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New friends Jenny Moroney, daughter of Jim and Barbara, student in Florence; and Travis Breier, son of Mark and Ronda, student in Amsterdam finding themselves in Rome, at our apartment, on the same weekend, with the stars aligning for views of the Vatican and a mystery statue on the way to the Spanish Steps. Unbeknownst to Jenny and Travis, and maybe to their parents, Mark, Jim, and I had dinner together in 2000 when Mark … more
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Hanging in Rome with college buddy George Politis. Arrived today from Ethiopia where as a member of the Operation Smile surgical team he fixed children’s cleft plates and perhaps more importantly helped train Ethiopian doctors to do the same. So delighted he could swing by Rome on his way back to the U.S. Photos from our stop at the Pantheon and Piazza Venezia.
[From the most recent school newsletter] While we are a school that continually searches for ways to inspire and challenge students to develop in new ways, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge some fun facts about St Stephen’s as we near semester break. Our students are really diverse! Did you know that of the 274 day and boarding students that St Stephen’s currently enrolls, there are thirty-nine nationalities represented in the student body. … more
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Epic seafood meal last night at Ristorante Eleonora D’Arborea with Ken, Nancy, and Matthew Goldsholl, Travis Breier (visiting from Amsterdam), and Charlie. One of our best meals in Rome yet. Big thanks to the Goldsholls for making it happen (and to Ken for regularly reading my blog). (Photo of sign in the elevator of Goldsholl’s hotel seemed a perfect reflection of my friend Ken.)
On the matter of my last post, the spontaneous and magical arrival of young people in your life under circumstances that may on the surface appear to be inconvenient, I’m reminded of two calls I made in college that now inform how I think about such things. It was December 1977 and I was finishing my studies at Stanford’s overseas campus in Clivedon, England. I thought before returning to California that I would stop in … more
Yes, it’s pouring today, blustery, stormy. And when it rains … Travis Breier writes. He’s coming into Rome tomorrow, Thursday, seeking advice and an empty couch. No problem, except … A few days ago, Barbara Moroney wrote. Her daughter Jenny is coming into Rome on Friday, seeking advice and an empty couch. Delighted to meet and host her. But she has first dibs on the couch. Actually she has first dibs on Charlie’s bed, and … more
Here you can find the story: 8th sept 1943 armistice of Cassibile, the darkest page of Italian war history, the coward escape from Rome of the king of Italy, who was the head of the Italian army, and Badoglio, the prime minister with their families and entourage. The Italian army left without orders, the largest navy in Europe in La Spezia without orders moving from the ports to join the south under the fire of … more
My friend Paolo Libri posted this to Facebook: Per il mio amico Michael DeLapa: Really, there are times when the ubiquitous and logic network of causal sequences gives up, astonished by life, and steps down in the pit, mingling among the public, to let on stage, under the lights of the soaring and sudden freedom, an invisible hand drawing in the infinite womb of possible and, among millions of things, one will let happen. (A. … more
It is a common notion among foreigners that Italians enjoy life more than the rest of us. But that isn’t exactly accurate, nor is the point. I think it would be closer to the truth to say that Italians appreciate life more than the rest us. The good, the bad, and everything in between; they really immerse themselves in it fully. Which reminds me of a night last summer when I finally saw my first … more
The Glory of Italy “For 30 years under the Borgias, they had murder and terror but produced Michelangelo, Leornardo and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had 500 year of democracy and peace—and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock.” Harry Lime Vulnerability Italians have been victims of invasion and domination—Arabs and Spaniards (in the south), Goths (Germans) and French in the north. It has had a brutal effect on their national psyche, especially … more