The Ancient and The Modern

No, it's not the name of a soap opera, but the two places I visited in Rome last Saturday. The first is a place that I've passed by so many times and finally went in.

Piazza Repubblica, a great oval, is actually the former entrance to the Baths of Diocletian, built in 306. In art history we learned that these grand baths were built in the NE corner of the city to be closer to the military camps and thereby appease the soldiers who up until that point had to haul themselves a few kilometers to the Baths of Caracalla.

The Baths of Diocletian fell into disuse and sat empty for a few centuries until the 1500's when the remnants were used for religious purposes. Michelangelo took part in the designs and turned the large frigidarium into the transcept of the Chiesa Santa Maria dei Angeli. Talk about reuse of abandoned buildings!

One of the coolest things inside the transcept is this diagonal sundial, built along the meridian. Here at the spot closest to the wall, is where you see the sign of Cancer. The sun hits here around noon when it is highest in the sky, the longest days of the year.

Way on the far wall, the waterbearer, Aquarius.

So typically Roman/Italian. There is a modern road built through the ruins of the baths.

Up in the northern part of town, the newly opened Maxxi Museum of Contemporary Art. I've kind of become a fan of modern art for some reason. I take it at face value and sometimes it really does speak to me.

The Maxxi is built right into a Roman neighborhood and the juxtaposition of the buildings is fascinating.

Is it a bird? Spiderman with a beak?

The artist spent a great deal of time rolling newspaper into a cord of rope.

I thought it was an homage to tobacco, but it was supposed to be bark. Art is about interpretation, yeah?

I have to give credit to architect Zaha Hadid for I was never able to place where I was in the museum. I have a great sense of space and direction but I kept getting turned around and finding new unexplored galleries. That is a fun feeling to have, which I rarely get to experience.

This piece is the "wailing wall" of all those people have had to pack up and leave their homes.

My absolute favorite piece in the Maxxi was this modern "Trajan's Column." The real column has a frieze which tells the story of Trajan's victories over the people of the East. This set of televisions is pictures of those defeated but unable to tell their story.

Suppli

On the streets of Rome, you can duck into a pizzeria or Roman fast food shop and find suppli. They deep fried rice balls in which a chunk of mozzarella has been inserted. This past weekend, Anna made a huge batch of them for the annual school picnic. It was my first cooking lesson from Anna.

Anna has the bowl of rice already made. It's rice, tomato sauce (optional) and raw egg. The guy on the left is Charles, her host kid from three years ago who is going to school in Rome and was up for the afternoon visiting.

Take a scoop of rice, stick a chunk of mozzarella in the middle and squeeze to make as tight as possible. Then cover it in breadcrumbs.

The suppli are now ready to be deep fried in hot oil.

Everything is better deep fried. Alas, my suppli were not compact enough and broke apart during the deep fry. Therefore, Anna had to bake them to get them to stay together for the deep fry. Too many hands in the kitchen.....

Suppli are also commonly known as Suppli di telefono because if you break them apart, the two ends are the receiver and handset of a telephone and cheese, strung out looks like the cord.

Discrimination?

I have never been discriminated against to my face, up until this past Friday I think. It's not like it was overt, but, well, in retropsect it was. Backstory, you always have to get it with me. I'm feeling a bit isolated here in my 60,000 person town. Last year, it was all new and exciting so I never got that feeling of loneliness. But, the start of this year, I'm starting to feel that way and so knowing that I'm going to have to face building a community when I move back to the United States, I know that I'm going to have to take action and just put myself out there.

A few weeks ago, a colleague of mine mentioned that he saw something in the newspaper about a big gay event in Rome that was happening all summer through the month of September. From what I gather from the website, it's a big festival, held on Friday and Saturday nights where they fence off a big field, set up booths and stages for music. Think the post pride day celebration in San Francisco, but on a smaller scale.

I make myself go down there. I get a hotel room for Friday night. I hike a kilometer to the site and get asked if I am on the list. I say, what list, it says I can pay 13 Euro to get in. Now the guy starts talking in Italian and says "no list, non possible." Seriously, he was holding clip board, but the sheet of paper didn't have names on it. And, I was the only person in line.

I was so shocked that I stepped back out of line and just watched for the next ten minutes as EACH AND EVERY PERSON got in past the guy who turned me away. He never looked at any list.

Now, I can't outright say that I was turned away for being what, not Italian? Not white? Was I not dressed properly? I went in the most innocuous outfit there is, jeans and a white t-shirt. Could there have been some other reason why I was legitimately turned away? There is certainly a possibility. But the bitter taste I have from that experience tells me in my heart of hearts that I was not allowed in those gates for the way I looked. It's a horrible feeling. And from the gay community as well.

I have to say that I'm turned off by the experience. I was prepared not to have a good time, but I was willing (and still able) to give myself credit for doing something that was uncomfortable and challenging, and certainly not in my comfort zone. But never in my wildest dreams did I think the evening would turn out with this outcome.