The Romans, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Mainz, Xanten, Trier…the Limes…looking forward to our bike tour…now on arte some history!
Archive for the 'Rome' Category
05
Mar
16
Rome is also here
20
Feb
16
Goethe, the Italian
Saturday afternoon, time for “Dove fioriscono i limoni” – Goethe’s Italy 200 years later.
31
Jan
16
Italien schafft sich ab
Source: http://www.ilpost.it Statue coperte ai Musei Capitoli in occasione della visita del presidente iraniano Hassan Rohani, Roma, 25 gennaio 2016.
ANSA/GIUSEPPE LAMI
This is really embarassing.
I remember a few year ago – a decade or two – when the Chinese premier visited Paris. The Tour Eiffel shone bright red in the night. Not everyone was happy. Too much of a hommage? A hommage, nonetheless, is different from a cancellation of cultural identity.
I am counting the days and this Master of Ceremony woman is still in her well-paid job. She should go. And how pathetic are the ministers, all saying “I did not know about it”. They should take responsibility and at least fire the accountable person and replace her with someone more skilled in inter-cultural manners (and in languages).
In the meantime, I think the best reaction was the one of Beppe Severgnini, the italian journalist: “Make a hole on the cardboard, and put a price and a tag – Peep show! All-naked roman hot babes!” – we will then have so much money that the museums will be able to finance themselves”.
10
May
15
Mandrione Kiez
A bit of nostalgia of Rome…a view of Mandrione, one of Rome’s Kiez, in the latest movie by Francesca Archibugi.
With a marvellous song by Lucio Dalla…”Telefonami tra vent’anni”… Continue reading ‘Mandrione Kiez’
29
Jan
15
Cazzeggio
Is still a word I have troubles translating into German or any other language…and also practicising, unfortunately!
This photo shows Rome doing cazzeggio…and it was taken on my last day in town.
25
Jan
15
The last week in Rome
While doing some electronic paperwork, yesterday I stumbledup on a file called “Last week in Rome”.
How strange it feels now, to see a typical image associated with those very fast and hectic lunchtime breaks…taken on an incredibly backing hot day in September 2011.
We read every Sunday Eugenio Scalfari’s editorial. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we disagree, sometimes we find it boring, sometimes too patronizing. Still it is our way for marking the Zeitgeist. It was so when we read the printed copy spread on a small table, sipping cappuccino prepared by the friendly Sebastian at the Bar Pavia in Rome. And it is so now, when we read the less sexy online edition on our kitchen table in Dusseldorf or in Berlin sipping a home-made cappuccino.
The editorial published on December 28th contains yet another sad truth, the lack of consistence and action in our native country, Italy. And then yesterday our berliner-roman friend Betta shared on fb a post by blogger Claudio Gnessi which, on a roman neighborhood scale, deals with the same problem.
Consistence and action. And lack of. And the reasons why. Continue reading ‘2015: the year of consistence and action’
15
Dec
14
Flash mob
It is painful to read in all Italian newspapers how widespread and deep-rooted was (is) the mafia intrusion within Rome’s politics, services, co-operatives, local authorities etc.
On the other hand, we had vaguely but certainly this impression when we were living there. How can a city where there is not so much manufacturing or banking, sustain a certain “train de vie” for so many people that you see splurging around…some may be splurging grey money, on which they did not pay taxes, but there must be also a lot of black money around.
My old back of the envelope calculation – especially since the Euro inception – was that of 2 Euros in circulation, 1 must be of grey or black origin. I am inclined to think that the proportion may be even a bit higher…the mob is even more organised than any pessimist estimation may have imagined.
Poor Rome, so beautiful and so abused!
Source photo: Wanted in Rome
30
Nov
14
switched-on bauhaus
An ordinary switch. It brings me back to fond memories. This time, six years ago, I was checking out plugs and switches in our newly refurbished Altbau apartment in Berlin Schoeneberg. The paint was just drying on the walls, that gray hue looking fabulous under the Winter sky. MeinMann was in Rome and I phoned him excited, in the middle a faint hint of Polish cigarette smoke in our flat “It’s coming out really nice! It’s just as we imagined it!”.
Christmas was close, and full of dreams about our Berlin home. It would be a Roman Christmas, as no furniture was in the flat yet, and water and power were the only amenities. But our switches were all in place, all white plastic and very standardised, and from the following year onwards, our Christmas may be white and in Berlin. I had affection for those switches. When you buy switches, it’s about your home. It’s cheap, yet it’s precious.
Months before, during the Summer, our architect Benedetto – bauhaus-aficionado as we are – gave his rule of thumb: “Look at the beauty of the ordinary, utilitarian switches. Aren’t they fabulous? Form which follows function. No frills. No useless decoration. For me, switches are the acid test. If a landlord – or most frequently, a landlady – starts fiddling around decorative, themed, apricot-hued, ceramic-clad, glass-rimmed switches: that’s it. I know it. This is a client I do not want to work with”.
Stay foolish, stay bauhaus…
On my way to the office I often see these lobbying and go-behind types, behind Montecitorio. Something I won’t miss.
BerlinRomExpress 