Valkyrie…kyrie eleison…

Well, lord have mercy of Cruise’s performance in Valkyrie. The only man on earth with a glass eyeball which actually moves around! Oh boy, I’ll give you 3 Cruises for one Omar Sharif in 1967′s “The night of the generals”!

BUT. What a fantastic line-up of british actors, just behind Tom!  We were wirklich impressed by Kenneth Branagh, Tom Wilkinson, Eddie Izzard, Terence Stamp…(and the one who played Gen.Olbricht but also the junkie old pop-star in Love Actually…what’s his name?! maybe the most impressive of all!).

At dinner Our Friend from Moabit told us that the execution platoon scene took place in the courtyard of the Bendler Block a building still existing in Berlin’s Tiergarten, and that a special permission was granted to shoot (sic) there, so to avoid any damage to the historical memory of the city.

Last sunday, SonyCenter, original version of the film. It was pretty…er…humid, as you can see from the pictures…

(I know, I know, it’s childish, but I’ll also add a picture in hyacint blue!! I am not super fond of hanging around Potsdamer Platz for drinks but I find always exhilarating the view of the SonyCenter ceiling when getting out from the cinema! It puts me in a good mood, and I feel less the cinema-hypotension dizzyness. In Rome, when you get out of the cinema, you are more likely to stumble on a broken pavement in a dark backstreet!)

Lupin lll at KaDeWe?

At the beginning of the week I was in Berlin, and the big news was the theft at KaDeWe. Television troupes with cameras interviewed the clients in front of the beautiful department store.

The building is one of the best examples of the Historicism style. Each time I go to Berlin I try to reserve one lunch time break for visiting the food hall and trying out one of the fabulous counters. And pick up something at the newsagent, so far my favorite in Berlin, because of the wide choice available!

Well, it looks like the theft technique was particularly clever…the biggest heist in the more than 100-year-old department store history.

Than reminded me of an interesting theft attempt done in Rome a few years ago. Via Condotti, Bulgari flagship store, 9 am in the morning. A fabulous unique piece had just been put in the window-display, when an Abschleppwagen – what’s its name – a tow truck crashed into the window.

Unsuccessful but spectacular. And worth of the Darwin Awards Selection Speciale…the thieves got presumably inspiration by the 1997 film “Face” with Robert Carlyle.

The dramatic plot of the movie turned to commedia all’italiana. The thieves hadn’t calculated well that there would not be enough space in the carillon-style via Condotti, to gain sufficient accelaration in order to successfully break in!

The german truck-proof window bent inwards a bit, but didn’t break…Vorsprung durch Technik!

The thieves escaped in motorino but were soon riacciuffati (nice italian expression, uh? literally, catched by a tuft, rockabilly thieves!)….

PS

one week later, still no clues on thee KaDeWe heist!

photo Omniroma Franceschi Repubblica

History Manipulators at Work

It’s that time of the year when the manipulation of history gets even more intense, here in Italy.

That’s because we’re getting closer to a series of important dates.

The Date: January 27th, Giornata della Memoria.

The Facts:

Fact 1. A few days ago, again nazi graffiti in Rome, also in our neighbourhood, around the corner where there is a small synagogue.

Fact 2,  BXVI rehabilitated a formerly excommunicated bishop charged with Holocaus denial, Richard Williamson.

“I believe there were no gas chambers … I think that 200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps but none of them by gas chambers. There was not one Jew killed by the gas chambers. It was all lies, lies, lies!” Richard Williamson interview on swedish tv.

Fact 3. Let’s not even mention the name of the very local politician who launched headline-grabbing declarations that “money shouldn’t be spent” for the Shoah Museum in Rome, which is planned to be built in the Villa Torlonia park, former italian dictator residence. There is always someone who does not want that History hits the Streets.

The Date: February 10th – Foibe commemoration

The Facts:

Every year, outrageous simplistic provocations are done during the prime-time talk-shows on this terrible chapter of history. Wait a couple of days…a few “experts’ and “historians” will start to pop up on tv.

But if you look closer, some underwater manoeuvres already started with the  come back of the wannabe-law 1360, by which this government aims at confusing the ideas of the new generations by granting the same status and honors of partisans to “repubblichini”.

Basically those who fought the fascists and…the fascists themselves should be treated in the same way, according to the government. Mr Vassalli brought the matter out of the murky shadow.

If you look on Osservatorio dei Balcani, you will see that tout se tient, as also the foreign affairs minister messed around with this theme in talks with Croatia and Slovenia. Italiani brava gente…

And all this brings us to another horrible episode of the XX century, in which the manipulation of history started on the same very day of the events.

The Date: March 23, Massacro delle Fosse Ardeatine.

All our politicians should spend one night, alone, in the Fosse Ardeatine, before taking office.

Left or right. Young or old. And take oath there, where it’s written:

“Here we were killed

victims of an horrendous sacrifice

from our sacrifice

may a better country arise

and a lasting peace among the people of this world”

Maybe this could avoid the blasphemous manipulation of history?

A few days ago, during a dinner a friend told us that his oncle was among the roman citizens randomly executed by Priebke in the massacre. Or maybe not randomly, as some italians “suggested” names of fellow citizens to the nazis.

We bought some books and read more about the events, and how they were timely manipulated while happening. And then we went to the Fosse. The guardians told us that they rarely see visitors. An iron wrought gate leads to the caves where 335 men and even young boys were executed and buried with an explosion.

Here it is difficult to manipulate history. It is just too visible. But the city turns the back to the Fosse.

If you visit Rome, along the beautiful Appian Road, not distant from Cecilia Metella, in the Roman Countryside…please, stop here.

“Do not exploit our death and do not forget why we were killed” – museum of the Fosse Ardeatine

cappucci-nation: Bar Necci al Pigneto

Where can you find the best cornetti (or croissants) in Rome?

Where can you sit down in a cozy interior or on a leafy terrasse without being ripped off?

Where can you see the last pini marittimi of the Pigneto, in between the Casilina and Prenestina roman roads?

Where, more importantly, can you hang around Pasolini’s neighborhood and sip your cappuccino right on the set of the film “Accattone”?

At Bar Necci!

Today Mein Mann and I with our dear friends and neighbours N&M, we had an appointment in one of San Lorenzo‘s best patisseries for breakfast but we arrived there a dash too early. So we headed for the Pigneto, an eastern border area of Rome you already are familiar with, because this rainy morning deserved an indulgent breakfast…

At Bar Necci 1924 he cappuccino is good, but the croissants, pains au chocolat and danish are su-perb. No semi-industrial rechauffe’ pastry here. Butter-rich croissants filled with creme patissiere with a hint of lemon, excellent danish (or caracoles)…and a very cosy living-room where DIY helps keeping prices reasonable and the community happy. That’s the kind of value added that Mr Brule’ would call “Attention to Retail”…and that justifies us parting with our beloved Euros.

Also, in this bar you can do a stop over on our European Regional Softdrinks Tour because there is another brand of Gazosa, Bitter and Spuma, typical old-fashioned italian pre-coke refreshmens: Paoletti. Basic packaging, green mineral-water-style bottles with a colorful a’ la p(l)age label.

If we hadn’t chosen to go one step beyond, to the Pigneto, and we hadn’t crossed the railway on the pedestrian bridge, under the pouring rain, we wouldn’t have noticed that the Specials will be in town, in february…Yes, we love ska…

….and talking about optical graphic black and white, at the Bar Necci advertising from the 70s is a treat…!

(bad quality pictures, taken during a late summer evening…will post better ones at the next croissant craving!)

everything you wanted to know about popetown but were afraid to ask

A blogging collective intelligence discovered today a very nice cartoon…that we are highly unlikely to see, here in Rome, aka Popetown…

Introducing the most hilarious, the most outrageous, the most controversial and the most addictive comedy series ever made. This now infamous series, considered too offensive for TV, and never before seen in the UK, finally makes its highly anticipated debut on DVD.

This is Popetown, where money, power and corruption are the name of the game, and everyone’s playing. With an all-star cast, Popetown takes you into the side-splittingly surreal world of the Vatican as the long suffering and good-hearted Father Nicholas struggles to walk the narrow path of righteousness, whilst surrounded by money grabbing cardinals and a pogo-stick-riding infantile pope. (source: www.popetown.com

Rome Confidential: the “lotti” around Piazza Bologna

Well, it has been very rainy in Rome lately. I mean, since last May we had lots of rain. Now, when it rains Rome loses all its charm. This is not mineral Paris. Not shiny red-brick Ferrara or misty Venice. With the rain Rome is plain ugly.

This is a town built for blue skies, cold or raging hot, but definitely dry weather.

So during the rare sunny days of this winter the blue/orange contrast was even more surprising even for us, spoiled locals. Ok ok, the Centro Storico is fabulous. Still are you interested in going beyond? In no-postcard zone?

Well, you’re lucky, there is a special reportage today on the eastern borders of town, where we live. We’re outside the city walls. Still, it’s plenty of Roman rests here…acquedotti in San Lorenzo, the roman barracks of Castro Pretorio, and the remains of the consolari: Tiburtina, Casilina, Prenestina…Nomentana…but this was Roman Countryside when Goethe was doing his inter-rail tour. And it remained like that for a while.

Ever heard about the “lotti”? This was a sort of social housing of the early 20th century. As in Berlin or London, probably in those years social housing hit its zenith. Houses mimicking the rural set up, in continental Europe with more of a village feeling compared with the already very industrialized England. Buildings never too big, created with a strong user experience aim. Having in mind playgrounds for children, places where to hang the clean laundry to dry, a bit of greenery, and possibly also architectural charm.

I took some photos of the lotti behind Piazza Bologna, the area where MeinMann grew up. One century ago here flocks of sheep would gaze the distant horizon. And they did still exist in the 1950s, when the parents of MeinMann came to Rome and the 1960 and 1970 tall periferie hadn’t clogged the horizon yet. We’re in a recently built neighborhood. Never been here?

Nothwithstanding the bad weather we got so far, the mimosa trees are about to blossom…typical for January in Rome.

If you want to do your Spazierengang among ladies going to the market with their trolley, want to meet a grumpy gattara*, hear conversations from balcony to balcony come here. You will not see “trendy” bars, meet expats by the hundred, the odd soap-opera actor posing at the caffe’ or bo-bos. Real Rome, if you are interested in the merchandise.

True, some lotti got their share of gentrification and now it’s prime real estate. That’s why you have to hurry up and visit the area before it gets all sealed up and manucured…

Some still retain their reddish patina of pozzolane, a reddish paint done with vulcanic stones, which is wearing out in Rome and compares to in-the-face orange industrial paint like pastels to stabilo-boss.

There are squares for the kids to play (the Campo Sportivo Artiglio kids soccer club is behind the corner), even if kids are a rarity now. There are clustered courtyards surrounded by a fence, for hanging the washing up out to dry without that soccer interferes with it or visitors mess around.

Buy the biscuits at Gentilini, or the freshly-made pasta around the corner, cut with a mechanic guillotine. Have a kosher croissant next to the synagogue. Or take your basket and head to the Mercato and enjoy the competition with tenacious old ladies for those artichokes or roman cabbage…

*lady (or man) taking care of our several cat communities, one day I’ll speak about the roman cat communities!

Goethe, natural born blogger

I realize

more clearly

every day that

I was really

born to be

a blogger.

….

Of late it has been

a bit confused in Rome,

and even more so in my head,

as the spirit of blogging

has invaded me and for 14 days

I have done nothing but

post and upload.

(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, squatting at his friend’s Tischbein, in via del Corso)

Rome, the beauty of it

Yesterday during my lunch break a ray of sun…I paid a visit to the House of Goethe, close to Piazza del Popolo. I wanted to recall the feeling of someone coming from the North when in Rome. The mesmerizing power of Rome is something I’m constantly reminded of, especially in winter days when a turquoise sky plays the contrast with the magnificent ochre of the buildings.

“The desire to see

this land has long since

reached maturity.

Water pipes, baths,

theatres, amphitheatres,

the stadium, temples!

And then the palaces of

the emperors, the graves

of the great – with these

images I have fed and

stregthtened my soul”.

I have the chance of crossing the city center twice a day on my way to the office, so beauty is at hand every day. Therefore the present situation is even more painful.

Rome has blossomed over the past decade. Always magic,  it’s still messy but no longer sticky and dirty as it appeared to us, northern Italians, in the 80s and early 90s. Many beautiful Piazzas which used to be wild parking areas were given back to the city and to citizens and visitors. Proportions were restored. Pavements in some areas of the city are now dignified. But since a year or so I have the impression that someone pushed the “pause” or the “rewind” button on the city infrastructure, and the private interest of that shopkeeper or that resident is risking again to take over the collective interest of the community.

Rome is an enormous deposit of beauty, your eyes dig, there’s more to come. Still this beauty needs protection. And sometimes beauty is necessary but not sufficient. Rome is aloof, never excited and never surprised, she’s seen too many invasions, easy to take, impossible to hold. But aloofness can became indifference, failure to be aware.

Beauty must remain public and not be swallowed by those who aim to make a hold up on beauty, to make public beauty a private benefit. Rome risks of becoming an hostage. Of her eternal beauty, if she fails to look forward. Of those nasty little zealous black ants, the politicians, climbing on her left ankle, who no matter how small, still can bite hard in her white skin while she’s enjoying a conversation at the pic-nic of history.

all roads lead to Rome…er…one at a time please

Photo: Di Tomaso /Franceschi published on Repubblica

It’s not that I’ve been lazy.

The kick-off with bad macroeconomic news was a bit of a hard start of the year, after the savvy but calm no-man’s-land of the Zwangurlaub, home-sweet-home holidays.

Then it’s been raining almost all week (again!). Manic depression etc.

And on wednesday evening I was almost run over by a motorino, while crossing a street on the stripes. I jumped back – like a wild StripedCat – with a “OooH??” while the girl on the motorino screamed in panic behind her rainy visor “Non t’ho vistooo!!” (I didn’t see you). It’s good to have a feline nickname.

And then some ‘internal consumption” political news on which I will write later on.

Too many emotions this week. Not far from home, this tram/train crash, quite a bit of damage, many wounded, just in front of Porta Maggiore, on roman roads.

One at a time. Please. Too much free riding in Italy…

Berlin…frosty, crystal mirror of Europe’s history

Frosty days in Berlin…and also in Italy snow and ice are at the rendez-vous. A good excuse to do some cut-and-paste of magnificient photographs by diephotodesigner.de and coordination.

The photographs portray the city healing over the past 20 years in a naturalistic-cum-cubist impossible synthesis, thanks to a complex steel reflecting object. Are these shreds of mirror the traumas of history? The city has been torn and plied, a battered, fractured origami, now put back together with careful hands, smoothing the angles, hands sometimes too oblivious. But creases are still there, reflected.

The photographic artwork is magnificient, the colours magnetic. I guess that Paolo Pascutto and Gian Paolo Rabito – two painters whose work I do love – would agree…(or not?  the debate is open!).

Crystal city mind is this multi-faceted object made of mirror polished high grade steel and matte black surfaces. During the summer of 2009 Coordination and diephotodesigner.de toured Berlin with the big mirror, capturing the city’s tortured yet intimate sense of place.

See the magnificient shots here…