LETTERS
Letters: On Susan Spano and Rome
Thank you so much for your Rome articles. I will be there this summer, and I had to think quickly about where to take my two sons (9 and 12), who will be jet-lagged. Your articles helped considerably.
I have enjoyed your articles tremendously and appreciate your travel wisdom and clarity of thought in your articles. Take care and enjoy Rome.
--Laurie Irwin, Los Angeles
Thank you for your great article today in the June 1 Times.
I have greatly enjoyed your articles over the years and especially from Paris and look forward to more from you regarding Rome, our favorite. I am taking the liberty of sending two book suggestions to add to your list to better prepare the visitor:
"As the Romans Do," by Alan Epstein. We have been in Rome three times for a week, and this is one book that I wish I had read before our first visit in 2000. It provides some insight into the people who live there and enriches the experience as the people are part of what makes Rome unique, exciting and enjoyable.
"Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling," by Ross King. The story itself is well covered in other sources, but this book explains some of the technical challenges in the process of painting on plaster and casting in bronze, which adds to the understanding and makes the actual visit even more impressive and enjoyable.
--Richard Leffler, Balboa
Great article on Rome. I am visiting mid-August. Do you have an insider suggestion on a can't-miss Italian restaurant?
News reports on NPR discuss growing racism and violence toward foreigners in Rome. Is that prevalent?
I hope your stay is positively eventful.
Ciao!
--Juan Sotelo, Sherman Oaks
While you were living in Paris, I wrote you about a planned trip. You were helpful.
We ended up staying two short blocks from Musée d'Orsay. If I didn't thank you then, I am thanking you now!
Now today I sit down and see you have filled the paper with Rome. My wife and I will travel to Europe in the fall. This is the best time for us to travel. (We know better than to sit on sun-filled beaches.)
I've never been to Rome, but my wife visited in 1963. I want to go, but she seems hesitant. I say the dollar be damned.
I love the antiquities, the artifacts, the history and all that goes with it.
I am asking for a little help from you. Rome sounds wonderful and I want to get there.
So here is what I am asking of you.
Would you please drop my wife a very short note and tell her just how wonderful it is and that it is a must-see for any traveler?
You write better than I write or speak, so please use your own words and help me get her to agree to a trip to Rome.
Thank you very, very much.
--Fred Goldberg, Aliso Viejo
Didn't you do a column by this name for The Times? I very much enjoyed it.
--Dean Smith, Pickwick Lake, Tenn.
Editor's note: Spano wrote the "Her World" column from 1998 until February 2007.
I just finished reading "At Home in Rome" and really understood what you were saying. I just visited Italy for the first time in April. I came back wanting to move to Rome.
I tried to explain it to everyone, but I don't think you can understand it unless you've been there: how they drive in these little teeny cars and that you never hear blaring, obnoxious music coming from the cars; how the cars and the buses and the people all share the road with the scooters going in and out and up and down the sidewalks; how every meal is preceded with pasta and only extra-virgin olive oil on the tables; how there is no such thing as Wal-Mart and you love the fact that the alleyways are not scary like they are here; they lead to discoveries.
I miss it. And I hope you enjoy your stay.
--Jill Fuller, Morrisville, N.C.
I enjoyed your article on Roma. I have been fortunate to have visited the city (but regrettably not lived there like you for an extended stay) in '68, '82, '87, '95 and '06. As such, I saw the Sistine before restoration and watched its progression: mid-ceiling, ceiling but not Last Judgment and, finally, totally restored.
I hated the restoration until it was complete, then loved it. I thought it hysterical that numerous books were written on why Buonarroti (Michelangelo) used muted colors for both. All such books are now trashed because it tain't so and never was.
Your article conspicuously avoided the Vatican and its priceless treasures.
For me, the Pieta Virgin is more lifelike than most people I know. Would mentioning them have been a problem with the pagans in L.A.?
The French have the rep for the finest cuisine, but having traveled extensively to both and, of course, being just a little biased (the Via Natoli that I found on a visit to Palermo having some bearing on the matter), I would much rather mangia bene, viva bene in Italia than anywhere else.
--Frank Natoli, Newton, N.J.
I found your article on the Internet.
Congratulations on your relocation to Rome. I don't know how long you are planning on making your residence in Rome. It would be interesting to hear more about your adjustment to daily life and the real Italy, the one beyond frescoes and monuments to the past.
Grazie mille,
--Roberto Alvarez, St. Petersburg, Fla.
I enjoyed reading your June 1 article. We lived in Rome from 1969-1974, and it doesn't sound as though much has changed, except, of course, for the fact that when we were there, the dollar was king (a bus ride was 50 lire, or 8 cents).
There was a little student place in the Piazza della Quercia (off the Piazza Farnese) where we'd eat a plate of carbonara for 100 lire although we usually wouldn't have a secondo because the meat was of indeterminate origin.
I still think about Roma often, and I'm glad you're enjoying yourself there.
--Paul Boudreau, Washington, D.C.
As an Italian immigrant now for two decades in the U.S., I was taken back to my beloved city by your articles. I feel ready to pack and go!
Thank you for the nice journal.
--Tony Urso, Phoenix
Lived in Paris for a few years, and now Rome? I'm so envious of your life! So wonderful that you can make a living and also be able to do all that. My hat's off to you!
--Tony Eng, Los Angeles
I'm originally from Los Angeles, and have been living in the Venice "countryside" the last 21 years. Your article sums up the passion I too feel for Italy, the contradictions, the simple things that we as stranieri observe with such curiosity, delight and then make them our own, for a lifetime.
Yesterday I spent an afternoon with two dear friends visiting from Southern California. They, as so many others have, asked me whether Italy had truly had become my home. My answer: At times I am a foreigner in both countries, and at times I am at home in both countries. I hope you stay long enough to be able to say the same.
--Marie Ohanesian-Nardin, Venice, Italy
Loved your article on living in Rome. I lived there in 1989, and it's my favorite city in the world. One thing that's changed since I lived there is the addition of the Torre Argentina cat sanctuary, which I assume you know about, but if you don't, they are at www.romancats.com/index_eng.php
They're a great organization. You should check them out.
--Jackie Fuchs, Los Angeles
Loved your article "At Home in Rome." After living here (this time) for almost six years, I've found Rome's quirks get better and better. It's the dollar's quirks that are hard to take!
That is why I started Secret Gardens Italy ( www.secretgardensitaly.com) last year. Although it's not a huge moneymaker yet, it has been steady progress, and we are doing good work and are the specialists in our niche.
Find out for yourself. I would like to invite you to a venue that has anchored many of our Rome tours since December. We have a few reservations unspoken for on June 19, for Rome's "newest" archaeological dig of a thermal and two luxury homes from 100 AD, under the Renaissance Palazzo Valentini. The exhibit closes at the end of the month to restart the dig, and it is not to be missed: I would say of Palazzo Valentini that, finally, a presentation has risen to the level of the archaeology. On these two dates, the presentations are in English.
--Lisa Finerty, Rome and Umbria
I love your columns, which I read in the L.A. Times. We travel a lot, maybe 10 foreign trips a year. I always pack a packet of cheesecloth, about 20 stickpins and a roll of Scotch tape. With these items, I can make a temporary screen for any window or doorway. On hot nights, we can always have air this way without mosquitoes. Even the monkeys did not enter our room through this "screen" in India.
Keep writing! We have been to most of the places you write about, sometimes many times. On our last visit to Rome, I wrote a riddle corresponding to my numbered map. When friends flew in from the U.S. to join us, the B&B handed them the map and riddle and they had to find us. They had no idea we had brought some of their friends with us. There were a total of five friends, and they discovered one of us at each point on the map. By the time they finished their riddle, they had walked to several of the landmarks in the ancient heart of Rome.
No. 1 was Largo Argentina, and we ended up at Nino's for lunch, near the Spanish Steps. We went on to spend two weeks traveling through Southern Italy together. They are still raving about that trip.
I know why you love Rome. Cheers!
--Jan Beumer, Los Angeles
Thanks for three great reads in Sunday's L.A. Times.
As an Italian American, a study-abroad student (Georgetown's Villa in Fiesole, Italy) and a fervent Italophile, I wanted to jump on a plane immediately. But due to the current dollar/euro "disaccordo," I think I'll wait a bit.
I have been to Rome many times, including Christmas Eve Vigil (2005) and Easter Jubilee (2000), and can't seem to get enough. The tip on the electric tram to Trastevere is indeed a plus. I had dinner in 2000 there at a place that served one of the best meals I ever had.
I just finished a great book on the "fabbrica" of the Vatican, "Basilica: The Splendor and the Scandal," by R.A. Scotti. Some of the recorded dialogue seems a bit fictional, but it's a fascinating tale of how greed (among others sins) affected the church forever.
I will also add some of the movies you recommend to my Netflix queue.
You're living my dream and I wish you a memorable chapter of your life in Rome. You have some challenges, but the rewards are plentiful too.
--James Tumminia, Los Angeles
Just read your article in The Times. Welcome to Rome! I am originally from L.A. but have lived here for 20 years. If I can be of any help (mosquitoes, bars, other ex-pats etc.) don't hesitate to contact me. Good luck!
--Pamela Amos, Rome
Your article brought back some great memories from our recent visit to Rome. We just loved it. I especially loved the picture of the cafe. I'm cutting it out of the paper to save. We had a great cafe like the one shown in the picture down the street from our hotel and had lunch there every day.
I am allergic to wheat and the owner went out of his way to accommodate me and see that I was well fed. After my only Italian phrase about my allergy failed with the man at the counter, the owner came out and I could tell him what I needed and it worked out great.
It was a challenge maneuvering my way around Europe (unfortunately only two days in Rome) and needing a wheat-free diet to boot, with only English and a few phrases for two weeks.
--Phyllis Chavez, Santa Monica
P.S. Don't you love the coffee there?
You are right. The Romans are astounding. I couldn't believe how open they are to others. I've never seen anything like it in a major city. Not London. Certainly not Paris. Certainly not New York. I'm thinking of moving to Perugia for at least two years, but I do know what you mean about Rome.
--Elise Bodtke, San Francisco
Unabellissima story. I myself lived in Rome many years ago on a tiny street between Vittorio Emanuele and the Piazza Navona. How on Earth did you find an apartment in such a wonderful place! I still come back but only for short periods. (Fall and winter are my preferred seasons.)
You have many, many years of mysterious, beautiful experiences ahead.
--Per Hampton, West Hollywood
I enjoyed your June 1 article about Rome, and most particularly the list of books and movies. It would be wonderful if, when you cover other destinations, you would add a list of relevant books and movies. I think it would increase your reading audience. Some of us will be traveling to Rome; even more of us would enjoy reading about it.
I'm planning to put on my CD "The Fountains of Rome" and rereading "I, Claudius." Thank you.
--Suzanne Fishman, Hermosa Beach
What a pleasant surprise to find all your items about Rome in today's Times. Thank you. I have been pouring through many guidebooks for months because I am treating myself to a trip to Tuscany in October for my 70th birthday. (I end with five days in Rome.) Amazingly, you are the first to talk about the seven hills in the context of today -- again, grazie.
May I suggest Steven Saylor's "Roma" to add to your list. I read it because I wanted a sense of how the city was formed over the years and it gave me that in an interesting way, spread over a thousand years.
I have rented a studio for five nights on Via Capo d'Africa. It has a terrace with a view of the Colosseum, so I may have all my morning coffee there.
Again, I want you to know what a hit it was to read your articles this morning.
Grazie mille,
--John Harrell, Palm Springs
I really enjoyed Spano's list of books and movies that she recommends for someone to read/view before a trip to Rome.
I take about 100 students a year to Rome as part of my art history classes that I teach in Manhattan Beach. I show several of the movies that she recommends (and, yes, 12th-graders still love watching "Roman Holiday." Even the boys!)
I have to add a great writer to her list: H.V. Morton. His "A Traveller in Rome" is just outstanding. Though written in the 1930s, this book is still relevant and very enjoyable. Many Americans may have forgotten about this once famous travel writer, but a modern traveler to Rome would greatly benefit from reading this book. I have read it several times during my visits to Rome during the past 20 years and continue to be inspired by his words and the city.
--John Mellis, Redondo Beach
It is so nice to see you back in Europe and now writing about Rome.. While I miss your columns about travel in the U.S., your writing has a happier edge to it than ever. Your travels to China didn't reflect the same joy as your musings about the three years you lived in Paris and wrote about your travels in Europe. It must be great to be "home" again.
A friend and I are co-writing a book with the working title "Quiet as a Baptist Rat in a Catholic Church: Sayings of the American Idiom." American English, especially the idiomatic "sayings" we use on a daily basis, drive those crazy who are trying to learn and use our day-to-day language.
This became clear to me during my first trip to Europe 30 years ago this summer, when I asked the bartender in our little hotel in Amsterdam, "What are the damages?" He was terribly confused and wanted to know what had been broken.
I'm a slow learner and found myself on the same trip explaining to a French waiter on a river cruise why I had said that a dessert was "so good it must be a sin." Apparently he simply could not understand how anything that tasted so good could also be sinful.
I look forward to reading more of your travel columns in the L.A. Times, especially as you move about Italy and explore the regions and cities/towns away from Rome.
--Gary Best, Glendora
I enjoyed your Rome piece. I spent three weeks in Rome in a little apartment just off the Campo dei Fiori. As someone who lived a year in Florence between high school and university, I had always regarded it as too busy, too dirty, too much of a large, modern city. I don't know why, since I never bothered to go having heard so many bad things.
But my three weeks there were marvelous. I suspect if we weren't staying in the heart of historic old Rome, the experience would have been very different.
What surprised and delighted me the most was the way we spent the entire three weeks on foot, and also how few cars there are in the center which, as you know comprises little streets leading from one piazza to another, a very enlightened way to fashion urban space.
I remember one evening walking back from a nice dinner (I must say I found the restaurants in Rome subpar relative to Florence and Milan), we found ourselves in pace with an elegant, fortysomething chap who made friendly light banter alongside us and then simply invited us up into his place for a drink.
We shared a nice post-prandial cocktail. There was no agenda, simply sharing the passage of time and being, the sort of thing one does in old Europe generally when eating food.
Which reminds me: The Sunday passegiatas (strolling slowly) in the park above the Spanish Steps were truly memorable. We would find a place to sit and then people-watch.
A very nice place to end up. Hope it works out for you. There can be few better places to live in the world.
--Ashley Howes, Cape Breton, Canada.
You are living my dream of the moment. I am an Angeleno who has lived for 30 years on Maui and visited Italy last May. Rome was my favorite. I loved the old and new thriving together.
I was especially inspired by the art galleries and shops on the Via Margutta and Via del Babuino.
I would love to find a way to transport my business of painting clothing to Italy. Really liked Capri too. Thanks for your posts.
--Jill Painter Christierson, Ulupalakua, Hawaii
I loved your two stories in today's Travel section. How in the world are you able to work as a Times reporter and yet live in Rome?
--Rich Varenchik, Valencia
Surprised and delighted to see your extensive and interesting article on Rome. Just the usual fine work that I have missed and it's good to see it back.
Italy "retrograde"? Sure in some respects, but the more I see of "progress" in today's Western world, the more retrogression makes sense.
Italian American like you, I too feel very much at home when I'm in Italy, no matter where in the country I visit. Should you ever visit Matera (where "The Passion of the Christ" was filmed) stay at Hotel Italia, just a two-star but with five-star quality, (feels like a museum) and in Fiuggi stay at Don Bosco Pensione, a lovely home-style run by Lucia and Franco (no need for expensive "posh" hotels.
--Jerry Pupa, Redondo Beach
I love to travel, and I love to read Susan Spano. As the world shrinks, Susan's ability to describe the offbeat and quirky makes even the most jaded destinations worth taking a second look.
--Mackay Crampton, Ojai
Many thanks for your article on Rome. I am a seasoned traveler who prefers a local's perspective on places and cultures, which is why I enjoyed your article so much. We'll definitely get on the 117 bus next time we're there.
--Ian Henderson, Perth, Australia
I am also a Southern Californian living in Rome. I wanted to let you know that after moving here four years ago from the OC to open my own small business (a hair salon) that my eternal love for this Eternal City grows more each day, as I can see yours does too. I want to thank you for your article on Rome, for the smile it brought to me and for sharing my feelings about this wonderful and wacky city with the rest of the world.
--Rick Breco, Rome
Thank you for your series on Paris/France. I'm looking forward to Rome/Italy too.
I have traveled for business and/or pleasure to Europe almost 50 times since '78 and always miss it. I enjoy living vicariously through your eyes, ears and nose each Sunday morning here in Ventura.
Keep up the good work and continue having fun.
--E. Carey Walters, Ventura
My wife and I took our first trip out of the country last summer and went to Rome, Florence, Venice. We loved Rome. It was great to see your feature and brought back many good memories for us, will keep your article in the travel file and note your many good suggestions and tips for our hoped-for return one day.
Best wishes, and good luck in your stay there. Sounds like you are having a great time.
--Kevin Sweeney, Los Angeles
You are living my dream. Stay as long as humanly possible. I hope to get there myself one day.
--Nancy Orchard, Bettendorf, Iowa
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