Villa Pamphili

Villa Pamphili is a park in Rome and former estate of a noble family (like many Italian parks). The park is divided in two halves, one that is mostly wild and the other with the palace and all the fountains. The palace is used to host visiting dignitaries.

We stayed on the side with all the fountains; there are a lot of fountains. There is also a pond, chapel, and stream. We ran into some wild parrots or “pappagalli”. I was most amused by my discovery of a duck-chicken hybrid. These must have been the result of some abnormally aggressive specimens of ducks or chickens. I assume this because the hybrid was first brought to my attention because of some loud bird rape happening at the water's edge. These seem like sexually aggressive birds.

Album from the day:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110330VillaPamphili

Parco degli Acquedotti

This is a long park that goes between the important roads of Appia (arrives in Puglia the heel of Italy) and Tuscolana (arrives in Castelli Romani). The park starts just outside the old wall of Rome and ends at the bottom of the hills of Castelli Romani. Still standing here are two important ancient aqueducts: Acquedotto di Acqua Marcia and Acquedotto di Claudio. The second still works today and brings water to Piazza della Republica near Termini Station.

After we went by Parco della Cervelletta, next to Daniele's parent's house. Like many Italian parks, this is the ancient country home of a noble family. In the case of this villa, some people actually live in a few of the property buildings. The main castle is state owned and there are events held there.

Pictures of the Aqueducts:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20110325Aqueducts#

A few pictures of Parco della Cervelletta are in my Rome album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20110225RomaAndMonterotondo#

Fara Sabina

First we went to the town of Fara Sabina. This is a classical walled medieval town with big door to enter. On top there is an ancient church and square that was closed for repair, but kids were still inside playing soccer. There were a few people around. Nice view of countryside. Lots of cats. One followed me for a while.

Then we went to the Abbazia di Farfa. Farfa is the town of the abbey. We took a tour. The guide was very knowledgeable and has written “the book”, but was not one of those Italians who are very easy for me to understand their Italian. There were shops with natural soaps, chocolate, and other things; all made by the monks. Also an oil tasting of Sabina Olive Oil. Naturally, there was a church. Like most of Italy, they are constantly restoring everything. As pointed out by the guide, this is actually making it less beautiful. My favorite part was the library with all of the hand written books.

Pictures of Sabina, combined with another trip there, scroll about half way to get to these.
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110311Sabina

150 Years of Italy

Today is the 150th birthday of Italy. It has been one nation under one flag that long. In celebration, Rome had a “white night” last night. Everything was open until 2 AM and all the museums were free as well as some things being open to the public that normally are not, like the senate and some special ruins.

Daniele, his brother Emanuele, and I went into the center together to celebrate. Many of the monuments were lit up in the tre-colore. We made it inside Musei Capitolini and Museo del Mercato di Traiano.

Then we went to the senate, which I was excited about, but the line moved so slowly that we had to give up to catch the metro back home. We were pretty tired by then anyway, so it was for the best.

Meanwhile, all over Italy everything from billboards to the “tre-colore” lettuce I bought today is celebrating the 150 year landmark. Since who knows where I'll be for “200 Years” and I probably won't be up for running around all night at the age of 75, I'm glad I got to partake. Happy Birthday, Italy! Tanti Aguri!

All the pictures from this night:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20110316150YrsOfItaly#

Castelli Romani

Daniele, his brother Emanuele, and I spent the day visiting places in the Castelli Romani area. Castelli Romani literally means Roman Castles. It is a collection of about 10 medieval cities atop a volcanic hills; each centered around the old town square, church, and (you guessed it) castle.

We first stopped by Monte Porzio Catone. This little old town was surprisingly alive. There was a market on market street. A crowd of old people gathered in a small square. I think the active “new” town just outside the “old” town walls might be helping keep it alive. Or it could be the other way around. Naturally we saw all of the expected landmarks, like the church and clock tower. There also seemed to be a local cat gang.

We stopped next at Parco Archeologico Culturale di Tuscolo / Archeological Culture Park of Tuscolo. Besides being a beautiful park, it was full of Ancient Roman ruins. Unlike the ruins in the center, that are somewhat closed off, these were open for anyone to look around as you pleased.

Next we went to Grottaferrata where there is the Abbazia di San Nilo / Abbey of St Nilo, Chiesa di Santa Maria / Church of St Mary, founded in 1004. After walking around the ancient castle-like abbey for a while we had lunch outside at a porchetta and panini place.

After lunch we went to Castel Gondolfo, the Pope's summer vacation house. Besides this lovely palace the city had lots of Italian flags in anticipation of the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy. Interesting, 150 years ago, it was from the Pope that this city (and the rest of the providence of Rome) was liberated.

As one last stop at the end of our day we quickly visited the city of Frascati. This place was bigger, busier, and more of a “city” than any of the other towns or “ancient cities” we had visited. We saw the standard sights, church, square, view of Rome. What I actually found most interesting about this place was the landscaping. One of the first things I saw entering the city was a row of square trees. Their leaves had been pruned with exact edges to form what looked like a perfect hedge lifted up by tree trunks. Also the main Villa used a similar technique to form a enclosed walkway to their palace.

All pictures from this day:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20110315CastelliRomani#

Montelibretti and Nerola

Today we visited the nearby towns of Montelibretti and Nerola in the Sabina region. Sabina is famous for olive oil (Olio di Sabina) and indeed the countryside was covered with olive trees. Monterotondo, where I'm living, is actually the first town of Sabina (and the first town outside the city of Rome).

Montelibretti was another old medieval walled city. This city was more alive than the lakeside ones we visited. Those seem to only be summer homes at this point. All the young people have moved closer to Rome. Montelibretti, on the other hand had kids playing soccer in the main square and cars parked in every little corner. The old wall was being repaired and you could see the before and after. Pic.

We raced to Nerola just before the sun set. We mostly came here because there is a castle, and I love that. It's a hotel now but we couldn't go inside. One thing we noticed here was an area all the residents are supposed to collect in case of disaster. In these ancient hill towns, avalanche is a major concern. If there was an earthquake, all the old stone houses on top of this hill would come crumbling down.

[Edit] Pictures from this day are in the Sabina album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20110311Sabina#

Terme del Bagnaccio and Lake Bolsena

Today we went up to the region of Viterbo. We went first to the towns of Capodimonte and Marta on Bolsena Lake. Both walled medieval hill towns. Then we spent most the afternoon at the Terme del Bagnaccio.

Capodimonte was really cute. There were lots of cats by the main fountain. A coworker recommended a restaurant, but it was closed, so we ate some pizza on the lake.

Marta I liked a lot. At the top of the town, by the clock tower, there was a large square with a 360 view of the lake, countryside, and town.

The Terme del Bagnaccio is why we came there. These natural hot springs are still active. There are a few all over Italy. Boiling water comes up from the ground and is piped to different pools. The pools are dug out of natural stone and are different temperatures. The temperature appears to be controlled by how far it is piped from the source. Everyone was in the two hottest-- it was sunny but still not swimming pool weather. Fresh hot water is constantly being pored in, and drains out the other side keeping it clean. Also, each morning residents scrub it when the water level is low. There were “regulars” who clearly come everyday or nearly everyday. We will probably come back to take advantage of being able to take some sun even when it's cold.

[Edit] Pictures from this day are in the Viterbo album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20110310Viterbo#

Carnevale di Monterotondo

Sunday is the typical day to do the big Carnevale festival in these towns. There is also Fat Thursday and Fat Tuesday-- it is actually a whole week of Carnevale / Mardi Gras but we just did Sunday. Daniele got home from work about when these things typically start, so we went to the one in our town instead of driving somewhere else and risk missing it altogether. Monterotondo is a reasonably big town of 40,000 residents, but somehow the smaller towns but on bigger festivals.

It was basically a big parade of people in costumes. I guess for Latin cultures Carnevale is more their costume holiday than Halloween. Groups organize themes. There was everything from “Beauty and the Beast” to Traditional Farmers to a group of old ladies in black-face that I really couldn't figure out what they were going for. I explained to Daniele how it was really politically incorrect to wear black-face in the US anymore and he didn't get it at all. There were also performing groups like a marching band with baton girls and a group of Venetian-style masked dancers.

Everyone had bags of paper confetti or “coriandoli”. Confetti is actually the Italian word for the almond candies typically given at weddings.

The parade finished in one of the town squares, where everyone stayed together in a bit of chaos; playing music, dancing, kids re-gathering the confetti to throw again.

After we had seen most of what there was to see of Carnevale, we went in to the historical center of Monterotundo. It is a bigger than the other old towns we have visited.

[Edit] Pictures from this day are in the Monterotondo / Rome album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20110225RomaAndMonterotondo#

Anguillara and Bracciano

Today Daniele and I went to the lake Bracciano and to the towns of Anguillara and Bracciano. The weather was not too cold, but on and off light rain. It's about 25 miles northwest from here. Both towns are on hills surrounded by walls. They have a small historical center and a newer part or second city below. This is actually pretty typical all over Lazio and Italy. Even Monterotundo is the same.

We first stopped at Anguillara, Daniele's favorite. It is really small and cute, but still has a supermarket and things in the new/downhill city. The historical center is a walled hill city, but it is right on the lake. It is just a few steps down to the port and the road along the water. There was almost no one there, now, in February; but in the summer the place gets packed. The place we wanted to have lunch was closed for renovations, so we ate at a place called Harvey's instead.

After lunch we went to the next town on the lake, Bracciano. This town is a little bigger and a little farther up from the water. What I loved about it was that there is a castle. A big one. Historically belonged to the Orsini family and still does. Never sold or anything, a woman just lives in there. Incredible! We covered the tiny historical center then went outside the walls looking for a nice view. There were old paths from the city to the lake going through the countryside. We passed sheep (pecore), horses (cavalli) and a donkey (asino pronounced ass-ee-no) who came right to the fence to say hi and pose for some pictures.

In this area there is also a spring of naturally carbonated water. People go with their own bottles and take as much as they want. The carbonation has something to do with passing under the volcanic ground. I don't understand 100%. We didn't have any bottles so we didn't go.

Speaking of bottles of water. In Anguillara, there were all these bottles of water on the ground. Apparently is is common knowledge in Italy that cats are freaked out by water; even the sight of it. So they put bottles of water in places to keep cats from peeing there. They were practically in every corner. I am fascinated by this theory and eager to test it on American cats.

[Edit] Link to pictures from this day:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20110305LakeBracciano#

Back to Rome

In Costa Rica I decided for sure I wanted to go back to Italy as soon as possible. The police in Rome had explained to me I had to wait six-months to come back with another tourist visa (i.e. just come back and get a passport stamp on arrival). Or if I wanted to come back sooner, I would need a work or student visa. At the time I was a little annoyed to find this out, because this is for the whole EU. I don't know if a work visa is even possible for someone self-employed, so I went off researching student visas.

Last time I went on a tourist visa, but the San Francisco Italian Culture Institute, who gave me my scholarship to study Italian in Rome, had encouraged me to get a student visa. They told me that the rules had changed and now student visas are even for people taking language classes not just for university students like it was before. Unfortunately I knew less than I do know and when the paperwork didn't come threw in time I just blew it off.

Based on these experiences, I figured I would find a language school in Rome, enroll in part-time classes, secure a student visa, and stay in Rome for a spell. The first thing to do was to contact the Italian Consulate to make sure I was on track.

Immigration is handled by the Italian General Consulate in New York City (Newark does not do visas). They insisted I made an appointment (I had to call at $2.50 per minute) and come in person to ask my questions. The women I talked with fortunately fell into the portion of Italians who think it is just adorable that I try to speak their language. “Americana” she called over to the woman at the next window gesturing at me and smiling. It was a little discouraging at first, as she gave me the impression I would have to be a university student to get a student visa. Then we realized I had an incorrect understanding of the six-month rule. It is not that I have to wait in the US for six-months after exhausting my time in the EU; it is that I can stay in Italy/the EU for three-months in any six-month period. That means the six-months started when I arrived in the EU, not when I left. It actually makes much more sense this way. And even better, this means I would be clear for arrival as of February 25th instead of May 23rd. I was pretty excited.

I wanted to go immediately. The only real commitment I have is my cousin Corrine's wedding May 7th as well as any bridesmaid events beforehand and a few family parties. The family parties I have been missing for years, so that was not much of a problem. I did however, feel terrible for missing the bridesmaid stuff. But there was nothing to be done for it. I wanted to go and the only alternative was to sit and wait at my parent's house in New Jersey for two months, and surly something else would come up in that time. So it was decided, I would leave immediately and come back just in time for the wedding; that works out to just over two months in Italy.

I bought my ticket with Continental points. There is no markup for buying last minute and I don't really want them laying around with the United merger happening. After that the major things to do were pack, die my roots, and file my taxes. My appointment with the Italians was February 17th, I flew out 7 days later on the 24th. It was a busy week.

And now here I am, exactly six-months after I arrived in Le Cinque Terre this past summer. I'm living just north of Rome in a beautiful two-bedroom condo with two balconies and a garden and my Romano. Daniele made one of my favorite things for lunch, gnocchi with pesto. We also had fresh ricotta and salad and wine. It was only a little weird that it felt like 6 AM for me. Then I had a nap and he went to work, but he left me a tomato and buffalo mozzarella salad in case I got hungry. So far pretty good.