Memorial Day: An Inadvertant Celebration

After a harrowing week of Italian lessons, Will and I hit the road and headed to the beach.


The train goes to a town called Fondi, just about 90 minutes from Rome. From Fondi, you can take a quick bus to the beach at Sperlonga. We arrived in Fondi around 11am, and the next bus wasn't until just after noon, so we took this taxi.

The little man in orange walked by us saying "taxi" so we said "si, alla spiagga?" He nodded and we followed. We followed him right into his little Fiat, or whatever the car is here that is just as regular as a car can be. I remember calling for a car service from a party at the infamous Sackett Street house once and nearly missing the damned thing because as I stood looking for a Lincoln Towncar, the Subaru that had come to get me was about to leave. But that was Brooklyn. This is Rome. Anyway...

You'll notice, in the above photo, that there is another dude in the front seat. My overactive imagination sauntered back in to remind me of a silly cab ride I took from Manhattan to Brooklyn one evening with Carrie Haugh and Pammy Bloom. Apparently it was "bring your friend to work" night for cab drivers, because the front seat of this cab was full, driverside and shotgun. We could hardly stop laughing as we kept asking "why are there two people in the front seat?" It wasn't actually funny, it was mildly disconcerting, but as it so often is with the best of times, we still look back and laugh. You really had to be there.

Will and I were both a little curious (read: nervous) as to why our "taxi" driver had a friend, especially after having spooked ourselves by watching the last few episodes of Lost. We were convinced that we were headed nowhere fast. (the "friend" was actually just another passenger-- we spotted him selling sunglasses on the beach later that day)

We, and our overactive imaginations, were actually headed to the lovely Sperlonga, a gorgeous little beach town.
We didn't really make a plan for the trip, other than that we would find a place to stay when we arrived. We went to a few places and when we found no vacancies, one kind hotellier made a call for us to the Virgilio Grand Hotel.

The man at the front desk offered us either an executive suite or a standard room in the attic. Figuring we'd be there only one night, we crossed our fingers, took the attic and almost immediately began to worry. Would we be stuck with cobwebs and cleaning supplies? No, our fears were alleviated when we got off the elevator on the third floor and saw our little penthouse sweet.

The attic turned out to suit our needs perfectly. Sure, I bashed my head into the slanted wall. Upon checking for damages, I saw that many before me had also fallen prey to the slope. In the end, it was a small price to pay for the lovely surroundings. Perhaps the most excellent and decadent part of this housing option was la loro piscina.


After quickly dropping off our things and admiring the tiles in the loo, we headed for the beach. We walked a while and found a nice little place to have lunch. We sat outside, the Mediterranean mere meters away, and discovered a peculiar problem that seems to pester Italian restaurants, especially those dal mare... I GATTI!

Our waitresses were very sweet and smilely and extremely patient with our linguistic struggles, but they turned on a dime to angrily shoo away the menacing felines. Over our primi piatti, we were treated to an actual cat fight!

After lunch, we walked up the main street (yes, there is only one) for gelatto, then strolled up the cliff to watch the sunset which was pretty spectacular. We saw a young couple being photographed and filmed; we suspected it was a dating show for Italian television since they were dressed as if they were gearing up to stand in a velvet rope line at a Manhattan nightclub. We walked back to the main drag for an apperitivo (in Sperlonga, a glass of Prosecco is a very economical two euros. I might never come home...) then back to the hotel for dinner.

The next morning, I quickly dealt with a minor sunburn (*note to self: purchase and apply sunblock before exposing skin to sun) and we got back to the beach for a little bit before the sun got too strong.

There is one screaming difference between beaches here vs. those in the states, and I can't believe I didn't mention it sooner! Here in Italy, and as far as I know in a good chunk of Europe, there is a mysterious yet refreshing lack of self-consciousness among men as well as women. Pot-bellied fellows have no problem in a teeny Speedo, and bikinis aren't reserved solely for the physically fit ladies. Big ladies, little ladies, old ladies and young-- they all sport the two-piece like runway models. And the bulk of Italian women just don't seem interested in tanlines.

I think every American teenage girl should get to visit a town like Sperlonga. For many reasons.

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

Learning Italian is tough. I like to talk, I pretty much always have something to say, and to have to struggle to find the words is a challenge. Our teacher speaks more Spanish than English, so when I get lost, I start speaking in Spanish, which is leaving me really confused. The little words, like articles and conjunctions, are not the same. I'm right now in some bizarre state of SpItalian. But I can order coffee with confidence now, which is really all I cared about in the first place.

After a three hour lesson yesterday, Will and I were burnt. We cruised around the city a little, came home for dinner and found some updates on news from the homefront.

Wow. Everyone's been busy since we left!

Enron is done for now. That makes me feel better. When I watched the Enron movie, I found it so infuriating I had to take a break in the middle. Strange, though, that these guys ripped off so many people and their own company and all the money goes to their lawyers. Is it too late to go to Law School? Talk about The Smartest Guys in the Room...

Then I came across this headline:

Project to House Homeless, Artists

BROOKLYN — A 217-unit glass tower breaking ground today on Schermerhorn Street is an affordable housing project with a creative mix: 60 percent of the apartments will go to formerly homeless individuals — or those with special needs such as AIDS patients — and the rest will be reserved for artists and actors earning below $30,000.

The article went on to say:

The $59 million project will be run by the Actors’ Fund of America with Common Ground Community and will have on-site mental health, employment assistance, addiction recovery and other supportive services. A 200-seat black box theater will be open to the groups for gallery space and dance performances.

“We want this to be a hub for the community,” said Barbara Davis, chief program officer for the Actors’ Fund. “The neighborhood is getting more expensive for residents and arts groups.”

The Actors’ Fund has worked on other housing projects and conducts housing seminars for actors. The location above the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station, Davis said, was a plus.

“I wish we had a dozen more like this,” Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz said. “There’s no doubt that Brooklyn is getting more expensive not just for artists, but even for borough presidents and anyone earning a decent living.”

Cost effective

• Common Ground said these apartments cost roughly $14,925 per tenant per year compared to $20,000 per year for a cot in a city shelter; $60,000 for a city jail cell; or $432,500 a year for a city hospital bed.

That just leaves so much room for the imagination to run wild!

All I can think of are images from the movie Dark Days, where the homeless train tunnel squatters are given apartments in the Bronx after the city boots them from the hovels they've created underground on Amtrak's turf. As far as I remember, they all had or were in the midst of severe drug problems. Wouldn't you have to be a crackhead to sleep in the subway tunnels in NYC?! And it was all warm and fuzzy and feel-good-movie-of-the-year style when they were cleaned up and became residents in a bona fide apartment building. But never once while watching the film did I think, 'gosh, I wish I was their neighbor!'

Anyone heard what the selection criteria is for residents of this new artist/homeless housing? Please keep me posted, and I'll report back with anything I find.

On a lighter note, I came across this when I was checking out random blogs:


Kind of sweet, right? But wait. What is that the little boy is holding?


I think this kid is going to grow to resent his little brother or sister. Or his mom for handing him the stick she peed on. And definitely dad for never putting down the damned camera!

Construzione

The most annoying thing about my apartment in New York was that we were on the first floor. It was one flight up, not the ground floor, but my bedroom was in the front so we heard everything that went on outside: the wretched all-hours Ice Cream Truck (which I'm still convinced dealt drugs), any and all conversation (there was also conveniently a payphone in front of our building) and construction.

Just when we thought we had escaped the clamor of the city, it's back. Both yesterday and today, Will and I awoke to the ear piercing sounds of jackhammers tearing up the sidewalk on our street as well as the street perpendicular to ours.

It's not that I mind waking up at 730am, but it's really like some sort of cruel joke. We had dinner with Emanuela and Steven (the couple from whom we're subletting) and they said that every time elections come around (like now) the streets seem to get re-paved, a sort of calling card on the part of the incumbent.

I'm all for local politics and all, but can't they just hang fliers and kiss babies and quietly shake hands? TV commercials? Anything but jackhammers!!!

La Disposizione Terra (The Lay of the Land)

Will and I started our Italian Lessons today. Among many options, we chose Centro Linguistico Italiano Dante Alighieri as our language school. It is at Piazza Bologna, which is a few stops from our house, so we get to become familiar with another part of the city. We got there in just enough time today to have a quick espresso at the bar across the street from the school.

He thinks that I will learn faster than he, since I have a working knowledge of Spanish. I think that he already has a basic knowledge of the language from hearing it from his mom and family all the time.

Will we both pass the test straight to Level II? Will Will try to cheat off of my paper? Will I ever stop confusing Italian with Spanish? Tune in after eighteen more hours of individual lessons and find out!

One thing I never knew about the Italian Language is that the alfabeto contains only 21 letters-- there is no J, K, W, X or Y. Italians use words and names that contain those letters, but only those borrowed from languages. The sounds are present, but only by combinations of other letters.

Before our class, we spent the day exploring the neighborhood just next to ours. We are in Testaccio, which, if it were New York, is like the Lower East Side to Trastevere's East Village.






Just over the bridge to Trastevere, a gigantic Campari sign. This made me very happy. This made Will nearly nauseous.






We had the apperativo here the other night, just a few blocks from our apartment. From 630p-8p, people go after work, have a couple of drinks and feast on the amazing buffet of little sandwiches, pizzas, pasta and salad. It's complimentary. We skipped dinner that night.










The metro hearkens back to New York in the 1970s and 80s.








But the ads are totally contemporary. This one lines an entire escalator path at the Tiburtina stop (near Piazza Navona). It seems like the longest escalator outside of Moscow. Maybe it's because this ad just kept rolling by.





And everywhere you go, the Romans are totally scooter happy, especially near the university where these photos were taken. They park them on the sidewalk, behind cars, anywhere! The seemingly hippest thing is to wear a very expensive suit, smoke a cigarette and wedge your mobile phone under your helmet to talk while you scoot. I'm trying to get a photo of that one.


Here, Will's and my favorite, the BMW Executive.

The Simple Things

We live two blocks from this big pyramid. Our metro stop, conveniently, is Piramide (pee-RAH-me-day).

There are some fun little conveniences/niceties about our apartment, besides the bright orange kitchen counter.








Big flush (left) or little flush (right)?






You probably can't tell, but it was totally dark when I took this photo. You can see a teeny tiny bit of light eeking its way through the most amazing creation known to man! Every window is fitted with two layers of shutters that keep enough light out to encourage daytime napping. It's so very nice.








April Fresh, all year round!









Will and I delared Sundays to be "No Internet Day". It quickly got changed to "Just Email but No Web Browser Day", a compromise which I'll gladly take. We spent the bulk of yesterday doing almost tourist-y stuff. The above photos were taken at and around the Trevi Fountain (you may recognize it from about every Fellini film). We then walked to Piazza Navona and the Spanish Steps.



At Piazza Navona, we came across the coolest little man and his puppet show. All of a sudden, his CanCan music went away, he changed glove-puppets and Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" came blasting out of nowhere. It was really a sight to see this cool little Italian dude moonwalking with his index and middle fingers. Go figure.

Other than that, it's been pretty much just hanging out, figuring out what's in the apartment and adjusting to the harrowing lunch/nap/dinner schedule. The food here is incredible-- what we pay a whole paycheck for at Whole Foods is business as usual down the block at the Conad. In his blog, Will puts it quite well:

One thing I’ve noticed since being here is how much better the food is. The quality of the produce in particular is much better than it is in New York. I’ve always thought that the “Organic” label was sort of stupid. No one seems to know what it really means anyway (is it that it contains carbon atoms?) and anyway, isn’t it sort of like being against science? And Europe tends to go way farther with their abhorrence of genetically modified food (“OGM”) which again, seems somewhat misguided to me. But, goddamn, if that’s the secret to having tomatoes like this I’ll take the misshapen, funny colors, lasts for 2 days before rotting food. I watched Super Size Me right before leaving and it certainly has made me appreciate how important the food we eat is. And on that note, we’re off to the supermarket for some veggies…

And on that note, I'm off for my afternoon nap-- by the time you know it, it'll be time for dinner! I'd better rest up.

Roman Hobble-day

We went here this morning. If you look to the right side of the photo, far off in the distance, you can see the Coliseum. Lots of tourists, but really, it's not like we're natives at this point. But wow, is this city old. It's amazing to see stuff that's been around, well, WAY longer than anything, mixed up with cars, digital cameras and Japanese tours.

The big snag was that there was a metro strike. Will had heard of this yesterday, but we thought it would just be the big trains (similar to the MetroNorth or Boston's Commuter Rail), but it included the subways:



This is where things got tricky. Now follow my train of thought here. Will sent me this the other day:

I find every ambitious town sends you a message. New York tells you "you should make more money." LA tells you "you should be better looking." Rome tells you "you should dress better." London tells you "you should be hipper." The Bay Area tells you "you should live better." And Cambridge tells you "you should read some of those books you've been meaning to." (Paul Graham)

Did you catch that part about Rome? I figured I should get a little more dressed than usual-- I'd been wearing my dirty orange Pumas and blue sweatshirt for the past two days. Now that I'm here... you know, "when in Rome..."

So I wore the completely wrong shoes. Will even asked me as I put on these ridiculous beasts, "um, we're going to be walking a bit, are you sure you want to wear those?"

And I lied the way every woman lies on the topic of shoes: "No, actually they're really comfortable."

If you define "comfortable" as "blisters on the bottoms of your feet" then it wasn't so much a lie. Any shoe that adds about four inches in height can never be comfortable. They weren't stilettos, but they were not "comfortable". So now I sit, hobbled.

One thing mildly cheered me up in my state of podiatric pain:



I wonder if they know what this means in the states. I didn't know this, but Captain Trivia (aka Will) said that slogan started out as an anti-litter campaign in the biggest state in the union.


Welcome to Italy. I think I'm gonna like it here.

I Made It!

From New York to LA and back, then to Dublin and finally Rome! 22 hours of travel, with pitstops in three separate time zones has left me a little groggy and a little spaced out, but I am very glad to be here. And very glad to not be on a plane anymore.


Will had been busy before I got here. He was out with his parents in Umbria and brought us back a little something for the house. No, that's not a giant gallon of motor oil. Nope, not olive oil. That's 20 litres of wine. And 20 litres in the bottles.

Anyone wanna come visit now?

A Day at the Beach

Niki and I spent the afternoon yesterday at Venice Beach. There was only one musclehead doing squats at "Muscle Beach", which was sort of a letdown. But we walked on the beach, I put my feet in the frigid Pacific, saw some surfers.

And the tiniest skater boy ever!

Ok, I Understand Why People Like It Here

I mean, really. The weather is so nice that even the homeless are more or less happy. Or at least looking to solicit a laugh, if not a little change...

Los Angeles

Well, you can all exhale, because I made it!

It was really down to the wire, but I did it.

And I even got a nearly 2-hour nap in before I left.

I slept for most of the plane ride. Thankfully. There was a screaming baby in front of me. Personally, I think he was faking. His parents kept apologizing nervously to everyone, and the woman sitting next to them had the fires of hell in her eyes. Thank god for the ipod. I just put on my little Italian lessons and kicked back to LaLa land. I didn't learn Italian during my nap, but I made it to California without killing this kid.

Going to Venice and Malibu today. I'm hoping to get a little weightlifting in with those huge dudes at Venice Beach. Photos to come.

p.s. this post is posted as being posted at 1030, but it's 730 Pacific Time. I think I might have a little case of reverse jetlag, because I'm up and raring to go! Well, maybe the "raring" part is an exaggeration, but I'm definitely awake.

Procrastination

Ok, there are officially clothes in the suitcase, so I can give myself a break. It's hard to pack when I'm waiting to see if my laundry comes back at all from the stranger on a bike I threw it at yesterday. Yeah, should have thought better about that one. Anyway, here's a picture of Andrea at Frank on Second Ave. We went out for lunch yesterday (I know, why on earth would I go to an Italian place two days before I leave?). I really just snuck the photo so I could show everyone that the waiters were standing on the bar to put wine bottles away. I know. Genius.

Will the suitcase get packed? Will my bedroom entirely empty out? Will the last Caveman Robot kill me? Well, in 23 short hours, we'll certainly see!

Double Gah!

So I threw my gigantic bag of laundry at the first guy I recognized riding a bike outside my apartment. I hope I get it back tomorrow, or I might be in Italy with no pants. I know they have pants to buy in Italy, but sheesh!

Gah!

Ok. 7pm. Friday. Should be at the theater, but am waiting for the guy to come pick up the laundry. Need to have the laundry back so I can pack tomorrow. I get on a plane in 36 hours. Wanna take bets as to whether or not I'll sleep?

Our Own Little Roman Empire

Will is in Rome and he's snagged us an apartment! I had originally emailed these folks who had put an ad on craigslist Rome months ago, and it turns out it's just about perfect. I mean, come on. Look at the bright orange countertop! Could there be anything wrong with an apartment with a bright orange anything?

Apparently it's next to a giant pyramid. I can't see a pyramid on Google Maps, but I'll take some photos when I get there.

Chinatown Bus, No More!

It's official. I will no longer take the Chinatown bus to Boston. Sure, it's cheap, but there's just so much more comfort on the Amtrak! You can recline your seat, you can have a snack, you can plug in your computer, and you can make a movie.

Now the train can cost five to seven times as much as the cost-effective fifteen dollar Fung Wah, but my credit card and I can suck it up. We're worth it!

It Has to Get Worse Before It Gets Better!

This is just a MESS! The room is covered in a lovely blend of dust and dry cleaning, but the bookshelves are making their way toward empty! Boxes are slowly getting filled, some will go vacation in a luxury downtown storage unit, some will find a new home via the Goodwill.


Both Will and I are way too easily distracted by anything and everything (hence this post). Will is putting DVDs on his hard drive and I'm putting some CDs on my Itunes... catching up on emails, leafing through photo albums, walking in the park... anything to avoid packing.

He gets on a plane on Monday and I head into the busiest week of my life. Stop blogging, get packing!!!

Au Revoir, Lulu!

Today was my last day at "work". This was, by far, my best dayjob like ever. I said goodbye (for now) to Lara, Thierry and sweet sweet Lulu. It's funny. Since the Lu is so little, she has exactly no clue that it was such a sad occation. That made it a little easier. But when your whole workday is spent making faces and blowing zerberts on a little baby belly, it makes you kind of never want to leave.

Last Minute Working Girl

I booked a promo gig with CNN a few weeks back. It's for the Glenn Beck Show. And then they called me back for more yesterday! Great to squeeze in a little paid gig before taking off for Europe!

I had never heard of Glenn Beck, but thanks to the wonders of Wikipedia, I learned a little bit: he's a political pundit, conservative and seemingly controversial. Apparently his radio show airs mainly on XM Satellite Radio, which at this point, I've only seen in Zipcars.

In a perfect world, I would probably choose not to lend my voice to something so out of line with my own personal politics (I'm from MASSACHUSETTS, dammit), but at this point it's such a boon to pay the rent by talking. That's pretty perfect a world for me!

The Glenn Beck Show airs Monday May 8. If you've got cable, crusie around CNN every once in a while. You just might catch me talking about it!

Another Busy Weekend!

It was a busy, action-packed weekend!


We went out after Friday night's show, and when I got bored with playing pool, I figured I'd take a few pictures of myself. Good idea.





And then on Saturday, my Auntie Beverly and Cousin Donna came down for a visit and we power-walked all over lower Manhattan and parts of Williamsburg. Here they are in front of some gorgeous tulips at Madison Square Park.