Un Giorno Del Vino E Delle Rose! (A Day Of Wine And Roses!)

This was an excellent day.  After my morning run in Villa Borghese and my meeting with Antonio to go over issues relating to the apartment, I went to meet Paola for my language lesson.

As an aside, I have not had much progress with my Italian.  I'd actually call it a "regress" -- I knew way more in March when I arrived.  The problem has been two-fold.  For one thing, I've been doing too much travel.  There have been weeks and weeks when I am not here at all.  (And I will soon go to New York -- for Sam's Bar Mitzvah Round 2 -- and to Istanbul.)  On top of that, it turns out that you truly can get by here on inglese; almost all Romans speak pretty good-to-excellent inglese.  Given these conditions, I've decided that -- for me -- it's more important to spend time outside exploring Roma and less time studying Italian.  That's just my view; others likely see it differently.

This doesn't mean I've given up entirely.  I still meet with Paola from time-to-time, and I enjoy it.  But, our sessions have evolved to the point where we spend as much time with her answering my questions about Italian culture and politics as we do on language expressly.  Even better, now that spring has sprung, we often pick an interesting spot at which to meet, and we hold the lesson outside.  Today was a prime example.

Paola and I met at Il Roseto.  This is a public garden in Rome right near the Circo Maximo.  The gardens showcase roses, and this is the height of the season.  There was actually a contest held a couple of weeks ago amongst roses from throughout the world that are planted here, and the roses are still on display (although, to be honest, they are starting to wilt a little).  It was a delightful spot to sit for an hour or so, and to discuss Italian cinema and politics -- oh, and to practice a few paragraphs of Italian.

Your blogger

There was an Indian wedding ceremony going on.  

The evening was splendid too.  I met up with a couple of friends for vino and some aperitivo in a cute wine bar near their Monti digs.  They are the nicest couple around and it was so nice to chat and catch up.

Wine and roses and some good friends.  The recipe for a pretty damn good day.

*     *     *     *     *

Post-script:  One of my favorite things about this city is that, if you keep your eyes open, you can constantly run into interesting history that goes beyond the major sites.  For instance, while Paola and I were strolling around Il Roseto, a stone tablet with Hebrew writing on it caught my eye.  And then I saw another one 10 minutes later.  Pictures below.

Note the little pebbles on top.  There were pebbles on top of the other one too, but my picture cut them off.  

It turns out that one of the Popes had these rose gardens built on top of what was an old Jewish cemetery.  A big sign written in Italian, English, and Hebrew explained a bit about the history, and about how the land on which the gardens were built was a Jewish cemetery for c. 250 years.  Let's just say that the government did not totally respect Jewish burial customs and Judaic law when constructing the gardens.  Many corpses were not identified or moved, and many gravestones were destroyed.

At least now there are plaques around Il Roseto that commemorate the old cemetery.  In accordance with Jewish custom, some visitors place little pebbles on top of the stone plaques.  (See above.)