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there are some obvious ones, of course. first papal death (in my lifetime anyway. and in my backyard, no less). first papal election. first fall of an Italian government (well, yes you're right, actually it's about the fiftieth fall of an Italian government, but again -- i mean on my watch).
first gelato Romano (cioccolato al diavolo, baba al rhum). first book-shopping-spree in a long, long time. first time wearing my mother's rubies -- in Roma.
first fancy flip-cellphone. first cheesy couples-calling-plan with boyfriend for said fancy flip-cellphone (and if you try to make fun of me to my face, i will deny everything).
first time i've felt this way about my job.
[nightingaleshiraz] [?]
[Via Giordano Bruno, Roma]
[giovedì 28 aprile 2005 ore 21:58:41] [¶]
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and i'm *not* talking about the wineboy.
no. i'm talking about april twenty-seventh two years ago today. when i landed at Amerigo Vespucci airport, on a Florentine Sunday. fresh (well, no -- not exactly, not after the thirteen hours from Toronto, and the extra three on the runway in Paris while Air France tried to decide if we all didn't have SARS), and feisty, and full of mostly-consistent-conviction.
i knew what i wanted.
[nightingaleshiraz] [?]
[Via Giordano Bruno, Roma]
[mercoledì 27 aprile 2005 ore 22:37:57] [¶]
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last weekend i spent saturday morning at the local mercato -- making friends and making favorites. i like the lady who chopped my chicken. i like the skinny old man who scooped me up my three little alici for my puntarelle (because he could have sold me more than he did). and i was undecided about the man who sold me the puntarelle, but his puntarelle were amazing, so i think it's okay (not everyone has to flirt back, i try and remind myself)...
so sunday for lunch (and for Ciro), i made puntarelle like the romans do, and chicken with green beans and scallions in spicy peanut sauce. and i had myself an extremely, ludicrously grateful young man.
even Tamanna would have been proud.
this weekend i didn't get to the market (rain, dead popes -- you know how it is). but i got to go to an Ethiopian restaurant (and it was good, and you know my frame of reference is new york city). and i got to go to a Korean restaurant (and it was not bad, and you know my frame of reference is new york city). and while looking for said Korean restaurant near Termini i stopped at a pizza a taglio place to ask directions and bumped randomly into the beautiful-eyed Turkish-boy from my local (and so-far-favorite) doner-kebab joint.
sunday was out in rain-drenched-Roma... the kind of weather that in most other cities would seem suicidal. and i will not kid: we were cold and wet -- but we were nowhere near miserable.
and tonight i stopped off to get more of that far-too-fantastic salami piccante that they have at the place near Ottaviano.
and i write this listening to Franco Battiato tell me about la stagione dell'amore.
i like it here.
[nightingaleshiraz] [?]
[Via Giordano Bruno, Roma]
[martedì 12 aprile 2005 ore 22:10:35] [¶]
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so this wine bar in Florence has finally launched their web site. it still needs a press/links page, and the Italian-translated version (and some form validation, *pronto*) but boy am i glad it's finally up...
[nightingaleshiraz] [?]
[Via Giordano Bruno, Roma]
[sabato 9 aprile 2005 ore 14:00:54] [¶]
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before i even jump on the current-events-bandwagon (and ingratiate myself most conveniently with countless search engine queries), i'd like to point out that, from the terrace of my palazzo (read "apartment-building"), i can see San Pietro. it's only a four-storey view, but it's a good enough one i would think -- for telling the difference between black and white smoke. someone told me CNN is paying twenty thousand most-unholy dollars for something similar for the next couple of weeks...
there are many thoughts i have about this whole dead pontiff thing. for example, for all of the last two months, people have been talking about the Pope and his death. whether he will, whether he won't, whether it'll be before summer, and how much money they're willing to stake on each relevant outcome. i thought it weird (and a little disconcerting) that everyone (at least in this country) found it so easy to speculate on the life-or-death of a real (albeit very famous) person, as it were the price of eggs.
and then there is this whole "viewing-of-the-corpse" thing. they're keeping him there till *friday*. that's *six* days, folks! for pete's sake (or paul's -- whichever). it's a dead body, it's Rome in April, and -- last i checked -- the Basilica of San Pietro does *not* have climate-control. two million people are expected to swing by, and i am guessing many of them will *not* have recently showered. you don't need a college of cardinals to see where this is heading...
beyond that, this morning i noticed (well, maybe more than noticed, since there seemed to be about seven hundred jostling teenagers at my subway stop -- and this is quite hard *not* to notice), that they're taking schoolkids to see him. i don't mean to be disrespectful (as they explained in the disclaimer to Dogma, it is not our intention to slight the Platypi), but well, in my day (which wasn't that many days ago) a "field-trip" meant the local chocolate factory. i can't remember any visits to see dead people -- heads of state or otherwise... i dunno.
anyway, i return to the single and only real thing of value i can claim in this whole world-event. that from *my* terrace, you can do more than hang your bedsheets out to dry. you can witness history in the making. the best part about this? i get to say i've got a great view on (ahem), pope culture.
and that, if the wind is blowing right, you might even catch a little... pope music.
[nightingaleshiraz] [?]
[Via Giordano Bruno, Roma]
[martedì 5 aprile 2005 ore 20:27:43] [¶]
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