Weekend concerts

A couple of weeks ago we stumbled upon a free concert, part of a festival of sacred music.  This weekend we went on purpose.  It was exquisite.  This week's concert was called Illo tempore - La polifonia fre anitco e moderno, something about polyphonic music both old and modern.  The old selections were from composers who died between 1521 and 1657.  The new composers died 1963 or were still living.  The music may have been new, but it was in a similar style to the older music.

The music was just incredible.  It seemed to float out in gentle waves from the singers in a fuzzy cloud with a few polished silvery soprano edges.  It helped that the basilica has amazing reverberating acoustics terrible for listening to the introduction, but perfect for this type of music.  The singers started standing in a semicircle surrounding the altar in the center of the building.  Later they moved to stand outside the circle of pillars.  There were slight differences in the sound with the singers in a different place.  Both were beautiful.

 Basilica interior 

This concert was in the Basilica di San Stefano Rotondo. (also here)  It is an amazing building.  Even though it looks a bit like the Pantheon inside with its round structure, it was originally built as a Christian church in the late 5th century.  It has changed a bit through the years, but remarkably little considering the amount of time that has passed.  There are mosaics from the 7th century.  The exterior walls are covered with frescoes from the 16th century that depict the deaths of Christian martyrs along with the names of the emperor who ordered the execution. 

Interesting fun fact:  The Irish king died in Rome in 1064 and is buried at St Stefano.

Original mosaic floor

On a completely different note, quite literally, we went to Piazza di Spagna to see the Carabinieri marching band.  It was part of a celebration of turning on the Christmas lights on Via dei Conditti.  We bought a cone of hot roasted chestnuts and took in the scene.

 After the band passed by we joined in the parade and followed them to the piazza where they played a few classical marches and the national anthem.  My Girl learned the national anthem in choir and remembered enough to sing along.

Afterward we stopped at the Lego store.  I loved the gladiator maximinifigures.

My Boy didn't come with us.  He had rehearsal for the school play.  He is on the tech crew where he helps with props and lighting and general doing.  Recently he was given a speaking part in one of the scenes.  They needed a radio voice, so his voice will be in the play, but he doesn't have to worry about being on stage.  I think that sounds perfect.

So we went for a walk...

John and I went out for a little walk before dinner.  Nothing special, just a little stroll around the neighborhood.  We ended up going along the Aurelian walls and saw and heard the starlings swarming in the trees.  There must have been thousands of them.  They are an incredible site, but can be a bit problematic.  We wandered through the Porta Metronia and past the Angolan embassy.  Up the hill we saw an open gate an went inside to find the Villa Celimontana and it's gardens with the obligatory obilisk. 

It was starting to get dark when we left through the gate on the north side.  There was an old church  on a dimly lit piazza with candles burning outside and people drifting in.  Of course we went to check it out.  A free concert of Baroque music was starting in 15 minutes so of course we stayed.  The group was a little like the Philharmonia Baroque we had gone to see when we were dating many years ago, Baroque music played on replicas of period instruments.  It was rather magical.

 Festival di Musica Sacra nelle Basiliche del Celio 

L 'Orchestra Diletto Barocco a Bascilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo 

After the concert we started walking home and came across this lovely site.  I'd seen glimpses, but hadn't been up close yet.  It is really quite impressive.  We'll take the full tour one of these days.

Not bad for just a little walk.


Notes:

The Villa Celimontana is home to the Italian geographic society and a Jazz festival in the summer.

According to the founding legend, the church was originally build in 362 over the home of John and Paul, two Romans martyred for their Christian faith.  There are certainly Roman homes beneath the church, but details are fuzzy.  Like so many sites in Rome, this church has been destroyed and rebuilt many times through the years.  More information here, here, and here.

Firsts and Frictions

Anytime you move there are a lot of firsts in the new place.  Here, where things are so different, there are so many firsts.

The kids had their first ride in a taxi going from the airport to our apartment in Dublin.  We've taken taxis a few times here in Italy as well, but mostly it's the bus and metro.  Taxis just aren't a thing in suburban California where we lived.  Now we see them around all the time and even ride in one every once in awhile, like when My Girl hurt her ankle and couldn't really make the 10 minute walk to the school bus on crutches.  Luckily that only lasted a couple of days.  And when I got the call to pick up My Girl from school because she was sick.  I thought a taxi would be better than a 90 minute bus/metro ride with a queazy girl.

We had our first climb to ancient walls (to not on) while walking to the Irish consulate.  Ancient walls are everywhere and you really shouldn't climb them.  We live just outside the Aurelian walls to the South East of the historical center.  The walls were built around 271-275 AD.  It is pretty cool to have so much history part of our everyday life.  The walls of the new metro C station at San Giovanni show the different layers of history as you go down.  In other walls are cases displaying some of the artifacts they found while building the station.  They are building the new C line and are now getting into the historical center.  They are currently working on a station at the Forum next to the Colosseum.  The trouble is that you can dig deep enough to avoid archeological treasures for the tunnels, but you eventually have to come up for the stations.  It really slows things down when you have to excavate all the time.  They have already cancelled a couple stations and just pushed the already delayed opening date from 2020 to 2024.

We had our first scout meeting.  It is a small group, but I think it will be good.  John was a scout here and his dad was the scout master many years ago.  We really enjoyed scouting at home and hope to continue it here.  My Girl was in Scouts BSA in California, but there isn't a girl troop here so she will register as a lone scout and join in on the activities.  We looked at Girl Scouts, but she just turned up her nose and said, "Crafts and ponies."  Not interested.  She wants to go out and do stuff.  The first outing is kayaking on Naples bay.  Sounds good to me.

This is the first time I've lived without a dryer.  It is quaint to see laundry hanging from a line, but not so much when that's the way it goes every week rain or shine.  Dryers here are rare so I'm not alone.  The only problem is if something falls off the line.  The bottom is two floors down on the neighbor's terrace.  The real problem is that no one lives there.  I did eventually get the sock back when someone was there cleaning out the apartment.  It will be sold sometime... eventually.

This is the view from my back window where we hang our laundry.

I made my first sketches of the city on a sketch tour.  We stopped at a couple of places like the Fontana della Tartarughe and Teatro di Marcello.  It was a lovely morning.  I met a woman who was in Rome with a basket making tour group.  Sometimes you meet the most interesting people.

I made my first visit to the Pantheon.  I was out for something else and stopped by because I was close.  It's pretty amazing.

People talk about the slower pace of life here compared to the US.  It is slower, but not always for the reasons you want.  It can be a leisurely slow, like restaurant service.  But just as often it is slow because of the incredible friction involved in making anything happen.  When we first arrived in August most of the shops were closed for the holidays.  By mid September the city was starting to come back to life again.

It took me a day to get codice fiscale for me and the kids, but only a day.  Compared to the California DMV I can't complain.  It only took a day and a half and three trips to the bus office across town to get the annual bus passes.  We are still working on document translations, passports, and other official things.  Get the stamps, the copies, the photos, the apostille.  I'd never heard of getting a document apostilled before.  Now I have.  Bureaucracy is an never ending frustration.  You just have to let it go.  Package delivery is a problem in an apartment building with no door man.  If you aren't home you are out of luck unless the package gets left at the coffee bar downstairs.  But then, how are you to know you have a package waiting?  If you are home you can buzz in the delivery person and ask them to leave the package in the elevator for scala B.  You then bring up the elevator and there it is!  Magic!

There are some pretty amazing things about being here.  My Boy had his first school trip.  His group spent three days touring the Val d'Orcia area of Tuscany.  That's pretty fantastic.  No One wants to hear about the frustrations and the frictions, just the fantastic.  Living here is a mixed bag but now I can say I'm glad we're here.

One last first:  A pigeon in the living room.  I first saw it tottering around by the kids' homework area.  It must have come in through the back balcony where we do laundry.  It couldn't see the way it came in so it tried to fly out the closed kitchen window.  No luck flying through glass.  It then got stuck between the microwave and the window glass.  Since it couldn't fly in my face at that point I was able to open the window, move the microwave and shoo it out with one of My Boy's plaid shirts.  I quickly closed the windows and felt very grateful that there wasn't some sort of Hitchcock ending to the whole thing.  I later had to open the windows to hang the laundry out to dry.  No more pigeons for today.

First Days of School

We arrived in Rome on August 21, our first time in Italy as a family.  Of course John lived here as a boy and has been back a few times since.  I spent a couple of days in Venice once in 2001.  The kids have never traveled this much before.  But this is more than just a trip.  We are moving here for at least a couple of years.  We'll give it a good two year trial and see how we like it before committing to more.

The kids are tired and want to get on with life.  They are ready to start school and meet kids their own ages.  I really enjoyed Dublin and Ireland, but it was more of a vacation.  Now the realities of moving are settling in.  In our first week we toured the kids' new schools.  My girl will go to the same school John attended when he lived here with his family.  It is elementary through high school, but we decided to send our boy to a different high school.  My girl's school is an American style school plopped on the north edge of Rome.  There is a good mix of Americans, Italians, and kids from other places, but the feel is quite American with a PTA and after school sports.  She has found some good friends who welcomed her in.  The 6th grade girls eat lunch together and have a good time.  It turns out that there is another girl in 6th grade with the same first name as my girl, she also wears glasses, and attends the same church we do, but in a different congregation.  What a funny thing.  I was hoping and praying for friends for the kids.  This is amazing.  They don't have classes together, but they see each other at lunch and before school.  The school started in an old villa which still houses the middle school classes.  Then there is a courtyard surrounded by buildings for the elementary and high schools.  Out back there is a large patio and amphitheater built into a hillside with a pretty spectacular view.

One nice thing is that all of the kids are starting middle school so there is a lot of attention from the staff about helping them adapt to the new middle school experience.  The day before school started there was a morning orientation for new kids and parents of all grades and then an afternoon orientation for all incoming 6th grade middle schoolers.  It was a long day but by the end (not in the middle) she was excited to start school.

Another first is riding the bus to school.  My girl rides the school bus to and from school.  We walk 10 minutes to the bus stop.  She gets picked up at 7:25 and gets to school by 8:15-8:30 for a 9:00 start to school.  It is a very long ride to and from school every day.  The school is in north Rome closer to the neighborhoods where the Embassy families live.  We live South-East of the historical center.  Not close.  For me to get there on the metro/busses takes an hour and a half at least.  That really cuts down on my ability to be at school.  I can't even ride the bus home with her if I am there.  Frustrating,

My boy rides the city bus to school.  It is a short trip, 15 minutes or so.  But you can never be sure when or if the busses are coming.  He missed the bus one day and then decided it would be worth spending a few extra minutes waiting in the morning so that it didn't happen again.  I can't just run him up in the car.  He either waits for the next bus or walks.  It's only a mile so it isn't the end of the world.  Luckily we are close so that in the likely event of a bus strike he can still get to school.

The high school is truly an international school with an IB curriculum and kids from 50+ countries among the 250 students.  John's older sister attended here many years ago.  Many of the kids' parents work at the UN, FAO, or various embassies, and a few corporate families.  I'm not sure where we fit in to all of that.  We are just here.  There are also Italians as well who are attracted to the English language instruction and the reputation for strong academics. They seem to be quite different from the civil servant/government expats.  It has been a good fit for My Boy.  He has found some friends, joined the theater tech crew, and a few clubs.

All students are required to do a sport after school so after examining the options he chose Pilates, no running or balls.  He did try one day of volleyball.  A church friend is on a high school volleyball team here.  It wasn't for him, but I'm glad he would check it out to see.  During the interview last spring they asked My Boy about sports.  He didn't have much to say about that.  When asked what he did for exercise he said that he sometimes walked to the library.  At first I groaned a bit inside, but now I think they probably liked that answer.  It's an honest response that really shows who he is.

Each year they take two trips.  The fall trip is in Italy and the spring trip is international and usually based in community service of some kind.  So in a couple weeks he is off to Tuscany for a couple of days.  I'm more than a bit envious.  Unfortunately parents are not invited.

I hope all goes well and that they continue to enjoy school even after the excitement and newness wear off.  

Museums and "museums" of Dublin

Around here we like museums.  Fortunately Dublin has no shortage of great museums.  Some of these are showcases for artifacts and others are more "experiences".

On our second day in Dublin we walked down to the National Museum of Decorative Arts and History.  This museum is in the old Collins Barracks on the north side of the River Liffey to the west of downtown.  To get there we walked past the Arbour Hill Memorial and cemetary.  The Memorial was a former cemetery for the military barracks that now houses the museum across the street.  It is also the burial place of the 14 executed leaders of the 1916 Uprising.  Oddly enough, the 14 were buried quickly in a mass grave so that the site would not become a shrine that would further their political aims.

 Arbour Hill Cemetery

Interior courtyard at Collins Barracks

Tired jet-lagged smiley boy

Giant Irish Deer

One rainy afternoon we wandered into the National Museum of Natural History, known to Dublin school children as the dead zoo.  It was awesome and so very Victorian.  It was built in 1857 and has changed little since an expansion in 1877.  It made me think of the explorers of that era I've read about who collected specimens to bring back home.  This is where some of them would have ended up.  The website describes the place as "a museum of a museum".  We saw skeletons of the now extinct giant Irish deer, old bones found in the bogs of Ireland.  They are truly massive with an antler spread of up to 12 feet.  We also found pandas, and giraffes upstairs in the exotic animal exhibit.

My boy with his favorite animal

Me with mine

High on every must see list for Dublin is the EPIC Irish Emigration Museum.  In front of the museum is this set of sculptures depicting the massive emigration during the great famine.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but I would certainly put this in the category of "experience" rather than exhibition.  There were lovely displays in a series of rooms about the history of Ireland and the reasons people have emigrated at different times as well as the modern culture and the impact the emigrants have had on the world.  One of my favorite displays showed dual screens, one with a woman singing traditional Irish tunes to a fiddle and one with a man singing Appalachian Bluegrass tunes to a banjo.  Not much difference.

Famine Memorial Sculptures

The Jeannie Johnston

Dublin Custom House

In the same area is the Jeannie Johnston, a replica of the type of tall ship used during the potato famine of the 1840s.  The Custom house is also just up the road.  It was originally completed in 1791 and used to collect custom on the shipments coming into Dublin on the Liffey.  Throughout the history of Dublin the river port has been a critical part of the economy.

On another day we went to the National Archaeology museum.  The museum is housed in a stunning Victorian building.  The star of the show was the prehistoric gold.  It is quite impressive given that there are no significant gold deposits in Ireland.  I also really liked the Treasury which displayed the exceptionally fine craftsmanship of gold and silver religious artifacts from Celtic and early Christian Ireland.  The second gallery displayed portions of a book of Psalms from around 800 AD that was recovered from an Irish bog.  My girl really liked seeing the different versions of the Viking and Celtic cloak pins.  There were also plenty of Celtic and Viking swords.  One particular item was pretty odd, bog butter.  It's kind of what it sounds like, butter or other animal fat buried in bogs as a means of preservation.  Some samples have been found from the 15th and 16th centuries.

Gold collars

Another "museum" was the National Leprechaun Museum.  It was less museum and more story telling experience for tourists.  We had a very entertaining guide and enjoyed it.  We heard stories of the Leprechauns, faeries, the Fianna, and Fionn McCumhail (Finn McCool)  My girl liked the story of how he got wisdom from sucking a bit of salmon off his thumb.

My Leprechauns

Another tourist experience on the not-to-be-missed list is Dublinia.  It tells the story of Viking and Medieval Dublin.  This is primarily geared toward kids, but also enjoyable for adults.  I'm not going to retell the whole history of the city here, but we tried on helmets, wrote in runes, visited a Medieval market, and played with swords.  Well done.  The building is across the street from Christ Church Cathedral in the former synod hall and previous location of St Micheal's church.  The building is connected to Christ Church by a stone archway and includes St Micheal's tower.

My Viking girl

Medieval punishment

Mmmm... pies

Spectacular views of Christ Church from St Micheal's tower.

One last museum, the GPO, or General Post Office.  This building was the center of the 1916 Easter Uprising.  The interior was completely burned and later restored, but the original facade, complete with bullet holes, still stands.  The museum at the site of the post office tells the story of the uprising and it's aftermath.  It is a tragic story since the uprising was not successful and the leaders were executed.  It wouldn't be until years later that Ireland became a free state.  After many years as a constitutional monarchy under the King of England the Republic of Ireland was formally declared in 1949.  (I think I got that right, maybe not)   

One display was particularly touching.  It told of the boy scouts, Na Fianna Eirann, who were message boys and fighters during the Uprising and later civil war.  They even participated in the gun running of 1914.  There may have been other groups of boys involved with the different organizations, but all the same, the boys were there in the middle of it.  The organization still survives with a decidedly more political and military bend than our version of scouting.  John's great uncle, Packy Joe's dad was one of these scouts for a time.  Those who worked for the republic were awarded positions in the Garda, police force, after the war.

Ireland is both very old and very new.  People have been here for a very long time, since before the Vikings settled Dublin.  But, the country as we know it today is actually quite new.  Life goes on as the political world swirls around.  People and ships continue to come and go,  Borders and rulers change, but life goes on.

So many museums so many churches and so little time.  We would like to come back to Dublin and Ireland.  We most certainly will return for visa renewals and other such things, but it is a lovely place to spend some time.

It's the little things... Irish food edition

We have been doing some big things, but a lot of what we are doing are the little things that take so much more time and effort right now.  Let's start with grocery shopping.  At home I can shop for several days and go and be home in 45 minutes if I have a list.  Different story here. 

In Dublin it took a couple of days to start cooking again rather than just warming stuff up.  Once Dad arrived we also ate out more.  We had a furnished apartment with a kitchen and very basic cooking tools and no food other than coffee, tea, and sugar.  Think about preparing a meal where you have to buy EVERYTHING.  It didn't help that the stores are small and the selection quite limited compared to a typical American grocery store.  I forgot to buy salt for our first dinner at home and we had some very bland pasta.  The lack of salt just compounded the general blandness I feared was normal for Irish food.  This is a place where salsa comes in mild and cool.  We bought the arrabiata pasta sauce to get some barely discernable flavor.  It was grim folks.  Then we discovered mini Magnum ice cream bars, freshly baked scones, the full Irish breakfast, Manor Takeaway, the Pieman, and La Pausa coffee shop. 

The ice cream bars are just a little chocolate covered vanilla taste of home. 

The scones are subtly sweet rich melty goodness.  We sent the kids to the bakery across the street each morning for our daily fix.  Both the white and brown versions were fantastic.  There is something about the Irish milk and butter that is rich and delicious especially when paired with the scones.

I had read about the full Irish breakfast and wasn't too sure.  Just how much meaty stuff can one person eat for breakfast?  A lot it turns out with multiple types of bacon, sausages, and both black and white meat puddings (sausages).  Don't forget the eggs.  It's too much for daily eating, but its great for a late brunchy meal.  In spite of a questionable reputation we all liked the black and white pudding.  Ignore the ingredient list.  It's probably best if you don't know.  (The first ingredient is oatmeal followed by many types of porky beefy bits.)  We finally found where Ireland hides its flavor.  Several times I made a messy hash with potatoes, black and white pudding, bacon, eggs, and broccoli. just to keep it healthy.  Yummy.

We found a few places to eat out that were delicious and reasonably priced.  It is easy to spend a lot on touristy pub food.  Manor Takeaway was just down the street a block or so away.  I've mentioned this place before.  It is a great example of a common enough type that serves fish and chips, pizza, and kebabs.  This particular place is run by an Italian family from just outside of Rome.  John practiced a bit of Italian with them and they liked hearing that we were moving to their home.

The Pieman is in the very touristy Temple Bar neighborhood just past Merchant's arch.  It is an unassuming little place.  Meat pies are more British than Irish, but it was good all the same.  I tried the mushy peas.  I had seen cans of mushy peas in the grocery stores and couldn't resist.  It is exactly what it sounds like.  Imagine extra thick split pea soup, with just the peas.  Not bad, since I like split pea soup, but it is really much better with the ham and other vegetables.

Another day we had dinner at the Hairy Lemon pub because we just couldn't pass by a place with a name like that.

We changed busses occasionally on Blessington street in front of La Pausa cafe.  One day we stopped in for a bite.  It is a great place with a lot of hipster character.  You can get a partial Irish breakfast, in case a full one is too much.  The chocolate croissants and hot chocolate were amazing.

Any place takes a little getting used to.  I was finally getting used to Dublin and really enjoying it when it was time to leave and start the process all over again, but this time in a different language that I barely speak.

A Newer Church in Dublin

When we are out of town we try to attend church if possible.  This has lead to some interesting experiences including bilingual English/Spanish meetings in Belize and ASL meetings in Seattle.  In Dublin I expected familiar rituals and hymns in charming Irish accents.  We got something a little different.  We attended the Finglas ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  This ward includes the downtown area of Dublin.  There are other wards in the suburbs that may be more like what I was expecting, but we weren't there.

On our first Sunday the kids and I found our way to the church building at the Slaney road bus stop across the street from Glasnevin cemetery.  We walked in with several others from the same bus.  I had wondered if they were going the same place when the hopped on the bus in white shirts and ties or churchy looking dresses.  After we sat down we got a surprise.  The kids former piano teacher and ward member from California was there!  She was in town just for a couple of days with a BYU study abroad group.  It was so good to see her.  I was feeling a bit lonely since John had to delay his arrival for a few days to get things finished up at home.  There were a lot of moving parts to get taken care of before we could leave.

One thing I didn't expect was when the bishop specifically invited the Portuguese speaking members of the ward to participate in the testimony meeting.  I didn't expect there to be so many.  It turns out that there are a lot of Brazilian and other students who come to Dublin to study English.  We were told that Ireland is one of the few places where you can work while in the country on a student visa.

I also didn't expect such a large number of visitors from the US.  On the first week there were 12 kids in the teen Sunday School class.  Nine of them, including my two, were visiting from the US.  It was the same with the women in Relief Society the next week.  There were a handful of women who lived there and nearly as many visitors, mostly from the US.  A few were in town for only a few hours off of a cruise ship.  Others, like us, were there for longer.

On our second week we talked to a family from Arizona.  They were there for three weeks while the Dad worked for an International tech company.  They had kids about the same ages as our kids.  We later ran into them at the park playground.  It was fun to get to know them.  We invited them to Rome for a visit.  It is unlikely, but you never know.

On our last Sunday we met a young woman from Utah who was heading home after visiting Germany and Italy with a friend.  It turns out that she knew my nephew and was on the High School track team with him years ago.  Small world.  She had a few hours to kill before she could check into her hostel so we invited her to have lunch with us and helped her get a bus pass.  She had arrived in Dublin at 1 am and "slept" in the airport before coming to church.  She was great and seemed to enjoy the crazy family who adopted her for a couple of hours.  When we got to our bus stop we ran into the crowds spilling out of the pubs in preparation for the national hurling championship game that afternoon.  Hurling is a uniquely Irish game played with a ball and a stick, something like field hockey crossed with rugby.  I saw an ad that described it as the fastest field sport in the world.  It was fun to see everyone dressed in their team colors getting ready for a good time.  I am, however, glad that I wasn't in the stands with them as they continued to down the beer.

I also talked to people from Dublin who were so very helpful.  One woman was very kind and seemed like the kind of person who would know everyone.  She introduced me to the man who runs the family history center at the church.  I later spent part of a Wednesday morning there, which led me to the national library, and later the valuations office.  But more on that later.

I also asked another woman about seminary for the teenagers.  It turned out that she had been a seminary teacher for eight years.  In California the teenagers attend early morning seminary before high school.  I wondered how they did it here with so few teens and such large distances.  She said that they used to do it in the morning before school, but had switched to meeting weekly.  There is also an online version for students who live far and wide.  I'm thinking about Rome and how My Boy will be able to participate in seminary, especially since he doesn't speak Italian.  Perhaps he could join the Irish online students.  It is only one hour different and he really liked Ireland.

I'm looking forward to church in Rome, but it will be harder since it won't be in English.