2009 May archive at eternallycool.net

Archive for May, 2009

May

Map Maker

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Historic Sites and On the Street

Aurelian Wall Graffiti in Rome

We spotted this in the Jewish Ghetto just a few days ago. It’s a stencil on a wall that shows the map of Rome’s historic center with a red line around the edge, marking the path of the Aurelian Wall, a defense wall built in the third century AD to protect Rome from invaders. Below, in both Italian and English, is a caption that reads, “You are 2445 steps from the Aurelian Wall.”

Like the Aurelian wall, the serpentine course of the Tiber River is painted red. What are the red crosses? We’re not sure, though we’ve got some theories going — the most persuasive of which is the idea that the red crosses mark the sites of similar stencils that document the walking distance to the wall from other sites in the city. We haven’t gone out on a scavanger hunt for those other yet (too darn hot in the Eterna for walkabouts), but we did find one other example quite by accident and its location corresponds with the position of a cross on the map.

The red 12/21 number above the left side of the map seems to suggest that this is the 12th of 21 such stencils. There’s also a big red dot just near the Tiber Island. What does it represent? We have a theory about that too, but we’ll keep it to ourselves until we’ve done a bit more research.

We don’t know whose project this is or why they’re so busily documenting the distance to the Aurelian Wall, but we like it, like it, yes we do.

May

Music to Our Ears

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Uncategorized

Accordian Player at Oasis of Beer

Those of you who follow us on Facebook know that we often post links there that never make it into eCool blog entries. Today, we offer a round-up of those links for those of you who aren’t yet Facebook fans of eternallycool.net:

A Leonardo da Vinci exhibit titled The Mind of Leonardo, The Universal Genius at Work, it is on show in Rome’s Palazzo Venezia until August 30. We’re generally dubious of the zillions of Leonardo shows that pop up in every Italian city, but we’ve not seen this one, so we’ll reserve judgment for when we do.

The “it’s been closed almost forever” fresco section of the Naples Archaeological Museum has re-opened. Yippee! All those fabulous paintings from Pompeii, Herculaneum, and surrounding areas are available to be admired again.

A three-year-long project has created the first fully comprehensive 3D image of one of Rome’s catacombs. Learn even more on Pruned.

Lidia Bastianach talks about cooking and eating Italian style in this video: Tutti a tavola a mangiare!

One of many, many accounts & reviews of the Pompeiii and the Roman Villa exhibit at the Getty.

Having been returned to Italy from the Metropolitan Museum some time ago, and then taken a trip to Greece to star in an exhibit about cultural property, the Euphronius Vase has moved into its new home at the Villa Giulia. Get the lowdown from Looting Matters.

Everything you ever wanted or needed to know about mozzarella di bufala in Campania from the L.A. Times.

The Kimball Museum in Ft. Worth Texas has acquired the earliest known painting by Michelangelo.

Study of the Markets of Trajan suggests that sandy ash produced by a volcano that erupted 456,000 years ago might have helped a huge ancient Roman complex survive intact for nearly 2,000 years despite three earthquakes. On the Discovery Channel.

A museum that invites you to touch the curly locks on Michelangelo’s David or throw your arms around the Venus De Milo in Ancona.

Modern hikers following the Via Francigena, a medieval route once used by pilgrims traveling from Canterbury to Rome, are to get an international web portal that will provide detailed guidance on the 1,000-kilometre Italian stretch of the road, running from the Valle d’Aosta to Lazio. Read more at Italymag.co.uk.

May

Do You Smell That?

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Art & Design, Humor and On the Street

David Holding His Nose

On one of our many recent public transporation odysseys, members of the eCool team found themselves strolling down Via Cavour. It’s not the thoroughfare one would choose for an evening walkabout given the traffic, the fume-filled air, and the endless string of cheap tourist eateries. The experience proved rewarding nonetheless when we found ourselves face to face with an advertisement we’d seen some five years ago but failed to photograph — a failure that had left a regrettable hole in our encyclopedic collection of works of art used as advertising.

There, on the back of a bus stop sign was the much-longed for ad. Other posters that had been layered upon it over the years, served to preserve it (isn’t that so archaeological?) but have now had peeled away, leaving us with an image of Michelangelo’s David holding his nose and a clean-up-the-city tagline that reads, “You could cut the air with a knife in Italy’s cities.”

A survey around the eCool Compound suggests that things haven’t improved much since this version of the David first appeared in Italian cities some years ago — a fact suggested by the pollution-grey of the sky behind the sign.

Want more David? There’s a David made of Legos and Fat David as well as a photograph of David as homeland security.

May

To Bee or Not to Bee

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Everything Else and Historic Sites

Bees at Piazza di Spagna in Rome

In browsing today’s online edition of Il Messaggero, we note that a swarm of bees flew into Piazza di Spagna and claimed what is rightfully theres when they landed on Pope Urban VIII Barberini’s papal crest on the Fountain of the Barcaccia.

Those eCoolers already laughing about this will know that the fountain was commissioned by Pope Urban VIII Barberini and was completed in 1627 by Pietro Bernini and his son Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Knowing this, clever eCoolers will also be aware Barberini family coat of arms features three bees — and that residents and tourists alike take great pleasure in finding appearances of carved, cast, or painted bees on Barberini projects throughout Rome.

Thus, the visiting swarm (estimated to consist of some 30,000-40,000 bees) could not have landed in a more approriate place…unless of course, they’d headed straight for the Fontana delle Api, or Fountain of the Bees, located at the base of the Via Veneto and carved by Bernini, who completed the project in 1644. (see photo below)

The bees, by the way, were successfully and safely removed with the help of the Vigili Urbani and an apiculture expert.

Fountain of the Bees in Rome

May

Give them Bread & Circuses….and Beer

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Historic Sites, Humor and Sports

Heineken Colosseum in Rome's Termini Train Station

Sporty eCoolers will remember that on 27 May, the UEFA Champions League Final will be held in Rome (the rest of you may need to refer to your Cliffs Notes to discover that the UEFA is the Union of European Football Associations and that the game will decide which club is champion of the European league).

A few weeks there was hot discussion about whether or not soccer fields should be set up around the Colosseum in celebration of this event. We’ll admit that we didn’t follow the discussion that closely and thought that the idea had been vetoed by various superintendents of archaeology and culture ministers — that is, until this weekend, when we began to see elegant little banners flapping on Rome’s bridges with images of the classical-urn-shaped trophy and an announcement that there would be some sort of soccer celebration in the valley of the Colosseum in upcoming days.

Around town there are other indications of just how eagerly Romans (and sponsoring corporations) are anticipating this event. Heienken, always a big advertiser in the Eterna, has really gone all out. They’ve built a Colosseum out of beer bottles in the Termini train station. The base on which the monument stands is “inscribed” with the date of the game in Roman numerals: XXVII. V. MMIX and the motto “History is made in Rome.”

Colosseum built of Heineken beer bottles in Rome's Termini Train station

May

Comics Are Art. Just Funnier.

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Advertising and Humor

Museum of Comics, Ancona

We just saw these fabulous ads for the Comics Museum in Lucca on Ads of the World and we had to share them with you. The tagline on all three is “Comics are art. Just funnier,” and to illustrate the principle they’ve taken three masterpieces of art and made a comic strip of them.

We’re still giggling about cartoon called “The Shot” that’s a play on Mantegna’s Saint Sebastian (above). The comic strips begins with the poor pierced saint tied to a pagan column. To make matters worse for this early Christian martyr, a hand reaches over and places an apple on his head, making him the human target for some not-so-skilled archers who riddle his body with arrows.

Jacques-Louis David must be laughing in his grave at the Comic Museums’ version of The Death of Marat. The comic is titled “The Bill” (below) and begins with Marat in his bathtub while a hand reaches in from the right and with a just-written bill. In the center panel, a close-up shows us that the bill is for room service and that the total is exhorbitant. It’s the shock of that sum that causes the death of Marat in the last panel.

Museum of Comics in Lucca

And then there’s “The Waking Up” (below), a play on Mantegna’s Dead Christ. Christ, brilliantly foreshortened, lays in bed with a clock ticking beside him. At 7:00, the alarm goes off and we see a close-up of Christ’s hand as he reaches over to push the snooze button. In the final panel, we’re looking at Mantegna’s original painting and we see Christ slumbering for a few more moments before the alarm clock resurrects him again.

We don’t know much about the Museum of Comics in Lucca — called the Museo Nazionale del Fumetto e del Imagine — but we love these ads.

Advertising Agency: JWT Italia, Milan, Italy
Executive Creative Director: Pietro Maestri
Art Directors: Cristiana Boccassini, Flavio Mainoli
Copywriters: Bruno Bertelli, Paolo Cesano
Illustrator: Manlio Truscia

Museum of Comics, Lucca

May

Hope is Not A Crime

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Everything Else and On the Street

Hope is Not a Crime

Walking through Rome’s streets provides a sensory overload of which we just can’t get enough! Even a short stroll challenges mind and body: while it’s challenging enough to stay upright on the uneven cobblestones, one must also look down to avoid stepping in something unpleasant while simultaneously looking up and around so as not to be hit by cars or by motorini.

As if that’s not enough, there are all those people and their beautiful (or wacky) outfits to admire, works of art and architecture that will stop you dead in your tracks, and a wealth of fragments attesting to Rome’s long history that are built into houses and shops or fenced off at the edge of the street.

If you can manage all that, you can find even more entertainment in the rich collection of streetside graffiti and pubblicita. Taking in all the ephemeral words and images written or pasted on buildings and billboards is one of our favorite hobbies.

We were especially pleased when we came upon the poster shown above. It’s old — a poster created in the run-up U.S. elections in November 2008 by an organization called US Citizens for Peace and Justice (that we very much admire). We imagine that since the election season, other signs and posters have covered it but have now fallen away, leaving us to ponder once again a message of eternal importance, “Hope is not a crime.”

May

Photo Saturday: A Little Something for the Terrace

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Past & Present, Photo Friday and Photography

A photo of Rome by Susan Sanders

Not to worry, eCoolers! We didn’t forget Photo Friday. We just had so many other things to post about — including the link to a free copy of Angela Nickerson’s Rome’s Angels & Demons: an Insider’s Guide — that we decided to publish Susan Sanders’ photos on Saturday, rather than Friday.

Susan, in roaming the Quirinal Hill recently, found herself in a secret garden shop on Via Torino that’s filled with statuary perfect for any Roman garden or terrace. She ran into some old friends there — Cicero, Augustus, the Farnese Hercules, and the Thornpicker among them. The rest of us were a bit disappointed that she didn’t bring anything but photos of those beloved aquaintances back to the Compound; she claims that the abundance of choice was just too much and promises to return to pick up a few trinkets for the Compound’s roof terrace. Once we have them in place, we’ll invite you all over for a bit of prosecco and some nibbles.

In the meantime, enjoy other images on her Rome with a View website.

Photos of Rome by Susan Sanders

May

Get a Free Copy of Angels & Demons: an Insider’s Guide

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Film & TV, Historic Sites and Text & the City

Angels & Demons at Castel Sant'Angelo

So, today’s the big day! Ron Howard’s Angels & Demons was released in Rome on Wednesday, 13 May and today it opens in theaters around the U.S.A. We’re betting that lots of eCoolers will be dashing off to see the flick, if not for the suspense and action, then for the fantastic views of Rome that the movie is sure to offer.

As many of you will know, author Dan Brown published the book in 2000, but it didn’t really take off until after the DaVinci Code hit the bestseller list in 2003. Since about 2003, however, Angels & Demons has become particularly popular with visitors to Rome, who “let the angels be their guide” as they make their way around the Eterna.

Angels on the Ponte Sant'Angelo in Rome

The novel revolves around the quest of fictional Harvard University symbologist Robert Langdon (also featured in the DaVinci Code) to uncover the mysteries of a secret society called the Illuminati who are murdering Cardinals as part of a plot to annihilate Vatican City using destructive antimatter.

In order to prevent the destruction of the Vatican, Langdon sets off on the Path of Illumination in hopes of uncovering clues as to the disappearance of Cardinals and the location of the antimatter canister. The Path leads Langdon to four major locations in Rome, each marked by an artwork crafted by 17th-century superstar sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini, and each associated with what the Illuminati believed to be the four primordial elements of all things in existence: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.

It’s those artworks by Bernini (as well as some other pretty fabulous masterpieces of art and architecture) that Angels & Demons tourists come to see–and who can blame them? Of course, many such visitors are also interested in the long histories of Rome and the Catholic Church and as they traipse along the Path of Illumination, they find themselves asking questions that Dan Brown hasn’t answered in his novel. So what to do?

St. Peter's Basilica in Rome

Here at the eCool Compound, we have the answer! We’ve just discovered that our friend Angela Nickerson, author of a lovely book called A Journey into Michelangelo’s Rome (which, by the way, makes a great guidebook to Renaissance Rome) has teamed up with Roaring Forties press to publish Rome’s Angels & Demons: an Insider’s Guide — a free ebook with inside information about the art and places in Dan Brown’s book.

Rome’s Angels & Demons: An Insider’s Guide is filled with information about the historical figures, churches, artwork, and locations that figure prominently in Angels & Demons. With maps, visitor information, photographs, and in-depth insights, it is a great guide to the city of Rome and the fascinating world Dan Brown has created.

To find out more about this free guide — great on Kindle or any e-reader, but also formatted so that you can print it and take it to Rome with you — visit Angela’s Just Go blog where she’s throwing a launch party that includes a Twitter-to-enter contest by which you might just win some fabulous Roman stuff, including a copy of her Michelangelo book and some eCool Sigg Bottles! You can also download the book from the Roaring Forties Press website. Remember, it’s absolutely free!

Reading Angels & Demons in Rome's Piazza Navona

May

Run for Pompeii

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Archaeology, Historic Sites and Sports

Pompeii

There’s been discussion here at the eCool Compound about getting ourselves out of bed early on Sunday the 17th to run the Race for the Cure here in Rome. Now, however, Blogging Pompeii has divided our loyalties with their publication of news about the “Corri per Pompei” or Run for Pompeii that’s scheduled to take place on Saturday the 16th at 6pm.

An article about the race on Stabianews.tk says that starting line will be at Piazza Anfiteatro in the modern city of Pompeii and that the 10 kilometer and 3 kilometer routes will take runners through both the ancient archaeological site and the modern city. How much of the race takes place on the ancient site? We don’t know and we’d imagine that if it’s a lot the course could get a bit rough as even walking through ancient Pompeii can be tough on the feet, but nonetheless, we think this is one of the most eternally cool things we’ve heard about in a while.

For more information: write to napolipompei@libero.it or call 081 857 62 71 or 338 10 52 494.