Auguri di Compleanno, Bon Anniversaire

Another year, a little song, a little dance, a little seltzer water down your pants. (Quote from the Mary Tyler Moore show). Birthdays are a funny thing for me, each year is different, different cities or continent, in all kinds of places. This year in Ottawa, though we are suppose to be in Spring now it is still cold and full of snow, however all this is set to change dramatically by Thursday when temperatures soar to 10C over night and a massive melt will start quickly, meaning floods, ah Spring in Ottawa.

I have many things to be thankful for on this Birthday, good health, good teeth, my dentist told me this week that for a man my age having all my teeth is remarkable. It seems that like 300 years ago most people in their fifties today have lost a large amount of teeth or are looking at dentures.

We have a nice home, friends, our dogs and each other. We still travel a lot, I have taken in my lifetime more trips to exotic, strange and foreign lands than anyone I know. I have seen 45% of the planet and have lived in many countries for extended part of my life. Going abroad for a few days does not appear on my chart. I have studied and learned foreign languages. I understand quite a few others and am not lost or put off by foreign cultures or mores when I travel.

I now work as a volunteer in two National Museums in Ottawa and I enjoy it immensely. Spending easily upwards of 50 hours a month doing volunteer work, it is like a second career and it is fun, something I always wanted to do and can now do. Not a bad life Maggie Muggins.

Here are some pictures of little me through the ages.

In Ville Saint-Laurent in our backyard in the little pool, I am about 5 yrs old with my little brother.

My first morning going to school, grade 1, on my own in Quebec City

On the train in Poland going from Warsaw to Krakow, 1998.

Italian Cooking School near Rome 2009

In Rome in 2013 at dinner at our friends house

With our Reesie in Rome in 2008 our first apartment on Via Asmara

 In Assisi in 2010

At dinner in Salzburg at the Sketch Bar, Hotel Bristol

With Nicky in Rome on Via dei Villini

On the old Via Latina, with one of the many old aqueducts, Rome

At the monastery of Pedralbes in Barcelona

 At Cap Sounion near Athens at sun down 2010

In the Silk Merchant Guild Hall in Valencia, Spain

Breakfast Italian style at the Hotel in Ragusa Ibla, Sicily  

On the Island of Capri

At the Festival in Salzburg the Karl Bohm Hall 

Infamous photo abroad the Azamara where I was mistaken for Karl Lagerfeld 

Café Bazar, Salzburg, my favourite café at Festival time.

The little wood house in which Mozart wrote his music, beautifully preserved in the garden of the Mozarteum in Salzburg

This for me is the most beautiful fountain in Rome, the Turtles fountain in the area of the Portico Ottavia and the old Ghetto

With Professor A. Testa on Easter Sunday in Rome 2010 

On Via Appia looking for Spartacus 

On board Air Transat going to Italy, a good airline 

Easter photos

Our friend Jack is visiting us from Beijing and he has one of those big cameras that take really professional pictures, it's a Nikon D300. He took some pictures of Nicky and Nora, the best pictures so far in their young lives, they are only 14 months old. The eyes say it all.
Our little Easter bunny killers. One has to remember that they are hounds, their parents are hunting dogs. Right now they want to kill every cat in the neighborhood, pigeons, anything basically which they think it good for hunting, nothing personal, that is what wire hair dachshunds do. Nora's mom at 5 kg, can hunt in a pack wild boars who weigh 60 kg.
We took them to the Via Appia Antica to walk on the historical road just outside the San Sebastiano gate for about 5 km. They walked it all right but when we came home, they were pooped tired and slept like logs.

in Winter in Rome

Rome is a city which lends itself well to la passagiata or a promenade in the numerous parks or back streets in the many neighborhoods of the city.
In the old Suburbia (below the centre) of Rome, which is a neighborhood as old as the city itself just behind the back wall of the Temple of Mars the Avenger built by Octavian Augustus, to thank Mars for the deadly revenge he had on the assassins of his uncle Julius Caesar, you will find Via dei Serpenti and a little narrow cobbled stone side street Via della Madonna dei Monti. No tourists here, North Americans might be afraid to walk down this little street at night, though there is little danger, it is mostly a quiet residential street.

From the street you would not be able to tell that this is the site of the Ice bar, located inside a building of the 17th century. The Ice bar is made of solid ice all of it, the bar itself, the shelves, the furniture and the glasses all solid ice. It is minus 5 C inside and you have to wear gloves and a thermal cape to keep you warm. It is a great deal of fun, but after 30 minutes you start to feel the cold and it is time to walk out. We then went for dinner next door in a lovely restaurant la Taverna dei Fori Imperiali. The name recalls the time in antiquity when Taverns were on every street corners and the neighborhood Gods where kept there. They were also neighborhood clubs were fraternities met, had a meal and a drink. See their web side www.latavernadeiforiimperiali.com

Then on the weekend on a bright but cold sunny Sunday we went to walk on the Via Appia. This is probably the most symbolic road of Imperial Rome, First built by the Censor Appius Claudius in 312 BC,as a military road it ran all the way south to Naples and then later was extended to Brindisi. Little did he know that this road would become so famous, today it stand in a large green park with old mausoleums and other reminders of Imperial Rome. Almost everyone of note walked or rode this road, Cicero was murdered on it by the men of Mark Anthony, every Roman legion walk up and down it, Spartacus and thousands of his followers were crucified along it as a reminder to all that no one defied the Senate and the people of Rome, it is said that St-Peter met Christ on the road and St-Paul also walked along it, St-Sebastian is buried here.

It is so peaceful with the wonderful cedar trees rising high into the sky, and to walk on the old stones thinking what they saw and witnessed through the ages. Makes you humble to think that this road has seen countless generation of men come and go.
As you walk away from the city walls look to your left and there you will see some of the great Aqueducts who for centuries carried the water to the Eternal cities, the Aqua Marcia is still operational and brings water to fountains in Rome to this day.

Also not far from the road, you can see the spot where Caius Martius Coriolanus, the banished hero of Rome met his mother who having learned that he had turned against Rome and joined the Voslci and was about to attack the city, shamed him for his treason, by asking him, is this my son who raises his hand against his country?

The Via Appia use to start at the Capena Gate which is located near the Circus Maximus but with the expansion of the city and the building of the city walls by Marcus Aurelius the Via Appia now starts at the Appian Gate known today as the San Sebastiano Gate. Just a another beautiful walk and when after all this fresh air you feel hungry, you can stop at a restaurant near the great Tomb Mausoleum of Cecilia Metella.