese Market in the morning. We were looking for material for an upcoming book workshop, plus whatever catches our eye. I ended up buying a top, socks (because I was wearing my last clean pair), and a gift or two. I noticed these sweatshirt jackets that say ROMA on the front… in Cyclone colors! I decided I had to buy one, but the vendor didn’t have one in my size. That’s one thing about the market. If you are a size zero you are going to find all kinds of bargains. There are times I feel I need and XXL when I’m shopping in Rome. Their sizes run small and Italians wear their close TIGHT! It is absolutely essential to have friends with you when you try clothes on because there are very few mirrors and friends will tell you the truth about how something looks. The vendors would say that you look perfect even if the buttons were popping off! We walked the entire market this weekend so it was around 2:30 pm. when I got home. We met again at 3:30 to walk down to the American movie theatre. The Town with Ben Affleck was playing. It was good.
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