ciao beautiful babies!

Do you remember that movie Swingers?  Good movie!!  I went to an AWESOME movie last night, The Artist, I think it came out a bit ago in the states.  It is a... French (?) black & white, silent movie.  Really old timey & really good!!!  Loved it.

I've been laying low this weekend, not sightseeing too much.  The weather has been warm, nearly 60 degrees I'd imagine, but overcast & rainy.  I have been reading a pretty good book, Between the Assassinations, by Aravand Adiga.  He wrote White Tiger, which was excellent!  This book is not nearly as good, it is a collection of short stories about characters in a fictional village in south India.  I love reading books set in & about India.

I learned about some Italian holiday traditions recently.  We had Thursday, 12/8 off as a national religious holiday of some sort & this is the traditional day that families put up the christmas tree & also, if desired, set up the "presepe" or, nativity scene.  Italy is huge on the nativity scene, there are particular shops that sell only characters & pieces for the nativity scene.  When I was in Napoli there was a whole street that sold nothing but nativity stuff.  On Piazza St. Pietro in Vatican City there are some big construction barriers up in the center where workers are busy prepping some amazing life size nativity scene complete with a stone stable or something.  I can't wait to see this thing unveiled!  :)  Also, a massive christmas tree went up there last week.

Another cute tradition is "la befana" she is a witch that comes to your house on January 6th to fill the stockings of children with dolci (sweets) & small gifts.  After this ritual it is customary to take down your tree.  You can buy cute little befana witches on brooms around town also.



Many streets are tastefully lit with white/blue lights.  I've been forgetting my camera & will have to take some pics!  Also, my roomie & I put up our cute little tree yesterday & adorned the home with other christmas decor, it was fun!

Here I will display some recent photos of notable sights, etc.

I walked over to la chiesa di San Giovanni in Laterano, the oldest christian church in Rome!  It is the seat of the bishop of Rome, whom I think is the pope, right?  It is a beautiful & huge basilica.

the piazza & baroque facade 

the statues in the niches lining the nave are HUGE!  They are the 12 apostles.  The ceiling is ornate!  And for some reason there are no nice wooden pews but, crappy plastic chairs.  People were getting seated for a mass to start.  

special papal chapel

fancy mosaic floor & REALLY old!!

I'm still fascinated by bronze doors!  This one was taken from the Curia bldg. that housed the roman senate in the ancient roman forum.

An adjacent building houses the "la scala sacra" the sacred stairs, an ancient wooden staircase that was brought to Rome from Jerusalem.  Apparently, they were sanctified by Jesus during his passion.  ( I'm not sure what that means but, did you see that movie the passion of the christ?  whoa!)  The story is that these were the very stairs Jesus walked on or crawled on.  So, the faithful today crawl up on their knees.  The atmosphere in here is heavy!  I felt sort of bad but, I had to get a photo of this!!  :)  There was an adjacent stairway that heathens such as myself can just walk up.  I was raised Lutheran but, these days am not a practicing christian.  I am practicing yoga & meditation instead. :)

But, as you can see I still find any religion quite interesting!

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I thought this was cool, in an adjacent, octagonal chapel some art restoration was in progress on these ancient frescoes.  Here you can see some white squares drawn.  This is a technique.  (haha, I don't have any more details.)

 I told you I took another visit to the Vatican Museums, right?  Love that place!  There were several wings open that I hadn't seen before!

a river god with about 15 little cherubs crawling on him.

 I don't know too much about Egyptian myth & theology.  In all the sculpted figures the positions are all so rigid & stiff.  Look at that second picture, it looks like the "guy" is carrying heavy buckets.

the egyptian wing!  

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ankhs & scarabs

view of Roma from inside the Vatican

sculpture of the god Mithras.  he is always slaying a bull.   The so called "tauroctony"! 

here is where I like to take bike rides out into the countryside to clear my head!

Nothing to report about work, nothing positive that is.  I just ordered some of my own private business cards to promote my chiropractic practice independently of my "business manager".  The need for this was never in the plan so... maybe that will give you an idea of how things are panning out.  Ugh!  My Italian is holding steady but, honestly, I get really nervous when I have to talk about chiropractic, xrays, optimal nervous system function and such in Italian.  Double ugh!

Fortunately, my friend Elysia is coming to save me!  Just kidding, but it sure will be fun to see my friend.  In under one week!  Take care everyone, hope that your holiday prep work is coming along.  Send a good thought my way, will you?

Buona serata!! :)

xx

Ostia Antica!

Ciao tutti!

I hope you are enjoying a buon weekend!  I have had an eventful week in Roma.  My Xray equipment at work got all set up & on Thursday I took films of my first new patients!!  Yay!  This was a huge step forward in progress here in Italy.  The country where nothing is as it seems, the country of the "baroque mentality" (fooling the eye of the viewer with elaborate flourishes).  I am learning a lot about Italy!  Learning that I love the cultural richness & beauty and also learning some personal lessons.  Like how to go with the flow, relax about trying to control a situation & trust in the process.  These lessons don't come easy & it makes me really appreciate the ability I had in the USA to get things done quickly, efficiently & the way I wanted them.  Apparently I am a control freak!  Being demanding or pushy here gets you nowhere; a more successful tactic is to use the conditional verb tense.  This one is used to express a desire or an uncertainty.  Like, I would like to be able to....  if it's ok with you!

My new Xray system is digital & it is awesome!!  All I have used in the past for taking NUCCA films is a plain film system, in which you have to develop the films yourself.  With digital it is super fast & the image transfers to a computer.  It turns out extremely clear & sharp, then you are able to mess around with the contrast & magnification through a computer program to see all the structures perfectly!  It is really amazing compared to what I have used in the past, much easier.  Also, when you are developing films using chemicals there is always some troubleshooting & margin for error to be had with the processing.  With a digital system the film is generally always good unless the positioning is off.  Also, I can do my film analysis with the computer rather than having to hand draw lines on the films.  I did like drawing on the films but, seems like this will be way more precise.  In all ways it is awesome!

So, things are happening here, slowly but surely.  I'm not sure when, if ever, I'll get settled into a normal work schedule.

It was nice to have visitors from the states to hang out with, I went to the Vatican Museums for the 2nd time last week.  There were about 80% fewer people there this time & it wasn't roasting hot so, it was a great time!  Also, several exhibit wings were open that weren't the first time I went.  And then I got a sore neck from staring up at the sistene chapel.  My favorite Irish friend left Rome on Friday, I will miss  her & now need to make at least one new friend.  I won't be going regularly to any language classes so I will have to keep trying to be social to meet new people.

Yesterday I ventured to the ancient port city of Ostia Antica.  It was a busy port at the mouth of the Tiber back in the time of ancient Roma.  I believe the main export was, salt!  Important mostly for... preserving meat I guess?  Shortly after the fall of Roma, the Tiber changed it's course, Ostia was stricken with malaria & pretty much abandoned.

It is just a 30 min train ride from town & is generally overlooked by most tourists.  Yesterday being early December (off season) and rainy, the place was fairly empty.  It is a huge place & relatively well preserved.  I think it was nearly as interesting as Pompei & it was pleasant to wander around without being surrounded by loads of tourists.  I like drawing parallels between ancient methods Vs. what we use today, many things are surprisingly similar.

Here we go!

Il terme di Nettuno!  Look at this fantastic mosaic depicting Neptune riding in a sea chariot drawn by sea horses!

the detail is really amazing!

storage vessels

sycamore tree changing colors

an old mulino (mill).  here they would grind grain & bake bread to send to rome.   quite the operation!

checking out the mill (rick steve's guidebook in hand)

the theater.  look at all those nice umbrella pines!

an altar used for animal sacrifice.  they would spill out the entrails on it & use some divination to get assistance from the gods in decision making.  this altar is a replica, the original is housed in a museum in roma.  apparently in italy there is a whole division of the carabinieri (police) to protect historical artifacts!

there was a nice little museum with some excellent marbles.

here was a good looking guy. even sans nose :) 

here's the ancient tavern.  belly up to the bar!

surprisingly modern seeming considering this was like, 4th century B.C.  

a close up of the menu.  you can get a carrot, a drink of some sort & a...  turnip!

Capitolum temple in the forum, dedicated to Jupiter, Juno & Minerva (equivalent to Zeus, Hera & Athena),
the Capitoline triad.  

getting arty

here is the old timey "latrine".  can you believe this?  water was running through underneath as a "flush".  

the remains of a super large bath complex.  no one had a private bath so everyone would bathe together .  there were also steam rooms & massage rooms.  just like the olympus spa in seattle area!  apparently people used olive oil (???) rather than soap so someone would be roving around skimming oil off the water.  olive oil?

hollow bricks lining the bath house for insulation.  the roman's use of radiant heat in their building was novel & advanced.  

ciao for now, Ostia!

Facciamo alla Romana!

Buon weekend!  I hope you all had a fabulous thanksgiving full of family, friends & foods.  The big three!  Niente di speciale here in Roma but that's ok, I do my fair share of being thankful for foods for sure.

Here are photos from a recent visit to the Palatine hill.  The TRUE birthplace of Rome!!  It is one of the 7 original hills of Rome & it has been inhabited since something crazy like, 1000 BC!  It is where Faustulus supposedly found those infamous twins suckled by the she wolf, good old Romulus & Remus.  Lots of wealthy Romans have lived on this hill throughout the golden age of Rome.  One of the most well preserved structures is the house of Augustus & Livia, a lot of beautiful frescoes & mosaics from the villa are now in the national museum.  

I enjoyed Il Palatino, here you will find a lot of nice green space & a respite from the tourist crowds.  Here is a photo of an ancient sporting arena of some type & some lovely umbrella pines.  

here is detail of some cool marble(?) floor mosaic work.

this is Ganymede, aka Zeus' "little boyfriend"

AHA!  the original caves where Rom & Rem were said to have been found!  

there was some low budget film being shot.  

yet another lovely city view!

And now you will find some quasi nature shots!  The colors have been changing providing some high nature moments!

this staircase of this old villa was covered in colored leaves, it was really pretty!

and I was obsessing about taking cool photos of these fish!

those colors were so nice, very impressionistic!

dad, look!  western redbuds in Roma!  (nerd alert)

vista of the forum & vittoriano

 One of my favorite spots in Rome is the Aventine Hill, another one of the "original 7 hills" of the city. It is a peaceful spot to take a passiaggata.  The Aventine was mentioned in myth by Vergil in the Aeneid.  A monster named Cacus lived there & Hercules killed him for terrorizing people & stealing cattle & such.

There are some quaint old churches, orange groves, views & nice homes.  In particular, there is this keyhole that you come to look into for a surprise.  The two times I've been there it has been a popular spot.  Once there were about 20 people lined up to peep into the keyhole & the second time, while I was there 2 separate cars full of Italians cruised up just to pop out of the car & take a quick peek into the keyhole.  What do you see??  A sweet view of St. Peter's!  It is a pretty special little spot.  I'll take you there when you come to visit!

If you want to watch a nice Italian movie I would recommend Pane e Tulipani, a really cute & funny movie I watched in school last week.  Also, in the theater I went to a really sweet Italian film that was just released, Il cuore grande delle ragazza.  Even though I couldn't understand everything, I loved it!  Check it out. 

On the job front...  GOOD PROGRESS!  A couple of people are visiting Roma this very weekend to help set up my office & Xray system & whatnot.  I believe that now I have all the equipment in place that I need to start up real soon!  There are some unexpected issues like, having a proper computer & remote storage for patient xrays & figuring out the proper way to transfer images & things of this nature.  Sure makes me wish I were more tech savvy.  Some part of my brain really shuts off when it comes to computers.  Thank goodness for this happy, user friendly macbook useful in internetting & photo manipulation!  Anyway, hopefully without too much more stress things will come together for work.  I am feeling better than ever about things.  (do I write this every time?  perhaps!)

Funny though, about work.  Now that I am actually going to start & am going to have to speak in Italian & miraculously heal these people I am having anxiety about it.  So, I am excited as well as nervous.

I have to work closely with an Italian Xray technician because technically I'm not able to take films solo.  He is a really great, like a little grandpa!  At first I couldn't understand a thing the guy said because he speaks real fast & with a lot of Roman slang but, now we are able to communicate pretty well!  Slowly but surely people, progress is being made.

I am thinking about going to Florence next weekend.  I am also thinking about buying tix to see some opera (madame butterfly) & ballet (coppelia) coming up.  I have my FINAL EXAM in my medio level italian class on Tuesday.  Wish me luck!  I think I'll have to stop taking intensive classes & switch to evening classes just 2x/week.  We'll see.

And, that's all she wrote!  Bacissimo!

xx