Roman Remains

This past weekend Naomi and I went to Rome! The weekend was a wonderful whirlwind of site seeing, art appreciating, eating, and spending time with old and new friends.

Naomi met me at the museum after work and we walked to S. Lucia train station where we embarked on our four hour journey, with nothing more than a change of clothes, a picnic of supermarket snacks, oh and a money belt, my prized possession on this trip! The train undoubtedly turned out to be the most relaxing segment of our 60-hour journey.

We arrived in Rome just before midnight and Shuki, another lifelong friend and member of the 900 West End Avenue clan, picked us up from the train station and brought us back to his apartment. (Shuki is currently studying abroad in Rome and spent a week here with me in Venice just before heading there.)

We dropped our bags at Shuki’s place and went out for late night drinks, however by the time we got to the bars everything was closing, so Shuki took us to the Pantheon, which was a surreal way to be welcomed to Rome.

Unfortunately, it ended up taking us about two hours to get back to Shuki’s place as there seemed to be a problem with the busses. After over an hour and a half of walking, putting us at about 3:30 AM, thankfully Naomi took it upon herself to hail us a cab, which we took back to Shuki’s.

Just after our return to Shuki’s, one of his belligerently drunk roommates arrived on the scene crying hysterically because he had been mugged while he was sitting outside of a club puking. We spent the following two hours comforting Shuki’s roommate who was naturally quite shaken.

At 5:00 AM, as we were getting into bed, another belligerent roommate gracelessly stumbled into the apartment after having been lost roaming the streets for nearly three hours. He proceeded to jolt everyone in the house as he yelled about having lost some 50-euro worth of marijuana he had just purchased; ultimately the drugs turned up in his pocket.

Just past 6:00 AM, the house quieted down, and in a state of extreme gratitude that I am no longer in college having to deal with these sorts of issues on a regular basis, I was finally able to go to sleep.

That brings us to Rome day #1. Despite the rain, (which persisted throughout our entire visit,) we visited the Coliseum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish steps, and every gelato spot along the way. (If you are ever in Rome you must go to a gelato place called San Crispino, where I had the most outrageously delicious fig & walnut gelato). While I’m generally not a sucker for architecture, I must say that I was in complete awe as we approached the Coliseum, so much so that I nearly burst into tears upon stepping into the site. It is utterly amazing to me that over 1,000 years ago people were able to build such a massive structure, and that the structure still exists for us to enjoy today!

After our day full of site seeing, Shuki went home to do some work and Naomi and I sat at a cheesy restaurant in front of the Pantheon and decompressed over some wine and then had dinner at a cute “mozzarella bar” called Obikia, (which apparently also exists in NYC).

The next stop on our journey was Giulia’s house! Giulia is a native Roman who has lived in NYC for nearly 15 years, however her father and his girlfriend still live in Rome, and her mother and step-father, (who she lives with in New York,) still own an apartment in Rome as her mother, Fiamma, is a arts correspondent for a Roman daily paper, and her step-father, Sandro, the owner of a fabulous contemporary art gallery called Il Gabbiano, (meaning the seagull, which is an allusion to Sandro’s hometown by the sea, as well as his favorite Chekov play). You can check out Il Gabbiano’s website at www.galleriailgabbiano.com . It was worth going to Rome simply to be hosted by Giulia, Fiamma, and Sandro, three of the kindest, most hospitable, generous, and interesting people I have ever met.

A buffet of homemade snacks, including tarallucci, apple cake, quiche, and fresh fruit, awaited us upon our arrival at Giulia’s, however Naomi and I were so worn out that we literally passed out within minutes of arriving.

When we woke up the following day, Fiamma drove us all over Rome, to every museum, with the intention of giving us a grand tour of Rome’s art scene, however it turned out that nearly everything with exception to MACRO, one of Rome’s contemporary art museums, was closed. We had difficulties getting into MACRO’s galleries as there was a dancing woman blocking up the halls. Nonetheless we managed to enter one interesting gallery containing an exhibition called “Rome: We Were the Avant-Garde,” created by Graziella Lonardi Buontempo, an Italian cultural figurehead of the 70’s. Given that all of the show’s information was in Italian, I didn’t really understand much, however what I liked about the show was that much of the art was in drawers that the visitors had to open, making engaging with the art an physically interactive experience, adding a playful tone to the typically formal nature of museums.

After MACRO, Fiamma drove us to Il Gabbiano, which Sandro opened to us for a private tour and a picnic lunch from a delicious local spot that a tourist like myself would have never found without the help of tour guide Giulia. Sandro shared stories of how he got involved in the art dealing business – as a product of his father’s interest in art, Sandro has been interested in art from a young age; he never formally studied art, rather he happened upon the business in his early twenties and has pursued it since. Additionally, Sandro taught us about some of the artists he represents, such as Norman Bluhm and Emerson Woellffer, who are considered second-generation abstract expressionist artists. (Sandro also represents some huge names like Bochner, Motherwell, Rauschenberg, Rosenquist, Ruscha, Francis, Tapies, etc). Oh and Sandro represents Manolo Valdes, an artist whose work I fell in love with when it was exhibited in Bryant Park a few years ago – check out his bronze sculptures based on Velazquez’ Las Meninas, on the right.

From Il Gabbiano, Naomi and I went to the Vatican to see the Sistine Chapel, the reason we decided to take our trip to Rome in the first place. Unfortunately, in typical Italian style, the Sistine Chapel closes at 2:00 PM, meaning that Naomi and I missed our opportunity, perhaps a cosmic sign that we’ll have to venture back to Rome one day. So, Naomi and I went to see the Vatican, which was really the most ornate, elaborate, dare I say ostentatious, place I have ever seen.

After the Vatican we strolled the streets of Rome, stopping for snacks here and there, until about 9:00 PM when we returned to Giulia’s to pack up our backs for our overnight train home.

Giulia and her parents had dinner plans, but her mother cooked us a beautiful dinner, as a send off gift – talk about the most gracious hosts ever! Thinking that our train was at 11:00 PM, we requested that Giulia reserve a cab for us at 10:15 PM, but at about 9:50 we realized our train was actually at 10:30 and we needed to hustle to the train station. Luckily the cab was able to come early and we made it to the station on time, with a warning from the driver that Tiburtina, (the smaller train station in Rome,) is one of the most dangerous parts of the city.

Perhaps the driver was right, or perhaps Naomi and I were simply scared out of our wits and overreacting to our surroundings, however this is what we saw at the train station: drugs, crazies, homeless people, crying dogs, ill behaved men, no security or persons to ask which platform our train was arriving at, smokers, and gloom.

Our train pulled up to the station with hoards of men hanging out of the cloudy windows yelling and throwing beer cans! Everyone stampeded onto the train, leaving Naomi and I utterly confused, until we finally found our “bedroom,” which was guarded by a middle aged Russian lady who stood in the doorway in a prostitute like pose greeting us by shouting that both of the bottom bunk-beds were hers and if we didn’t understand that she would not let us into the room. Scared shitless we agreed to sleep on the top beds only to be further frightened by the fact that the woman touched, grabbed, fondled, and slapped Naomi’s butt several times, to demonstrate that she has a “Russian ass.”

Naomi and I figured we could either laugh or cry, so for about an hour we laughed until we finally feel asleep with contacts still in, teeth unbrushed, face unwashed, and pajamas not on, for fear of catching a disease in the abysmal train bathroom.

In the middle of the night we were awoken by the screeching halt of the train, which had hit something and smelled as if it was on fire. For an hour the train did not move, the conductors ran up and down in search of the cause, the men yelled, our roommate prayed aloud to saints of all sorts, and Naomi and I laughed some more…

At 6:00 AM, we finally arrived in Venice, and could not have been happier to be greeted by a beautiful sunrise, silence, and the ultimate sense of serenity and peace that is characteristic of this quaint 1,000 year old, utterly gorgeous city. I never thought I’d say this about a place besides NYC, but I felt so happy to be home.

1. Rome!

2. Naomi on the train.

3. Pantheon at night.

4. Naomi, Shuki, and me at the Coliseum.

5. Naomi and me in front of the Pantheon.

6. Giulia at MACRO.

7. Manolo Valdes' interpretation of Las Maninas, installing in front at Bryant Park.

8. Beautiful detail from the Vatican.

9. Venice!