Monthly Archives: January 2012

A Special Tour of Ancient Rome

On Saturday our Italian professor, Rossella, led the class on a walking tour of ancient Rome. We met at the Circo Massimo (Circus Maximus) metro station and made a big circle for four hours to the Colosseo (Colosseum), stopping for … Continue reading

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Enjoying Winter in Rome

I love Rome in winter. The winter sky is impossibly blue, and brilliant sunsets and sunrises are common.  The weather in December and January has been in the 50s during the day and in the 30s at night. Only a … Continue reading

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Pompeii

Contemporary  historians* believe that on August 24, 79 (AD), one day after Vulcanalia, the festival of the Roman god of fire, Mt. Vesuvius erupted for 18 hours, burying some of the surrounding cities to the south and killing 2,000 of … Continue reading

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Good Eats by Michael

If life hands you lemons, make lemonade, and that’s just what Michael did this weekend. Cabs were on strike in Rome on Friday (strikes are so common here), so I had to take buses and the metro to our Italian … Continue reading

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Mangiamo, Part 10: The Best Coffee in Rome, if not the Universe

One morning in mid-September I was exploring a part of Centro Storico that I didn’t think I’d visited before (although I later learned that the 116 bus drives right through it). I looked up, as usual—you miss so  much if … Continue reading

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The Best Day of the Year

My birthday, January 8, is the best day of the year—this year and every year. I have to share my birthday—sometimes with people I like, including my daughter Alison, my Coos Bay classmate Jeri Due (what’s she doing these days?), … Continue reading

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Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay

Michael took a few days off after New Year’s Day. When he asked me what I wanted to do, I instantly replied, “Go to the beach!” I didn’t really mean go to the beach, because that would have been an … Continue reading

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New Year’s Eve in Rome

We had a wonderful New Year’s Eve celebration. I had a busy day planned for us, including visits to a couple of churches and a stop for gelato, and we’d heard that we could see fireworks at midnight just down … Continue reading

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