I just finished the first of four weeks living in Rome for the Spatial Econometrics Advanced Institute. The institute is going pretty well. It turns out we have free lunch and dinner on all weekdays at the mensa (university student cafeteria). However, this privilege comes with a number of rules about what makes a proper meal. For instance, if you take prosciutto you can not take both pasta and a tomato mozzarella dish. It is perfectly fine to take pasta with an entire 12 inch pizza, but you can't have bean salad with said pizza instead of pasta. If you take a garden salad, you can't take take anything from the dolce section (which includes deserts as well as fruit). I have taken to putting as much on the tray as I think is reasonable and running through the gates before they can yell at me.
By the way, if you just want to the skip the pictures you should click here. There should be slideshow below if you have Flash installed, otherwise use the link.
I am doing okay on the Italian. I managed to visit the supermarket on Wednesday and conduct the transaction completely in Italian. Then the cashier told me a joke. He laughed, I laughed and then I left and wondered what must have been so funny. Faking it the first step to learning the real thing though.
I have done mostly off the beaten tourist path sight-seeing (with some of the usual stuff included too). I am living in an area called San Lorenzo that is populated by lots of young people and a large number of restaurants and bars. Nearby is a the main Catholic Cemetery in Rome until which is absolutely enormous and includes most deceased Roman Catholics until around 1980. I am also living near Porta Maggiore one of the main gates in the old imperial wall.
I managed to a do a run from my place on Wednesday morning all the way down to the Circus Maximus where I ran a victory lap around the course. It was kinda of like Ben-Hur without the awkward trip the leper colony to visit your mother. Every morning the trash collection crew comes at 6:45 am and makes a horrible racket. So I try to get up at least every other day at that time and go for a run. There is another group of SEAI participants staying a few doors down on the same block. We are all rudely awakened every morning by the trash crew.
I have made two trips to the Old Appian Way (called via Appia Antica). This is the historic main road into Rome through the Porta San Sebastiano. I went first on foot from my flat last Sunday. It took about an hour to walk there and then I hiked around the Caffarella Valley for about 90 minutes before walking back home. I went back again today (Sunday) by bus and rented a bike to do some riding about 7 miles down the road and back.
The bike itself was an insult to Italian bicycle craftmanship. I managed to practically destroy the rear wheel on the way home. I stayed off the heavy ancient cobblestones. At some point shortly after turning around the entire wheel became unbalanced and nearly un-rideable. I had to disconnect the rear brake entirely and walk certain sections. So there I was on the Appia Antica with no rear brake, no helmet and riding over cobblestones. Doing Paris-Roubaix should be a snap now. They only charged me for a one hour at the rental shop.
You may remember the movie Spartacus by Stanley Kubrick featuring a young Kirk Douglas. In the end, Marcus Crassus puts down the slave revolt and crucifies 6000 slaves along the Appian Way. In addition to that historical fact, a variety of ancient Roman ruins dot the landscape and I have posted some pics. I really wanted to see some aqueducts and I got a nice photo from a distance of one of the seven remaining aqueducts in this area (some of them are still functional). I will try to come back again to do the catacombs.
Next week is going to be pretty busy. I am visiting the Bank of Italy late on Wednesday afternoon to meet with some researchers. On Saturday, I am taking the train to Assisi (ever heard of St. Francis?) and staying overnight. Then I go to Bologna on Sunday for an overnight. I am visiting my LSE advisor there and also doing some sight-seeing before taking the express train back to Rome in the evening.
That's all for now. I'll try to update and the end of next week or sooner.
-Kyle
Lovely pictures.
Perhaps I should implement some Mensa-style rules at the Jandley household. Then I wouldn't have to worry about you eating all of the ice cream in 2 days.
Posted by: The better half | June 03, 2008 at 11:40 PM