lots happening in Rome

... and I guess I'm a tiny part of it. Please watch this space for actual "blog" comment in the next few days. I've been emailing and writing, going to school, struggling to get my apartment livable, trying to find better ways to get online, enjoying the filth and the flowers, the gorgeous, sunny fresh air and the cool nights... If one does not get toes smashed by a Mercedes, one could actually enjoy this place. I'm living down an alley -- Vicolo Bolo, which is just off Via dei Pellegrini, which is parallel to Corso Vittorio, which is next to... and close to my school. Many of the famous places here in Rome are no farther, in fact much closer, than my mailbox at home. In a mile or so I'm at dozens of churches, famous squares and fountains and all that. Rome. Too much to take in during one lifetime, but an easy place to spend a lifetime trying.

The best book I've read about Rome (actually, brought it along, even in its old hardback version) is "A Thousand Bells at Noon" by Franco Romagnoli... it's really a love letter to the city by a boy born there, a man who left, and an older man who returned. Remarkable. Now available in a $14.99 paperback version.

He died in 2008... wish I could have met him. See this NY Times obit