It's Springing!

Spring has been out in full force for a couple weeks here in Rome. I meant to post about the budding loveliness a while ago, but one thing or another has kept me procrastinating. Just as well - waiting means that I have lovely photos of the wisteria that is blooming all over the Academy and Monteverde. I don't recall seeing wisteria bloom in any places I've lived previously - I'm sure that it exists, somewhere, but it's just not a plant that I've had much first-hand experience with. I am completely smitten. It's beautiful, it's romantic, it's fragrant - I just want to stand underneath the falling blossoms and inhale.

They are the latest of the lot; we've been seeing flowers on all the trees for a few weeks, and now the petals are beginning to slowly drift to the ground. Every day on the way to school Indigo asks, "What happened, Mama?" while pointing to a mass of fluffy pink on the cobblestone sidewalks. I'm amazed when I think that she probably doesn't remember her past two Springs. This may be her real first awareness of flowering trees, and of tiny baby plants poking up through the earth.

With the arrival of Spring, we're eating a lot of new peas and fava beans and asparagus. Some of the kitchen staff have begun to regularly sit outdoors in the afternoons, shucking peas and beans, and Indigo loves to help them. They are a gracious, friendly bunch. I dare say that we are actually helpful (me more than Indigo - she stuffs more fresh peas into her mouth than she puts in the bowl), so they are probably happy to have the help and conversation. Indigo loves helping so much that I'm thinking that when we return home, I'll look for a local farm that might welcome volunteers for an hour or so on the weekends. Why not? I'd love for Indigo to have the opportunity to learn more about food, and feel some pride in helping to make it. Speaking of gardening, and growing things, here is an image of part of the amazing Bass Garden, where some herbs and vegetables are grown.

The arrival of warmer weather has meant that we've gotten to spend a lot more time outdoors. I hear that the nightlife is back, and there are throngs crowding the streets in Trastevere. I have yet to verify this for myself, but I can believe it! The tourists are starting to crowd the daytime streets as well, and all of the "seasonal" businesses have begun to re-open. Last weekend we took a trip with another family here to an animal farm in Ostia. It was fantastic. It was a great opportunity for kids to see and interact and learn about a variety of domestic animals. In the center of the farm was a petting area, and some of the baby goats, sheep, rabbits and ducks were so small that they could slip out of their enclosures, and come right up to us for some food or a cuddle.

The biggest thing we're looking forward to this Spring is our trip to Sicily! We leave on Wednesday (in two days!!) and will be staying in Cefalu, which happens to be Josh's favorite place in the world. And soon to be mine? We'll find out!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It's been a month since my last post. I haven't neglected posting because I have nothing to say or share, but because life's been a little hectic around here. Indigo had a long illness (cough turning to croup turning to pneumonia and an ear infection) that led us to our second ER visit and having to keep her out of school for a couple weeks. And I was sick, and Josh was sick, and then Indigo was sick again, and Josh hurt his back. But now I think - I hope - that's all past us. So onward we go!

And while we were busy being sick, it gradually grew colder and more wintery here in Rome. Yes, Rome does get cold. Not the bone-numbing cold of New England, mind you - but the morning mile-walk to Indigo's school has gotten increasingly colder and is now, some days, done in below-freezing temperatures. It gets a little warmer throughout the day, but some days that just means that it gets up to 45 (although tomorrow it's supposed to be in the high fifties).

Personally, I welcome the cold. It's comforting. A bit of normalcy in a life that is so different from anything that I've known before. December should be cold. Christmas occurs in the winter. That's what I've known, and that's what I want.

Possibly bigger than my head?

So far, this Christmas season has been merry and a little perplexing. Of course, since the Italians don't celebrate our Thanksgiving, there is no kick-off to the Christmas season in November. In some ways, that's really pretty lovely - there's much less commercialism here, and a lot less holiday pressure (and burn-out, I suspect). The first herald of Christmas does begin to arrive in stores in November, but with little-to-no pomp and circumstance. That is Italian panettone, a kind of seasonal sweet bread that I've dubbed "the muffin as big as my head". Seriously. Look at it. Most panettone seem to have fruit and assorted craziness in them, but the one in the picture above was just chocolate chip bread. Delicious.

Our little tree

Some store fronts, especially ones that either specialize in food or are technically a corporation/chain, do decorate beginning in late November. But the vast majority do not. Some begin in early December, but the real start of the Christmas season here in Italy is on December 8th, which is the Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception. All around the city, Christmas trees and Christmas lights were lit for the first time on that night. Christmas trees are really not available for sale until a few days leading up to the 8th. I tried looking for a tree the week before, and none could be found. When flower vendors did start getting some in stock, I was surprised to see that they had very few for sale, and all of them were potted. That is, you're not buying a cut tree; you're buying a live one. Maybe that's why so few are out being sold? Do people buy a tree and then tend it all year long, year after year, keeping it out on their veranda or in a courtyard to wait for the next Christmas? I've no idea. But I suppose that's what we'll do. We'll leave it on our terrace for the apartment's next occupants.

Lights just before dusk on the 8th

I'm not convinced that the majority of the city's occupants have Christmas trees, anyway (this is an ancient city, and apartments are tiny. Where would they fit them??) But I think most Italian households proudly display presepe - that is, the nativity scene. It is a Catholic city, after all. I'm told that the Vatican has a gorgeous life-sized one that they don't unveil until Christmas Eve. But presepe are all over the city - and as I understand it, in nearly every home. You can even get ones made out of chocolate, like the one in the window of the Sicilian bakery I pass on my walk to my Italian class. But isn't it sort of heretical to want to eat the baby Jesus?  I don't feel all that comfortable with the idea.

Heretical...but delicious

I plan to do a follow-up post to this one in a few days full of pictures of all the gorgeous shop windows, all decked out in their Christmas finery. Stay tuned!

But of course, one more quick thing - the most fun part of this Christmas season, so far, is Indigo's wonder and excitement at the lights, and the idea of "Father Christmas" bringing her a present on Christmas day. She refers to Santa as Father Christmas because that's what UK-created Peppa Pig does - and god, it's super cute and charming to have your not-quite-2-year-old use that quaint old-world name. And all the glitter and dazzle of Christmas decorations are magical when seen through the eyes of a child, and I've found that I'm enjoying this lead-up to the holiday immensely, more than I ever thought that I would. It's lovely.

A Day in the Country, Part 2: Olive Picking

This past weekend we had the opportunity to see some more of the Italian countryside. A friend here at the Academy owns a house in Giove, Umbria, which has roughly 40 olive trees on the land (also a number of grapevines). It's olive harvest time, and so she invited the community up to her house for olive picking, a chance to see the olives pressed, and general food and merriment.

It's an easy trip by train - about an hour. I was pleased to see that about 25 people came, some of whom I don't see that often, outside of mealtimes. A number of children came as well, so I knew that Indigo would have plenty to entertain her if she tired of picking olives.

So, the house. Well. The view was okay. ;)

 Yeah, yeah - I was utterly entranced. Of course. And the smell - the air was both fresh and clean, yet also smelled rich - of earth and heat and olives. Lovely.

I thought that olive picking would be about the same as apple picking, but there are a few differences. For one, olives are a lot smaller, so there's some fear that any that fall from the trees could easily be squashed (and potentially ruined) underfoot. Or lost. So they spread large nets under the trees, then gently use small mini-rakes to comb through the branches, or even a sort of electric rake that agitates the branches. People may also climb the trees to get the olives higher-up. Basically the idea is to unload all the olives into the waiting net below, then gently move/pour the olives from the net into the baskets/crates. The children were especially good at this final task.

Indigo is at that age where she loves to put little things into bigger containers, so she actually really loved finding the olives that had dropped into the nets, and transferring them into the crates. Of course, she loved sitting on mommy and daddy's shoulders and picking olives straight from the trees, too.

After we were done picking olives, we had a lovely lunch together on the porch, overlooking what seemed to be all of Umbria. Some of our company had stopped picking olives earlier and had made some pasta and this wonderful cheese-sauce that was amazing slathered on bread...mmm. The children played, and we all relaxed, and then a number of people went to watch the olives get pressed. Josh and I decided to take Indigo home, as it was growing late, and I had the rare pleasure of holding my sleeping child for the duration of the train ride home. It used to be that I held her every day as she napped, but now that she's so big, it doesn't happen all that often. It was the perfect end to a really amazingly lovely day.

This is Halloween

A couple of the grad student Fellows here organized a Halloween event at the Academy, which was truly an epic event. I was drafted (willingly!) to be on the decorating committee, but also found myself on the unofficial buying-stuff, including candy, committee. It's not easy to Buy Stuff in Italy, which I should really explain at length in another post. But to be brief: there's no Michael's for crafts or Jo-Ann's for fabric or Home Depot for random building materials. Oh, no - you really have to hit the pavement, walk everywhere, and/or scrounge.

Anyway.

It was really a labor of love, and I think that I can speak for everyone when I say that the party was a rousing success. I helped decorate the courtyard and the main party room - and some of the people I was working with were incredibly talented. Betsy spray-painted a bunch of sticks black and hung them so that they were suspended over the bar. Jackie painted a wonderful pumpkin patch and gravestone area - and there were so many more great touches. I felt really proud of how things looked.

Indigo especially loved the "pumpkin patch" on the wall, and tried to pet the kitties. I guess she thought they were real. ;)

The first part of the party was geared for the kids It was very sweet: it started with a treat-bag-decorating activity, then the kids were invited to trick-or-treat inside the main Academy Building. After trick-or-treating was done, there was a pizza party, then time for the kids to either run around or have their own little dance party in the party room.

After the kids' party was the adults' party, and I think over 275 people showed up, from all the other Academies in town. I didn't attend, since I was tired and home with Indigo, but it sounded like a good time.

Indigo seemed to enjoy her Halloween. She tolerated her outfit (but just barely - I was fortunate to get a few snapshots of her with her witch hat on before she tore it off and never put it back on). She loved running around with the other kids before festivities started, and seemed to have fun decorating her trick-or-treat bag. Sadly, though, she didn't actually do any trick-or-treating. I'm not sure if it was because she was hungry, or tired, or just overwhelmed by the entire event, but she just couldn't deal with the crush of kids piling into the building to go door to door to ask for candy. I think it was confusing to her, and probably too chaotic. So we went back outside, waited for pizza, and watched it get dark. Indigo is, incidentally, fascinated with the dark, and gets so excited when she spots the moon. When she sees it, she'll point, and run towards it saying, "Come here, moon!" Adorable.

Too bad about the trick-or-treating, but I think she had a blast anyway, and probably doesn't know what she missed. And I wouldn't have wanted her to eat candy anyway, so maybe it was all a big win. ;)  Here's one last shot, of our little family.

Happy Halloween!

A little reception

This post is really just an excuse to show you all some pretty pictures.

The Academy hosted a Welcome reception tonight (What?! Two-and-a-half weeks in? Yes.) at the Villa Aurelia. It is a gorgeous estate, and I would seriously consider living in a tent, nomad-like, on the grounds, if they'd have me.

A checkerboard of lemon trees

A fantastic wrought-iron door

Indigo, caught in the act of eating a canapé

Lovely fountain, complete with lily pads

Josh looking spiffy, indulgently following Indigo on her explorations

A view from one of the gardens

Yet another amazing fountain. The water drips from the top of the arch

Sunset and dusk. We saw bats fluttering amongst the trees

The lighting at dusk is gorgeous

The first week, in pictures

Here is a peek inside some of the Academy buildings. These are shots of the interior courtyard of the main building, where lunch and dinner is served on nice days (and there are a lot of nice days). I caught a quick photo of Indigo dropping a few pebbles into a drain/grate.

Here Indigo and Josh are walking into the courtyard.

We're up on the Janiculum, a high hill outside of the main area of Rome (on the other side of the Tiber River), and just up the hill from the Trastevere, an area where a lot of the charming medieval-era buildings are still intact. Here's a view of the city from the Janiculum.

Here is the Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere, home to the Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere, one of the oldest churches in Rome (circa the 4th century).

The piazza

The basilica

The city (what I've seen of it so far) has approximately a bazillion fountains. Some for show, some to drink. There's a fountain (sometimes just a pipe) in every park. The tap water in Rome is supposedly excellent, some of the best in Europe. It tastes good on a hot day, that's for sure! And Indigo loves any opportunity to play in water.

I can't remember the name of this fountain, but it's impressively large.

My water child

Getting the grump out

Life at The Academy is not quite what was advertised, or envisioned.

On its face, it seems idyllic: we're living in a villa, in what is essentially a gated community in one of the most kid-friendly and green areas in Rome; meals are prepared for us; a housekeeper comes to our rooms and apartments once a week; we have the opportunity to go to various lectures and receptions and so forth. And hey, it's Italy.

But you have to read the fine print. The area may be kid-friendly, but most of the Academy is not. Yes, they've created a sweet little garden across the street for the kids to play in. That's definitely something they've done right. But children are not allowed in any of the other green spaces on their 11 acres of land. Nor are they allowed in any of the buildings (save for the ones that house the family apartments) unless accompanied by an adult. And they must be quiet. And not run or play.

Meals are prepared for us, but at significant expense. And they occur late enough at night (beginning at 8pm) that nearly no child can attend on a school night. We were promised that Friday nights would be family dinner nights, which would start at 7pm, be served buffet style, and feature kid-friendly menus. We found out last Thursday that they were not going to have family nights this year, despite the record number of families and kids. Even though we were sent information this summer that they would occur.

We get housekeeping, but it comes at a 600 euro charge. Which we were not told about. Until last week. The fee is not negotiable - that is, we can't say "oh, we'll not have housekeeping to save ourselves the money." It's a mandatory fee. And doesn't cover the costs of laundry, which we need to pay for ourselves.

Children are not welcome at most receptions and events. Which effectively means that, unless a couple can get a babysitter, that the fellow gets to go to the receptions and events and talks and meals - and the spouse/partner stays home with the children. Or they trade off. Et cetera.

I get it. I do. This is a place to work. The whole mission of this place is to provide the space, inspiration, and support for artists and scholars to create their masterpieces. It's a lovely and grand tradition, and I am truly glad to be a part of it. Really, I am.

But it's not a family-friendly place. In the Academy's defense, I will say that it is exceedingly rare for an institution to allow families to come along on a fellowship at ALL - and I realize that they must go to an enormous expense to help make it happen. BUT - if you're going to invite families to your institution, perhaps you should not create policies that marginalize them.

I think it's reasonable to expect that families make arrangements for babysitting, etc so that spouses can attend events with the fellows. And I do understand that you don't want kids climbing on statues or splashing in fountains. But why can't they play on the grounds? Why can't we have the one family dinner a week that we were promised? Why not be up front about the costs that bringing a family would incur?

Our house, in the middle of (a) Rome street...

We live in a lovely little apartment building next to the main Academy building. It's accessed by an electronic iron gate that swings open when we wave our keycard at the sensor (one of Indigo's new favorite activities). I believe that there are 7 apartments in our building - all house families. We're in number 5. There's a quaint little elevator that we can use - Indigo calls this the "alligator" and pushing its buttons are another new favorite activity.

The apartment itself is fairly nice. Small by rural standards, but spacious for a city. We inexplicably have 2 bathrooms but no living room. Our kitchen is large, with enough room for a full table and eight chairs, and a couch and side table on one end.

All the main rooms have ceiling fans and these huge windows that you can fling open to let the air in. Also, I suppose, real "Roman" shades. I should take a picture of them - they are unlike anything I've ever seen.

The best part of the house is our patio. We are the only apartment to have one (although there is a rooftop patio, too), which I think more than makes up for not having a living room.

Here is a picture of our patio in the morning. There are a number of pots on the side bench; I think I will get some plants for them. And hopefully remember to water them. One huge bonus of this patio is that it's completely safe for Indigo to be out there, even if I duck back into the apartment for a moment. There's no way that she could fall (or even to climb up on a bench.

Here the view from one side of the patio - palm tree!

And here is the view from the other railing. Both pictures look out over Academy grounds.

Indigo's taken to enjoying her breakfast out on the patio. As soon as she gets her milk in the morning she says, "Outside!" Why not?

For the most part, I really like living here. The apartment's nice, there are laundry facilities in the basement, an inclosed courtyard for the kids to play in, and the added bonus of having several other children in the building for Indigo to play with (and parents for me to chat with). The best part is probably that the Academy has its own private playground across the street, called the Triangle Garden. It's a nice little park, with a swing-set and slide, a sandbox, plenty of room to play soccer or baseball, some benches and a gazebo, and a little water fountain. Plus, lots of trees and shade. It's also gated off, accessible only by our electronic keycards, so it's private and there's no chance of the kids leaving the park and running out into the street. More photos of that playground later.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

We traveled more than 1,000 miles, of course. It's a bit mind-boggling to think that we're halfway around the world. I spent a good deal of the transatlantic flight watching the big screen at the front of the cabin to see where our little plane icon was on the trip trajectory. Totally boring, yes, but also kind of mindlessly fascinating. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Quick recap - movers came on the 31st to haul all our stuff out of the house, into a truck (which broke down and needed a jump-haha) and presumably off to a storage facility. By the time they were three-quarters done, I was totally done, and all my belongings could have burned in a fire, for all I cared. I suppose that's not actually true, but I was glad when we finally packed up and drove to Providence to stay with Rachel for a few days.

Which...was lovely. Living with Rachel again, even for such a brief time, was wonderful, and reminded me of the golden Montebello days. We didn't throw any crazy dance parties this time 'round, but we did see a number of folks who stopped by to spend time with us before we were set to flee the country.

And we nearly didn't get beyond that first step. US Airlines almost didn't let Indigo and I fly, because our return tickets were for 10 months in the future, and we didn't have visas - so we could technically only stay in Italy for 3 months. So they refused to let us check in. Sure, they had a point - it is actually illegal to stay in the country for 10 months without a visa. But I honestly don't think that the Italians care. Nor have any Academy fellows run into this problem before. Josh called the Academy immediately and someone tried to get in touch with the NY Consulate to get everything straightened out. We never did hear back from the Consulate, because if we waited around, we'd miss our flight (which was so helpfully delayed an hour - actually good luck, because of this other problem). Instead we just changed the return date for our flights to November. Which we'll have to change back to June. Which incur a $250 change fee, per change, per ticket. That's - yup - you guessed it! $1,000 in fees. Thanks, US Air.

Anyway, after that, the flights went as well as they could have. We had a short flight to Charlotte, which was not as crazy busy as I'd feared, so that was a big plus. Indigo fussed a bit on that flight and then slept, so she was fairly wide awake for the second 9-hour flight. Despite being exhausted, she was as good as gold on the long flight. Really. Minimal fussing or wriggling.  After about 3 hours she slept, fitfully, and I had to soothe her back to sleep a few times. Only at the end of the flight did she begin to demand to get out of her seat, and by then, we were only about a half hour from our destination.

Getting through the airport was actually fairly easy, although there was a long wait for our bags. A driver from the Academy had been sent to meet us (he had Josh's name on a sign in the lobby - how cool is that?) and my first glimpse of Rome included palm trees and strange spiky foliage partially obscured by a concrete parking garage. The sound of whistles being blown, car horns honking. A strange sweetish smell, which I later identified as diesel fumes. We got in the car and drove breakneck down a highway and through some part of Rome, and then, suddenly, we were at our new home.

My memories of those first few hours are a little fuzzy, since I was running on perhaps 4 hours of sleep. I think I put Indigo down for a nap, unpacked a little, then slept myself.

Next up: our first few days, our apartment, the Academy, and other adventures.

All roads lead to...

So why Rome, anyway?

This upcoming academic year is Josh's sabbatical year, and he'll spend it turning his dissertation into a book for publication, a necessary step to acquire tenure at Smith College. He applied for, and (drum roll please!) won the Rome Prize, a prestigious award made annually by the American Academy in Rome. It was a national competition (I'm told there were more than 800 applicants), and fellowships were awarded to 30 artists and scholars, Josh included. I'm very proud, can't you tell?

Here's the official prize information:
Millicent Mercer Johnsen Post-Doctoral Rome Prize
JOSHUA COLIN BIRK
Assistant Professor, Department of History, Smith College
Baptized Sultans: The Norman Kings of Sicily & the Birth of the Anti-Islamic Critique

Snazzy book name, too, don't you think? He's proud of it.

So, off we go to Rome for the 2012-13 academic year. We depart the U.S. on September 6th, and return next June. We'll be staying on the Academy grounds, which are located on the Janiculum Hill, one of the tallest hills in Rome.

Aerial View of the Janiculum, Photo by Alex MacLean

Here is the The McKim, Mead & White Building, the main building of the Academy where we will eat and congregate. We'll be living in an apartment in another building.

Photo by Jonathan Wallen

I could post a hundred pictures of the buildings and grounds that I've found online, but I think I'll wait and post my own photos.  I can't wait!