La Notte Bianca

I'm over my jetlag.

Woke up yesterday and for the first day in a week did not feel my eyelids weighing me down. the night before I had walked out into the cortile of the Academy, where we've been having our dinners and found the complex darkened save for the few tables set up for the fellows to eat. I had an immediate and profound sense of time I'll have here and the joy to come. After dinner, a few of us walked to the Aqua Paola (the so-called fontanone)...a terminus for an aqueduct one block from the Academy, which overlooks the city. I said my hellos to the Roman skyline (which includes Trajan's column, the Pantheon dome, myriad churches, and, of course, the Vittoriano--aka, the typewriter). The city seemed to accept my greeting and let me sleep for the first time in days. I woke up Saturday, refreshed and ready to begin my sojourn.

Last night was 'La notte bianca' the white night. The title is a bit cheesy and implies the nightlong aperture of museums, archives, churches etc. I can think of few other cities that would be aflood with people at 2 in the morning trying to see the state's record office (archivo dello stato). the streets were nearly closed to traffic, not due to barriers, but the crowd of early morning strollers...lines wrapped around the great museums of the city for free admission and folks wandered the subterranean halls of many of the oldest churches. I managed a trip into the state archives (housed in the old Università la Sapienza) and part of a complex by della Porta that includes Boromini's most famous church. We then wandered to the Palazzo Altemps for a look at some ancient sculpture including the sucidal gaul, an aphrodite of Knidos, the "Orestes and Electra" group, and many more spectacular busts, statues and bits of marble.

Back now for a slow Sunday, lunch at a pizzeria in Trastevere and a cook out for dinner.

A presto,
J.