Omaggio a Roma

This film was made by Franco Zeffirelli who we met once at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, I think it was in 2009 for the opening of the Season, he was sitting in our box. It was also that night that Will had a conversation with a Principessa. So many memories we have of Rome.

This homage to Rome shows the beauty of the Città.

Roma Belleza Aeterna.


This clip is used in touristic promotion of the city.

Tu non vedrai nessuna cosa al mondo maggior di Roma!

Just a reminder that we are going in just 3 days to the greatest city in the world ROME!
As the title of my post indicates you will never see anything greater in the world.

Just last night I was looking at all our favourite restaurants, we wish to return too. We have now our tickets to the special exhibits we want to see and have made appointments to meet our friends for lunch or dinner.

Will last night was saying that he hoped Rome would be like he remembered it from two years ago. I told him not to worry Rome never changes it is eternal in its beauty.

I am posting this Hymn to Rome by Puccini, sung here by Beniamino Gigli, it says it all. Pictured is the Vittoriano or the Altar to the Italian Nation on Piazza Venezia. A little fact about this monument built in 1890, prior to its construction stood the hill on which was the ARX or Citadel of Rome with the sacred Geese. It was bulldozed to put this monument in its place, behind it is the Roman Forum. During our trip I will be updating regularly how things are going with pictures and description.
An excerpt from the Hymn; The rising sun on the chariot of the god Apollo streams across the sky. You will never see a greater city in the world as Rome.

Francis Poulenc and Christmas

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) is one of my favourite composer of the XXth century. I find that his music has a certain signature, meaning that when you hear it you know it is Poulenc. His opera Le dialogue des Carmélites is also amongst my favourites. In the Christmas Motet, Poulenc gives us music that leads to quiet reflection on the meaning of Christmas, it is not about shopping or other commercial aspects or even about people or that false family sentimental approach or focusing about the children or what ever other modern meaning we like to invent for this holiday. It is about leading the individual to listen to the words as they are sung in Latin and reflect on their meaning and that of the events inspired by Faith at this time of the year.

Rome under snow with the top of the dome of the Church of Santa Maria di Loretto (1507)
by the Forum of Trajan.

Here is the Hodie Christus Natus Est. The voices of the Choir are very clear and love the pronunciation, I am also happy that I have some knowledge or understanding of Latin. Sung this way it adds mystery and dignity to the text.

Big snow flakes falling and our neighbour walking his pug. The Canal is frozen now and I saw someone walking on the ice yesterday.

Here is the Videntes Stellam also from the Poulenc Christmas Motet.



The voices are beautiful.

Omaggio alla Città Eterna

What is the fatal charm of Italy? What do we find there that cannot be found anywhere else?
I believe it is a certain permission to be human, which other places, other countries, lost long ago. E.J.

Then and Now

Last night we had a lovely dinner at our friend Cathy who lives East of us in a lovely house with a beautiful garden, she knows all her plants and takes good care of them. She even gave me a great sprig of Sage, what an elegant perfume sage gives, its a full, rich and creamy, I am thinking in Italian morbido meaning pretty much what I just said. She cooked corn on the cob it had been years since we had any and a lovely roasted chicken from a William Sonoma recipe.

Today we placed furniture in our new apartment, I have counted so far 15 boxes of stuff we have either given away or taken to the auctioneer, not mentioning a room full of furniture.  The books are next in the sorting out, we already did a first exercise before we left Rome and we will do more again, books as lovely as they are we will never read again, so let someone else enjoy them. Then all the framed stuff, too many things and so many we no longer care for, they too have to go. I am glad we are doing this because it needed to be done and should have been done a long time ago.

The apartment is starting to look like home give us another 2 to 3 weeks and all should be back in order.

Then: our former apartment in Rome.

Now: our new apartment in Ottawa, not yet decorated we only moved in 8 days ago.
Some familiar touches and a few boxes still, a work in progress.

Evening at the Parco della Musica, Roma

In the last 4 years in Rome we have enjoyed our subscription to the concerts of the Orchestra dell Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Maestro Antonio Pappano, the Choir under Ciro Visco is wonderful.
This evening it was Brahms, German Requiem, not a requiem for Germany and not a religious piece or nationalistic one, simply a humanist reflection, this is how Brahms presented it.

The hall at the auditorium is wonderful, all cherrywood, the sound is rich, the acoustics perfect. The German Requiem is one of my favorites, the other one is Fauré. The singers were baritone Peter Mattei and soprano Rebecca Evans.

This week throughout Italy it is the Settimana della Cultura. Every town has cultural activities, exhibits, concerts celebrating Italian art and culture.

Today in Rome

La Citta Eterna was very quiet, a National Holiday, a sunny early morning but quickly the clouds came in.
At 09:00 the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano made his way to Piazza Venezia and the Altar to the Nation built in 1890 to honor the first King of Italy Vittorio-Emmanuelle II. The President laid a wreath at the feet of the Goddess Roma. The Vittoriano is the largest all white marble monument build in modern times, it occupies the area formely occupied by the hill of the Arx.

close up of a Corazzieri, the personal bodyguard of the President of the Italian Republic.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano laying a wreath at the Vittoriano.

Then the President of the Republic went to the Pantheon, built in antiquity by Agrippa the able general and friend of Emperor Augustus. At the Pantheon waiting for him was the entire Royal Family of Italy, who nowadays live in Savoy-Piemonte in their former estate. At the Pantheon is the bronze mausoleum of King Vittorio-Emmanuelle II built from melted Austrian cannons, there he laid a second wreath to the King.

The Royal Family of Italy at the Pantheon in front of the tomb of their forefather King Vittorio-Emmanuelle II.

Then he went to the Gianicolo Hill across the Tiber to the mausoleum of Anita Garibaldi the heroic wife of Giuseppe Garibaldi, who fought and accompanied her husband during the war of independence. She died on the battlefield, it is also said that she was the one who taught her husband how to ride a horse.

The tomb of Anita Garibaldi on the Gianicolo Hill

The President then returned to Piazza Repubblica for a mass for Italian Soldiers in the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, formely the Baths of Emperor Dioclitian. This evening all the museums and major monuments of Rome are open to the public late. The President is at the Teatro del Opera di Roma for a gala presentation of Verdi's, Nabucco. This 17 March is a unique holiday celebrated this year only for the 150th anniversary and it was the idea of President Napolitano to do this. Bravo Presidente e Grazie!
Auguri a tutti!

ITALIA BELLEZZA ETERNA! 1861-2011

The 17 March 1861 Vittorio-Emmanuelle II of Savoy became King of a United Italian Kingdom. Tomorrow the 17th we celebrate all over Italy this great day under the theme of Italian Unity or Patria Unita.

There will be demonstrations and concerts, museums will remain open late and everyone except yours truly will enjoy a National Holiday, I forgot the Holy See is not celebrating this holiday, they lost the war against the Italians and the Pope lost all his estates and all of central Italy which came under his direct rule.

Pater Patria, King Vittorio-Emmanuelle II of Italy.

Auguri and Complimenti to all my Italian friends on this great day! Unity came after years of bloody conflict with the Pope and his French and Austrian allies against the people of Italy.  The capital at first was Turin and then Florence and finally after the conquest of Rome on 20 September, the Eternal City became once again after almost 1400 years the Capital of all Italy. This feat was in a large part the work of one great Sardinian, Garibaldi who was very successful at conquering town after town and region after region and becoming the symbol of the aspiration of the Italians to be able to govern themselves.
Tomorrow night at the Teatro del Opera di Roma, the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano will host by invitation only an evening presentation of the great Verdi opera Nabucco directed by Maestro Riccardo Muti, this work is the musical symbol associated with the historical struggles of the Italians to rid themselves of foreign rulers like the French and the Austrians. The famous chorus Va' pensiero sung by the Jewish slaves in Egypt is the allegorical reference in the story and strikes that emotional chord in all Italians. Just a few nights ago, the crowd at the Opera demanded an encore of the chorus, Maestro Muti turned to the audience and invited them to stand and sing with the singers the encore. It was a great emotional moment, many cried, all the newspapers carried the story the next day.
We are going to the opera on the Saturday 19th to see Nabucco, I hope for a repeat of this scene.

Everyone is invited to post in all the windows of homes and shops the Italian tricolore in celebration of the Anniversary. The showing of the flag in Rome is especially significant as a rebuke to the Vatican.