THE BEAUTY OF TEMPORARY LIGHT

VENICE; I was a young fiancée of another century when we took a nighttime gondola ride in the pitch black sweetness of air passing under bridges with sounds of an oar splashing into water and an aria from our gondolier breaking the velvety waves. We had our whole lives before us. (Many moons ago)

We’d be in Sorrento right now, checked into our hotel, he’d go for a swim, and I’d check the view from our room. I’d see his flash of green eyes from the veranda, smiling up at me. We’d have buffalo mozzarella and bread for lunch, and go in search of a cafe.

If only he had lived.

Written in 2018

A Secret Garden To The Sea

There is an overgrown but perfect secret garden path behind an old villa in Sorrento we stumbled upon one day, and we followed down the rambling, winding trees and shrubbery and lemon and olive trees and blossoming flowers and into the shadows of green.

The further in we wandered, the thicker the growth grew. And yet everything was lush and cared for. Nothing dead, nothing abandoned.

We could smell the sea and the sun rays in the air, carried through cracks in the dense thicket. And so we followed the salt and the promise of blue until we reached the top of a cliff cut thousands of years ago, overlooking the crashing sea and rocks. The birds cried and dove for fish and soared the bright skies. We were alone in our own little paradise. It’ll be ours forever in memory.

Where is this enchanting place?

Sorrento, Italy, in Campania

At the Museo Correale Sorrento

https://www.museocorreale.it/museum/first-floor/

on the First Floor

In The Hall of Mirrors, on the first floor of the Museo Correale Art Museum of Sorrento, Italy, is the Baroque sitting room with the game of Biribisso and salon rooms dedicated to Flemish painting and Neapolitan decorative arts from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. To the bottom right side of the first room hangs the incredible painting by 17th Century artist Artemisia Gentileschi, The Pentinent Magdalene.

Sorrento is one of the few places in Italy where you can see paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi. Nearby city of Naples is another, boasting several paintings at the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte and Palazzo Zevallos, Naples. There are a few paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi in the Palazzo Pitti of Florence, and one in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and one in the Casa Buonarroti in Florence, and two paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi in Rome at the Spada Gallery and one at the Palazzo Barberini Rome.

Once you visit each sumptuous room of art in the little villa museum, (note the sea views from the museum terrazzo and windows on the top floors), and before you leave, exit out the back to the lovely Museum Correale Sorrento gardens. Wander the paths and find our small secret garden, which will lead you out to the sea. You can easily retrace your steps back to the museum and exit on the Main Street and Piazza of Sorrento,

The museum is currently closed due to the pandemic but check their website if you plan to visit Sorrento, because it could reopen anytime. Many museums in Italy have reopened. Some require proof of vaccination OR a negative COVID test that is not older than two days. You can obtain rapid COVID tests while abroad in Italy. Check with a medical Farmacia (Pharmacy) with a green or blue lit cross outside its store front, and ask someone for a doctor recommendation - most medical services are inexpensive in Italy and many can accommodate walk in service. You can also contact your hotel concierge for a hotel doctor (they are most convenient but expensive). Hospitals are also an option, but may be an inconvenience except in emergencies.

A Romantic Day and Sunset Night with drinks & dining & art in Rome: Galleria Borghese, Via Margutta, Villa Borghese Gardens, Spanish Steps

One of our favorite and most romantic things to do in Rome over the years was to stroll through the Villa Borghese parks and gardens to one of the most elegant and sensual villa art museums on earth: The Galleria Borghese. It is one of the most important art museums in the world, and its world renowned art collection is housed in such a pleasant series of gardens and parks, tucked away in a lovely palazzo.

The Renaissance and Baroque gardens of umbrella pines, cypresses, palm trees, flowers, hedges, and exquisite lemon, orange, and magnolia trees of the Villa Borghese parks surround the gorgeous Borghese Art Gallery, transporting visitors back into the past glories of Roman country estates. Fortunately for us, they are free and open to the public now for generations.

The parks were private gardens for the aristocrats of Roman society until they were opened for the 19th century Grand Tourists. In 1820 English Romantic poet John Keats himself strolled through these same hallowed grounds before he succumbed to tuberculosis in his rooms at the Piazza di Spagna. Goethe mused through the art collection of the Borghese’s a generation before that, recording his impressions of the palazzo and of the art in his grand book, Italian Journey.

The beautiful Galleria Borghese is home to part of the Borghese art collection curated by the Cardinal Scipione Borghese (nephew of Pope Paul V (reign 1605-1621).

The Villa was commissioned to be designed and built by the architect Flaminio Ponzi, partly based on sketches by Scipione, as a “villa suburbana” on the country edge of Rome. Scipione was one of the first patrons of Bernini and collected many pieces by Caravaggio, including The Sick Bacchus, Boy With a Basket of Fruit, and the poignant Saint Jerome Writing.

The Borghese collection also includes the breathtaking Bernini sculptures of David, Rape of Proserpine, and Apollo and Daphne, – and the Tiziano masterpiece, Sacred and Profane Love.

Other maestros are Raffaello “Lady With A Unicorn” (purported to be the Lady Giulia Farnese, commissioned by Pope Alexander aka Rodrigo Borgia), alongside countless pieces by Rubens, Barocci, Antonio Canova, Coreggio, Dosso Dossi, Domenichino, Veronese, Lorenzo Lotto, and Parmigianino.

Portrait of Young Woman with Unicorn is a painting by Raphael.

I love the gorgeous architectural details in stone and in fountains and statues lining the entrance of the Galleria Borghese. Remnants of the past play out as well in ancienne statue fragments and the fountains outside the museum’s grand entrance. The walk to the Galleria Borghese always has that lazy Sunday feeling, surrounded by Roman families and visitors enjoying the greenery and fresh air. Young and old lovers can be spied kissing under a tree or lying on a picnic blanket enjoying the sunshine and the sounds of songbirds above them.

There are homages to temples, gods and goddesses, Greek Tragedies and Comedies, and to Rome’s storied past in the “Romantic era ruins” among the pleasure walks and dreamy Umbrella pines. As you approach the museum you feel you are in for something really special… and are not disappointed in the great architectural reveal.

More architectural details by Flaminio Ponzi and Scipione Borghese create a feast for the eyes, before entering the villa with a ticket… for the Roman antiquities and Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces, … in room after sumptuously decorated room.

Tickets are recommended bought IN ADVANCE, online or at the ticket office down the stairs. To enter the museum, proceed up the stone stairs to the stunning Classical Antiquity portico where they will take your ticket.

You don’t want to miss this experience!

After an afternoon stroll and a few hours in the museum, head to the Pincio at the Golden Hour (an hour before dusk) and watch the sun set over the cupolas and ruins and houses behind the glittering Piazza del Popolo.

The golden and orange light eventually turns a deep violet, and there is an enchanting glow about Rome at its most magnificent! It is a heady, Romantic vision, and every one seems to be under a collective spell of beauty and the feeling of immortality in Éros in the Eternal City.

This is one of the best, most beautiful, and unforgettable days you could spend in Rome. It could be the most romantic Valentine’s Day of your lives. Rome seen and felt like this is truly writ on the heart for an eternity.

You can eat at the romantic nearby Casina Valadier for sweeping sunset views and aperitivos or an early dinner – they have a Valentine’s Day prix fixe menu for lovebirds.

Looking for something quicker? Walk a short distance to the late Renaissance church of the Santissima Trinità dei Monti, (French: La Trinité-des-Monts).

Pop into the sanctity and quiet beauty of the French Roman Catholic church and you may luck out with a choir of nuns singing en français classical songs of devotion while you peer at lush murals, sculptures, paintings, and the altar.

Light a candle together and head down the famed Spanish Steps just outside and whisper a snippet of a Keats ode into your beloved’s ear outside of the Keats Shelley (Byron) House Museum (worth a visit if you’re there earlier when it is open!).

Stop for a late tea at Babington’s and try their Rome in Love Tea inspired by the Paolina Borghese sculpture and Female Beauty at the Borghese, or enjoy some cocktails or champagne and light fare – offered in the luxurious comfort of their 125 year old tea room. It’s a cute British afternoon tea room with Italian flare.

Looking for something sexier? Cross the avenue and stop in at the nearby Romantics’ saucy hangout, the Antico Caffè Greco, decorated in 18th century red satin and marble decor, for drinks and desserts.

Don’t skip a look and a ponder in the beautiful Santissima Trinità dei Monti French Church, at the top of the Spanish Steps from the Via Condotti.

Gregory Peck’s apartment in Roman Holiday where he brings Audrey Hepburn in the film is found in the romantic and quiet street of Via Margutta.

If you’re still in the mood for a short early evening walk hand in hand past the glamorous shops and passersby, head to the most romantic street in Rome, the charmingly low-lit, ivy covered boutiques and artisan art shops, boutique hotels, and restaurants, Via Margutta (made famous by Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday!) I love the vegetarian restaurant created by film director Federico Fellini, Il Margutta! They have many vegetable creations, handmade pasta and smoked cheeses, and a vegan and gluten free menu, with exceptional organic wines, mocktails, and delicious desserts, including house made gelato.

GALLERIA BORGHESE (english site)

https://galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it/en/visita/

Via del Collegio

Romano, 27

00186 Roma, Italia

tel. 39 06 67231

www.beniculturali.it

Antico Caffè Greco http://caffegreco.shop/index.php

Via dei Condotti, 86, 00187 Roma RM, Italy

Babington’s Tea Room https://www.babingtons.com/en

Piazza di Spagna, 23, 00187 Roma RM, Italy

Casino Valadier Restaurant https://casinavaladier.it/

La Grande Cucina S.p.A.

Piazza Bucarest, Villa Borghese

00187 Roma

P. I.V.A. 05901701002

Tel (+39) 06 69922090

Fax (+39) 06 6791280

info@casinavaladier.it

Il Margutta vegetarian food & art https://ilmargutta.bio/

Via Margutta, 118 – 00187 – Roma

Per informazioni e prenotazioni:

info@ilmargutta.bio

Tel : +39 06. 32650577

Fax : +39 06. 3218457

Cloisters in the heart of the city of Naples, Italy

A quiet outdoor garden art oasis in the heart of the bustle and hustle.

You pay a small fee to the cloisters at a ticket booth, and then have (quiet, respectful) run of the place to stroll and contemplate nature and beauty.

This double monastic complex of Santa Chiara was built in 1313–1340 by Queen Sancha of Majorca and her husband King Robert of Naples, a mix of Provençal-Gothic style and 17th century Baroque.

Heart-Stealing baroque (Spacca -) Napoli

The sun finds it way through the velvet black shadows. Posters advertise operas I won’t get to see. Padre Pio forever in the background, his face found in taxi cabs, on walls, in churches, in caffes. Chiaroscuro lighting from sunlight mixed with shadows. My Rian, he’ll remain beautiful forever in the sun here.

Hanging bronze dye pasta, bufalo mozzarella from campania, rows of inviting rum-soaked baba cakes filled with rummy yellow cream, tiny wild strawberries, Sfogliatelle.

Stunning churches, colorful architecture, dark and ancient looking alleyways filled with street theatre and trash on the street… the extremes of modern Napoli.

A baroque awning, layers of brick from different centuries, buildings and façades built on top of each other, a neapolitan girl on her mobile, another caffe beckoning the passersby.

Hanging fruit and ripe red campania tomatoes and an early pasieggetta.

Ancient pillars in residential neighborhoods, forming millennia old foundations.

Another beautiful church front and a charming caffe.

Bursts of color and brightness and the scent of glorious coffee floating in the air at every turn.

I always seem to find the caffes… I always feel like I’m on some unspoken mission to drink the best coffee.

When the little girl walked by I knew I had to capture her in that moment of contrasts and colors.

There is so much to see, just to read on the walls.

I like when the graffiti becomes art.

Back to this fellow. I remember his likeness on other walls on other visits to Naples.

Mirrors and antiques and the scrawlings every where.

A delightful music shop.

Spaccanapoli, the old Greek section of Napoli, Italy is a recurring fascination of mine.

A closed boulangerie with a broom leaning against the store front. Painted pastoral scenes on plates. Rusted piping and peeling posters. Grafitti in bright colors.

Caffe chairs sprinkled throughout the back streets of Spaccanapoli.

Two “lovers” embracing in front of an iconic “second hand shop” full of Neapolitan treasures overseen by a curious little dog.

The simple cafe tables and chairs in front of artisan shops and caffes with a sculpture of an old man in the background.

Every day life in an alleyway; people, a truck delivering goods, empty vegetable and fruit crates, the golden mustard apartments and hanging laundry.

I love the corners and crevices and surprising bursts of yellow in between the rust.

The quintessential graffiti of Naples, as ancient as the tags and scribblings on Pompeiian walls.

The old guard and the ‘new art’.

More graffiti, and the vespas and cars and Neapolitans seem all the more nonchalant about it.

A whole street filled with beautiful second hand and rare book shops and musical instruments and conservatories. I never wanted to leave.

A gorgeously appointed restaurant, intimate, and romantic in a baroque neapolitan way. I could have lingered for hours with a glass of nero d’avola and flirted, but I had less than a day to shoot Naples because of all the rain prior to this day.

This is a wider shot of the restaurant. It looks like an opening to another, older world. I told you it was beautiful.

Even the scribbles are a crying out and bleed every color onto wood and stone and brick.

The priest or monk, graffiti iconography and protest.

I found this hollowed out frame and the lettering and font (name of the one time King) very delicate and beautiful looking.

I know Napoli isn’t for everyone. I know street grafitti on historical buildings can be a bit of a shock. But once you visit Naples a few times and fall into the rhythm of the city and of its people, the fright wears off and you begin to see the color is all the more bright in contrast to the shadows. If you are like me and find beauty in decaying things and centuries of history piled up on top of each other, you may just find yourself falling in love with the heart stealer of baroque Napoli.

All photographs shot on portra 400 and 800 – 35mm film. Shot in the Spring of 2013.

Chandeliers in Roman Churches, and on being and nothingness amid the Byzantine

In Rome there are so many beautiful churches that the ones that stand out are beyond magnificent. These gems of architecture were built upon layers of history, starting from the ruins of pagan temples thousands of years ago, with places of worship erected piece by piece like a mosaic throughout the first whispers of a Christian Rome through the middle ages to the Renaissance.

The Santa Maria in Ara coeli is on the Capitoline Hill with a foreboding, plain edifice hiding treasures of lights, stonework, faded marble, pillars from various eras, countless sarcophagi and dazzling chandeliers.

The Santi Giovanni e Paolo is built on the ruins of the Roman saints John and Paul’s houses… and their remains, martyred in the 4th century. It boasts Byzantine flourishes, a coffered ceiling, gorgeous frescoes and a hushed, ancient stillness that hangs in the air. It was the first church to be built in Rome and has seen many facelifts and stylistic touches over a millennia.

Pillars from different centuries in Santa Maria in Ara coeli.

Coffered ceiling and ornate interior in Santi Giovanni e Paolo.

The imposing, numerous chandeliers of the Basilica of St. Mary of the Altar of Heaven, Basilica di Santa Maria in Ara coeli al Campidoglio.

Bright frescoes and peeling paint over faded stone and wood in Santi Giovanni e Paolo. The chandeliers appear even more elegant against a faded backdrop.

These chandelier churches are particularly breathtaking in person. They remind me of the somber prayers and cries heard in these walls over centuries of visiting pilgrims and faithful Romans alike. The splendor of the chandeliers and the art-work only add to the sense of contemplation I feel wash over me whenever I enter their doors. I am an outsider on the one hand and a strange, foreign, watered-down modernized product of Christian thought on the other, by my very life in the western world. In America. Because of my Catholic and Protestant émigré forbears, mostly, I suppose. As the daughter of lapsed catholics, I was not raised with church or with any religion, but with the talk of God, and conversely, the discussion of “no god” growing up.

There were stories of gods and theories of prime movers or nature or the impersonal universe as the sources of mankind. There was the appeal of ens causa sui, ‘being one’s own cause’. There was also the fear of that idea. So many ideas whirled around me in the conversations of adults. Mostly in countless old books I read, or watched in old existential 1950s - 1970s movies. Nothing was ever formed, nothing was concrete. Life was fluid. Beliefs were temporary lapses of judgement. The mystery of the unknown barred an anchor, yet my openness to all possibilities was also a kind of freedom. I resent this uncertainty some times. Especially after dealing with death and restarting my life in the middle of my existence (if I live another 40 years, anyway). Sometimes I appreciate my openness.

What a delicate balance in life we all lead. I still don’t know the answer to any of these big questions, or the Big Question, but I feel a subtle change, a quiet shift take over within me, in the quiet corners of Rome. In the buildings made of stone and marble, under the statues and paintings. When I enter into the symbolism of the stories, when I breathe in the heavy air of history, something fills my imagination whilst I am there and it’s hard to move away from it. It never really leaves me.

Old chapel or cathedral, broken temple, an all but vanished sacra, an altar of astronomy and science or art – they are all my churches.

At the MATTEI DI GIOVE, Caravaggio's old art-covered apartment in Rome

the ancient symbol of the eagle of Rome carries on…

The Palazzo Mattei di Giove

Via Michelangelo Caetani 32,

other entrance in Via dei Funari,

Ghetto, Rome, 00186

Back in 2012/2013 I decided on our two visits to Rome I wanted my husband and I to spend some time hunting for off the beaten path spots we’ve not yet visited. I picked up some new books on the subject, City Secrets of Rome by Robert Kahn and Quiet Corners of Rome by David Downie. Upon seeing photographs of this amazing place I had to see it for myself. We started out having a splendid lunch at the Campo di Fiori after picking up gifts and alla’arrabbiata and carciofi alla romana spices at the charming outdoor market.

We stopped, as is our custom, under the Bruno statue to pay respect and read the inscription, A BRUNO – IL SECOLO DA LUI DIVINATO – QUI DOVE IL ROGO ARSE

(English: To Bruno – the century predicted by him – here where the fire burned).

We walked to the Jewish Ghetto section of Rome (an ancient and fascinating section of the city with a complicated history, and a great place to eat lunch). We had to ask directions several times and still walked by the spot a few times. But, we found the Palazzo Mattei di Giove and it was worth the effort.

the upstairs

Mattei di Giove, designed by noted baroque architect Carlo Maderno—who also designed the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica—teems with busts, bas-reliefs, and sarcophagi collected by the palazzo’s namesake owner, Marchese Asdrubale Mattei. (Info source: National Geographic Traveler)

The House of Mattei was one of the most powerful noble families of Rome during the Middle Ages and early modern era, holding high positions in the papal curia and government office. The Palazzo Mattei di Giove is the most prominent among a group of Mattei houses that forms the insula Mattei in Rome, Italy, a block of buildings of many epochs. To distinguish this section from the others it carries the name of a Mattei fief, Giove. The Mattei owned a number of other palazzi that carried the family name including Palazzo Mattei di Trastevere across the Tiber as well as properties in Umbria, the Palazzo Mattei Paganica.

Carlo Maderno designed the palace at the beginning of the 17th century for Asdrubale Mattei, Marquis di Giove and father of Girolamo Mattei and Luigi Mattei. He was also the brother of Ciriaco Mattei and Cardinal Girolamo Mattei. It was Maderno who was responsible for the extravagantly enriched cornice on the otherwise rather plain stuccoed public façade, the piano nobile loggia in the courtyard and the rooftop loggia or altana. nyny1For the interior of the palazzo, Pietro da Cortona was commissioned to execute the pair of compositions on the ceiling of the gallery, dating before 1626. In the early 19th century, a group of paintings from the collection at the palazzo was purchased by William Hamilton Nisbet and removed to Scotland.

Like others of the Mattei family, Asdrubale Mattei was an enthusiastic patron of the arts. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (better known simply as Caravaggio) is recorded as living at the palazzo in 1601. (source: Wikipedia)

The loggia and architectural details are exquisite. This is the kind of place you see in sweeping vintage films set in Rome, the kind of place you read about in the Grand Old Tour by classically educated travelers from the 18th and 19th century. The students who spend time here are so lucky. There’s not a corner or ledge that is not interesting. If you visit make sure to view the whole courtyard and go upstairs to the top terrace (last time we were there in 2016 or 2017 it was closed to visitors, but with italy things and rules always change!) Go through the arched “doorway” in between the large statues, underneath the carved lamp. Across the small cobblestone road is an ancient fountain and face sun dial with beautifully carved in stone.

The Palazzo and the culinary delights and the ancient Roman ruins historical walk and the rare churches of the Ghetto are a part of my Roman Travel Itinerary on this website.

a rainy afternoon art garden walk

A rainy afternoon walk around the Villa Borghese in Rome, Italy. On an overcast day it reminded me of Paris. I love the faded colors of the buildings and the urn-planted citrus fruit and olive trees. The gardens are leftover remnants of the Renaissance, and even of ancient Rome; namely the famed gardens of Lucullus. The park and gardens were once a private estate of the Borghese family. Fortunately now the “country” lanes of tidy gardens and statuary are open to everyone. The beauty of the grounds are immeasurable. No wonder I’ve grown to love it so much over the years. I love the colors of the stone architecture and the details of the buildings. I could hear a soft muddling of voices through an opened window.

The Villa Borghese museum is one of the loveliest and important collections of Italian Renaissance paintings in the world. It houses master works by Caravaggio, Titian, Dossi, Correggio, Veronese, Rubens, Barocci, Parmigianino, Lotto, Raphael, Bernini, Reni, Bellini, Barocci, Domenichino, Canova, and many other greats. If you find yourself in Rome make reservations a few days in advance to view the art in the beautiful Villa Borghese in two hour blocks. Give yourself time to wander around the gardens and the park. You should arrange a time with at least four hours of sunshine so you can enjoy a stroll around and leave two hours for the museum. Finish up an hour before sunset and find your way to the Pincio (Pincial Hill) for the most beautiful sunset of your life.

All photographs shot on a vintage camera with vintage analog film, 2010s.

the wild cats of Rome

The cats of Rome watching over the Theatre of Pompey. The Portra 400 and 800 35mm film really brings out the colors and tones of the beautiful cats. Through the looking glass one can imagine how far back into ancient Rome these cats ancestry lies. They roam free around the ruins all over Italy.