I am the personal attendant to Nicky

Tags

Capena, dachshunds, Dr. Buzzanca, Italy, Roma

We have had Dachshunds for 26 years now, the first two where a smooth hair female and the other was a long hair male. In 2009 we got our two wire hair Dachshunds in Rome, they are not related. This breed is known for being stubborn and controlling, they always try to control the situation and see how far they can push things.

Our Nicky who is 7 years old now comes from a line of show dogs, his father was Hungarian-Italian, National Champion in Italy and also in the EU. Nicky is very clever and calculating, he only weighs 7 Kg and is a miniature Dachshunds but that does not stop him.

Like dog of this breed he has loads of personality and is very different from Eleonora (Nora) our female Dachshund whose comes from a line of Champion Boar hunting family. She has the hunter instinct, is very determined and independent.

Here is Nora watching the park across the street for anything that might need her to raise the alarm, which she does with regularity.

Both of them speak, using facial expressions, looks and an endless modulation of whines, grunts, puffing through the nose, low growls, barking, paw stomping, to signal what they expect from us.

Meal time is a fix time exercise, God help me if I am late or forget, Nicky becomes agitated and you feel he is upset and will complain to management for poor service. Nora will let him do the circus number but you can tell she too is none too happy about tardiness. Both are walked separately because of question of the order of precedence and who leads, it is complicated.  Dachshunds are very difficult to train as dogs, they can easily be trained to track and hunt from birth, which they do naturally as it is a breed characteristic. But the other stuff house dogs do, they don’t.

With Nicky, he does not like to walk, so we do not go out for a walk, we simply go out for a simple do my business here and here and back in the house we go. If I want to go further, I have to carry him, put him down and then he will walk back quickly home. You may wonder well what if you don’t carry him, Nicky sits down and simply proceeds to ignore me completely. Treats don’t work, he does not walk, how difficult is that to understand.

Nora on the other hand loves to walk, run, jump and use her nose as a radar, sniff out things, run after the big black Crows, we have a lot of them and they are an aggressive bird. On the other hand Nicky ignores it all, as if he is above it all.  He also does not like to go out after dark, too scary, or if it rains or snows, no not going out unless an umbrella is provided. Try moving a miniature Dachshund, Nicky can make himself weigh 10 tons simply by his will power.

The Farm in Capena, minutes from Rome, where Nicky and Nora were born in 2009, owned by the well known Veterinarian Massimo Buzzanca and his spouse Tiziana Tola.

 

This and that

Tags

Assad, carpets, Civil war, Damascus, Diana Darke, Iran, Italy, Line C Metropolitana, Line C Roma, Museums, Roma, Rome, Russia, Souk al-arwam, Syria

Have you ever noticed that if you hear Jazz on the radio the announcer always has a smoky voice. It seems that you cannot have Jazz music without that voice, it goes together and this is true of every station I have ever heard, from Radio Jordan to Catalunya Musica from Barcelona or BBC3 or Radio-Canada, etc.

I just finished reading an excellent book My house in Damascus by Diana Darke.

Diana Darke is a fluent Arabic speaker and has specialised in the Middle East for over 30 years. The owner of an old courtyard house within the walls of Old Damascus, she is well known as an authority on Syria and has written for the Sunday Times, the
Guardian, the Financial Times and the BBC. Diana Darke is the author of several guides to Syria and Eastern Turkey.

At the moment Syria is in the news everyday and Canada is taking some 25,000 refugees selected by the UNHCR, people who reside in those immense camps in Jordan. Very low risk for Canada and mostly poor people with large families who could not flee elsewhere.

Diana Darke tells the story of the house she bought in the old walled city of Damascus surrounded today by the modern city. It is an area I know well, since I went to it many times to buy my carpets from the brothers Khaled and Anas Lahham in the Souk Al-Arwam in the days under the dictator Hafez and then his son Bashar Al-Assad.

1920 photo of Souk Al-Arwam in Old Damascus. The carpet shop is or was on the left of this photo a man is standing at the entrance.

Her house was from the Ottoman Period several hundred years old and she tells the tale of her Syrian friends and how she came about to buying and renovating the house, its history, her friends and how the Civil War starting in 2011 overtook them and she had to return to Britain.

It’s a very good book and very accurate in its description of the people and their terrible situation, something very few readers will be able to grasp the full horror of a people condemn to be bystanders in their own tragedy while the political actors great and small play. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to read about the ordinary human face of this civil war. I travelled and stayed in Syria many times during my 8 years in the region and while living in Jordan, I wish I could say I enjoyed my time in Syria but no, having to deal with the monumental stupidity, greed and sheer idiocy of the Baath Party and the government officials in Syria was enough to put anyone off the country.

As Diana Darke points out astutely the civil war in Syria could go on for many more years since Assad is unlikely to let go as long as Iran and Russia support him fully. Unless Iran is promised or given something they want from the USA and then they could switch camps and abandon Assad, but the prize will have to be fairly important for Tehran for this to happen. Then what will Russia do? As another observer pointed out, in Arab countries whenever there is a revolution it is always about political institutions there is never talk about enhancing or creating a new social framework and institutions.

Finally reading the Italian newspapers this news item, Line C of the Metro of Rome which has been under construction for 9 years and is 5 years late and 1 Billion Euros over budget has been shut down for gross mismanagement, 500 workers have been laid off, the City of Rome is 225 million Euros short and can no longer pay. The line will now end at the St-John Lateran Station only one third of it built. The two critical stations going by the Colosseum and down the avenue through the Roman Forums, the most archeologically sensitive area of the Eternal City will not be completed for the time being and the rest of the Line which was to go all the way to the Vatican and down to the Olympic Stadium may never be completed now since work has not started on that portion. The portion of Line C which opened last year only carries a third of the passengers it is meant to carry, the planning predictions were way off.

Another story which made headlines in this time of austerity in Italy with Museums forced to close or stay open only a few days a week, all have budget problems. How can this be with more and more tourists coming to Rome and flocking to the numerous museums?  All the money that is collected from ticket purchases, usually 12 Euros per ticket, only 30% actually goes to the Museums the rest or 70% of the profits go directly into the pocket of the company running the ticket app. online. Who allowed this to happen?  Another Roman story or farce.

None of this surprises me, this is the way things work or don’t in Italy. Some are saying, I am not kidding, where is Benito Mussolini to help us out of this mess, but I somehow doubt it. Even Il Duce would say that Italy was impossible to govern.

 

 

 

 

 

3D Rome app

Tags

3D, Antiquity, App, Roma, Rome

For many years now scholars have been developing an App which would allow us to see Rome as it was around the year 320AD at the height of its architectural wonder.

It is also the year the Emperor Constantine decided to leave Rome to create a new Capital Constantinople (Istanbul). The view of Rome is not that of the era of Julius Caesar or Augustus or Nero but much later. Nonetheless it is how Rome of Antiquity is remembered today. It is very helpful because if you visit Rome making sense of all the ruins can be very difficult and bewildering. Most people concentrate on the Colosseum because it is the easiest to understand and just forget the rest. Even scholars have a tough time of it, unless you have studied the periods from the birth of the City to its decline 1000 years later, too many details and too many people to remember. I have a dictionary at home of Whose Who in Rome to make sense of it all.

3D ROMA

Some happy views for the Weekend

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Apostolic Palace, Borghese, Copede, Corso Trieste, Farnese, PIazza Mincio, Roma, Vatican

Here are some photos which can lead to day dream about life in Rome.

The Apostolic Palace of the Holy See (Vatican) in Rome. Decorated by Bernini in 1620. a nice work place no?

The Arch of Titus commemorating his final victory on the Jews and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem 70 AD. In the Roman Forum.

The Casino Del Bel Respiro of the Doria Pamphilij Estate on Via San Pancrazio on the Gianicolum Hill in Rome.

Piazza Farnese

My old neighbourhood apartment buildings on Piazza Mincio in the Quartiere Copede near Via Salaria

A house on Corso Trieste, full of Wisteria in Spring. I often wondered who lived in such a magnificent house.

Villa Borghese with the beautiful art collection of Cardinal Scipio Borghese, it is almost too much to look at.

An old bridge Ponte Fabricio from antiquity connecting the area of the Portico d’Ottavia to the Tiberina Island.

Metropolitana

Tags

construction, Italia, Italian, metropolitana, Olympics, pope, Roma, Subway, Vatican

Yesterday I was looking for information on the extension of the Rome Subway (Metropolitana) as it is called. Since 1955 Rome has a subway system composed of two lines forming a X pattern which cross the city, Line A (27 stations) and Line B (25 Stations).

Metro Station sign in Rome

The rest of the public transit system is made up of electric buses and electric  Trams on rail which can be found everywhere in the city. Since 2007 Line C has been in construction on the West-East Axis and since November 2014 one third of the new Line is finally open. The other two thirds will be open slowly, 2 more stations in July 2015 and then one more Station at St-John Lateran will open in June 2016 finally connecting  Line C with Line A making it truly a subway line connected to the system and finally in 2023 the rest is scheduled to open East of the Vatican Hill.

Portion of Line C of the Rome Metropolitana still under construction.

The reason for all the delays has been all the archeological artefacts in the sub-soil of Rome. The biggest challenge is between St-Peter’s Square and Colosseo, this section crosses what was ancient Rome where all the important buildings of Imperial Rome are located at a depth of about 30 to 40 feet below the street level of today. The tunnel passes at about 60 feet below that level but the concern is what happens when you dig a large tunnel for subway cars to race through daily and what is it disturbing in the process. One Station has already been scratched from the plan, that of Largo Argentina between Piazza Venezia and Chiesa Nuova. Largo Argentina is the site of many temples you can admire today but also of the Theatre of Pompey where Julius Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March 44BC and numerous other ancient monuments. It is easier to bypass the whole area than to try to put in a Metro Station and tunnel. At any rate I cannot see that it will make a big difference since the distance between Piazza Venezia and Largo Argentina or Chiesa Nuova is about 2 Km. easily walkable on the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II.

The cost has also mushroomed in the last 10 years by about 2 Billion Euros but the Metro will be built, it is a question of honour for the Romans and damn the expense. That is what I like about Rome, it’s the Party must go on Spirit.

Map of the Metro of Rome currently, Blue Line B and B1 and Yellow Line A in green Line C. Line D is under design phase and does not appear on this map.

Line C has 12 operating Station from Montecompatri-Pantano to Parco di Centocelle with trains that are driven by a computer system. Until it reaches the connection point with San Giovanni on Line A it will be underused. This summer another 6 Stations will open to Lodi Station.  Though I can see this line as being useful if you live in the Western end of the City and are coming to the Centro but still at this point and until 2016 you would have to transfer to a bus for the remainder of your ride. Lodi is one station short of San Giovanni or the transfer connection to Line A.

Just the Station going through Piazza Venezia required 3 years of archeological digs, the great green area in front of the Altar to the Nation uncovered the long lost Atheneum of Emperor Hadrian and next to it the Greek Library of Emperor Trajan, the remains are significant and important given that in Antiquity these two buildings were well known. Once the documentation work was done they were recovered with clean fill and the subway work can continue around them.

All this research came about because I read Italian papers each day and noted two stories, one about 2016 being a Holy Year, Pope Francis just announced it, and the Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino saying ”Roma e Pronta” Rome is ready, really?!? If you are planning to go to Rome in 2016 better reserve your hotel rooms now. Millions of pilgrims are expected and the whole area around St-Peter will be a mob scene. Luckily it is on the other side of the Tiber River so out of the centro.

The other piece of news was that Rome wants to host the Olympic Games in 2024 so it is important to finish this subway system upgrade as soon as possible. The last time the Olympics were in Rome was 1960.