Tuscia Chestnut Festival

Autumn in the northern Lazio countryside is dream-season for back road-trips...so last Sunday we took a drive that evoked childhood memories of family drives in rural northern California. Our destination: the town of Tuscia, which was holding its annual Chestnut Festival. (The area produces more than 5% of the world's chestnuts).
We arrived mid-day and were baffled to find the town eerily quiet, save for a few vendors selling chestnut cookies, chestnut spread, and home made jams...so we wandering the Medieval core of Tuscia in search of the festivities. Instead, we found some architecture that could have inspired opera sets.


And a bit of evidence of local efforts to tidy things up for the festival...
Finally, we found the chestnut action: indoors in several restaurant "caves" where residents and visitors were partaking in a great feast featuring chestnuts! Moral: For Italian food festivals, it pays to arrive early (or make advance reservations). We had to satisfy ourselves with a jar of chestnut spread and some chocolate hazelnut cookies purchased at one of the half dozen stands erected for the event.
Our images of purchasing freshly roasted chestnuts at various outdoor stands were off target: there were plenty of raw chestnuts for sale, and even a few groups of burly men roasting wonderfully aromatic chestnuts, but these were all destined for the indoor feasters...and not for sale to aimlessly wandering visitors. Even without tasting the roasted chestnuts or partaking in the chestnut feast, Tuscia was impressive.

Barack Mania in Italy

La Repubblica, one of the main Italian newspapers devoted its first 11 pages exclusively to Obama today and another half dozen pages deeper in the paper. The front page and some of the other pages are below. The large headline reads “The World Has Changed.” And the article in the bottom right corner bears the headline "The End of Autism” (only in Italy would one see such a headline!) and opens with “Barack Obama is the president of the world. Not in the pessimist and impossible sense of emperor of us all, but in a realistic and positive sense, as the man that the majority of humanity wanted as the leader of the most important country in the world.” The article goes on to report on a virtual planetary election held on the internet in which Obama won 94.5% of the French vote, 88% of the Chinese vote, 92.5% of the German vote and 92% of the Italian vote.

Pages 2-3: (click on photo to enlarge)

Pages 4-5:

Pages 6-7:

The Latest Italian Romance: Gondoliers for Obama

Day of Protest

Yesterday the Italian government passed a highly controversial law (law 133) drafted by Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini that will usher in massive changes to Italy's educational system. In addition to slashing school budgets, the law will cut the number of teachers per class down to one (currently each elementary school class has two teachers and often a third "floating" teacher) and it will reduce the teaching week from 40 hours to 24 hours thereby posing problems for families without resources for after-school care. Some estimates suggest that 83,000 younger teachers will lose their already precarious positions. The law also eliminates summer school makeup sessions for students who fail classes, requiring them to repeat the entire year. At higher levels, the law will force universities to be more entrepreneurial in seeking funding and will eliminate non-producing departments. Protests have been staged all fall (see my 9/24 & 9/26 blogs) culminating in today's national school/university strike. Thousands and thousands of students, parents and teachers from all over the country took to the streets of Rome, and many ended their protests at the Ministry of Education, which is just a block and a half from our house. Helicopters buzzed overhead, Viale Trastevere (the main boulevard in this part of town) flooded with chanting protesters and the Ministry gates were barricaded by rows of police outfitted in riot gear. Danielle's elementary school was well-represented--some of her teachers as well as parents and teachers from her class gathering this morning to march in the protests. Not knowing what to expect (& beling swamped with work), we kept Danielle home.
But I managed to catch part of the protests in and around the Ministry of Education. The mood called to mind 1960s San Francisco peace marches in San Francisco: chanting students, educators and parents marching arm-in-arm, grand-mother's calling out "Bravi! Bravi!" from the sidelines, the occasional smell of pot, police on the sidelines, music, V signs...

Here are some images from today's protest.

Above: The first student groups arrive at the Ministry a half block from our apartment, as the demonstration begins.
Above: The scene directly in front of the Ministry of Education on Viale Trastevere
Below: Video clip of the demonstration.



Below: In Rome, South Asian street vendors always seem to pop up at the right moment with the right product. When the first drops of rain come down, they can be counted upon to emerge with umbrellas and when demonstrations break out, they materialize hawking whistles.
Below: Speeches and effigies on the steps of the Ministry. 1st image: effigy is of Gelmini, 2nd images is Burlusconi.
Below: By the time the protest was winding down, scores of protesters had adorned the gate surrounding the Ministry of Education with their protest signs.

Istanbul Images

We took a break from the land of pasta and pizza and spent five days of our fall break awakening to mosque calls to prayers in Istanbul. After all those years of living in Indonesia, Istanbul felt wonderfully familiar yet also different. Here are some images of Istanbul for those of you who'd hoped to find them on Danielle's web page (she was more interested in posting images of the cats she met there).


[Above: The Blue Mosque viewed from the roof of our inn. Below: Elaborate ceiling of the Blue Mosque--I want this ceiling!]

[Below: Istanbul must be the capital of delectable street foods, from fresh pressed pomegranate juice stands to carry away baklava...we were in street food heaven!]



[Below: "You can get anything you want at Istanbul's grand bazaar" to be sung to the tune of Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant"]


[Below: Ceiling at Topkai Palace][Below: Scenes from Istanbul's Spice Market...if only there were a way to replicate the smells...]

St. Francis of Assisi tours our neighborhood

St. Francis had his annual parade around our neighborhood this past Saturday, replete with a pause at Piazza San Cosimato. Danielle was thrilled by the "parade," though a bit perplexed by the hushed quality of the affair (she wanted to cheer, as one would at a New Year's parade...)

Streetcorner Madonnas

Streetside Madonnas are a common sight in Rome. Many homes and buildings display sculpted Madonnas, Madonna frescoes, and even mosaic Madonnas. Beneath some are bouquets or candles, and occasionally one will see (usually elderly) Romans pause to briefly bowing their heads as their errands take them past these Madonas. Here are some of my favorites from our neighborhood.




A well-attended Madonna by our #8 tram stop on Viale Trastevere. She is never without bouquets, votive offerings, and even receives the occasional teddy bear:
A lovely old Madonna frescoe overlooks the Piazza San Cosimato market and playground by our apartment:

And finally, a more whimsical contemporary mosaic Madonna a couple blocks from our apartment: