…viewed from my East facing studio window is something I anticipate every morning during the approximate two and a half hours from the time I am rising at around 5:00 and the time that the lazy late Roman sun starts getting up – during which I might have completed coffee infusion by 5:20, news surfing ..
Tag : Rome
…or nettles, are to be found all over the streets of Rome, coming up from any unattended space between stones, they sting (a fact I am sure every Roman child learns early on with a warning from a parent – since it is the first thing that all of my Italian friends say about them: ..
…were the impromptu focus of the day as I discovered the great abundance of gorgeous moss (the most exotic sort of vegetation to the eyes of an eleven year Angeleno), in all shades of green, growing all over everything during my daily exploratory walk to see what’s up in the back garden and upon returning ..
…greeted me as I was passing through Michelangelo‘s Piazza del Campidoglio this morning – Castor and Pollux, or Dioskouroi, twin cavalieri son..
…is one of the best Italian street fashions around these days (since much of what we see the Romans wearing is so conservative, subtle, elegant, restrained, and even conformist – except when they are out jogging and exercising in one of the many treasured private-villa-estates-turned-public-parks, like Villa Doria Pamphilj or Villa Borghese, in which case ..
…or Vicia faba, are keeping my rooftop garden spring-like in the middle of a Roman winter – and since I have never grown them before, it is all new to me – like the fact that they are often used as a cover crop, excel at fixing nitrogen in the soil, grow to become 2-6 ..
…will present the series of ink on paper portraits he has been working on for the past four months while in residence at the American Academy in Rome (my neighbor down the hall on the top floor) of various members of the A.A.R. community – displayed in a grid of frames in the bar along ..
…in Monti (my new favorite neighborhood of Rome – with the most personal little clothing stores in town – which I was seeking out today since it seems that I have been wearing a weeks worth of clothes for the past five months – including Super, where I purchased my first pair of corduroys in ..
…and plants hanging out of a pair of oval portals that I stumbled upon during an all-afternoon bike-ride were the highlights of a day that ended with a weird sort of existential-crisisy sort of foggy feeling about what I’m doing, where I’m headed, and what it’s all ab..
…feels like coming home now (with Alitalia yesterday afternoon) – approaching from the north over fields and farms of Lazio is especially welcoming – making me want to play out my fantasies of a future urban/rural-commune/village-life next door to th..
…the Rome-based Italian artist (b. 1955) who is admired by all of my Italian artist friends, has an audio piece which I encountered today in a hallway gallery at MAXXI (making the most of the much appreciated Spring-like weather in Rome, I arrived by bicycle via the path along the Tiber River embankment – also ..
…is good, they are devouring my kitchen scraps (about 3 pounds a week), turning it into sweet smelling fertile black-gold worm casting compost, and reproducing like crazy (lots of little babies) – all from the comfort of their plastic bin which feels like the essential heart of the Roman Rooftop Homestead, the highlight of each ..
…is the surprising legacy of the potato plants that were cut down by the one night of frost up on the roof last week – and as I am back in the happy business of gardening in the sun, moving dirt, emptying the pots of ill-fated wild transplants, moving salad starts into bigger flats, transplanting ..
…the ancient burial pyramid of Caius Cestius built circa 8-12BC originally located in the open countryside and later integrated into the expanded Roman fortifications of the Aurelian Walls ensuring is preservation through the ages – is what I was biking around today, taking advantage of the warm sun and blue sky, and what a cool, ..
…is the hidden public park just around the corner which I have escaped to this morning – with sun shining and flu waning – named for the villa at it’s center, originally established in 1653 by Cardinal Antonio Barberini as a farm estate – which was then ultimately given to Benito Musolini with the proviso ..
…after 5 days in bed and now the sun is g..
…is just below me, on Gianicolo hill, with a commanding view of the city, made with stone and marble taken from the ancient Forum of Nerva and granite columns from the original St. Peter’s Basilica, commissioned by Pope Paolo V Borghese (1605-1621), marking the terminus of the Roman aqueduct Acqua Traiana and still receiving it’s ..
…for the Roman Rooftop Homestead plants – returning from their warm holiday retreat in my makeshift window greenhouse – now that this city has returned to it’s Mediterranean-climate senses with night time temperatures back above..
…which I just bought on Clivo Portuense the street with all of the bicycle/moped shops by Porta Portese – now that the rains have stopped – and already it has totally changed the way I experience the city, having always been on foot until now – very exciting: night-time rides around the colosseum, big circles ..
…has been created in my East studio window this morning, providing a new winter retreat for my rooftop plant refugees as sub-freezing temperatures arrive in Rome evidenced by the ice forming in the Academy fountain out in the courtyard below….and hey, it just started to snow (which is only supposed to happen every 20 years?), ..
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