The Faithful of the Faithful

Today (Tuesday) while passing the cash at a great little restaurant in Sorrento (Il Pozzo – one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had!) a very shaggy and very friendly dog peaked his head around the corner of the counter. I said hello and gave him a scratch; the cashier immediately apologized but I assured her it was more than okay and that I wished I could rub my twos’ hairy little heads about now. I guess she was expecting the normal North American reaction of: Oh my god a dog in the restaurant Harry, where are the health authorities? Get the Purettes immediately!

Here of course if you go for pranzo, your morning coffee or shopping it’s not unusual to take the dog with you. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen dogs lying contentedly under a table, occasional looking up to get a table scrap or simply to stretch and see who else has arrived. Or sitting patiently at the counter while their owner had their cappucc and cornetti – maybe catching the odd flake scattered from errant lips that were expressing an opinion of world events and eating at the same time – both with the same gusto. Or dogs attached to the wall fixtures outside shops meant to secure even the strongest leash – most waiting patiently but occasionally giving a sharp bark just to remind their owner who was outside waiting patiently while they argued over the price of arugula!

However I was still surprised, and amused when I opened the window at our B and B on Friday morning and saw:

Obviously his human had gone in to hear an early mass for Ognisanti and buddy was waiting patiently. He remained that way for almost 20 minutes.

Finally mass was over and a stream of people left the church - he only moved to greet his owner with a wagging tail and a few barks.  Maybe asking if she felt better about things now? Or maybe just as a “move along its time for coffee and cornetti”.
November 4 - 1921: The Italian unknown soldier is buried in the Altare della Patria in Rome.

Osservazioni di Roma

Well its been two years since I wandered the streets of Rome and the past few days have been like many homecomings after a time away - much has stayed the same and much has changed.  Somethings for the better other things not so much.

Sidd, knowing how bad a flier I am, thought it would be a laugh to count down the "klicks" left during the trip.  Little bugger snickered every time we hit turbulence too!  He keeps that up and he will be traveling with the luggage not in Club Class!

• For over two years I would keep a medical appointment in Trastevere every Tuesday at 1400.  And every Tuesday at 1350 I would drop into a cafe-bar in Piazza Piscinula and have an espresso - it got to the point where Paolo the bar man would see me coming and start making my coffee.  On Sunday afternoon we sat on the wooden terrace there and Paolo came over - greeted me as if I had never left and brought me my espresso.  We exchanged pleasantries - he joked about the new waitress as being the love of his life and as I left we shook hands with the assurance that we would meet again.

Being a Nature Worshiper it was a bit difficult to explain to Sidd why there are so many churches in Roma - right outside our window was St Pascale Baylon.  Fortunately the church bells didn't disturb Sidd's sleep too much, nor did the midnight Jazz concerts at the cafe below us.

• The number 8 tram, which ran through Trastevere and ended at Largo Argentina has been extended down to Piazza Venezia.  A big improvement and makes getting into Centro so much easier from where we were.

After the church stuff it was even more difficult to explain the whole Kosher food schtick to Sidd; however he took one look at the roasted tomatoes and grilled chicken at Taverna del Ghetto and decided it was a good thing!

• Tropical Ice - our favourite Gelatoria - is still open and the wonderful fresh flavours are still being served up by the charmingly handsome owner.  And he remembered that I take my coppetta neat - no whipped cream.  The sad news is that he has sold the business and will be moving on to other things.   It seems to be a story that is repeating itself over and over again here.

Okay now this was a bit more to Sidd's taste - just some of the wonderful flavours at Tropical Ice.  And they were just as delicious as I remember them being - and with the intense taste that only natural ingredients bring to Marco's gelati.

• It looks like other businesses in our old neighbourhood have closed:  Stella Maris, so often our Friday night local, has been replaced by a pizza chain.  And where the Bifteka, a very good streak house, once stood is now a very large McDonald's.  A few other stores have disappeared as have several of the coffee shops - fortunately none have been replaced by Starbucks.

Sidd gets his first taste of water from one of Roma's famous Nasone or water fountains.  As they have done since Roman times they deliver cold, pure water to refresh the local populace.  Who would bother with the bottled tap water they sell in stores under fancy names when you can get this for free?

• There are more beggars on the streets and not just the regular crew of gypsies - though amongst the lame, the halt and the maimed most of the faces were familiar ones.  Older people here have seen their pensions cut and, in a repeat of something I recall from Poland in the late 1990s, some of them seem to have taken to begging.  Hunger has no pride.

Sidd admires the Mostra della Acqua Felice which I wrote about extensively a few years ago.  He noticed that though it was only cleaned three years ago, the exhaust from the traffic is starting to blacken the stone already. 

• Many of the restaurants in our old neighbourhood stood mostly empty on Monday at lunch time though I was happy to see that by Wednesday business had picked up at Checco e Lina, an old haunt of my friend Dario and I.  It was the fullest I had ever seen it at pranzo.  The food is still dependable solid cucina Romana and the service as welcoming as ever.

November 3 - 1868:  John Willis Menard was the first African American elected to the United States Congress. Because of an electoral challenge, he was never seated.

Buon Compleanno Roma

According to the accepted calculation my beloved Roma is 2765 years old today. Though the actual year is much disputed almost all traditions agree that the city was founded on April 21, the day dedicated to Pales, the goddess of shepherds.

Though the music is a bit overblown the images on this slideshow capture so much of what I grew to know and love, though only my own photos could capture what I love most about the city - the people I care about so deeply there.

Happy Birthday Rome - I'm sorry I can't be there for the party but you know I am there in my heart.

21 April - 1926: Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born at her maternal grandfather's London house: 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair.

Rome Prepares

There can be no doubt as to who is being celebrated this coming Sunday - though I must say that many of the photos seem to be of the period when his Parkinson's was becoming apparent which I find a bit odd. For some reason this side of the Piazza always seems to be deserted but believe me the crowds were there.

Now I know I said that I would not go anywhere near the country on the other side of the river during the carry-on over J2P2 but needs must sometimes makes us backtrack. I had promised a friend in Canada that I would send him a ticket for one of the concerts we will be missing when we head off to Sicily next month. He'll be here visiting and as he's a singer I knew he would enjoy hearing Benjamin Brittan's War Requiem.  However as I have often mentioned in past postings I am not all that confident of the good services of PosteItalia. So when I have something I want to reach its destination in a timely manner I head over to PopePost at the Holy See.

Though rain is being predicted for Sunday the chairs are already been set up in the Piazza for the Beatification.  This morning when I arrived at 1130 the line up to get into the Basilica was half way across the Piazza.  As the week progresses it will get worse.

Now any jaunt over to the country across the river means going through Centro which was a zoo and then to get to PopePost a trudge through Piazza San Pietro, which though it may look empty relatively empty is a nightmare to manoeuvre when you have a goal in mind.  Though the event is still four days away the Piazza was filled with eager groups of pilgrims, cruise boat tour groups, beaming nuns posing for pictures in front of the huge images of J2P2,  souvenir hucksters shilling your red hot Beatification t-shirts and tour guides offering to help the punters avoid the line up to get into the Basilica. Looking at the line I figured the wait was about 35-45 minutes to get through security.  But then in true fashion they only had two stations open!  I honestly haven't seen that much activity in the four years we've been here except maybe during Holy Week.

Red, ready and waiting for the thousands that are predicted for Sunday's event.  Interestingly all the services are provided not by the Vatican but by the Commune di Roma: security, sanitation, clean-up all paid for by the citizens of Roma.

I quickly got my stamp - having pushed through crowds at the Post Office - mailed my letter and escaped on the #62 bus back to Italy. I shall not pass that way again for a while!

28 aprile - San Luigi Maria Grignion de Montfort

Ho Visto*

*I saw

It was a gorgeous spring day here yesterday (the 24th)  - sunny and warm with early flowers out and trees budding. The perfect day for a stroll down to Villa Torlonia, our local park, to take a look at how much progress has been made on the restoration of the Teatro and the Moorish Kiosk. Work on the former will be completed in February 2010 (?????) and the later in March 20 - god in her wisdom only knows!

We were not the only ones who decided it was fine weather for a Thursday in the Park - a gaggle of grandmas with strollers, runners in teams and solo, courting couples (mind you a few of them looked like the courting stage had passed),a pack of dog walkers and elderly neighbourhood nabobs occupied the benches, walked the paths and dotted the lawns.

Progress - in the past this gentleman would no doubt have been reading his La Republica or Corriere dello Sport to catch up on the world and football.

A visit to the Non-Catholic Cemetery out by Pyramide on Wednesday led to a walk up the Aventine Hill and a look into the 5th century Basilica of Santa Sabina.  My friend Debra had mentioned a newly uncovered fresco in the porch and another visit to the simple grandeur of the mother church of  Dominicans in Rome is always a pleasure.  The baroque decorations have been stripped away to reveal the original mosaics, marble columns and wall panels and the high multi-panned selenite windows; the floors bear carved and mosaic tomb coverings of past worthies; and the great wooden door with its carved panels dating from 422-425 CE.

The doors (top) of Santa Sabina are from the 5th century and depict the scenes from the Bible including one of the first depictions of the crucifixion.  The mosaic gisant is one of the early Dominican abbots at the monastery attached to the mother church of the order.  The multi-panned windows are made of a semi-translucent form of gypsum. A keyhole in the porch wall allows a view (bottom) into the cloister of the monastery.

And next to it is the lovely Giardino degli Aranci (Orange Garden), an neighbourhood park in one of the greenest area of the city. From the belvedere on the crest of the cliff overlooking the Tiber there is an incredible view of Rome from the Quirinale to the Janiculum Hills.

A left click will enlarge this panoramic photo of Rome from the Quirinale Hill to the beginning of the Parco Doria Pamphilj on the Janiculum Hill.

25 marzo -L'annunciazione del Signore

Auguri e Buona Festa!!!!!!!

Though today is traditionally a day to wear green, here in Italy its Green, White and Red that are predominating. On March 17, 1861 Victor Emmanuel II, until then King of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia, was crowned as King of a United Italy and it has been chosen as the date to officially celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Unification. Everything is closed but the city will be abuzz with events - concerts, parades, exhibitions and fireworks.

Il Risorgimento, or "The Resurgence" to unify Italy had begun in the early 19th century and though Victor Emmanuel was to become King in 1861, the country was not truly united until the defeat of Pope Pius IX's troops on September 20, 1870 at Porta Pia. And even then historically it was not a fait accompli until after World War I.

A Staffordshire pottery lid commemorating the meeting of Victor Emmanuel II and Garibaldi at Teano on October 26, 1860 where the revolutionary leader greeted Victor Emmanuel as King of Italy. On November 7 of that year the two men road into Napoli side by side.

Until 1861 the country had been a collection of City States, Kingdoms, Dukedoms, Republics and Territories led by an ever changing group of dynastic families. Borders and alliances were fluid depending on who was in and who was out. Many regions were under the domination of foreign powers who brutally suppressed any murmurs of nationalism. But the carbonari (coal burners), groups of like-minded revolutionists, began to cause unrest in 1820. The fighting was to reach a peak in 1848-49 when revolutions broke out throughout the peninsula and again in 1859. People like Mazzini, Garibaldi, Cavour and Victor Emmanuel himself were to play the major roles in the combat - on the battlefield and in the political backrooms - to eventual bring together the scattered Peninsula into the country we know today as Italy.

The decisive battle on September 20, 1870 at Porta Pia where after a three hour bombardment the walls of Rome were breached and the Bersaglieri entered the city. Pius IX knew he was defeated but had forced his troops to put up a fight at the needless cost of 72 lives.

If ever there was a composer associated with il Risorgimento it would be Giuseppe Verdi, whose works are often sited as engendering fierce nationalistic feelings in the hearts of the hearers. His largely forgotten La Battaglia di Legano - which will be presented here in May - was a wild success with its boldly patriotic story and music. Its opening night audience demanded an encore of the entire last act and one particularly enthusiastic officer in the audience tried to jump on stage to join the battle between the Italians and Germans. This arousing of patriotic furor was particularly true of the choruses from many of the early works: Patria Oppressa - the cry of the Scottish exiles for their homeland in Macbeth; the despairing O signore, dal tetto natio sung by the pilgrims in I Lombardi; the triumphant hymn Cara patria già madre e reina, a call to found a new nation in Attila. All express the longing of a people for a homeland of their own but perhaps the one that expresses that feeling the most deeply is also the most famous: Va pensiero from his Nabucco.

My friend Opera Chic writes about the extraordinary happenings this week at the prima of the celebratory production of Nabucco at the Teatro dell'Opera here in Roma. The entire audience joined Riccardo Muti and the forces of the Opera in singing an encore of what many consider the "unofficial" national anthem of the United Italy. She also posted a wonderful performance, again led by Muti, from 1986 when the audience demanded an encore and got it! Truly breathtaking.

But as a tribute I thought I would post - or rather repost - a video I made two years ago at the Parco della Musica here in Roma. It was a Sunday morning performance by the Carabinieri Band with the chorus of the Academia Santa Cecilia styled after band concerts of the late 1800s and it ended with Verdi's chorus. The week before 6 young Italian soldiers had died in Afghanistan and the concert was dedicated to their memory which gave it an added poignancy. Unbidden that day many people in the audience joined in that. The performance is a bit rough and the video even rougher but for me it speaks as eloquently as any performance of a longing for nationhood and love of homeland.

To all my Italian friends and to my adopted country for the past four years I wish "Auguri" and a future, even in these hard times, as glorious as your past.

17 marzo -San Patrizio d'Irlanda

Great Artist - Bad Citizen

Not so long ago his paintings could be had for a song - and a dance too I would think - but now Caravaggio is among the hottest painters in the world.   It seems every time I turn around in Rome there's another poster advertising another Caravaggio Exhibition.  Last year we had the big blockbuster at the Scuderie del Quirinale - people were lining up for 4 to 5 hours in the hot sun to get in - you'll notice there was no first person in the statement.   Then we had La Notte di Caravaggio on July 18 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of his death - notice the use of the first person for that event.  Yes I did the rounds of two of the three churches that boast Caravaggios and lined up for three hours to get into the Villa Borghese then tromped home at four in the morning which for the Master, if tales that are currently being told are true, would have been early.

Now the Archivo di Stato di Roma (Archives of the City of Rome) have mounted an exhibition that reveal some of the dire and dirty deeds surrounding Michel(I'm no Angelo) da Caravaggio.  Deeds  that heretofore had only been whispered about in dark alleyways and smokey taverns.  Documents from the archives detail a criminal dossier that would make lesser men blush.  Here's the short list of his police file:

• May 4 1598: Arrested at 2- 3am near Piazza Navona, for carrying a sword without a permit
• November 19 1600: Sued for beating a man with a stick and tearing his cape with a sword at 3am on Via della Scrofa
• October 2 1601: A man accuses Caravaggio and friends of insulting him and attacking him with a sword near the Piazza Campo Marzio
• April 24 1604: Waiter complains of assault after serving artichokes at an inn on the Via Maddalena
• October 19 1604: Arrested for throwing stones at policemen near Via dei Greci and Via del Babuino
• May 28 1605: Arrested for carrying a sword and dagger without a permit on Via del Corso
• July 29 1605: Vatican notary accuses Caravaggio of striking him from behind with a weapon
• May 28 1606: Caravaggio kills a man during a pitched battle in the Campo Marzio area

The good people over at the BBC have a great inter-active article on a few of the police files and documents on display at Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza.  He really was the bad boy of Renaissance art. 

18 febbraio - Santi Massimo, Claudio, Prepedigna, Alessandro e Cuzia

Ho Visto*

I seldom go into Centro during the evenings unless it is for a special event - dinner, opera etc - so a few weeks ago when I found myself going to Trastevere after dark I took a few "night" photos of an area that I pass through regularly during daylight hours.

The Ghetto is one of my favourite areas in the city - it is a touristy but retains its neighbourhood feeling. Once a walled in area where the gates were closed at sunset and opened again at sunrise it is now a quartiere where things are constantly happening.  And as the brochure for the Museum in the Great Synagogue says:  We've been here 3000 years - have we got stories!


View Larger Map

My normal walk takes me from Largo Argentino - where Julius Cesar was assassinated - through  Piazza Mattei to Portico d'Ottavia by way of Via dell Reginella passed San Grigorio and across the Ponte Fabricio - built in 62 BC and still used today - over the Isola Tiberina and across the younger - 1 BC - Ponte Cestio and on to Trastevere. 

The Fontana delle Tartarughe stands in the Piazza Mattei at what was once one of the gates to the Ghetto.  It was recently restored and a water purification system installed - the high calcium content of the water that flows through the fountains of the city means that unless work is being constantly done marble becomes stained and drains clogged.

Via della Reginella is the only street that is left from the original Ghetto - most of the area was torn down or reconstructed when Rome ceased to be a Papal State. Once a street of overcrowded tenement homes it now houses some interesting art galleries and shops;  though thank heaven it still has a local flavour and hasn't been too "Disneyfied".

Portico d'Ottavia was originally built in 146 BC by Quinto Cecilio Metello but rebuilt by Augustus to honour his sister Ottavia - the ex-wife of Marcus Antonius - in 23 BC.  It was the site of temples to both Juno and Jove as well as a Greek and a Latin library.  Today the tiny church of Sant'Angelo di Pescheria stands where one of the temples once was.  Before the area became the cramped living quarters for Rome's Jews it was the fish market. To the far right is one of the few remaining Medieval buildings in the area.  

After Pope Paul IV herded Roman Jews into the Ghetto in 1555 San Grigorio a Ponte Quattro became the focus of some of the draconian laws that governed life in the Ghetto.  Jews were forced to attend mass and listen to hectoring sermons expounding the errors of their ways on their Sabbath - its location just outside one of the main gates to the enclave made it the perfect location for these attempts at forced conversion.  

San Bartolomeo all'Isola sits at one end of Isola Tiberina in the middle of the Tiber, a hospital at the other. The site of a temple to Aesculapius with a sacred snake from Epidarus the Isola has been a "hospital" island since ancient Roman times.

This photo was taken on a slightly earlier evening when the Tiber had risen because of constant rains. It had overflowed the first embankment and all of the first level around the Isola was underwater. Before the embankment was built in the late 1800s floods were a common occurrence both on the Isola and on both sides of the river.

 

The lights of Trastevere beckoning across the Tiber from the Ponte Cestio and by this time the river level had fallen considerably.

This laurel wreath had been hanging at a memorial to the deportation of the Roman Jews in Largo 16 Ottobre 1943 for a year or more - finally someone saw fit to take it down.

Once a week I take this little stroll through history and at night it take on a  - dare I use the term - magical quality and history seems to loom  even more present.

09 febbraio - San Niceforo di Antiochia

Gods, Guns and Butterfly Wings

It is often the unexpected that gives delight and proves "worth the detour" as Michelin so nicely puts it. The main entrance to the Palazzo delle Esposizioni has been turned into a replica of the steps of a temple in the mysterious city of Teotihuacan and the La città degli Dei exhibition advertised throughout the city. Arranged in collaboration with the Mexican government it is the major attraction of three exhibits at the Palazzo celebrating two major events in the history of Mexico: the 200th anniversary of the fight of Independence and the 100th of the beginning of the Revolution.

Città is indeed a major display of archaeological items from the once great city-state that existed 45 kms north of what is now Mexico City. Many of the items come from the famous Museo Nacional de Antropologia as well other Mexican and International collections. However I found it less of interest than the two exhibits that surrounded it. If I sound a little jaded it is just that I have climbed the Pyramid of the Moon and walked the Avenue of the Dead on at least 14 occasions and spent many hours at the Museo Nacional during our time in the DF. Not that there were not new wonders to see or remarkable items to become reacquainted with but more that familiarity had perhaps dulled my sense of awe at what was a beautifully displayed group of artifacts. As an interesting little side bar: most of the display cabinets were mounted on boxes of sandy earth much like what you find yourself walking in on a visit to the actual site. A clever touch on the part of the exhibition designers.

One of the iconic photographs of the Mexican Revolution - Soldaderas aboard a train - they served as camp followers (nursing, feeding, providing sexual companionship) but would also engage in battle when required.

The second floor houses what I found to be the more interesting of the two major exhibitions: Mexico: Immagini di una Rivoluzione*. 179 black and white photographs trace the ten bloody years (1910-1920) of the Revolution. Though some of the photos are posed there are a goodly number of scenes on the actual battlefields which are remarkable considering the equipment of the time. Most of the key players of the Revolution - Diaz, Zapata, Madero, Pancho Villa (left) - are captured on gelatin and glass plate but so are the ordinary players in the conflict. Many of the photos are brutal - mangled bodies, the moment of execution, hospital wards, hanged corpses held up by their captors for the camera - others are almost laughable such as a group of society ladies posing with rifles and a Revolutionary commander. But all of them reveal aspects of the conflict and the struggle to forge a new Mexico. And kudos to John Mraz (Universidad Autónoma di Puebla) and his curatorial team for their well thought-out theme-sections and explanations placing the photos in both their social, technical and historical context.

The third exhibit came as a happy surprise. Our friend Joe, who is a big fan of modern art, mentioned it but I, having been exposed to quite a few tedious examples during our time in Poland, tend to be wary of "installations". Carlos Amorales: Remix is the Mexican artist's first show in Italy and is made up of five pieces based on his use of what he calls an Archivo líquido - or an archive of digital photos he has taken, downloaded or scanned. He works with this archive to create drawings, slides, videos, collages, paintings, sculptures and installations. Often his work appears only as enormous groupings of black silhouettes on white grounds. Sometimes they can seem threatening, at others joyful or again just perplexing. The five installations overlap and it is can be difficult to see where one begins and the other ends.

Drifting Star is a gigantic mobile of 751 black Plexiglas fragments suspended in the central exhibition area. Wandering amongst them is a rather dazzling experience - a bit like being lost in a euphoric moment in Star Wars.

And dazzling would be the word for this swam of butterflies in Black Cloud. Amorales has created 25,000 paper silhouettes of 30 different types of butterflies that swarm over walls and ceilings. I swear you can almost hear the flapping of their wings - I was reminded of the yearly Butterfly Migration from Canada and the U.S. to Michoacan and Mexico states.

Again an unexpected delight and like the Photography exhibit definitely more than "worth the detour".

And a more than satisfactory way to break up the gallery strolling was the great buffet lunch - gods before, guns and butterflies after - at the Palazzo's Colonna Restaurant. An excellent choice of dishes, a good selection of wines and attentive service by a young and friendly staff. The price for the buffet or the daily menu is reasonable and the vaulted glass setting isn't too shabby either.

*For some reason this exhibit ends on January 9th while the rest are in place until the end of February??? Strano, as we say, molto strano!

05 gennaio - San Telesforo

A Procession of Presepe

This interesting logo was on the information plaques and behind the presepe at Piazza Vittorio Emanuele. I think its a lovely piece of graphic art in itself.

I have often posted comments and photos of the presepe that appear in churches, homes and public spaces here at Christmastide. They range from the antique bejewelled panoramas of the various Italian courts to a simple, made in China, plastic representation of the Madonna, Joseph and Child on a mound of celluloid hay. Most churches have one - though on a walk through Santa Maria Maggoire yesterday none was to be found but the little Basilica of Santa Prudenziana nearby made up for it by having seven. Most countries with Christian traditions have a "national" church in Roma and in the case of Santa Prudenziana it is the national church of the Philippines. As well as their parish presepe they had a display of crèches made by various groups that operate out of the parish.

Frankly it was a little difficult to make out the Holy Family amongst all the glitz and glitter on the Parish presepe at the front of the church but they are there.

This little gem of a church can be easily overlooked as its courtyard and entrance are about 30 feet below the current street level. In fact if it had not been for our friend Marie-Paule drawing our attention to the 14th century bell tower we would have passed it by. It is considered the oldest place of Christian worship in Roma and was the residence of the Pope until Constantine offered the Palazzo Laterano as the official Papal residence. I plan to make another visit and post a bit more - including some photos of the wonderful 4th century mosaics that are amongst the oldest examples in the city of that art form using Christian symbols.


I'm not sure if these home-made presepe were part of a contest or just an attempt by various groups in the parish to interrupted the season in their own fashion. I rather like the bubble headed nativity at the bottom of this trio.



The probability is high that these crèches are closer to what San Fransisco had in mind when he instituted the practice with a living nativity in 1223. Myself I must admit I have a weakness for the elaborate displays seen in many of the other churches though there is a devotional tone to these that is touching.

Further down the road at Piazza Vittorio, in an area known for its ethnic markets and diversity, a recent tradition has been to invite a local artist to create a presepe in the spirit of the quartiere.

In "Scacco Natale" (The Nativity of Chessmen) sculpture Leandro Lottici has created five chess pieces in polished teak to represent the central figures of the Nativity: Mary (Queen), Joseph (King), Ox and Ass (Knights) and the Christ Child (Pawn). Its a simple and original concept and I find it rather intriguing that the Pawn, the lowest piece on the board, has been chosen to represent Jesus. And as a side bar this presepe is located in an highly travelled and very public place but remains unmolested or unscared by graffiti - an interesting comment of the people of this city.

In early January I'll be doing a walk with historian Olivia Ercoli and hope to be able to have a few photos of the more traditional presepe on display over Christmastide.

29 decembre - San Tommaso Becket