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Apr

Collect Them All! Candidates in the Creche

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Categories: Outside Rome

Figurines of Barak Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain from Naples

In Naples, the making of figurines for creche scenes is centuries-old local craft. Twelve months a year, both sides of Via di San Gregorio Armeno in Naples are crowded with workshops displaying newborn Baby Jesuses, prayerful Virgin Marys, swooping cherubs, gift-bearing kings, and humble shepherds. But that’s not all. Because Italians like to include slices of daily life in their presepi or nativity scenes, there’s also a charming assortment of butchers, bakers, and pizza makers available to liven up your stable when there’s just no room in the inn.

Not surprisingly, each year some of these creche-crafters bow to temptation and spend their time making figurines of contemporary notables. Giuseppe Ferigno created a 40 centimeter figure of Luciano Pavarotti after his death last fall, while figurines of other superstars like soccer great Francesco Totti can be found up and down the street.

Now, however, for the first time since the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal, American politics are getting serious play in the world of Neapolitan creche figures. We’re happy to report that on a recent trip to Naples we found that figurines of Barak Obama, John McCain, and Hillary Clinton are available to populate your manger scene (see above).

So, go ahead. You’re just sitting around waiting for the Pennsylvania primary, right? Jump a train or plane to Napoli and score a few of these fabulous figurines. You’ll be glad you did when Christmas rolls around - they’ll look great next to the wise men!

Mar

Photo Friday Paris: Roman Redux

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Historic Sites, Photo Friday, Photography, Architecture, Outside Rome and Everything Else

Tomb of Napoleon in Paris

Faithful readers may have noticed that we’ve been skimping on posts this week. That’s because some of us here at the eCool Compound took advantage of the Easter holidays and spent most of the week in Paris. While there we were continually reminded of Rome - particularly when looking at all things Napoleonic.

On this Photo Friday, Susan Sanders offers us a Parisian image that is Roman in scope and scale. The gargantuan Tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte at Les Invalides belies his physique but speaks volumes about his imperial ambitions.

Made of Russian porphyry (as Egyptian porphyry - that used to create the tombs of the Roman Emperors was out of stock), the massive sarcophagus rests under a gilded dome that reaches some 350 feet into the gray Parisian sky.

The imperial tomb - certainly meant to recall those in which Roman rulers like Hadrian were laid to rest - is positioned on axis with an altar covered by a canopy or baldacchino undeniably reminiscent of that which covers the Papal altar in Saint Peter’s Basilica.

So much Rome, so little time.

For more photographs by Susan Sanders, visit her Rome With A View blog.

Mar

Photo Saturday: Turning the Page

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Photo Friday, Photography and Outside Rome

Collapsed Election Posters in Rome. Photo by Susan Sanders.

At the moment, Italy is in the middle of intense political campaigns leading up to the mid-April election in which a new government will be selected to replace the collapsed regime of Roman Prodi. In Rome, that means political posters are everywhere! Walls are caked in layers of them. Special billboards are elected street side to accommodate the overflow. And each time a poster is put up, it’s only a matter of hours or days until it’s covered by another.

One artist in Rome recently likened the layers of political propaganda to an electoral lasagna, but an archaeological comparison might be just as apt, for the superimposed posters certainly attest to the constantly changing and shifting current of thoughts and words by which Italian history is being made.

In a recent downpour, many heavy layers of these posters collapsed into heaps on the street, almost as if Mother Nature was wiping the slate clean, and photographer Susan Sanders snapped a shot of the political fallout that subsequently lined the streets of Rome.

For more photographs of Rome by Susan, visit her blog: Rome With A View.

Feb

Mona Lisa Turns Trashy

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Outside Rome, Past & Present and Art & Design

Neapolitan Graffiti Artist Raffo's depiction of the Mona Lisa

Pretty much everyone knows about the horrifying and ongoing trash crisis in Naples as it’s been much covered by the international press. Now, it seems, the news has filtered all the way back to the sixteenth century and has incited such Renaissance celebrities as the Mona Lisa to action.

In protest of the smelly pileups in Naples, the Neapolitan graffiti artist, Raffo, has tasked the iconic star of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous portrait with the job of taking out the trash. In posters painted by Raffo and distributed throughout Naples, the Mona Lisa appears against a new backdrop - the Bay of Naples surrounded by trash. Her usual demure pose - with hands carefully crossed in front of her - has been abandoned in favor of a more active position, for in her hands she clutches nationalistically-colored red and green garbage bags as if she herself is headed down to the dumpster to drop off a bit of refuse. She’ll have trouble with that, of course, because the dumpsters are already full (see image above - we’re particularly fond of the Berlusconi campaign poster hovering over the dumpster in the upper left corner of the photo).

Neapolitan Graffiti artist Raffo's depiction of the Mona Lisa

Feb

Photo Friday: McBlessed Ludovica

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Outside Rome and Art & Design

McBlessed Ludovica, Graffiti in Naples, Italy

Today, on another bright and sunny Photo Friday, we bring you an image taken by Susan Sanders on a trip to Naples. Titled McBlessed Ludovica, the photograph shows a sumptuous work of stencil art that is clearly a play on Bernini’s swooning 17th-century sculpture of Blessed Ludovica Albertoni (see below, found in the church of San Francesco a Ripa in Rome).

While in the original sculpture, the Blessed Ludovica is overcome by a transcendental encounter with the divine, our artist in Naples attributes her altered state to another source: the hands that clutch at her abdomen and the head thrown back in rapture seem to be a result of a super-sized communion with a meal from McDonalds.

For more photos by Susan, visit her blog: Rome With A View.

Bernini's Blessed Ludovica Albertoni

Jan

Espresso Academy

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Outside Rome and Food & Wine

Espresso Academy in Florence

Italian coffee is legendary. How legendary? Well, it’s commonly known that the Italian coffee tradition inspired the creation of America’s gargantuan coffee chain, Starbucks. But, despite expansion to China and beyond, Starbucks has recently announced that they’re not coming to Italy. It’s a sign, perhaps, of just how formidable is the long-established coffee culture on the boot-shaped peninsula.

If you’re a coffee lover who prefers your to take your frothy cappuccino or velvety espresso standing up at bar (rather than walking down the street), then Florence’s Espresso Academy might just be a place that you want to spend some time. The academy’s courses range in length from a few hours to two days and teach a variety of skills. You can learn the history of coffee, edify yourself about the fine points of roasting and grinding, discover how to make the perfect espresso on a stove or with a machine, and even become skilled in creating those lovely designs so often seen atop frothy cups of cappuccino.

Cappuccino

Because the academy’s classrooms are located inside the Mokaflor roasting plant, you can observe the entire coffee cycle, from the unloading of trucks to roasting and grinding. You can witness new blends and new products being tested and look on as Moakflor’s employees evaluate new packaging and design new espresso machines and new coffee grinders.

What kinds of courses are on offer? There are six in total, the most alluring of them are as follows:

A three-hour Discovery course introduces students to the botany of coffee, its different varieties, and the methods by which it is picked and prepared for consumption. Participants in this course also learn to prepare the perfect stove top espresso and are introduced to the workings of the bar-quality espresso makers.

The “Milk Art” course is four hours in length and provides instruction in the making of cappuccino decorations such as hearts, leaves, and more. Those enrolled also get a crash-course in the making of cappuccino - from choosing the right milk to steaming it perfectly.

A four-hour Tasting course aims to improve your palate. After an introduction to the botany of coffee, participants learn to see, smell, and taste coffee, enhancing their awareness of the differences between such varietals as African Arabic, scented Latin American washed coffees, southeastern Asia Robusta, and Jamaica Blue Mountain.

And for those who like their coffee in the evening as well as in the morning, there’s a four-hour Coffee Cocktail course that introduces mixing concepts, classic coffee cocktails, and those more complicated ones that mix alcohol with milk or cream.

Via delle Torri 55, 50142 Florence
Tel. +39 055 7321718 - Fax +39 055 7321719

e-mail: info@espressoacademy.it

Jan

London Eye-Spy

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Outside Rome and Advertising

Fiat 500 on the London Eye

In July of last year, Fiat celebrated its 50th anniversary by releasing a brand-new 500. Since that time, the Fiat 500 has been the darling of the car industry.

Last night, at 8pm GMT, the 500 was officially introduced to London - exactly 500 hours after the start of 2008. Its introduction was no small affair. Secured in a capsule on the London Eye, a silver 500 took a spin over the city while a light show exploded over the Thames River to the enjoyment of attendees at a glitzy A-list party.

In anticipation of the event, Fiat caused stir last November when they announced the hotly anticipated Fiat 500 would cost from just £7,900 a whopping £1,000 less than expected.

On sale this month, the dinky Fiat will be available in three trim levels: Pop, Sport and Lounge and with 1.2, 1.4-litre petrol or 1.3-litre diesel engines.

Jan

Restore the Murals at Gioiosa Jonica

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Outside Rome, On the Street and Art & Design

Murals at Gioiosa Jonica in Reggio Calabria

In March 12, 1977, in the town of Gioiosa Jonica in the southern Italian region of Reggio Calabria, a Communist mill owner named Rocco Gatto was murdered in an old-style mafia hit. Born in 1926 as the oldest of 15 children, Gatto was killed for refusing to pay fees extorted by the ‘ndrangheta or local Calabrian mafia.

In 1978, Gatto’s death was memorialized by a group of local artists in Gioiosa Jonica when they painted murals on the facade of a theater in Piazza Vittorio Veneto. Now, some 30 years later, those murals have faded and fallen into disrepair and are in desperate need of restoration. The photos above show the state of degradation: the photo on the left shows the murals in 1977 and the photo on the right depicts their current state.

In the interest of preserving the memory of Rocco Gatto and the fight against the mafia, an organization called da Sud is raising funds to restore the murals. You can sign a petition by visiting the da Sud website or you can contribute funds (in Italy) by sending a donation through the Italian post office (C/C Postale n. 73340903 intestato a “Comitato pro murales teatro Gioiosa”. Causale “Campagna restauro Murales) or making a wire transfer to the following account: Abi 7601 Cab 16300.

Jan

New Year’s Kiss in Venice

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Outside Rome, Everything Else and On the Street

Love 2008 in Venice

Some 60,000 people took part in a giant New Year’s kiss in Piazza San Marco in Venice last night! Those taking part in the grand smack-a-roo gathered in the piazza from about 10pm onward in an event called Love 2008. The goal was to “to begin the New Year with a gesture of love, peace, brotherhood, and passion,” according to the website.

Love 2008 in Venice

Dec

Photo Friday: Those Mysterious Etruscans

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Archaeology, Photo Friday, Photography and Outside Rome

Susan Sanders Photograph of Etruscan Tomb at Cerveteri

Today on Photo Friday, Susan Sanders treats us to a trip out of Rome and a view of those mysterious Etruscans! The photographs she presents depict the Banditaccia Necropolis at Cerveteri, about an hour’s drive from the center of the Eternal City.

Above, we see curious visitors admiring a huge tumulus or burial mound, the most noble form of Etruscan burial at the site. Below, we see row tombs that look a bit like suburban houses, neatly lined up one beside the other.

If you’ve never visited the necropolis and museum at Cerveteri, the trip is well worth the time, as the dramatic site is both haunting and romantic. In a visit shortly after World War I, D.H. Lawrence describes the experience of climbing into a tomb cut into one of the many huge tumuli, such as that depicted above:

There is nothing left. It is like a house that has been swept bare: the inmates have left: now it waits for the next comer. But whoever it is that has departed has left a pleasant feeling behind them, warm to the heart….

They are surprisingly big and handsome, these homes of the dead. Cut out of the living rock, they are just like houses. The roof has a beam cut to imitate the roof-beam of the house. It is a house, a home.

Such are the Etruscan tombs at Cerveteri. Though they have long-since been emptied of artifacts, archaeologists see their interior structure as indicative of the houses in which noble Etruscans once lived (very few Etruscan houses have been excavated, as the Etruscans lived on the same hilltops that are now the sites of Italy’s most charming hilltowns). As such, a visit to Cerveteri provides excellent insight into Etruscan life and afterlife.

For more compelling photos of Cerveteri, visit Susan’s photo blog: Rome With A View.

Row Tombs at the Banditaccia Necropolis in Cerveteri