Back Again
I had intended, as always, to keep in touch during my brief sojourn in Rome, but the vagaries of my hotel's WiFi (which healed itself near the end), the usual weariness that attends the noontime devil of winebibbers, were exacerbated by an injured knee-cum-inflamed tendon that made walking five miles a bit more exhausting than it usually is. On the last full day, trying to hoist myself out of the hot morning shower I had taken to soothe the aches and pains, I slipped on the tub stopper, grabbed the glass shower-door, and, hurtling through the air, crashed to the ground, banging femur, and elbow, and hip before being lacerated by the exploding "safety" glass. Just to let you know what an old man can do if he has to, I will add that I did not bail out on the morning's excursion to the Vatican Museums, though I did abandon St. Peters for a lunch—admittedly with two American priests.
Our hotel, the Grand Hotel del Gianicolo, was wonderfully located, staffed by competent and intelligent people, and provided excellent meals. In general, though, I would say that either restaurants in Rome have declined in quality or I have become jaded. Restaurants I used to like now struck me as ordinary or even cynical, though I still had one (out of two visits) very good meal at Da Fabrizio. The old prezzo fisso place for families and tourists, Dar Pallaro, has not changed in the 20 years I have been going there, often with children. At 25 euros a person for a very large meal of traditional home cooking (with wine), it is still a bargain, and dining with priests, as I have done several times in this place, insures warm-hearted attention. They are good people whose success and popularity have not spoiled their place.
Rome has not changed much in the past few years but in the past few decades it has been revolutionized. I see more and more slovenly useless teenagers whose sullen hedonism qualifies them as honorary Americans. However, up on the Gianicolo, in the Bar del Gianicolo, I saw nothing but well-groomed kids having a good time. Middle class Italian students do not have to get drunk or stoned to have a good time. They go out in groups for a pizza and a beer or two--and endless chattering. It was a pleasure to see them and be among them for a few days. Several of our own young students should also inspire hope--intelligent, polite, and respectful. If there were an exception, I should not mention it.
Dr. Trifkvovic was our surprise guest and he gave an excellent introductory lecture on how the Roman Empire spawned imperial dreams over the centuries. I looked at some of the heated discussion on one of his pieces, and while much of the commenting was quite good, I could not help noting the infantile fanaticism and offensive self-confidence of at least one of the contributors who apparently cannot understand that anti-Christian Israel is finishing off the destruction of Middle Eastern Christianity begun by anti-Christian Muslims.
Well, I am just babbling. Accidents aside, it was a good trip. I did not do or see anything I had not seen or done before, but the desire for novelty, as the Romans knew, is the beginning of revolution. Speaking of revolutions, I am starting a brief and rapid discussion of Tocqueville's great book on the Ancien Régime and the French Revolution.
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My family never made Christmas lists. We simply graciously accepted the gift someone had chosen to get us; however, my wife's family, under the guise of practicality, always made wish lists. Well, in the melding of family customs, traditions and habits, I now make Christmas lists. For the past several years, your trip to Italy has been on the top of my list. The next item is always a Makarov pistol. I have, to date, gotten neither; however, I always put a book published by the Rockford Institute on the list. I always get the book. I do, however, hope that before I pass from this life to the next that I am able to take the trip with you. I entertain the notion that my daughter is saving for some future Christmas, on which she will send me to Italy.
Rome really does have a magical civilizing effect. I was there with a bunch of law students this summer: normally the best and brightest of America's Jerks. But by the end of the month most of us were spending our evenings sipping wine and enjoying each other's company by the Tiber. The other day I got into a sharp debate on Facebook with one of my Rome friends over MLK's divinity. It ended amicably, but afterward I reflected on how that never would have happened in Rome, and how pointless it was in the final analysis.
In San Clemente--the church not the Nixon compound--an Irish Dominican asked where one of the students was from, answered: "Boston." To which the Irishman replied, "Just like Jack Kennedy." We were all by then so civilized that no one made a remark. Later we ran into a mad American woman who told one or two of her epiphany at what Chris Check always called Medjugoogoo, and no one wasted any time enlightening her. I have had good times with Italian leftists and communists who were otherwise decent and civilized people (this is not true, certainly, of all Italian leftists).
I used to have and to some extent still do an Italian Dr. Jekyll to my American Mr. Hyde. It began with my lack of proficiency in the language which generated a lot of "certo," "senz'altro," and "d'accordo," which was compounded by a certain detachment from the Italian political scene. Even when I was hanging out with the Lega, I could enjoy the company of anti-Lega people. Eventually, though, I became a benign person who knew how to mind his own business and to this day I rarely have heated quarrels with Italians. The one exception was a Christian-Democrat diplomat who tried to give me the score on the Balkans and, when I cited counter evidence, concluded, "Next you'll be denying the holocaust." I told him his major mistake lay in accepting the lies the US government had told to the Democristiani. Even so, I could still sit next to him at cena.
People often ask in these trying times, "What must we do?" I can't think of anything better than visiting San Clemente. It always seemed to put a true perspective on what "needs to be done": Keep the commandments.
Good to hear of Rome and the fact that our beloved Editor can still "take a licken and keep on ticken!!"
Good to have you back Dr Fleming; I'm told that the good nature of even Italian leftists is similar to that of French communists - no matter how evil their political beliefs are, they still manage to dress well and have good manners, unlike our own indigenous jerks.
@Dr. Fleming: amazing what you say. In France, it is hard or impossible not to live one's political views in everyday life: a Frenchman who votes socialist is visibly not really a man. I do not speak in jest; I have never met an exception to that rule.
"anti-Christian Israel is finishing off the destruction of Middle Eastern Christianity begun by anti-Christian Muslims"
Indeed, you are babbling, because your statement is laughably absurd, and harkens back to the scapegoating of Jews done by Joseph Goebbels.
Ted (@ 7),
Perhaps you would prefer that Dr. Fleming had said: “anti-Christian Jews in America are finishing off the destruction of Middle Eastern Christianity begun by anti-Christian Muslims”.
Five years ago, I was in Rome at St. Peter's Cathedral.
I don't want to go again, because I hope to keep that an once-in-a-lifetime experience. Something like that. An amazing place!
Antiphon,
There's no evidence that there exist any 'anti Christian Jews' in America that are doing anything at all to destroy ME Christianity.
ME Christianity is being attacked by Muslims, who just so happen to be tremendous Jewhaters too, and who seem to have the US government in their back pocket, for said government obsesses over 'reaching out' to the most rabidly psychotic Muslims and making ethnically clean states for them.
There's no one advocating a Christianrein or Muslimrein Israel, who is at the forefront of developing lifesaving technology and cellular technology. Did you know that when Christopher Reeve was seeking treatment for his spinal injury, he went to Israel, who is at the forefront of spinal injury research. The US is too busy fighting for Islam.
<<<>>
And he was able to breathe on his *own* only because of the US-pioneered Diaphragm Pacing System (DPS) installed by the amazing Ray Onders, MD (who is BTW, the bomb of doc:-).
So much for the US being too busy fighting Islam.
The US does have many great doctors. And they could do so much more if more of our tax dollars were put into improving the world instead of rescuing 'tormented' Muslims.
I cannot believe the lunatic bigot "Ted" is still pushing this anti-Christian idiocy. It is as if he won't stop until he's sure his Western enemies here fully comprehend the depth of his boorishness.
Ted: we do. We also comprehend fully, and are long familiar with, the decrepit lies and exhausted libels you rely on to make the "arguments" you're using here (but almost certainly do not even believe yourself). Dr. Fleming's statements "harken back" to "Goebbels", eh? Ugh, how boring. It really is high time the anti-Western mob construct some new libels. The Nazi charge, hurled at anyone who questions the agenda of those who have largely succeeded in subverting and destroying Western Civilization (i.e. the civilization of the Western European peoples), has become a ridiculous absurdity.
If Israel cannot find better shills than "Ted", the Mossad is slipping. If any criticism of Israel=Nazism, then it follows as night the day that 1) Israel is above all criticism and that 2) the vast majority of thinking people in the world are Nazis. Such goose-stepping propaganda always backfires in the end. A simple fact, easily proved, is that non-Jews do not enjoy the same rights and privileges in Israel as Jews. Some of the discriminatory laws, for example, on water rights, are aimed specifically at Palestinians, while others seem more anti-Christian, e.g. restrictions on marriage and funeral rights. As someone who has given cautious and prudent support to Israel's struggle to exist in an Islamic neighborhood, who has gone to Israel and met with both "liberal" and "conservative" Jewish political intellectuals and written sympathetically of their plight, and who has met ultra-Zionist Jerks like Ted who make enemies for Israel around the world, all I can say to the Israelis is, "I'm sorry you have the kind of friends with whom there is no need for enemies. Oh, and by the way, the Jewish ownership and control of the US major media outlets that screamed for the Iraq war and refuse to discuss honestly the extermination of Christians in the Islamic Middle East or their mistreatment at the hands of the Israeli government, is all the evidence one needs for the collaboration of some, by no means all American Jews in the elimination of ME Christians. Good by, Ted "Jones".
Gee, I thought "Ted" was just being ironic. So, he actually meant what he wrote?
By the way, since some of you visit Italy regularly and are Americans, how close would you say are Italian Americans and Italians? This piece points out that some Italians seen by Dr. Fleming in the street resemble Americans, so it's like something coming back full circle, no?
Yes, Mr Jones, but I'm not sure Ted's all that connected to reality.
Why? Because Ted was not, in fact, speaking English. He speaks a pidgin, understandable only to a small, psychologically isolated political group, but completely nonsensical to anyone else.
This pidgin is made up of simplified English combined with a very small vocabulary of German words. Strangely, those German words, though so small in number, predominate in this pidgin, to the point that they dominate and control the English. Indeed, the German word, 'Nazi', functions in this pidgin both as a universal adjective attachable to any noun whatsoever for no functional reason, and as definite or indefinite article. Thus we have, 'The Nazi critic of Israel, or 'Nazi Iraqis', instead of the normal English constructions, 'The critic of Israel', and 'The Iraqis'.
What is odd is that this pidgin also contains one lone Italian word, 'fascist', the strange presence of which his has yet to be explained by linguists.
One wonders what kind of psychological isolation causes such a pidgin to develop. No ones knows. All one can say for certain is that this pidgin is not isolated to any ethnicity, but that it exists in different dialects among left wing political groups.
Given the resort to scapegoating and namecalling being done by Mr. Fleming, it is clear that he is unable to factually refute Ted's points.
Mr. Fleming's hatred of Israel--which protects Christianity and provides civil rights to all--oddly outweighs his hatred of the Vatican (how many rights are given to non-Catholics?) or the Arab world (how many rights are given to non-Muslim?). What about Greece, which is a Christian Orthodox state? Does this merit his venom too?
Or is it only the liberation movement of the Jews that merits his baseless scapegoating?
I have approved Hector's comments in order to show the dishonesty and vapidity of the arguments being brought forth. "Ted" barges into a discussion on a completely different topic (in which the briefest mention was made of a general argument), calls names, tells lies, abuses reason, and when he is countered by a few simple facts, the response given by Hector is as fact-free, irrational, and offensive as Ted's. Israel gives some civil rights to Christians but not all, by no means all. I have no problem whatsoever with a religious state privileging its own religion. What I do object to are the lying Zionists who a) pretend that Israel does not discriminate against non-Jews, when we know that it does, and b) denounce any hint that the American Christian majority might want Christmas carols in school or a creche in the town square. If Hector can tell us how non-Catholics are persecuted in the Vatican or non-Orthodox in Greece, I'd be happy to answer, but since I know they are not, that in fact in Greece Muslim immigrants are welcomed and pampered by both major parties--the former PM (of the so-called conservative New Democracy Party) attended as groomsman the wedding of the son of Erdogan, the nationalist/Islamicist PM of Turkey--there is no point in responding. Honest people do not use the complex question (of the type "When did you stop beating your wife?") I conclude from their response that while not all Jerks are Zionists, all Zionists--at least the ones I have met--are Jerks. Goodbye Hector.
Someone named Steve now claims that US media are neither owned nor controlled by Jews. Why do people make such stuff up. Article after article has been written, some by anti-Semities, some by critics of Israel, some by Jewish writers who enjoy sticking it in your face. It is lying and/or ignorant Zionists who stir up anti-Semitism. Facts are no longer facts and anyone who even uses the word neoconservative, according to neoconservatives, is an anti-Semite. Next we'll be hearing there is no "liberal" bias in the media. "Steve" also asks why, if the media is Jewish-controlled, are parts of so critical of Israel. Well, ask Noam Chomsky. On NPR the only real debate is between Jews who side with Israel and Jews who have gone so far to the Left that they side with every downtrodden Third World minority, including Palestinians. As a moderate critic of Israel who wishes those poor people well, I prefer the knee-jerk defenders of Israel to leftist Jews who attack their own people. What a boring subject, by the way, and what boring people these are, especially the Zionist Evangelicals who consistently betray Christians because they have accepted the fantasy that Jews are still the chosen people. There are many mistakes and heresies that one can make or accept without forfeiting one's status as a Christian, but Zionism is not one of them. End of discussion.
Mr. Wilson @ # 17:
"One wonders what kind of psychological isolation causes such a pidgin to develop. No ones knows."
Possible answers: Government schools; government-sponsored news media.
In reading the "dialogue" that Dr. Fleming has had to endure with both Ted and Hector, I am reminded of exorcists who caution that it is always dangerous to allow the demons to seduce one into a "conversation." Therefore, Dr. Fleming's ultimate response to their (as he pointedly put it: "infantile") ramblings is wise: "End of discussion."
Much better to resume the actual point of Dr. Fleming's post, and reflect on Rome.
Rome is, for me, the only great city in which I would wish to spend a great deal of time. It is not just the monuments of antiquity or the charming parts of Medieval Rome, but everywhere one has a sense of continuity that is absent in most cities. There is a delightfully grotesque hodge-podge known as the House of the Crescenzi near S. Maria in Cosmedin. Many of the parts are ancient, but they were incompetently cobbled together in I suppose 9th and 10th century by a robber-baron family that controled Rome and managed to marry into the other ruling clans. Until recently it was known as the House of Pilate, not because people thought Pilate lived there but because it was the station in the mystery play where the scene with Pilate was staged. The Crescenzi fortified this spot to control the bridge and port on the Tiber where they exacted tolls--as would have been done in prehistoric Roman days. A stone's throw away (if you have a good arm) is S Maria, on the outside of which is the famous bocca della verità, a Roman manhole cover into which brides suspected of infidelity were taken to put their hand in the mouth. If she could not get her hand out, she was guilty. Hordes of busriding Asian tourists used to line up to take pictures of each other putting their hand in the mouth and not one in 100 entered the interesting Greek-style church. This time, though, I noticed that the Asians have gone one further step and simply ride by on the bus snapping pics.
It's tough work, but somebody has to do it.
This time, though, I noticed that the Asians have gone one further step and simply ride by on the bus snapping pics.
I started noticing that back in 2008. Later in the year I commented on that to a Cantonese expat, who explained to me that she had done that one spring break with her aunt: "It's a very efficient way to see countries." They'd done something like eight in ten days.
She had a point, though, if one considers the behavior of too many contemporary European and American youth when they are abroad...
By the way, I just had a crazy thought. Could this Ted Jones be the idiot "pastor" who threatened to burn the Koran? They are as alike as two bugs in a bed.
If the shoe fits... Wouldnt surprise me, considering some of the 'Christian' Zionists care more about Jews than they do about Christians.
Well...now ....any comment on the current status of Christianity in Italy, I would look forward to.
Dr. Fleming never seems to write of France, England or Germany. Is he like Hemingway - uninterested in Northern Europeans? Or it the influence of the Ancient world that draws him to Greece and Italy. And why does he prefer Rome to Athens?
The first posts I read from "Ted" made me wonder whether or not this was a test from Dr. Fleming to see how the readers would react to such silliness. I only thought this because I didn't think his posts would normally stand a chance through moderation.
Either way, I am glad to see he is gone. I love reading these conversations they are so fascinating and informative, Ted was certainly not contributing to that.
Dr. Fleming's fascination with Rome and its inhabitants is readily understood. I was able to hornswoggle two assignments to two US Embassies in "the eternal city," and have returned just about each year since '96. As a result, I know the city, and several of its denizens, reasonably well.
Perhaps it is genetic, but most Italians I've encountered are courteous to a fault, despite the media-generated image of their being volatile. It is, indeed, a rarity, unlike their Italian-American cousins, that most Italians will allow differences in opinion to degenerate into a level of unacceptable behavior toward anyone with whom he disagrees.
"In general, though, I would say that either restaurants in Rome have declined in quality or I have become jaded."
There may be some truth to this, but may I suggest a remedy, or at least a palliative: Naples. Less "jaded" by tourism, I've come to deeply admire the demeanor of the Neapolitan, and here, more than anywhere else I've ventured in the peninsula, the bonds of personal and family ties remain unchanged.
Dr. Fleming, while this may not apply to all Asian tourists, they are fairly materialistic. Chinese, specifically, and not so much the more sophisticated Koreans and Japanese.
They will keep one-third of their budget for shopping and they have interest not so much in monuments or good food as it is in souvenirs, photos, luxury items, and anything physical they can send back home.
It's a phenomenon of the nouveau riche, which applies just as much to Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis, Vietnamese, Malaysians, or any poor country which has seen wealth for the first time.
In re #25:
Terry Jones was the pastor who threatened to burn the Koran.
@Dr. Fleming: forgive me for asking so, but what's so offensive about a few well-placed non-vandalizing desacrilizations? Prudently and timely executed, they could end up doing a world of good...
It is not just the monuments of antiquity or the charming parts of Medieval Rome, but everywhere one has a sense of continuity that is absent in most cities.
Isn't that he truth. Two years ago my wife and I went to Rome for the first time and we went to SS Giovanni E Paoli and we saw where the Bell Tower was simply built upon the still visible old Temple of Claudius.
http://www.romeartlover.it/Vasi53.htm
It was the trip of my lifetime and I remember every single minute of it as though it happened last weekend.
In regards to food, we had a great meal at Da Mario's Trattoria near The Trevi Fountain. We had a fantastic Anti Pasti, a good house red, and an excellent Pappardelle with Wild Boar Ragu.
Because I have always loved Caravaggio's art work, one of the first Churches we went to visit was Santa Maria del Popolo and it struck me that the Church itself reflected a certain truth about Mary; that she was humble in her outward appearance but inside she was filled with Glory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc5Mcdw6dAw
To stand so close to Carravagio's, "Crucifixion of St Peter" and "The Conversion on the Way to Damascus" in the Cerasi Chapel was to experience a foretaste of Heaven.
We do not have much money but I will go back to Rome every single chance I get.
@7 Ted
The Israeli Defense Force routinely bulldozes the houses of Arab Christians. They have the addresses of all Christians in the West Bank. Gaza has been purged of both Jews and Christians already. Many Arab Christians have seen the writing on the wall and moved to Syria, Greece or Detroit. Bethlehem and Ramallah both used to be 50% Christian, but nowadays it's more like 20%.
@20 Dr Fleming
I'm called Steve, and don't recall making such a sweeping generalization. In fact I'm pretty sure the press is not controlled by "liberals" either. In 1990 I attempted to prove that point by starting the Conservative Bumper Sticker of the Month Club. My work was greeted with suspicion by attendees of the Conservative Political Action Conference who had the temerity to ask,"what's your angle?" Many others took umbrage at my anti-sodomite efforts.
To make a profit -- that's what. It was a break-even proposition after I unloaded my stock at gun shows, obviously a more conservative crowd than CPAC. Maybe we really are doomed! Roll on 12/21/2012!
However, I do agree that Israel is anti-Christian. And also that they have a lot of apologists who fear the "apple of His eye" curse.
As a afterthought I'd like to point out that Limbaugh's republican-shilling show was founded by Ed McLaughlin of EFM Communications. He got the idea after a visit to Washington where he heard a local Christian station air Peter Waldron running a talk-show over lunch hour. Everybody on Capitol Hill was tuned in to the relatively conservative issues based show. However, Waldron was caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and is now gone. But McLaughlin was no right-winger. I guess you could say that Limbaugh owes his success to a liberal who saw a market for AM band canservatism.
And Rupert Murdoch, well that's another story. When Fox News becomes truly conservative, rather than an another tentacle of the GOP, then please email me. I'll stick with most of the programs on RT; such as the Keiser Report, Crosstalk, and massive face time for Ron Paul. But not the Alyona Minkovski show, or that lunatic Thom Hartmann.
The beginning of my first encounter with Roman was in a course entitled The Early Middle Ages, a course taught by Dr. Herwig Wolfram at the University of Vienna. I was nineteen years old. He assigned me a paper on the campaigns of Otto I in Italy. I recall his saying, "One supposes your Latin is sufficient." I had no idea how insufficient my Latin was. Most of the sources available to me at the University of Vienna on Otto I were in Latin, a Latin alien to my Wheelock and post-Wheelock experiences in undergraduate studies. Through my struggle with the paper over two semesters, I did produce a document which Dr. Wolfram found acceptable; however, the real result of having written the paper was the emergence of my own desire to go south, over the Alps, in a quest for Italy and Rome. All great Germans, among them Goethe, had made their Italienreise, and had returned transformed, or so they claimed. I was neither German nor great, but I wanted to give it a try.
In 1970, Dr. Walter Erber, one of my professors, sponsored a trip to Italy over the long Easter break at the University of Vienna. His wife went along as well. Our driver was Fritz, a Tirolean, who knew Italy and Rome, at least from the tourist perspective, as better than most form north of the Alps. We were an admixture of Germans, Austrians and Americans.
Crossing the Alps was literally moving from winter to spring. We spent our first night in a villa-like hotel overlooking Lake Garda from the south to the north. At the northern end of the lake, far in the distance in the Alps, winter was still dominant; as our eyes moved backed down the lake, we could see spring coming in its different phases. We also went to Assisi, to Sienna, to Pizza, to Florence, to Venice, to Verona, and to Ravenna; but it is in Rome that my memory still lingers.
We were in Rome on Easter Sunday and were present for the annual papal blessing in Saint Peter's Square. I suffer from acute acrophobia; yet, I managed to clime to the top of the dome in St. Peter's. I also climbed to the top of the tower at Pizza, in days when one could still climb it. I suppose I undertook these challenges because I was still of an age in which one attempted to impress pretty girls, some of which were in our group.
Dr. Erber had a sense of humor which was more at comic mischief. When the bus stopped at San Pietro in Vincoli so that we could view Michelangelo's Moses, he let us in on a secret. He alleged to know the curator who had told him that the Moses currently on display was a masterful copy and that the real Moses was on tour in Japan. Armed with that disinformation, we went to view the "copy," analyzing it and assuring ourselves that it was indeed a copy and innerly laughing at the non-gnostic fools who had not received our "secret" knowledge. That night, at supper, Dr. Erber, went over the day and invited us to recount our impressions of the copy and the comments of the other tourists. After a through discussion, which he masterfully guided, he announced that he led a bus of utter fools. Did we really think that the Italians, the Italian government or the Vatican would let such an art work go on tour, even if it were possible? A lesson in humility.
Easter evening, just before sunset, Dr. Erber took us on a tour of the Appian Way. There among the ruins of villas, about which he had already lectured, he had Fritz stop the bus. He told us that among the ruins at this particular spot would be an Easter egg, one for each member of the group. He said that it was an exercise in modernity and its materialism meets reality, the historical setting in which we found ourselves, with a modicum of charity. For the first time in my life, amid the ruins of ancient Rome, I encountered plastic Easter eggs, big ones; one had my name on it. Inside there were chocolates and two little scrolls: once containing the Lord's Prayer and the other the Creed. That night at supper, Dr. Erber led a discussion on stone versus plastic and pagan and Christian Easter.
Rome was brought to life through the actions and words of Dr. Walter Erber. He is deceased but Rome is not. I hope to return there someday, perhaps with Dr. Fleming, who, it would seem, has the same spirit as did Dr. Erber.
"By the way, I just had a crazy thought. Could this Ted Jones be the idiot 'pastor' who threatened to burn the Koran? They are as alike as two bugs in a bed."
hilarious, I burst out laughing...welcome back, Dr. Fleming.
@35 Hi George. Long time no see!
Right now I have a load of trash pine from the local dump roasting in my patio firepit. I can run to the nearest used bookstore, score a koran and toss it in. If I don't film it, then will it ever have happened. If somebody wants to torch a mohammedan book into the flames, what skin is it off my nose?
rmp: thank you. Yes, St. Cloud to Rome with Belloc, about Rome with Fleming. That would be memorable.
Mr. Peters,
Thank you for another enjoyable comment. Were it not for my faith in God, however, and my two sons, who are nothing less than the greatest possible proof of God's love for me in this life, I might work up a serious case of remorse and envy from reading of your activities in 1970. The year that you put to such good use was the very year I embarked on my career as a mechanic, for which I was badly suited temperamentally, and also the year I discovered the bar scene, an avocation in which my temperament found itself all too cosily at home for a spell; or perhaps I should say my temperament was put under a spell and thought it had found a home. It never ceases to amaze me, when I hear of my contemporaries such as you, who managed to resist the many siren songs of that era and put their time to good use. What different paths, to lead to this same place, even if it is only virtual!
Mr. Jacobi,
My sojourn in Europe, beginning in the early fall of 1969, was an absolute act of Providence. I was into my senior year in college, having finished all of my core courses, all of the course necessary for my major and my minor, needing only elective courses to finish the total required hours. My German professor engineered a big exception for me: he got approval from the board for me to finish my senior year at the University of Vienna; it had never been done before. He influenced my parents into letting me go. It had been a mere twenty-five years since my father had fought the Hun, and I would be living among the Huns. We had to sell some pines for me to afford to go. My father was not too keen on cutting some of his young pines as pulp. He wanted them to grow to log size. Then, there was the matter of the draft board. The good folks allowed me to go with the stipulation that I would likely be immediately drafted upon my return. (The lottery was instituted that year, and my number was outside the penumbra.) That is Providence.
To get to Europe, I flew for the first time in my life; was in New York for the first time in my life; ate Chinese food for the first time in my life at 21 Mott St., New York; flew across the ocean for the first time in my life; saw a prostitute in a window in Amsterdam for the first time in my life; smelled marijuana, again in Amsterdam, for the first time in my life; and encountered a soft-boiled egg for the first time in my life. The egg was among the most daunting of my first experiences. When the boat from England landed in Holland, we were herded to one of those tourist restaurants; there we received coffee, water, cheese, a pickle and an egg which appeared to be on a golf tee. I did not know what to do with it. I felt like a village idiot on a pogo stick or one of my dogs circling a mad raccoon. There were others sitting at the table with me. They were obviously an enlightened, experienced and well traveled lot. I watched them while trying to appear nonchalant. I noted that which a quick whack with the knife they beheaded the "critter" and commenced to salt and pepper it down and eat the inside with that little spoon, the function of which I finally understood. Well, I figured that I could manage that; so I gave the egg a whack, knocking the egg into the napkin basket on the next table. Crimson, rouge and red was my face. To the howls of the folks around me, I retrieved my egg, with a thousand pardons to those whom I had nearly assaulted, and commenced to peal it. I managed. I would later learn the technique and am a master thereof in the first degree.
This is the mere beginning of a thousand stories in a story, a Bildungsroman or the adventures of a Simplicissimus.
I just approved several comments that went into moderation, either because they were initial comments or because they included links. Actually, I spend about as much time in northern Europe as in Italy, but out Winter School, held in January, has to be put on somewhere where it is comparatively warm. Last year, for example, it was in Athens. In the past five or six yearsI have averaged a trip to Greece once a year. Athens itself is rather a mixed bag. In addition to the ancient monuments, there are several interesting churches and monasteries, some pleasant late 19th century neighborhoods, but too much of Athens was built after WWII. Greek governments have ruthlessly torn down charming (if a bit silly) neoclassical buildings of the monarchy and put up hideous Stalinist structures. All in all, I like Athens but it is harder to show to people. I am very fond of France and try to go every year, though I do not always succeed. Germany I have only made brief visits to on several occasions. My German is not very good, and I do not much like spending time where I cannot converse with people. That is why I don't go to Spain or Portugal. I like the Germans I have met in Germany, they are quite different from the Teutonic invaders that swarm across the border into Verona on their way to the "Teuton Grill" (the Adriatic Coast). Although often accused of Anglophobia, I am very fond of England and Scotland. London's a bit boring compared with Paris and Rome, but I like smaller towns and the countryside. I had planned a trip to the North of England in November to scout out places for a Convivium, but family difficulties forced me to cancel the trip. I suppose I have had the most fun in East European countries, the statelets that make up the Former Yugoslavia, Slovakia, Russia, but again, though I spent years studying Serbo-Croat well enough to deliver lectures, language is a problem. I usually travel either for some writing project or to organize a program. If Germany or Spain or Belgium give me an opportunity, I will gladly take it.
If VC likes Caravaggio, he must go to S. Luigi Francese, not far from the Pantheon, where there is a sequence of paintings on St. Matthew. My general advice is not to eat near famous tourist attractions--Vatican, Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain. There are several Marios/Da Mario. I think you mean the one on I think Salita del Grillo, which was once famous.
I would happily answer my young friend NGPM's question, it he will clarify a bit what he is asking.
Dear Dr. Fleming. I was in Rome for the 500th Anniversary of Caravaggio's death and there was collection of his paintings at Scuderie del Quirinale but we couldn't get tickets. If I ever make it back, I will follow your advice. Thank you.
I think we were very lucky in choosing Da Mario but I do agree with your advice about restaurants near tourist attractions.
I wonder if you have ever eaten at a restaurant in the Jewish Ghetto which has a wonderful reputation. I am drawing a blank on its name. My wife and I finally found it after a gentleman we stopped on the streets to ask for directions simply said, "Follow me," and he led us through several back alleys until we emerged on a side street by the restaurant that, unfortunately for us and contrary to what we had been told, required reservations.
One of the points of relating that experience is that everywhere we were in Italy, total strangers were as kind and warm and generous to us as we had found the Greeks on Santorini to be.
I loved being in Italy in Rome, Florence, and Venice and being able to walk around at night without being able to discern one threatening or intimidating individual or situation.
The Italians are never drunk or rude in public and they were all well-dressed and well-behaved. If only that could be said about our major cities and their inhabitants.
You may be thinking of Sora Margherita, very tiny with spotty service but adored by many. There is also Da Gigetto al Portico d'Ottavia. Ghetto food is often rather good and very conservatively Roman. Speaking of getting tickets, my friend Mary Ellen Synon, a journalist working in Brussels, tipped me off that the Palazzo Farnese (aka French Embassy) was open for a special exhibit of art formerly in the Palazzo, and we, joined by an English professor friend (who writes for Chronicles) and his wife, spent several hours in a place I never dreamed of being able to enter.
Dr. Fleming--I'll ask again sometime...
A few comments, by the way, on choices of place in Europe, if I may be permitted to give my recommendations:
London, as Dr. Fleming mentioned, is boring compared to Paris or Rome, but you've got to be willing to be in "museum mode." The chief advantage over continental cities is that it's a little bit less lonely for an Anglophone to be in London. My problem is with the food. If you don't like Indian food (I don't) you're in trouble.
Edinburgh is depressing. A museum at best if you ask me. However, it has the best Double Bacon Cheeseburger in the world, and for that alone it is worth a visit: The Royal McGregor at 154 High Street.
Ireland's countryside is good if you are in the mood to do lots of hiking around and exploring. The villages and cities hold cultural and historic value only if you are the type to put up with Hibernian rantings (I am, or at least I was when I went there four years ago). However, if you like drinking and talking you will not get bored easily. Beware that all Irish are good conversationalists but not all of them have anything useful to say. Personally I prefer the North to the Republic.
France is, of course, home for me, and if you stay more than a few days in Paris you will want to make this place your home as well, and you should, at least for six months. The standard sights are all well and good but one should also get a good walking tour of the 5th and 6th districts--the route I take people along is: Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet, Mouffetard, Jardin de Luxembourg, Saint-Sulpice, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Sorbonne, Sainte-Geneviève ("Panthéon") and most of them have never seen any of these places. There are still a few good restaurants but I have yet to find any in the central districts except for a very authentic Italian spot (the only place I have eaten at around here that serves REAL pizza) just around the corner in the 5th and Café Saint-Victor near Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet (culinarily it's nothing special but the attraction is that it's an authentic classic Parisian café and the servers are great). Close to the Eiffel Tower is my favorite, the Auberge Bressane--this is classic countryside Grand-mère French food and at a reasonable price (for that type of food, I mean). There are a couple of similar places around the peripheral districts; the 14th (some parts) and 15th on the Rive Gauche are particularly "fun" districts to live and go out in if you're a local.
The provinces of France are beautiful but from my experience have little appeal for a solo tourist unless you just like gazing at pretty landscapes and buildings for days on end. If you do not know anyone whom you can visit in the countryside but you have other people in your party, renting a villa and living a bourgeois fantasy retreat for a month or so in a small town is be very fun; I recommend Gascony (the old province around Bordeaux). You'll be going on wine-tasting tours, of course, but there's lots more you should do out of doors: berry-picking hikes, canoeing/kayaking, cycling, surfing, kite-flying, sunbathing, grilling...
Also, the French countryside is the perfect backdrop for pilgrimages and spiritual retreats.
Rome is, as has been mentioned, a good place just to "be." However, you should visit Rome BEFORE you visit Paris; the infrastructure in the latter city is much better and the parks and streets in Rome may seem "dirty" in comparison. The overall demeanor of the inhabitants is easily more civilized in Rome, though, and you can have a good traditional meal for a lot cheaper (of course, it's not the same thing, so it's hard to compare).
Maybe it is something in the blood, but I like Scotland and have enjoyed my sojourns in Edinburgh. It is a boring town in many respects, and the food is worse than it is in London (by the way, the Lebanese food in London is very good and it is a more palatable cuisine for us than the subcontinental), but I know a few people who have taken me round. I enjoy both the Medieval old town and the Enlightenment New Town. It is the younger inhabitants that are a bit disgusting--very low level punks, yobs, louts. I once saw a horde of them, all fairly young, standing in line to get into a club, though the men at the door were only selecting the prettier girls. I am reminded of of Whit Stillmans great film, The Last Days of Disco, though no one in that film was a tenth as ugly or grotesque as the Scottish kids were. (They also have unhealthy looking skin, but that may be the climate,)
The Last Days of Disco is a magnificent movie. Before seeing it, I had always detected, but could not quite define, some false note in Polonius' famous advice to Laertes from Hamlet, "And this above all else, to thine own self be true." But it wasn't until I heard one of the Disco characters' penetrating rejoinder to Polonius that I was fully aware of the problem: "But what if thine own self is an a#$&ole?" That line is typical of the splendid dialogue in Stillman's excellent stories. Another memorable character in the movie enlists the Scottie dog from Disney's Lady and the Tramp while delivering a very funny and on-point critique of American Gigolo-ism.
Dr. Fleming on the Edgware Road...now that's something I'd have to see to believe.