northampton, ma

A funny thing happened to me yesterday. I slept in, and as I woke up at around 10:30 all I could think of was getting fried artichokes. Everytime I read about Roman food the big emphasis was on artichokes, maybe this entered my subconcious and created my craving. Anyway, I walked out my door around noon for the thirty minute walk to a certain restaurant near the river, Osteria da Giggetto, that everyone says makes them very well. I got about a block away, and I realized: Matt, you just left your hostel without a map, guidebook, or any idea where you want to go after you eat lunch. It literally completely slipped my mind. It was such a sweet feeling. That really is the beauty of a longterm trip. Not caring to organize, not caring if you get lost.

In that way I really, really do not fit in at my hostel. Most people here are on short trips and trying to do way, way too much with the short time they have. I also think a lot of that has to do with their age. The average age bracket I would say is 18-21, and even if you say "c'mon Matt you're only 24," let me tell you there is a world of difference between me and these fresh-outta-highschool kids. I have spent the last two years working as a substitute teacher at various high schools and some of these kids here really remind me of the seniors I would have. That's not necessarily a bad thing, most of the people here have a lot of energy. But I definitely am on a different wavelength. It's an odd feeling, realizing that you've left a particular age of your life behind by noticing that the people around you are no longer your people. This is not to say I'm not having fun, I have hung with a lot of cool people. And Certaldo, my next town, will have a totally different and more relaxed feel. One thing I know from staying in so many hostels is that the further off the beaten path you go, especially in Europe, the more the crowd shifts from 18-21 to 24-30. And Certaldo is definitely off that path - no one here has even heard of it.

So back to the food. I had the carciofi alla giudecca, a Roman Jewish specialty where the artichoke is deep fried and the leaves turn crispy almost to a potato-chip like texture. I also had fiori di zucchine ripiene, which are stuffed zucchini flowers, this time with mozzarella and anchovy. Again in the Roman Jewish style, the whole arrangement is deep fried. The artichokes were interesting (unlike anything I had ever seen before) but I quickly tired of it. Too dry, although the heart was delicious. The zucchini flowers, on the other hand, were incredible. The mixture of flavors was perfect. These are two dishes you apparently only find in Rome.

Yesterday I had a beautiful walk from my place near Termini to Trastevere. I would guess it to have been 75 degrees, nice breeze, the kind of day where you can walk the entire time in the sun and barely break a sweat. Rome at its best. And as I was crossing the bridge onto Isola Tiberina a question went through my head: why is it that a place full of antiquity like Rome fascinates us whereas modern cities do not? Maybe it seems like a simple question, given that Rome has a long, long history that a place like say Stockton, California doesn't have. But what makes us value history so much? Why do we treasure the old and discard the new as being in some way less interesting?  Why are the grimy and worn down buildings of Venice seen as having 'character' while grimy, worn down inner cities in America are considered 'blight'?  Aesthetics play a big part of it, but I think there's more.

I don't know what it was, maybe the weather, maybe the giant gelato I was eating, but my mind went philosophical and psychoanalytic. Out went a set of logical leaps, first the premise that we don't much like the unknown. The past, unlike the present or future, is known to us to a certain degree. This gives the past value. But the further into the past you go, the less we really know it. This puts the past more and more into the category of the 'unknown' to the point that it creates a bit of mystery. Mystery creates intrigue and intrigue creates interest. Thus we're more apt to find interest in the old architecture and stories of ancient Rome than we are going to find in modern Stockton. I believe the only time in recent history that we as a society valued the future more so than the past was with the Futurist movement in 1900-1920. For them the past represented imperfection whereas the future represented untapped possibilities. I would imagine this mindset to be quite foreign to the average tourist in Rome. Try telling us that the Colusseum is a tired piece of junk after we have travelled 6000 miles to see it.

Now I don't know if these are garbage ideas, it's barely 7am and I can't sleep and my mind is a bit foggy. Likely in a week I'll read this and decide it's crap.  Anyway I'll tell a story.  Yesterday as I was heading back home to my hostel I got on the bus.  The bus was rather full, I was in the back and couldn't see much out front.  The bus sat there for about 5 minutes, not moving.  People started getting off the bus, I was wondering what the heck was going on, and then I finally noticed the bicycles.  I got off the bus to see a giant parade of people on bikes jamming the intersection and completely stopping all traffic.  They were all cheering and chanting and shouting things like "Roma è più bella in bici!" ("Rome is more beautiful on a bike"; basically making the statement that cars are polluters and noisy, and that bikes are the way to go).  It was pretty awesome to see.  I don't know exactly how many people there were but I would guesstimate around 1000.  The Italians in their cars and Vespas weren't so pleased with these statement-making environmentalists, and I witnessed a rather heated argument in the middle of piazza Venezia.  It all was quintisentially Italian, and something that you don't see back in the States, except maybe in San Francisco.  As a lefty liberal I loved the whole thing, even if it did make me walk home.

PS, Mom I ate very healty yesterday. For lunch I had a 4 scoops of gelato and for dinner a pizza.

Hello hello. Back in Italy and good lord is it more expensive now than it was 3 years ago. But who wants to spend their first day bitching? So onto more fun topics, like the type of kids that fill the hostels in top destination cities, eg. Rome. It is pretty logical if you think about it, but the type of backpacker you run into in Rome generally differs from that of a backpacker in Todi or Gaeta. I already feel a bit old and it's only my first day at the hostel - most of the people around me look to be 19-21 and have that youthful exuberance I have lost in my long years. And almost universally they are in Rome for a few days, off next to destinations like Florence or Venice or Paris. The Grand Europe Tour. Already I overheard one girl who has been in Europe for 1 months now and has been to something like 12 or so cities over 6 countries.

It's not that I have anything against such travellers, but I find I don't have as much in common with them. You can tell the difference between "old hand" backpackers who have gone around the block a few times and the backpackers who are living their first experience abroad. Maybe it's an elitist "I survived South America" attitude, comparing myself to these whippersnappers who think going to Venice is an adventure. Yes, I'm a backpacker snob. There is no sense of danger or adventure in Europe, but damn there are good eats.

Things haven't really changed in the last three years here. The women are still mighty fine, prosciutto and rucola still taste good together, and the passing train still jolts your sleeping head off the window pane. And so, the adventure begins. Even if I said there is no adventure here. It's a classic travelling line and I'm going to say it anyway. I'm here in Italy till mid-August and who knows, maybe something more adventurous than swimming into la Grotta Azzurra will happen to me. And if not, I'll write every few days about my love for cured meat.

Mainly for Mom (hi Mom!), here's a map of where I most likely will be staying. Some of these (Certaldo, Stazzema, Assisi, Sermoneta) are bases for seeing other towns (Certaldo: Volterra, San Gimignano; Stazzema: the Apuan Alps, Carrara, Gulf of Poets; Assisi: the general Umbria region; Sermoneta: Gaeta, Sperlonga). In what order I'll be visiting these spots I'm not sure, although the first stops are locked in: Rome for 6 nights, Certaldo for 5, and Modena for 1.