RST Top 40: #14, Villa Medici



From the Villa Medici gardens, St. Peter's dome at right in distance



The Villa Medici sits just to the north of the top of the Spanish Steps (which probably should be called the French Steps.) It is so close to the heart of tourism in Rome and yet for many people, so far. They just don’t get here, and they should – that’s why we’ve put the Villa #14 on our Rome the Second Time’s must-see list.



 

In trying to figure out how to succinctly capture this extraordinary property, with its layers of Roman history, archeology, art, water-works, etc., I found I couldn’t do better than what we say in Chapter Six of Rome the Second Time when we guide people to the French Academy the villa houses – so here it is in one paragraph:



Exhibit on the ancient aqueducts IN the Villa Medici's cistern



“This magnificent 16th century palazzo, with interventions by Michelangelo and extensive gardens, is near the top of the Spanish Steps, on the Pincio. The art exhibits are high quality and sometimes occupy unusual spaces, including the villa’s 6th-century cistern, constructed to store rainwater should the barbarians cut the aqueducts [which they did]. Musical performances range from jazz to classical. To get there, walk up the Spanish Steps, then left about 300 feet, via Trinita’ dei Monti, 1.”



Everything about the Villa Medici used to be free – you could walk in the villa, the gardens, the art exhibits, the music. Now everything seems to have a cost, e.g. from Euro 8 for a show to Euro 11 for show + guided tour of the gardens.



the "snail shell" stairs in the Villa Medici



Through December 16 there are special Thursday evening visits to the current art exhibit with some special features like tours with the artists. For me, it’s another run, don’t walk; definitely worth trying. The website, with lots of good information, is only in French and Italian. Here’s the Italian link, and you can try translating it with Google or another program: http://www.villamedici.it/it/home/.



We highly recommend going to an exhibit or music offering and walking through the villa (see., e.g., "snail shell" stairs in right photo) and garden on your own. The art spaces in the outbuildings are modern and interesting. The Roman statuary all around is stunning. The expansive view all the way to St. Peter’s dome from IN the garden is magical (photo at top).   And, for a pausa (literally a “pause,” but we would say a break), there’s a small café inside as well. Being in the Villa Medici makes you feel like you are on the Spanish Steps without being mobbed by tourists, hustlers and buskers (or people who are all 3).

Dianne

Most Photographed Building in Rome: Palazzo di Fantozzi

We have no doubt that the most photographed building in Rome is the Coliseum.  But the building most often presented in the city's newspapers isn't the Coliseum--or the Vatican, or the huge memorial to the triumph of Italian statehood known as the Vittoriano.  It is, and by far, the headquarters of the government of the Lazio region.  The regional government was once housed in the "square coliseum" in EUR, but since sometime in the early 1970s has been located in a distinctive structure on viale Cristoforo Colombo, on the edge of the quartiere of Garbatella.  From above (below right), the building takes the form of a an "H," with each of the four standards curving gently outwards; pod-like buildings occupy the openings in the "H."  We've heard the building was originally constructed for the Michelin Tire Company, and that what we've described as an "H" was actually an "X," once a Michelin symbol. 

Despite a lengthy internet search, we couldn't find much about the origins of the structure or its architect.  Our guess is that it's a very good building from 1960s or the 1970s--that is, after modernism had run out of ideas--decades that produced much that was awkward but also a few buildings of merit, like this one.  Although the internet contains the merest suggestion that the building opened in 1984, it is well known  (or at least widely claimed) that the building was the setting for some of the scenes in the Fantozzi film series; it featured a hapless Italian clerk/accountant (Fantozzi), and the first film opened in 1975.  So strong is the identification that the building is sometimes referred to as the Palazzo di Fantozzi.  Also fond of the building is the administrator of a group called "Nostalgici degli anni '70 & '80 (Nostalgics of the 1970s and 1980s).    Bill

Architecture is Back

A fascinating June show on Rome's architectural heritage at the Tempio di Adriano, due passi from the Pantheon, with contributions by faculty and students from the city's leading American colleges and universities.  Bill was  photographing one of the exceptional panel displays when this young lady stepped in front of the camera.

Language Encounters of the the 3rd Kind: Calzoni & una Moglie Ubriaca

Italians are believed to be more tolerant than the French (but then that isn't saying much) in dealing with tourists eager to put newfound language skills to work.  Intrepid traveler and guest blogger Allen Beroza, a retired attorney from Buffalo, New York, put the theory to the test in a pair of encounters, the first in Florence, the second at a Rome restaurant not far from the Spanish Steps. 

Piazza Sant Croce, from in front of the building housing
the Scuola Toscana language school

While attending language school in Florence I discovered a pizzeria located right on the Piazza del Duomo featuring calzone that looked absolutely delectable.  Unable to stop and partake on my first visit, I came back a couple of afternoons later.  Alas, the calzone were all sold out!  Something in me wouldn't let it go.

"Che peccato!" ("What a shame!) I moaned loudly.

Yup, said ye old proprietor, a touch gruffly I thought, they were all gone.

"Sono stato qui due giorni fa" I continued ("I was here two days ago")...

No response in particular...

w I really decided to gild ye old lily, so I said, only partly in jest, "E da due giorni penso dei suoi calzoni" ("And for two days I've been thinking about your calzones...")

Calzone goes
into basement oven

Still nothing.

"Sogno dei suoi calzoni!" ("I've been dreaming about your calzones!")

Oh well, it was just not to be  After all, what could he do?  I actually didn't think there was anything.  My daughter and I trudged away.

A triumphant Beroza, with calzone

When lightning struck, Italian style.  Customers came out of the shop, shouting for us to return.  Ye old prop had decided to make me up a custom calzone.  Though he was the only one tending the pizzeria he left the shop semi-full of customers and took me downstairs, where it turned out he had a full kitchen replete with stacked pizza ovens.  He asked me what I wanted in my calzone, kneaded the dough, loaded it up, popped it in an oven and told me it'd be a few minutes. 

Back upstairs none of his customers who'd been waiting seemed fazed by any of this.

As for me, gotta confess I got a thrill from the exchange, not so much from the calzone.

Via Sistina, looking up toward the top of the Spanish Steps

A little less than a week later I was part of a group of five people looking for a restaurant in Rome on a Saturday night.  We found a likely looking spot on via Sistina called "La Botte" and we went in.

Now this was my first night in Rome, and I was in just a fine frame of mind.  I must tell you that I had been told that Italians have a marvelously colorful way of saying "I want to have my cake and eat it, too."  They say "I want to have a full cask AND a drunken wife!"

And guess what?  "La botte" means "cask" in Italian.

OK, then, as two young waiters and a busboy escorted us to our table I had to try it.  I shouted out "Voglio avere una botte piena..." ("I want to have a full cask...") then paused for a beat before continuing--loudly and in unison with our dining room crew!---"e una moglie ubriaca!"  We instantly became favored customers, swarmed with attention and recommendations throughout our meal, which concluded with grappa on the house all around. 

Allen Beroza

Meet You at the Hospital for Coffee

Americans have plenty of cozy coffee shops, but few are in hospitals, where visitors usually find themselves in bleak cafeterias or pushing buttons on a machine.  So it was with some surprise that we stumbled upon your basic Roman cafe, complete with patio and trimmed bushes, in the courtyard of Ospedale (hospital) San Giovanni, steps from the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano.  We had wandered into the nearly hidden complex one morning, wondering what was inside.  And we stayed to have our standard morning repast: due Americani, uno di cui macchiato (two American coffees [made with espresso, but long, and in a big cup], one of them with milk), and due cornetti (two pastries).  When we returned days later, just to see if we'd been dreaming, the charming, dark-skinned barista remembered our order--but then, what else would you expect?  You're in Italy.    Bill