Castilian Culture

In Spain, there is a New Year's tradition that as the last twelve seconds of the old year tick away, you must eat twelve grapes, one with each second. The success of this difficult task will present the victor with good luck for all twelve months. Television commercials advertise tins full of twelve grapes. I did not participate in this tradition, but I was in Italy for New Year's and the tradition does not exist there. I think this makes me exempt.

On the Thursday before classes started again I went to Madrid and visited the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, one of Madrid's three major art museums. While the Prado focuses on art from the Renaissance to the 19th century and Reina Sofia, on modern art, the Thyssen has an interesting layout which starts on the fourth floor. The entire museum is a private collection of a baron and baroness and it is dedicated to the history of Western art. The top floor includes late medieval paintings and early Renaissance paintings with works by Caravaggio and Raphael being the primary exhibits. The third floor features late Renaissance Spanish art (especially Zurbarán) and the painters of the Low Countries, like Rembrandt and Rubens. The next floor down feautres art from 1700-1900 with paintings by several famous artists including Van Gogh, Goya, Degas, Winslow Homer, Gauguin, James Ensor, Caspar David Friedrich, and the strange landscapes of the American painter Thomas Cole. The ground floor included art from the twentieth century starting with Picasso, Dalí, and Miró, then moving on to later artists like Jackson Pollock, Balthus, Lucian Freud, and the pop art of Roy Lichtenstein. The newest painting was a portrait painted in 1998 by the American artist John Currin.

After the Thyssen, I got on the metro, deciding to visit the Madrid bullring, or Plaza de Toros de las Ventas. The ring was closed as the season does not open until March. A circus had instead opened up in front of the ring. The building was completed in 1931 and is built in the Mudejar style of architecture which evokes the Muslim architecture from Spain's past. A few monuments to slain matadors stood in front of the bullring. The origins of bullfighting are not entirely evident, but it is an ancient event from the south of Spain (Andalusia) which may have roots as a sacrificial religious ritual.

The first day back at school was accompanied by two or three inches of snow in the whole Madrid region. School was closed, but we still showed up and acted as a day care for the children whose parents had to work. It was a slow transition back to school mode for the kids as many of them had not spoken English for the entire break. The kids have been working on various projects for their classes such as posters of various ecosystems. One kid drew a giant penguin on his poster of the arctic and told me, "Look! It's very big. It's Guiness record."

Last Saturday a group of us got together to go to a soccer match in which James and Kevin's new roommate, Jeff, was playing. It was played in a Madrid suburban neighborhood called Vallecas. Emma, James, Cody, and two Minnesotan girls who live in Alcalá whom we just met, Katie and Kelsey, went to the match. In this first picture from left to right is Emma, Kelsey, and Katie. The next picture from left to right is me, Cody, and James.

After the soccer match, we all took the metro to the old part of Madrid and got drinks at a strange tapas bar near Plaza Mayor which I hope to return to many times because of its odd ambiance. It was called Rey de los Pimientos (King of the Peppers) and was covered with metal objects. A piece of paper taped to the building showed a photo of a snail and read, "Hay caracoles" or "We have snails." Inside, the bar was dimly lit and the walls were covered with decorations which reminded me of some American roadside collector's garage. A naked Barbie doll, spray-painted gold, was wired to the wall. Several dried gourds hung from the ceiling. A mounted goats head which had seen better days guarded the bar with an extra horn affixed to a wire dangling from its neck. Either a glamour shot or a missing persons photo of a young blond girl from what looked like the 1990s was taped behind the bar. And, yes, they did have snails. Lots of snails. All dead and covered in a thin, grey gravy behind glass among the other tapas (which included the titular peppers which the owner of this estasblishment reigns over). The woman who served us our drinks was equally odd. She was in her thirties, had red hair, and wore a pink t-shirt which had a wide enough neck to expose one shoulder (a la 1980s) and was emblazoned with a glittery picture of a kitten swatting at butterflies. She seemed to have a face like a doll, in that it was unblinking and unmoving with her head tilted to one side and her eyes constantly looking slightly downward and a strangely inert smirk. She never said a word as she gave us our drinks and free tapa (microwaved baked potato). We left after one drink, but the whole experience made me want to come back soon.

After the weird bar, we took the metro to Gran Vía and ate at a pizza place there which was quite fancy, but reasonably priced. I had a hamburger pizza which had an entire hamburger patty (whole), a fried egg, ham, and carmelized onions. After eating we were joined by Becky and Gavin, Emma's British and Irish friends who had joined us at the English tea room in Madrid months ago. We all then spent the majority of the night visiting different clubs. It was a traditional Spanish night, which we had all been planning on having. The Spanish stay out all night most nights, eating, drinking, dancing, and socializing and then get on the bus to go to work. The only difference for us was that we didn't have to work the next day. No wonder the Spanish invented the siesta. This first picture is, from left to right, Gavin, Emma, and Becky:

Here is a picture of "dancing." Left to right: Becky, me, and Kelsey:

And a rare picture of Cody on a dancefloor:

It was a fun night, but I was very tired the next day when Cody, James, Emma, and I met for lunch in Alcalá. I had a cold seafood salad called salpicón de mariscos for my first course. It contained onions, crab meat, shrimp, and squid with a vinaigrette. For my main course I had honey-basted pork ribs and for dessert rice pudding. It was all delicious.

This week the weather has started to warm up and the sun has come out, which is typical of late-January in Spain. I'm settled back in to teaching and tutoring. I'll post more soon.

Italian Interlude: Part Quattro

The Yellow hostel was decorated with scenes from various movies. Our room had Tie-Fighters, Star Destroyers, and stencils of C-3PO and R2-D2. Our bathroom had a Blade Runner theme, if you call this

a theme. It was a regular hostel. Our room held six people total. We didn't really meet any of the people our first night there as they were either asleep or not present most of the time.

We walked downtown to visit Trajan's Market that day. This was a large covered market adjacent to Trajan's Forum. It was constructed around 100AD. Many eras of Roman history are present in this location as Medieval structures were built among the ruins. The open area of Trajan's market (already in ruins by the Middle Ages) was the location of peasants' huts in the 1000s to 1300s. Here is a picture of the entrance to Trajan's Market with the original roof still intact:

Here is a model of what the Market looked like originally (the semicircular hall being behind this structure):

Here is the Market today as seen from the top floor:

Trajan's Market once held a colossal statue of Emperor Trajan which is now lost. A few fragments survive including some pieces of the hand which the curators of the site have semi-reconstructed with a frame. Here is a picture to give you an idea of how enormous the sculpture was:

Here is a picture of a medieval tower, part of a church on the grounds of Trajan's Market:

Here is a picture from the semicircular hallway:

Here is a picture of the Market from the main level. Like other ruins, cats were everywhere. See if you can find the cat staring at the ruins in this photo. I didn't notice it when I took the picture:

Here is a Renaissance-era loggia located among the ruins:

After leaving Trajan's Market we walked to the Colosseum. The city moved the stage they had set up in front of the ampitheater for the New Year's celebration so we got some more pictures:

After this, we walked around the city some more. Here is a street near Piazza del Popolo, Via del Babuino, which had many high-end retail stores:

Later that night I ate at a restaurant where I ordered a pasta with lobster. The waiter was on hand to fill my water from the bottle sitting on the table as soon as my glass went empty. Which felt strange.

After dinner I walked past a wine shop which displayed several wines with famous figures from twentieth-century history (the majority of whom did not seem appropriate for wine bottles, but as a history major, I found it funny):

The next morning we walked past the Piazza Barberini again and visited a church called Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini. This is a church organized by the Capuchin Friars Order built in the early 1600s. From the outside it looked like an ordinary church, and the interior was equally unassuming, appearing like several other churches I've visited in Europe. However, once we walked into the basement
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These are the bones of the Capuchin Friars of Rome, collected between 1500 and 1870, with some peasants as well. There are more than four-thousand bodies in the crypt. The display was part of a death-reverence displayed by the church in this era. Depictions of death were meant to represent the transitory state of life. The friars visited the crypt as a place to contemplate life, among the fear of impending death, which was meant to precipitate repentance among non-Christians. There were five rooms all decorated with bones. The sign near the entrance was a Latin inscription translating to: "As you are, we once were. As we are, so you will be..." This was one of the eeriest places I have ever been. Europe has several other crypts like this, known as ossuaries, but this is the most famous.

After leaving the ossuary, I noticed another strangely dark item from the past:

This appears to be an image of Mussolini. Sometimes relics like this are left not out of a sense of nostalgia, but as a simple reminder of the reality of the past. Mussolini's National Fascist Party was dissolved following the Second World War by the succeeding government. A watered-down successor to the party still exists.

After this, I came upon something more cheerful, the Fountain of the Naiads in the Piazza della Repubblica. This was completed in the early 1900s by the sculptor Mario Rutelli:

From the Piazza della Repubblica, we walked to another piazza called Piazza Navona, which is one of the oldest in the city, dating back to the late 1400s. Many of the surrounding buildings are therefore from the Renaissance. Many vendors had set up stands for the Epiphany celebrations (which were the following day, January 6). This is the celebration of the baptism of Christ and the visit of the Three Kings. In Catholic countries it is the traditional gift-giving holiday, rather than Christmas. In Italy, the figure who gives gifts to the children is a witch called Befana. Many of the vendors sold puppets of her on broomstick and a woman was dressed as her in the center of the piazza. Many carnival games and a carousel also filled the plaza. Here are some pictures of the piazza with the Fountain of the Four Rivers, sculpted by Bernini in the 1650s with an Egyptian obelisk in the center:

Here are some pictures of the piazza with the Basilica of Sant'Agnese in Agone, also constructed in the 1650s:

Here are the two other fountains found on either end of the piazza. The first is the Fountain of Neptune, which was sculpted by Giacomo della Porta in the 1570s. The central statue of Neptune was later added by Antonio della Bitta. The second statue is the Fountain of the Moor, also sculpted by della Porta in the 1570s. The central statue was later added by Bernini.

We also saw this street performer in the Piazza Navona:

As you can see, he was a great fan of Michael Jackson. He used a radio to play "Smooth Criminal" as he performed a little dance with his Michael Jackson hand-puppet (patent pending).

I got a sandwich with some kind of spiced pork at Piazza Navona, then Cody and I headed back to Termini to visit the grocery store, Despar, so we could get stuff for breakfast as our plane left early. While at the grocery store, a girl dressed as the witch Befana who stood in the corner accosted us with several hand gestures and what seemed to be hexes. I replied with, "Non parlo italiano." When we returned to our hostel, we met our new roommates, two American girls who were attending college in Cadiz, Spain. We all visited the "Yellow Bar" on the ground floor of our hostel and talked about our experiences in Spain.

Cody and I had to get up at four in the morning in order to catch the train to take us to Fiumicino Airport. Our plane was scheduled to leave at eight in the morning. We got to our terminal and found out that the flight had been cancelled until noon because of an electrical failure on the plane. As we had no real need to be back at any certain time and, more importantly, no control over the situation, we sat back and watched as a Spanish woman harangued the mechanics and flight attendants for about fifteen minutes. We then watched the developments over the next four hours as the mechanics left to take care of more important things and the woman gathered a group around her and gave what appeared to be a speech designed to spark a revolution. They spoke among themselves in a circle, occasionally one would glance over his or her shoulder. For her second speech to her group, she sat upon the boarding-gate counter and spoke down to her followers, each of whom nodded gravely at certain points. She remained in this position as a Swiss man with gray slicked-back hair, a light brown trench-coat, and a briefcase walked to the counter to check the time for the next outgoing flight to Geneva, and paused to examine the rumbling ring of plebians, before turning to take a seat elsewhere. The group eventually retired to the nearby pizza restaurant where I follwed them and ate while the woman walked among the tables of her seated army.

I lost track of them after I left, but I later noticed smaller factions forming and the woman nowhere to be seen. She later appeared when we were boarding and asked someone why no one told her the flight had arrived. When we landed in Madrid, I saw the woman ahead of me saying a few farewells to her former companions.

We had arrived back in Spain on Epiphany (or El Día de los Reyes as it is called here). We had forgotten this was a major holiday in Spain and wondered why the train was so empty and all the stores closed. When we got back to the apartment, and I saw my Three Kings (or Reyes Magos) decoration on the balcony, it dawned on me:

I spent the next few days catching up on sleep an relaxing. After these days, and before returning to work, I made a tour of Madrid to see some of the places I hadn't yet visited to reacquaint myself with Spain. I'll post about this next.

Italian Interlude: Part Tre

The next morning we planned to visit the catacombs, which lie along the Via Appia Antica (or Ancient Appian Way), an original road from the Roman Empire which runs outside the city. It was used originally for the military and became a heavily traveled and busy road. Now little remains there but scattered ruins. We took the bus to the city center and walked past the Roman Forum and Colosseum to get there. On the way we walked past the ruins of the Circus Maximus, a track used for chariot races which had been used as early as the Etruscan times (1200-550BC).

We walked to the road that turned to the Appain Way where we waited at a stop for a bus to take us to the start of the old road. We waited some more. Then we waited. After further waiting we decided to walk the way. We actually saw some interesting things along the way:

Here is a photo of some of the original Roman stone road:

One place along the way was a recently excavated site called Capo di Bove. It was a villa from the Imperial era and contained many baths. Some tile floors were still intact. The structure was similar in style to the Roman villa in Alcalá de Henares, Casa de Hippolytus.

While taking picture of Capo di Bove, a cat ran up to me and followed me around the site. Here's the cat trying to steal some pastries I bought at a little store on the Appian Way:

We saw the tomb of Cecilia Metella along the way. She was the daughter of a Roman consul in the Republican era whose husband, a wealthy noble, constructed a tomb for her. The tower of the tomb remains in good condition:

We then visited one of the catacombs, the Catacombs of San Sebastiano. Here is the entrance:

The catacombs are underground burial chambers from the Roman Imperial era. This one in particular (as well as most others) were for Christians who could not be buried elsewhere because of scarcity of land. Also the persecution of Christians during the early Imperial era lead to these burials in secret underground chambers. The Catacomb of San Sebastiano was used from the second century AD until the early middle ages. Its most impressive room included three structures which looked like houses carved from the rock complete with windows, front doors, and decorative paintings. Most of the bodies have been moved and none were visible (as is the case with the catacombs of Paris).

After the catacombs we walked back to the center of Rome. I got these pictures along the way:

That night we walked around the central area and I found a cool store that was advertised by its sign as an "Oddities Shop." It was close to the Pantheon and seemed like something out of a Ray Bradbury novel (especially as I couldn't find it to get better pictures the next time I was downtown). Mostly everything in it was expensive, but it was fun to look at. There was a giant wooden statue of a Tahitian god with red jewels for eyes (which looked like they glowed in the dim light). The walls and shelves were decorated with several tin toys from the early twentieth century, old travel advertisements, and antique, framed tarot cards. A black-and-white television played an old film of a magician performing traditional tricks (pulling rabbits out of top hats) and the back of the store sold supplies for magicians and had a fortune-telling machine with a crystal ball. Here is a picture of the store-front window:

The next morning I got some cannolis from a market near our place. These are pastries stuffed with sweetened ricotta chesse and chopped pistachios, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and had a candied orange-peel on either end. They were less sweet than the cannolis I've had in the United States:

The next day we moved from Plus Camping Roma to another hostel because we could only make the booking for seven days. The other hostel was in the central area, close to Termini train station and was called the Yellow. It was run by Americans and Australians. We checked our stuff there, then returned to the Pantheon where we were able to visit the interior. It was quite impressive and included several tombs such as Vittorio Emanuele II and Raphael. The most striking feature of the interior is the giant dome roof with the open hole in the center:

After visiting the Pantheon, we walked to Villa Borghese, a large late-Renaissance villa on the outskirts of Rome constructed for Scipione Borghese who was a Cardinal, member of the nobility, and an art collector. I wanted to visit the Galleria Borghese which has a collection of Bernini sculptures, but reservations had to be made several days in advance. Instead I walked around the villa, taking pictures of the gardens and buildings:

On the way back from Villa Borghese, we walked through Piazza Barberini where Bernini's Fountain of Triton is located:

We also walked down the Via delle Quattro Fontane, a street with an intersection in which each corner has one of four similar fountains: