A child-centric world?

Childhood in Rome has its own rhythms, rhythms that Danielle has rapidly embraced. In many ways, as the stereotype goes, children are the epicenter of Italian life. We cannot walk into a shop without the merchants making a fuss over Danielle. Today, when the manager of a Trastevere pizza-takeaway joint saw me photographing the pizzas in his case, he rushed out from behind the counter to Danielle (who was munching on her pizza slice), swooped her into his arms, carried her back to his station, triumphantly planting her on his stool. There, he thrust a pizza slicer and spatula in her hands and invited me to photograph "la bella Daniela" at work. Grinning, she complied and so did I. Waiters have slipped rings off their fingers for Danielle and strangers at cafes have presented her with fancy glow-in-the-dark sunglasses. The local gourmet shopkeeper gifts her with hand made candies, the cheese merchant feeds her chunks of peccorino Romano cheese and waiters chat indulgently with her about the various books she reads over meals. Yesterday, when we stopped for a late afternoon drink, the bar manager proposed that Danielle have a gelato, which we declined, explaining that she'd already had her gelato for the day. Within minutes he'd returned with a micro-mini gelato cone he had hand-fashioned for her, declaring conspiratorially that this was not a real cone! (When would an American cafe-owner go against parental decisions about their child's desert consumption?).

The child-centric orientations go well beyond gratifying children with food and impromptu gifts. When we take strolls in our neighborhood, strangers will greet her with "Ciao, bella!" or gesture at her and declare "Ch'e carina...," While the indulgent parental side of me would love to think it is because my child is so uniquely wonderful, I know better: people here do this with ALL the small children who pass their orbit. When I apologize to gelato merchants because Daniele is taking too long to make up her mind, causing the queue behind us to lengthen exponentially, the gelato vendors invariable chastise me for rushing her. This is a land where children are constantly reaffirmed and indulged. Is is any wonder Danielle adores Italy and periodically asks us, "Why is everything better in Italy?"

Yet for all the public fuss over children, playgrounds are few and far between in Rome. We are constantly on the lookout for them and, after a little over a month of living in Rome, we've only spotted three playgrounds. For such a child-oriented society, it is perplexing, especially when one considers that most Romans are apartment-dwellers without access to backyard play areas. We are fortunate that we have one playground right down the block from us in Piazza San Cosimato, but it is quite small--not equipped to handle the herds of neighborhood children trying to elbow their way onto the structure at peak hours.

A word about those peak hours...Since arriving in Rome we've been struck by the very different pace at the local playground on the piazza a block down the hill from our apartment. In the early mornings, when the farmers' market is running on the piazza, the playground is packed with children, parents and senior citizens, conversing and watching the sidewalk theatre. By afternoon, the playground becomes somewhat quieter, and the benches surrounding it become home to a higher ratio of street people, along with a few tourists and elderly neighbors. In the late afternoons playground traffic picks up again until about 8PM, when families begin to dine. Finally (at least on summer nights and weekends so far this fall), as Danielle was delighted to discover, the playground starts to fill up once again around 9:30 or 10PM...Here is a shot of the playground taken at 10:15PM, and this was on a slow August night, before all the Trastevere children returned from their vacations! And last Saturday (an unseasonably cold night) when we passed the playground at 10:30 PM, Danielle paused to gaze at all the children on the structure and declared in awe,"Theres lots of action here at night!"I have to mention the playground structure. The San Cosimato piazza playground was redone a couple years ago and, with characteristic Italian attentiveness to the visual domain, they went with playground equipment that is out the pages of a high Italian design catalog--more sculptural art than industrial playground. Gone are the traditional slides and swings, replaced with soaring poles and dangling climbing pieces that are vaguely reminiscent of Alexander Calder mobiles fused with contemporary Italian espresso makers.

The other dimension of childhood that we are just learning about with Danielle's first week of public school is the attentiveness to training children to have the proper respect for food and mealtimes. She came home the first day aglow about how the school lunchroom is "like a fancy restaurant." Apparently they sit at little tablecloth-covered tables and are served lengthy, leisurely meals of all organic food...nothing like the cafeteria trays and 25 minute lunches they are given in Evanston! The institutionalized cultural lessons about the centrality of food start early...