New Travels with Sidd

Well Sidd is on the road again – and where Sidd goes so go we!  I realize that I’ve been away from the blogging scene for some time now and a few people have even suggested that I have been missed.  Well okay two people showed a mild interest in to why I have not been clogging the net with my thoughts, feelings and, particularly, information on the Hounds from Hell.   So as we begin another adventure with Sidd I thought I’d pick up my pen – well actually open the laptop – as I sit here in Trudeau Airport and in some way chronicle of trip.

In the next 26 days Sidd, and Laurent and I as his faithful porters, will be using bus, plane, ship and train to celebrate 35 years together.  No not 35 years with Sidd – 35 years with Laurent.  

It all started back in August – no not the 35 years with Laurent that started in November 1978 – when I received an e-mail offering a wonderful deal on an 11 day cruise from Rome to Seville.  I mean it was one of those opportunities you just couldn’t pass up – no not the 35 years with Laurent, well okay that but I’m talking about the cruise here.    And that was the kernel of the trip – 11 days on the Azamara Quest; but of course since it started in Rome and I hadn’t been back in two years it only made sense to arrive a few days early – get over jet lag, stop of in a few familiar places, see a few exhibitions and, more importantly, see as many of our dear friends as we can.  And it turns out the last direct flight from Montreal to Rome was scheduled for today.  So the trip was extended to 17 days.

Sidd, ignoring the bad weather on the Greyhound trip from Ottawa to Dorval.

The cruise ends in Seville – and though we had spent time in Madrid and Barcelona, Andalusia has been sadly missing from our travel diaries.  And while we're in that area it would be criminal to miss Granada and the Alhambra.  Make that 23 days!

Sidd and food - something new - well he's never eaten at Dorval Airport.

Getting back to Canada was the next goal and if you’re travelling on airline passes the most frequently flights are out of London.  How to get to London from Granada – well the Man in Seat61 suggested train – and I’m a sucker for trains.  Particularly when its an overnight hotel train where you have a dining car and a comfortable cabin – which would get us to Paris.  These days with the Eurostar it’s only a hop skip and a jump to London and a short visit with friends before heading back to the New World.  Ergo 26 days – god and the Air Canada flight loads willing.

So here we are waiting for the Air Transat plane to board after a bus ride from Ottawa – that’s two modes off the list.   Though I can’t promise that I’ll be recording our every move or Sidd’s every adventure I cover as much as I can – just to prove that I can still clog up the net with blogging.

October 26 - 1861:  The Pony Express officially ceases operations.

Happy Anniversary P.

I know you will understand why I've used Josephine Baker singing this song back in 1974 - five years before we met.



From P.

23 novembre - nostro trentunesimo anniversario

Trente Anni Fa

That, my friends, is Italian for 30 years ago - and here we are today celebrating in Arachova on Mont Parnassus in Greece. Who would have thought that one drink would have lead to all this. The past 30 years have been many things but the one thing they have never been is dull.

When I met Laurent in November of 1978 he was in his last year at University and our first trip together was to celebrate his graduation - London in 1979. We saw the sights, went to the theatre and, with our dear friend Ryan, went to the opera at Glyndebourne in tuxedoed splendor. Little did I know that was just the start of our wanderings around the world.

When Laurent joined the foreign service in 1983 we knew that it would mean living apart but we decided that because I worked for an airline we could handle it. And handle it we did for almost half of those 30 - I've always wondered out loud if maybe that's why its lasted that long. First it was Mexico City, then Cairo, next came Chicago followed by Amman, Warsaw, Beijing and now Rome. There were periods back home in Ottawa every couple of years and then it would be back to commuting.

It hasn't always been easy for either one of us. Many times birthdays and anniversaries have been celebrated apart - though never Christmas; sometimes we were not there to support each other in times of family deaths or times of illness; back before computers communication could often be difficult because of cost and time zones; and each time we started living together again there were periods of adjustment - which became harder as we both grew older. And there were times when we both wondered how it was all going to turn out. But it looks like it has and we'll keep each other for another year.

At diner tonight - being Greece there will be roast lamb I would think - we'll raise a glass to the past thirty years to all the places we've been, people we've come to know and love, things we've gone through and hope we're granted a few more years of the same.

Happy Anniversary P. from P.

23 novembre - San Colombano

The Navel of the World!

That's where we going for our 30th anniversary - who says we don't know how to celebrate in style???

Okay I should clarify - Laurent is scheduled to work in Athens the last week of November. Because our anniversary is the weekend before we decided to leave a few days early and celebrate in Greece. Yeah so what's that got to do with navels? you ask. We're going to head up to Arachova, a charming hillside town on Mont Parnassus near Delphi.

Clear now? No?

Okay, well according to the ancient Greeks, Zeus sent two sacred eagles from the ends of the earth to find the centre of the world. The eagles met over Delphi and it was declared the omphalos or "navel of the world."


View Larger Map

With the help of my friend Yannis we found Xenonas Iresioni, a lovely guest house in Arachova. We've booked a room with a fireplace because by November there should be snow on the ground and skiing season will have started. Skiing in Greece? Yes it appears that Arachova is a popular ski destination for upwardly mobile - and mobile equipped - young Athenians. According to my friend Parsi we can expect to see all the smart set with their SUVs converging on the ski slopes. That really won't bother us as neither one of us skis - but they'd better leave room at the bar cause we both can do apres-ski very well thank you!

09 ottobre - San Donnino di Fidenza

Paper - II

First off, many thanks to all our friends who sent e-mails and left comments – mille grazie carini!

We hadn’t planned anything special for our anniversary, though we were married last year we’ve been together since 1978 so the big celebration will be for our 30th on November 23. However as always here in Rome, serendipity stepped in: our friends Robert and Walter gave us a call to ask what we were doing. They are back in town between a business trip to London and a vacation trip to Budapest and this would be our only chance to see them until mid-August. So dinner was proposed and gladly accepted.

We headed downtown to meet them at one of their favourite Enotecha (wine bar/store) Il Vinaietto di Marco e Giancarlo in the Largo Argentino area. As we approached the shop a sudden yelp that could only come from a stepped on daschie (we use to hear that sound occasionally) assailed our ears. “Oh that’s Freda, you’ll meet her,” Walter said. And meet Freda we did. She’s not quite a foot tall, has a lovely shiny black coat and soulful black eyes that just tell you that no one has ever petted or looked after her in her life - I swear daschies learn that look at their mother's teats. She owns the place and Giancarlo and Marco run it for her comfort and entertainment. Patrizia, a full-figured Mexican lady, is nominally Freda’s owner, as if a daschie could ever be owned!

The shop itself is a hole-in-the-wall that has recently been extended through to the hole-in-the-wall next door. No elaborate displays of gilded grapes and coloured pastas - just shelves of wines, a stand up bar and a few high bistro tables with stools. Robert first went there almost 20 years ago so its been a neighbourhood fixture for a good while. Clients are mostly locals and everything was done with an air of jovial familiarity. As bottles are emptied they are pitched, with a resounding tinkle, into large bin at the end of the bar. A few friends stood joking at the bar, people wandered in for a refill and then back out onto the street to enjoy their wine and a cigarette. Yes smoking is forbidden in Italian restaurants and bars - which is why terraces are so popular. In one corner a besandeled gentleman sat on a step-stool enjoying a glass of red while he read his novel - another gentleman came in to have two plastic bottles filled with wine obviously intended for the home dinner table. It was friendly, quirky and fun. And the wine - yes I fall off the wagon on occasion and this was an occasion - was a pleasant white from Sardegna.

After a few more tummy rubs for a poor neglected Freda, we headed off to a traditional Roman trattoria where Robert and Walter have been eating for some time. Da Sergio alle Grotte is just off Campo di Fiori but again is aimed at locals in the area. A mixed antipasti platter, a shared linguine with mushrooms, veal steak with salad and a black current tart made for a more than reasonable anniversary dinner.

As we strolled back into the Largo to catch our bus we passed a gelateria advertising Mint and Celery gelato - though the combination was intriguing none of us were up to gelato at this point. Guess it means a trip back to see Freda and try that gelato.

22 lulgio - Santa Maria Magdelena

Paper

According to the table of Anniversaries the first year is Paper. Which means that sometime today I should be giving Laurent something in paper - we work in the same office so I'm just wondering if a file would count????

Happy Anniversary

21 lulgio - San Prassede

100 Years to the Day

On February 16, 1908 the Orchestra Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (in those days is was the Reale Accademia di Santa Cecilia) played its first concert at the long vanished Anfiteatro Corea. It was a Sunday afternoon and Guiseppe Martucci conducted a very mixed programme:

Rossini - The Siege of Corinth Overture
Beethoven - Symphony #3 - Eroica
Mozart - Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Wagner - Siegfried Forest Murmurs and Tannhauser Overture

On Saturday - 100 years to the day - Antonio Pappano led the current orchestra in the same programme in the stunning Salle Santa Cecilia of the Parco del Musica.

Pappano has a way with Rossini - as witness his Guillaume Tell earlier in the season - so The Siege of Corinth Overture had a certain sparkle and panache. Sadly that didn't carry over to a flabby performance of the Beethoven - the title of the second movement "Funeral March" was taken to literally for my taste and the rest was all climaxes and crescendo and little else. It doesn't give me great hope for the 9th in April. After the intermission the remarkable string section gave a light and pleasant reading of the Mozart favorite. Then the full orchestra and Pappano let lose with the Wagner. The Forest Murmurs was well judged and the wind section outdid themselves. For the Tannhauser Overture even the normally wayward French Horns seemed to be in total agreement with their conductor and his interpretation. It was a real dual between Christian and Pagan love - the core of Wagner's opera. The recurring Pilgrims Chorus, which can often have a sanctimonious heaviness to it, was uplifting, at times even joyous. And the Venusberg music had an insinuating sensuality about it. It was a very Italian reading and the most satisfying music of the evening.


The concert was given in the presence of Giorgio Napolitano, the much respected President of Italy and this led to a little scene that could only have happened here.

As he entered most of the audience stood and applauded. The woman next to me - of a "certain" age, spun sugar blond hair, heavy make-up and a slight smell of mothballs and body odor to her black wool dress - refused to stand, loudly proclaiming that he should do something about the disgraceful garbage strike in Naples. The woman behind sharply rebuked her for bad manners and the lady in front of her demanded to know what she thought the poor President could do about it - go and pick up the garbage himself? She retorted that she had paid for her ticket and when he started paying for his she'd stand for him. Fortunately the orchestra broke into the National Anthem at this point.

As the stirring - and very operatic - Fratelli d'Italia played I gave a sigh of recognition - Canadians aren't the only ones who don't know all the words to their National Anthem or make half-hearted stabs at singing it. I would dare say a good half the audience didn't know the words and those that did mumbled them self-consciously. It was just like being back home.

I noticed that President Napolitano seemed to be singing heartily, the Lady beside me mumbled!

19 febbraio - San Mansueto

Happy Anniversary

24 novembre - Santa Flora