aboriginally This past fall I was asked to write a profile of Fr. Reginald Foster, which is coming out shortly from The New Criterion. At the time I was working on a memoir about Rome, and it was obvious that I was leaving a tremendous amount about my relationship with Reginaldus unsaid because it was too complicated. […]
Category Archives: Italy
The Reginald Foster Biography Project
25-Feb-17Artichokes.
25-Jul-16http://littlemagonline.com/musings-and-observations/musings-and-observations-fit-for-amuse-spring-2015-couture-part-i/attachment/back-to-the-future-1985/ The Catskills is not a great place for artichokes, but they’re nice to eat and apparently the Florentines think they make excellent dried flowers as well. And I think they’re right.
Florence.
24-Jul-16Our first stop on our little trip through Italy was Florence. There are new fast trains from Rome to Florence which arrive in less than an hour and a half. Before we knew it we were lugging our bags past Santa Maria Novella and over the Arno to our guesthouse. I have to admit that […]
Backpacking with Bambini.
22-Jul-16I consider myself an old pro at backpacking – I started traveling in Europe with a backpack in 1994, coming back many times (never gone longer than eight months, but that’s still a pretty long time), and doing a lot of pack-hiking trips in the U.S. When I do long-distance biking, I strap a backpack […]
Falcons with Human Breasts.
11-Jul-16Spotted walking down the Via Giulia today in Rome: a pair of falcons with human breasts, sitting atop pilasters on the Palazzo Falconieri. Apparently this oddity is the work of the ever-odd Borromini. Borromini has never been a favorite of mine, and this is no favorite of mine either, but its weirdness is noticeable. One […]
Rome Is Different.
02-Jun-16Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust; the dust is earth, of earth we make loam — and why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer barrel? Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay, might stop a hole to keep the wind away, oh that the earth […]
Falsifiable Italy.
01-Jun-16Si sal evanuerit, in quo salietur? – Jesus Dinner-time conversation in my house, as is custom for those who have already found wedded bliss, occasionally strays to the topic of personal solutions to our unwedded friends’ singledom. For one of our friends the solution seems obvious: “Mr. Darcy” – and why not have some fun […]