Three days to the kick-off of our holidays!! Pucci-style silk, Hawaianas, lots of bangles, a funky Fahrrad, lots of friends to meet…
Of course we are not heading to Ibiza, but for parties on the Spree!
(better bring an anorak too?).
source: Dr Oetker
One year ago BerlinRomExpress was born, on a hot Roman evening. Time goes by, many events have unfold since then. The Crisis. The total disappearance of the Palast der Republik in Berlin and the appearance of a big green meadow. The Macro opening postponement in Rome. And so on.
We took this picture 2 years ago, during our holiday in Berlin in August 2007. Would it be crazy, we thought, to consider Berlin like our home away from home?
A very packed week, but filled with interesting meetings and impromptu social clips and plenty of food of thought beyond the bread and butter rat-race…witty discussions, clever views, that’s one of the pleasures of Rome in June: friends but also business partners flock to Rome and make it more exciting!
It’s friday night. The Monocle copy is under my arm. This one is a gift by an Aficionado (or addicted, just like us) to both the magazine and Berlin. So even more appreciated! The weekend starts and a light breeze is mitigating the baking-oven heat. The groceries will be delivered on our doorstep by the e-shop. Jazzanova is spinning the records. Perfect…
We are going to take it easy in Rome, which is something quite unheard of for locals during the week. We morph in tourists for the weekend, and like them, we are not commuting to Tuscany in tight air-conditioned car-sauros wearing Tod’s loafers but rather seize the best of Rome in Birkenstock style. We’ll be spotting the first cinema en plein air venues, and we planned brunches in the shade for today and tomorrow.
Friends in Berlin and London: please send us a bit of proper rain showers and we’ll give you plenty of sun we can part with. Reading the morning papers in yet another good cappuccino place with the metallic smell of dust being moist by the first fat drops of rain is a pleasure in the summer.
And yes, we are reading this issue’s Editorial by Tyler Brulé, “Observation” with a connoisseur’s smile…in August we’ll be at our buen retiro in Berlin…can’t wait…
So here we are, teasing you with the preface and a nice illustration from the Editorial, tempting you to discover why Brulé is now observing “love at the second glance” Berlin…
“What would win your heart - an alluring first impression or a tempting parting glance? For Tyler Brûlé it was the latter that had him dreaming of relocating the Monocle team to Berlin and bagging a summer retreat”.
Source: picture and quote = Monocle
The first time MeinMann and I learned more about the Berlin Wall, we were at Bernauer Strasse with a Dutch journalist explaining us the unfolding of the events in 1989. It was the first time we heard about the story of Peter Fechter, who was shot and left to bleed at the wall. Today, on Der Spiegel Online:
Berlin paid tribute Thursday to the last person shot trying to cross the Berlin Wall. Chris Gueffroy died in a hail of bullets as he tried to flee East Germany on the night of Feb. 5-6, 1989. He was the last person to fall victim to the East German policy of shooting people trying to flee across the Berlin Wall — although more were to die trying to escape from East Germany before the borders were opened on Nov. 9, 1989.
East Germany’s ex-leaders always denied they had ordered soldiers to shoot people trying to flee across the Berlin Wall. However, documents which surfaced in 2007 proved without doubt that such an order did exist. “Don’t hesitate to use your weapon even when border breaches happen with women and children, which traitors have often exploited in the past,” reads an order dated Oct. 1, 1973.
When the night is hot and the fresh evening air doesn’t set in even long after sunset, there is just one thing to do. Cross the railway tunnel and walk to the Palazzo del Freddo, the Cold Palace, beyond Termini Station. It is – apparently – the biggest and the oldest gelateria in Italy.
This is one of the best ice-creams in Rome. Yes, there are also other iconic ice-creams in the capital. But at Fassi there’s more to it. Marketing archeology. Merchandising heritage. Excellent corporate communication. And a feeling of caravanserrail, that makes it really multikulti. You have the impression to be in a railway hall in Kashghar. Don’t ask me why. It’s impossibly noisy, but that – for once – is part of the charm.
Communication is perfect at Fassi. Be it on prices (they show Lira and Euro prices evolution over the past few years, with Fassi price increases well displayed and transparent). Or on quality, with ingredients lists. Or even business model, with their credo well explained on leaflets.
Fassi is really multikulti. First of all because it is right in the middle of the Esquilino area, close to Piazza Vittorio. Secondly, because it is very local and laid-back, but sometimes world-famous, so you spot the odd fashion-conscious korean girl taking pictures with her friends.
Yet, when we go to the Palazzo del Freddo we are definitely fashion un-conscious…it’s like going to our own kitchen to grab something fresh in the fridge. Palazzo del Freddo is the fridge of Rome…
At the Palazzo del Freddo you find icecream specialties with evocative names…caterinetta, sampietrino, pezzo duro (…), micione (big cat) and the world-famous telegelato…
The most fascinating thing is to watch the salesmen pack the telegelato with misty dry ice chunky cubes and big sheets of white crisp paper with the house blue logo. And they will ask you: “How far does the gelato travel? …to the coast for after-dinner dessert? then you do not need to purchase some extra ice…the 2 hours of complimentary ice will be sufficient”.
It’s nice to be reassured in these dire and uncertain times.
August, Rome.
I love staying in the office in August. I have then Rome all to myself. The city is baking under the sun but its silence makes her magic. In the morning, no fight at the counter for my cappuccino tiepido. Waiters are kind and share the gossip of the day, we’re survivors after all. Empty buses. And on time.
No motorini around. The full potential of the mighty piazzas is unleashed. I can hear the echo of my sandals on Piazza del Popolo.
In those who walk to the office, from June onwards the shadow radar sets in like a navigator. Between point A and point B it’s not about speed or distance, but shadow.
But this year I had to give up. It’s August, and I have to take all my holidays, all at once, all now. There, a very roman thing to do. Very italian. But I want to have the town to myself for a couple of days still.
So, getting up early for Repubblica and breakfast before it gets too hot. A round of vegetable and fruit shopping at the mercato. And, coming home, I see them. In an old-style window display of a grocery store. The taste of our summers when we were kids. Sciroppo and chinotto!
Amarena syrup, diluted in water. Liquid garnets swirl in the glass. Back then we kids we made our softdrinks. As much as I was fascinated by the mischievous Menta, I feared aunts offering the opaque Orzata.
Give me Rubys, Garnets and Emeralds …milky quartz no thanks (is this the reason why my husband proposed with a beautiful garnet ring?)
For him, born and raised in Rome, the taste of summer was different. No cherries for boyz in the neighbourhood, but naughty chilled chinotto made in Capranica.
The packaging is gorgeous…
I now realize that when I met mein Mann he only weared black. A childhood chilled in chinotto…?
I found myself thinking that the Chinese would love to drink Chin8 on 08.08.08…chinotto, freedom and human rights. They fit.
And in Berlin? Last summer we discovered our share of interesting soft drinks during our Prenzl’berg marathons and in our favourite Biergarten…but wait…it’s still a few days before we go to Berlin. Stay with us in hot Rome a little longer.
