Things SHE misses in Rome - part I

 

1. Statues to tax guys! This one, to Quintino Sella, Minister of Finance for the new Republic, 1869-1873, statue in front of the Ministry of Finance in Rome...

(1. a.) complete with naked people at its base - I'm sure they're some kind of mythological figures who loved collecting taxes.

(One of our favorite tax man statues was featured in an earlier post here.)   

2. Creative ways to advertise     

    

3. Holes in the formidable Roman Aurelian walls or views through other Roman buildings that make one think of a James Turrell skyspace. (We've also found those elsewhere in Rome, here, and here.)

4. Weird exhibitions of ...well...in this case, Tupperware (with the theme of bringing color to a piazza near you).

Dianne   

Fetish Series: Rome's Body Parts

Rome is the world's center for over-sized body parts.  We first became aware of this some years ago, on a visit to the Capitoline museums, when in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori we found the sculptural remains of what once was Constantine's body, or rather a 40-foot statue of it.  There was a hand, feet, part of arm centered by an elbow, and other parts, all of them enormous.

Then just this spring, attending an evening jazz concert in the industrial chic space of the museum at the Centrale Montemartini, a former electrical works built 1910-1912, we noticed a large arm poking out from stage right.  That's our friend J, who narrowly avoided the grasp of that monster arm on her way to the ladies' room.

It makes sense then, that today's sculptors would take part in this curious exercise in gigantism, as one has done in the absolute center of the EUR complex to the south of the Centro, directly under where a great triumphal, imperial arch was to have been constructed, by and in tribute to Mussolini's Fascist regime, to straddle the multiple lanes of via Cristoforo Colombo as it made its made its way to the sea.  That's Dianne (left) and our house-guest,
Judith (right), laboring to strike a pose appropriate to the presence of a big foot.      Bill

Jazz, Ancient Statuary and 20th-Century Dynamos

As most of you blog-readers must know by now, we're jazz aficionados, and Rome hosts wonderful jazz concerts at every level and taste.

Rome has outdone itself this Spring as its spectacular Centrale Montemartini museum (see our blog post of March 9; it's #22 on our RST Top 40 list) hosts jazz weekends now through June 5. Run, don't walk, to the museum to buy advance tickets. They're only Euro 7. Wine and snacks will be available (cash bar, as we would say) too.

The concerts are at 8 and 10 p.m. each Friday and Saturday (except none on May 1 or May 14).

The performers are national and international stars, including drummer Roberto Gatto (right) who leads his quartet to close out the "Montemartini Blue Note" series, Danilo Rea, and Enrico Pierannunzi, to name just a few.

You can check out the series on the museum's website - note you can't get the info from clicking "Eng" at the top; you can let Google translate the page for you. The Eternally Cool blogsite also has some information on the series.

See our March 9 blog post (link above) for information on the museum. The easiest way to get there is to take Metro Line B (blue) to Garbatella and walk directly West (back over the tracks). It's more or less a straight line through to via Ostiense and the museum (at # 106); it's open Tuesday-Sunday 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. Closed May 1. Hope to see you at some of the concerts!

Dianne

Grace when you need it: Italy's small shrines

Italy is a Catholic country, and we're reminded of it at every turn. There are over 300 churches in Rome, and hundreds more shrines on, it sometimes seems, every corner. It's easy to become inured to the ubiquitous symbols. Yet, there are shrines that make us stop and pause, and here are a few of them.




Almost every mountain top in Italy (and sometimes even just the top of a hill) has a cross. It's often the only way we know we actually got to the top, since usually there are no other markers. The one below, which we've posted previously, is particularly poignant. I thought an out-of-sorts teen had bent some of the metal around this cross, but the metal turns out to be a part of a small military plane that crashed into Monte Pellechia on Christmas Day, 1960.





The Virgin Maryshrine at the top of this blog would appear to be like hundreds of others. But this one made me stop because it is lit by a modern, eco-friendly fluorescent bulb. In the small hill town of Segni.


Shrines where people have died are increasingly common in the U.S., as well as in Italy. This one is beautifully arranged and maintained--complete with cigarette lighter, and it touched my heart. In the seaside town of Fregene.






Statues, usually to Mary, but not always, often show up on the beginning portion of a hike, and usually bless the mountains, the mountain town and, we hope, the hikers. On this hike, we went from the town of Sonnino to the top of the Lepini mountains' Monte della Fate (Mountain of the Fairies), part of a brigands hide-out area in the 18th and 19th centuries. The vista overlooks the Tyrrhenian Sea and Circeo. Here we were protected by not one but two Marys--one at the beginning of the hike (with an apparent attempt to shield her from vandals) and one at the top.














We welcome additions to touching and unusual shrines and shrine locations. Dianne