Giardino di Ninfa

The Gardens of Ninfa is located about 40 km southeast of Rome.  A brief history.  The town of Ninfa, located along the Appian Way, was prosperous in the 1100's.  In 1297, the town was purchased by the Caetani family and then in the late 1300's the brothers of the family went to war with each other, the town was ruined and eventually emptied of inhabitants.  Those events are the genesis of what we see today, whcih is a bunch of ruined buildings that have been overgrown by nature, and with some planning in the past hundred years, and plantings or roses and different plants, there is now a 21 acre garden.  But the most spectacular part for me was the amazingly clear river that runs through the grounds.

The gardens are open the once or twice a month April through October so getting in is an ordeal.  I happen to see an advertisement in the newspaper for a day trip, so I called and DD and I were on our way.   Alas, apparently the best time to go is in the late Spring when all the flowers are in bloom, but this beautiful clear crisp fall day was pretty good itself.   I'll let the pictures do the talking.

 

The second part of the day, which after the gardens was total "gravy", was a visit to the nearby hilltown of Sermoneta, which was having its annual second Sunday in October celebration of the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.  A resident of the town was a significant player in this Battle of Lepanto, but in my Wikipedia search on the Battle, I find no reference to the Duke who was so featured in the posters throughout town.  That being said, there was a "renaissance festival" with displays of artisan crafts and skills, but most fun was the sword fighting demonstration.....and participation!

Sermoneta, Italy

A Day in my Rome Life

Each morning I catch a bus and take it a few stops down to Piazza Trilussa and I cross over the famous Ponte Sisto bridge.

As we move deeper into the fall, sunrise over the Tevere.

Looking north.....St. Peters.

As I finishing walking across the bridge, I head right towards the "BAR"

My new bartender.....Carlo.  He makes a mean latte macchiato.

AOSR runs a bus system for students and teachers!  The Lungotevere bus picks us up at 743AM!  Our bus route, is the most subscribed (about 25-30 riders) so we get an actual luxury bus!

The high school eats lunch last....and I always come through the lunch line as one of the last people (because I don't teach after lunch, I can take my time) the mensa gives me LOTS of food, but the drawback is that sometimes I don't get the really good desserts.

I have started bringing a tupperware to take home half the food for my nightly dinner!

330PM and the school parking lot is full of school buses ready to take students home.  It's an amazing dance as you watch students look for and run for their buses.  It's also really helpful for me when I need to go after school to different parts of Rome, I usually can find a school bus that takes me near where I'm going!

And then the buses take off!

Most afternoons, I don't take the school bus home, but I stay at work to do school or go swimming at the pool five minutes from school.

The pool, although expensive per visit, it's ALWAYS wide open.

But it's the CLEAN SHOWER and GREAT HOT WATER and PRESSURE that makes it even better!!

My usual method of transportation to get home is by public bus.  I always change here at Piazza Mancini.

A Fall Weekend Picking Fruit

This past weekend, after proctoring the SAT's at school, I headed up to Viterbo for the first time in a month.  Beautiful fall weather, watching the Roma-Atalanta game with Alessandro, hanging out with Mario, Yvonne and J, picking fruits and nuts and an afternoon pranzo at Anna's made for a peaceful and glorious weekend!

Those of you who have visited will recognize these two key players!  Isn't J a young woman already!

Myself and J in front of her Dad's house.  J is at that stage where she doesn't kiss or hug, the best we can all get is a head butt on the chest!

Sunday morning, Y and I went to her friend (and J's godparents) house in Cura.  This is the "guest house"

I include it because this is the frescoed ceiling inside.  Turns out these friends of Y, are art restorers and restored the ceilings in Villa Giulia in Rome.  This was their practice space!

The main purpose of this morning was to pick apples, but the "orto" was filled with all kinds of other fruits and nuts.  These are buds of......

.....the hazelnut.

The hazelnuts fall to the ground and then they get vaccumed up.

What's this ugly fruit rotting on the vine?

They are WALNUTS.  So, we don't care for the fruit (which is sometimes turned into a liqeur), but it's the bit, which contains the walnut.  The dark nasty looking fruit falls to the ground, you peel off the black part and get the pit.

Pomegranate!  I didn't know they grew on trees, but now that I think about it, it makes sense.

I remember back in the day when kiwi were an exotic fruit.  Now, they're everywhere and even grown here in Italy.

When Function Simply Can't Overcome Bad Fashion

Those of you who have visited me here in Italy, have had me point out and rail against what I deem to be the UGLIEST car ever built, the late 1990's version of the Fiat Multipla.

When I see the car, I can spot it even from the rear, it sends shivers down my spine.....because I have to look at the front, even if I don't want to, I am simply unable to NOT look at what you are about to see.....

The front of the Fiat Multipla has not two, but THREE sets of lights.  The lower two, aren't so bad, but it's that set right below the windshield that makes the car look like fat man with three chins.  Plus the top set of lights are slightly pointed to the outside, making it look even more "not normal"

I saw four Mulitpla's within 30 minutes today and I took pictures of all of them.  Here, looking from the side, I think gives a better idea of what's going on.  It is as if Fiat took a previously designed top and bottom parts of different cars and plopped them together.  They didn't in anyway help bring the two sections together.  For a country SO obsessed by the "bella figura", Italy's leading car maker produced and "EPIC FAIL"

Yes, the answer is yes, I've actually ridden in a Fiat Multipla.  Because of their size and spaciousness inside, they are often the choice of taxi cabs in Rome.  The car seats six comfortably, but even the door handles, so bulky and seemingly like safety bars in a shower, are unattractive.

Another of the Multipla's I saw, gives the FULL effect of the heinousness of this car.  I'm not sure if this car was a different year/model, but it gives the complete "shivers down the spine" effect for me. 

Lastly, I did an internet search on the Fiat Multipla and it came up as Time Magazine's 50 Worst Cars of all-time.  Here's the write-up:


"Multipla" is a time-honored name for Fiat. The company made an adorable microvan by that name in the '50s and '60s, based on the Fiat 600. The Multipla that appeared in 1998 was anything but adorable. With its strange high-beam lenses situated at the bottom of the A-pillars (base of the windshield), the Multipla looked like it had several sets of eyes, like an irradiated tadpole. It had this weird proboscis out front and a bulky, glass cabin in back, and the whole thing was situated on dwarfish wheels. I rented one of these in Europe and it worked beautifully, but it was just so tragic to look at. The Multipla (and the Aztek and the Consulier GTP) reminds us that cars cannot just work beautifully. They have to be beautiful. At least they can't look like this."

I could not have said it any better!