COPPEDE a neighbourhood in Rome outside the walls.

Rome has many little neighbourhoods, some like the ancient Suburbia stands just outside the area of the Roman Forum, other quartiere were built to mark an event, like the Afrika neighbourhood, all the streets are named after cities in the former Italian colonies of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Lybia, other still like Coppede at the corner of Piazza Buenos Aires and Via Tagliamento were built in a style to indicate a re-birth of Rome as the Capital of Unified Italy. The Coppede quartiere is sandwiched between the neighbourhood of Trieste and Salario. In 1913 Gino Coppede was asked to design a series of buildings that would be unique in their architecture and a symbol of the new Capital of Italy. He chose to use a mixture of Art Nouveau and Eclectic style with elements recalling ancient Rome. In all 18 apartment blocks and 11 large villas and several smaller buildings where built. Gino Coppede died in 1927 and his work was completed by a fellow architect. Today this residential neighbourhood is much visited and admired for its uniqueness in design.

I always thought that it would be fun to live in such buildings, they are the stuff of fantasy and dreams. The apartments are large and formal with high ceilings, reminiscent of an era long gone. The years of the building of this project was also one of vast ambitions in Italy, the First World War saw Italy emerge victorious over Austria and Northern Italy was liberated from Austrian occupation. Italy also gained much territory on the Eastern Side of the Adriatic, all in the former Austrian Empire. Though the 1920's saw much political gridlock and economic difficulties culminating with the coup d'état which propelled Benito Mussolini to power with his Fascist party.

These buildings stand in stark contrast to the Fascist architecture in other areas of the City for their whimsical style if compared to the severe Fascist style. The buildings are in constant need of repair and cleaning. They are well worth it and once cleaned of the soot and grime, they are quite beautiful to look at.

Villa delle Fate, a large private house.

Piazza with the fountain of the Frogs

Palazzo degli ambasciatori newly cleaned

Continuing ......

So on the next day I decided that I would go walk into the City. But feeling a little tired I decided to take bus 60 on Via Nomentana and this took me all the way down to Piazza Venezia, the centre of the City. From the Piazza you have on the one side the Palazzo Venezia built in 1451which belonged to Pope Paul II and his family and then became with its church San Marco the Embassy of the Republic of Venice in 1564. Today it's a museum with various exhibits changing every few months. On the other corner is the Palazzo Bonaparte, owned by the family of Emperor Napoleon I, after his fall his family retired to Italy, they had many palaces in Rome. The Emperor's mother Madame Maria Letizia Ramorino Bonaparte use to sit on the little green balcony every day and she in fact died in the Palace in 1836.

Next to it is the enormous  900 room palace of Prince Jonathan Doria-Pamphilij, you can visit the state rooms and the painting gallery of the palace. The Prince and his partner and their 2 kids live in the Palace. Of course the Piazza Venezia is famous for the white marble monument, the Altar to the Italian Nation it stands on where use to be the hill of the ARX, the ancient citadel of Rome, next to the Forum of Emperor Trajan.

I climbed the steps of the Campidoglio, at the top of which are the statues of Castor and Pollux. The ancient hill of the Capitol of Rome where once stood the Temple of Jupiter Great and Best, today the City Hall of Rome is located on this spot with the equestrian bronze statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius and the museum Capitolini where I saw this wonderful exhibits celebrating the 400 anniversary of the Foundation of the Vatican Library Secret Archives. The exhibit is called LUX IN ARCANA, the wealth of documents on show is nothing short of amazing, many rare and famous documents. The Secret Archives keeps everything, including books condemned to be burned are in fact kept in the library. Publicly one copy is burned but the original is kept safely tucked away in the Secret Archives. I was able to see the documents of trial of Galileo under the giant marble statue of Pope Urban VIII who thought nothing of having Galileo, an old man, tortured if need be to get a confession. The Vatican admits today that the trial was political, no one understood the theories of Galileo, it was more a question of his theories as a threat to the power of the Pope.  Also on display are the 27 Assertions on the Supremacy of the Pope by Gregory VII titled Dictatus Papae. The first paragraph estalishes in this document of 1075 that the Pope is the Supreme leader of the World and all other rulers must bow to him. This role given to him in the Donation of Emperor Constantine, the donation is a forgery but was used by the Popes until 1500 to establish their supremacy. This document will be the foundation stone of the Reformation movement under Martin Luther many centuries later against Papal supremacy. There was also a lovely letter from Mary Stuart written to Pope Sixtus V just after she learns of her being condemned to death, in it she says to the Pope that she forgives Elizabeth I and her ministers for this unjust sentence. Another letter full of New Year's wishes by Marie-Antoinette who is in prison in Paris, to her brother-in-law the future Charles X. The documents are very well preserved, in mint condition. Because of the beautiful penmanship, they are easy to read. There is also an electronic display which explains what the document is and the historical sequence. This is truly a must see exhibit in Rome. What was nice was the lack of crowds on this weekday.  Coming out of the Palace into the beautiful piazza of the Campidoglio stands the magnificient equestrian statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius looking over the City.

 I walked a little on Via dei Fori Imperiali to have a look at the Forum of Augustus and then off to lunch at Da Giovanni on Via Antonio Salandra 1, this is a very simple restaurant serving Roman cuisine to the neighborhood, I see that it gets excellent reviews on Trip Advisor. The decor wood panelling on the walls, the waiters like the owners have been there for decades and the food is always good. I had artichoke Roman style, this is the season, then a veal scaloppini, a little wine and a bottle of water, an espresso. I noted that the clients are the same as always, an elegant old lady having her lunch, a businessman, a famous lady journalist and her ancient father, the baron who is an old English gentleman who has been living in Rome of ever and a day. The funny thing about Roman restaurants where locals gather is that every one listens to everyone else's conversation and will pitch in or laugh at something you might say. No one is having a meal on their own, it's like a family affair.  

Revisiting Rome

After a non-winter due to climatic change in Canada, I suddenly had this urge to go to Rome to re-visit the city where we lived for 4 wonderful years (2007-2011). Rome is like a flu-bug once you have it, you cannot shake it off. Not everyone likes Rome as a City to live or to visit, it is old, about 2765 years old since the days of Romulus and Remus, the infrastructure is not what it could or should be, shopping hours are strange for most North Americans, dining and lunch hours are Southern European, breakfast is taken twice and the coffee is served in small quantities and has a ritual that must be followed if you do not want to be labelled a boor. Some Romans, not all still think of the City as the Capital of the World which can be infuriating for the type A personalities who visit. Traffic is maddening and parking is none existent or difficult at best. Everyone seem to only speak Italian even at the International airport, Fiumicino.

We lived there and loved it, we had and have friends, we were regulars at the Opera House and the Symphony. We learned about the City, how to navigate its streets and how to do like the Romans, we enjoyed it.

This trip was a vacation, incognito, I did not visit the Office on purpose, I simply wanted to forget about work or anything connected to it. I was invited to stay with our old friends P & J in their beautiful apartment not far from where we use to live, very central to all points in the City in the Coppede neighbourhood.

I contacted everyone and scheduled luncheons and dinners for every day of my stay including exhibits I wanted to see currently on show in Rome. The flight over with Alitalia was fine, it also allowed me to start speaking Italian right away. Upon our return from Italy last August, I enrolled in a 6 month Italian language course to continue to perfect my knowledge of the language, it became clear that my speaking abilities are much improved and have little difficulties now with the language.

Something that dawned on me at the beginning of this trip was that in Italy, Italians pursue the beautiful, it is part of their culture, whereas in Canada we pursue the practical, in itself it is a very different view of life as a whole.

Upon arrival at 8 am I was picked up by the driver at the airport and taken to my friends house, I showered, changed and went out for lunch on Via Alessandria at the Australian bar where I was greeted by Madame and her son Massimo had a wonderful seafood risotto made by Judy. Then I went to a little shop on Via Nomentana to get myself a cel phone, my Canadian one did not work in Italy they are blocked by the Canadian companies who hold a monopoly here in Canada. So for 30 euros got myself a very good phone and 120 minutes for international or national calls. When I think that in Canada I would pay at least $200 and have to sign a contract just to use a cel phone.

I returned home for cocktails and a light dinner and off to bed where I slept for 12 hours straight. The next day I decide to take a proper Roman breakfast just a few doors down at the local Café and had a nice Espresso with a bit of milk (machiato) and a Tramenzino, a white bread sandwich ham and cheese grilled. I then walked out towards the City walls and entered the City at Porta Pia walking towards Piazza Santa Susanna and down to the Quirinale Palace. At the Scuderie del Quirinale there was an exhibit on the painter Jacopo Comin called Tintoretto  (1518-1594) whose major works are featured all over Venice. The Scuderie are the old stables of the Quirinale Palace, the grounds floor housed the different coaches, the first floor had the stalls for the horses, the second floor was the area reserved for the stable staff and coachmen.  To reach the first floor the horses walked up a grand staircase designed just for them and all made of stone. This staircase is taken by visitors today to enter the exhibit area.
I learned that Tintoretto who lived at the same time as other great painters like the Titian, quickly undercut his competitors by not charging for his work and simply asking a nominal fee for the canvas.
Since all the princes and cardinals did not want to pay more than they had to for the numerous art works needed for their palaces and churches, Tintoretto became a favourite among them, he also had a great talent, he took chance with his customers, never sure if his tableaux would please. The art world in his days was tightly controlled by the Catholic Church who dictated how a topic could be presented. The Catholic Church positioned itself so to oppose or to answer the Protestant Reformation in Europe.

Just walking in Rome is always great fun, so much to see all around you. The vistas are always spectacular, the whole city is arranged as if a giant stage set made out to impress the eye of the on-looker.

Un peu de musique

Alexander Glazunov wrote this beautiful piece called Les Saisons. Marius Petitpa in 1899 choreographed the ballet. The Autumn is my favourite and it was the theme of a very famous television program in the 1960's on Radio-Canada in Montreal, a memory of my early childhood. The show was shown every night at 7:30pm, it was live and acted as if a theatre play, the actors were all famous, Jean-Pierre Masson as Séraphin, Andrée Champagne, his wife Donalda, Paul Des Marteaux as Curé Labelle, Guy Provost as Alexis. It was quality television programming common in the early days of television. It was so popular that you knew that for those 30 minutes no one would think of disturbing their neighbours unless it was an absolute emergency. The story was simple enough, it was based on the historical period of the late 19th century after the Government abolished the great Seigneurie ( French Farm Estates) established during the French Regime in Canada between 1600 and 1763. The poor peasants were given free land to farm North of Montreal in the Laurentians, also called Les Pays d'en Haut, those mountains which are such a popular ski area today. The land is very poor and not suitable for farming at all, this colonization ended in disaster and more poverty, many simply left and migrated south to the USA, mostly Vermont, Massachusetts, New-York State and New Hampshire.
The program was called, Les belles histoires des pays d'en haut and was taken from a famous novel by Paul-Henri Grignon, Un homme et son péché, ( a man and his sin). The theme was highly moralistic and was an object lesson on greed and avarice, it was also based on known historical fact and the life of a famous clergyman Curé Labelle who championed colonization north of Montreal. The Roman Catholic Church liked this television show a lot because of its Christian tone, we should not forget that in French Canada at the time was 94% Catholics, 5% were Protestants and 1% Jewish. The last episode of the show after 14 years running ended like the novel which was it's inspiration, with the death of Séraphin Poudrier, the greedy avaricious landlord-peasant who entered is burning house for the sole purpose of saving his gold and silver coins amassed in the basement. No redemption here, the viewers knew he was going to Hell. After all he had not provided for his very young and beautiful wife Donalda, she had all the qualities of a dutiful Christian wife dying young because her husband Séraphin would not pay for a doctor. This program was also a critique of the changing times in the 1960's, the new consumer society.  It was the favourite show of my grandfather, a police Captain who had been raised in a very wealthy family before 1929 who lost everything in the depression. His were the solid values of Old Canada, Family, Land, Duty and Faith. All this seems so far away now.

Interlude Musicale

I love this piece of music, it is so quiet and pleasant.

Restaurant reviews in Ottawa and elsewhere

I have taken up the new hobby of reading restaurants and hotels reviews I frequent. I have also subscribed to different sites like UrbanSpoon, Booking.com, Trip-Advisor. By far my favourite is the hotel site, Booking.com, for the last 15 years I have used it for all my hotel bookings around the world and have never been disappointed, given the amount of travel I do in Europe, Asia and North America, something could go wrong but not with Booking.com. If I select an hotel with an 8.5 point average or better and read the reviews and I also read between the lines, I find that I will not be disappointed by my choice of hotels. As for restaurants it is a different matter. I often will ask the Front Desk at the hotel about a restaurant they would recommend. However I always tell them that I want a good restaurant with local specialties and a medium price range or better, a good selection of wines and a restaurant that is known by the locals and not by the tourists. Is it family owned and how many years has it been in business.  Too many people make the mistake of saying, they want something fast and cheap, I don't want to spend too much or look at the menu and if they see lots of foreigners around at tables conclude it must be good. That's a big mistake in most cases, another mistake is too go to a restaurant or café or bar in a very touristy area, prices are always far higher catering to the tourists.

This week in Ottawa our local newspaper announced that the restaurant reviewer for the last 20 years, Anne Des Brizay, was retiring. She often suggested restaurants I really enjoyed. Then the CBC on one of their radio shows asked the following question; Do we need professional restaurant reviewers nowadays given that so many people can give an opinion on any number of sites on restaurants?
I would say, yes we do need professional reviewers. The opinions you find on many sites are often not very detailed and give you a very inaccurate idea of what the restaurant really is like. Per example this week UrbanSpoon in Ottawa featured 3 restaurants which are trendy at the moment. The Red Apron had great reviews, everyone who has been there loves it. But it is not really a restaurant, they only serve a light lunch and otherwise it is a take away shop with great offerings of the all prepared variety. The menu changes all the time and the ingredients and dishes are said to be superior to what you would find elsewhere. Another one that I like a lot is Parma Ravioli on old Wellington street, everything is fresh and can be taken away or eaten in a small area with a few tables. There specialty is fresh pasta, many daily fresh items and great sauces and breads all made on the premises.

However two other restaurants, one being the Hintonburg Public House, got terrible ratings, unfortunately the reviewers put in their personal comments without explaining what they did not like. Example one person wrote; we walked in we had no reservations and the staff was not friendly, we walked out. Or another person wrote: my 23 year old son did not like his salad. Ok what does that mean? Did he only have a salad? You go out for salad? Another one complained that the waiter did not introduce himself, did not do the usual, Hi him Bruce and I will be your waiter tonight and blah, blah, blah, how are you guys schtick, still to common in Ottawa. Who cares! Another one complained that the water glasses were not promptly refilled, really you go to the restaurants to drink water? Other complaints is that the food was not flavourful or the dishes did not blow them away, you mean you like terrorist chefs.  Many want many flavours in their dishes, one wonders what is it they are looking for in food? But no one said what they were eating or had ordered, no one said anything about presentation or if the dishes where appetizing or if it was good value overall. They will tell you they went out with this or that person, for this or that reason, on this or that night. Not really relevant, I am not interested in personal life details.
Far too many appear overly concerned with how much they paid, one person wrote that he had 24 oysters and a half bottle of white wine, paid $45 dollars and thought that far too expensive. Really two dozen oysters and wine, did this person have any idea of the cost of fresh good quality seafood? Considering also that oysters have to be imported. Words like awesome, amazing, very tasty are not good examples in terms of description of food or if it was prepared properly or presented well, though these are expressions that come back constantly on sites where people put in their impressions of a restaurant. You wonder about the quality of what they eat every day.

This is why I believe we still need good professional reviewers like Anne Des Brizay to guide us and give an honest impression. It has to be said that despite the fact that Ottawa has matured in terms of restaurants and quality of chefs and cuisine, it remains still a city where many people go out to a restaurant only for a special occasion and are often happy with mediocre food and poor service has long as the decor is nice. This last remark was one left by a person living here. Having said this, Ottawa does have wonderful new, young chefs like Marc Lepine of Atelier restaurant on Rochester street who won the Gold medal at the Pan Canadian Culinary contest this weekend. There are many other great chefs in this Capital but the public has to be made aware and educated to what exist. Here are there names:

-Ces Santaguida, Vittoria Trattoria-Michael Hay, The Courtyard Restaurant-Matthew Brearley, Castlegarth-Norm Aitken, Juniper-Michael Blackie, Le Cafe at the NAC***-Jamie Stunt, Oz Kafe***-Pat Garland, Absinthe***-Arup Jana, Allium***

 
-Jason Duffy,  Arc the hotel

-John Taylor, Domus Cafe-Yannick Anton, Cordon Bleu Bistro***-Steve Mitton, Murray Street-Caroline Ishii, Zen Kitchen-Charles Part, Les Fougeres-Michael Moffat, Beckta Dining and Wine-Matt Carmichael, Restaurant E18hteen 
 

 
-Clifford Lyness, Brookstreet Hotel-Chris Deraiche, The Wellington Gastropub-Trish Larkin, Black Cat Bistro-Steve Wall, Luxe Bistro***-Mike Radford, Savana Cafe-Matt Somers, It's a Matter of Cake-Michael Farber, Farbs Kitchen and Wine Bar-Matt Carmichael, Restaurant E18hteen

To think we have now in Ottawa so many good restaurants is quite a development for this Capital, which until 2005 had precious few good restaurants. The ones with *** are restaurants I know for having been there and enjoyed the cuisine.

                            Château Laurier Hotel, Ottawa (1911-2011)

30+ years

Today at coffee time I was honoured by my employer for 30 years of service, it is in fact 32 years now but that is beside the point. Our Director General and my Director said some very nice things on my achievements and contributions and how much it is appreciated. They presented me with a Long Service Certificate on behalf of the Prime Minister and our Deputy Minister, there was also a small gift. What surprised me though, was another Certificate in this presentation which read as follows: ''In recognition of your years of service to the Nation a tree has been planted in honour of your dedication to the government of Canada. Now your contribution will be forever part of the landscape of Canada''. I was very surprised by this gesture and was speechless, it means a lot to me personally to be recognized in such a way. I was told that the foundation Tree Canada which is involved in environmental projects has planted 75 million trees since 1992. The tree or my tree, in this case, is in Sudbury, Ontario and is part of a vast plan to reforest and restore the environment of the town devastated by mining for the last 80 years. So far 3200 hectares have been restored.

At the same time I felt a little old, when I joined the Service there were typewriters like the IBM Selectric and telex machines, the war in Vietnam had ended just 5 years previously, no computers or any of the gadgets we have today. Our way of working was so different, our Director General spoke on that and I did too, my colleagues are about 20 to 25 years younger than me, it felt a bit like a Jurasic Park moment. I also felt nostalgic, thinking of all the things I had accomplished and all the places I had been around the world, so many memories, I thought of Mountolive, Balthazar and Justine, the characters in the book of Lawrence Durrell, of receiving as a gift in 1983 the Satow which was written by Sir Ernest Satow and edited in its fifth edition by Lord Gore-Booth, a book I have often consulted during my career.
Someone asked, will you retire now, to which I answered, no I want to make it to 50 years of service because I hear they give you a brand new Subaru, everyone laughed, I have no such intention.

                                                    Non Sibi Sed Patriae!