Skip to main content

Roma, day Four



We went shopping, and I spent way too much money on a coat and I will be eating nothing but porridge and soup till my next loan check comes in March because of it. But the Italian fashion is really intoxicating--they design with great freedom and individuality--and I was actually practicing a great deal of restraint. I bought some gifts for various people and Chaeli bought a blue dress. We also stopped off at a gallery in the Barberini Palace. I didn't mention that the first night in Rome we stumbled into this palace and happily rambled about on its grounds (it's in the middle of the city and the gates were wide open).



The gallery was not that impressive, except that it was in a way-cool building with way-cool marble stairs and ornate painted ceilings. I think someone should make a coffee table book of the floors and ceilings of Rome. They are among the more impressive aspects of the city's impressiveness. There was one painting in the gallery that was familiar (of course, I have no photo, but I will find an image online if I can) called "Sacred and Profane Love," by Giovanni Baglioni. It is a picture of an angel of light and a demon of great ugliness interacting with a regular person. We went to dinner that night and I had some kind of spaghetti-ish thing with mussels and it was yummy. We also drew pictures of what we thought angels looked like for real, and now I want to have an art exhibit with all sorts of depictions of angels in all manner of mediums from lots of different artists. The only requirement is that no chubby babies are allowed.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

window in the sub

Dear Nathaniel, I am microwaving pie that Mom bought up in Oak Glen this week on her way home from the orthodontist. As I put it in the microwave, I was full of sadness that I was not in Oak Glen with her. Why did I not go? I was working. I want to see the trees turn. I want to wander slowly through autumnal gift shops. Under the water, you cannot sense the approach of the seasons. Even here it is difficult because, after all, it's California. But I can still sense it. After three seasons in Illinois and one in Scotland, it must be with me for good. Or at least for a while. Because I am all abuzz with eagerness for fall and winter, for turkeys and dried leaves and Santa. I should start cooking again this fall. Fall foods are my favorite. Baked squash dripping with melted butter and brown sugar, pumpkin soup... this year, if I have enough money, I will put together a holiday dinner for my friends. And we will drink Scandinavian mulled wine, which is the most wonderful thing I have e...
13 comments
Read more

Fontastic

One of the perpetual projects in my little publishing company's life is the development of our company logo. This is my favorite project, as it involves the use of fonts. And I am rather a font fanatic. I have spent the last few hours trolling dafont.com, which is a wonderful website of free and mostly-free fonts for personal and often commercial usage. Rather than download every font I like, I sketched out my own versions of each of them as they inspired me. I thought I'd share them with you here, and if any of my noble readers have preferences, feel free to shoot me a comment. I am hoping I have determined the font-of-choice by the time the new website is ready to go up. After all, what's a corporate website without a corporate logo? Here are some photos of my most recent selections.
6 comments
Read more

Being a Baker

Working at the Main Library has surprising advantages. Just now I stepped out of my office, walked five paces across the hall, scanned a badge, and walked under the civic center plaza to the elevator that stretches from beneath the earth up to the mayor’s office on the fourteenth floor. I didn’t have so far to go—just up one level to the utilities counter, where a sympathetic, amused woman named Sue shut down my gas payments. It took less than five minutes. I finished packing up my kitchen days ago. My cake pans were in boxes sometime early last week. But as I walked through the underground loading dock on my way back to the office, I was distinctly aware of the finality of what I’d just done. I would never, from that moment on, be able to bake for anyone out of that kitchen. Maybe it doesn’t seem like a very big deal, but I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of a certain identity, namely being “the person who bakes a lot”. I made a tiered wedding cake for some friends (because...
2 comments
Read more