It's been a long, sweaty, tiresome summer, and I didn't even go on vacation. The bathroom renovation that should've taken two weeks ended up taking nearly a month, and I was too exhausted to argue with the contractor for all the “problems” he claims he encountered during that job — mostly because no matter if you're an architect, an engineer, the president of [insert your country of choice here], or even simply the owner of the property: if you're a woman the contractor will always, always think you're an incompetent signorina, therefore gullible, and his Spanish-speaking squad will think you don't understand what they're saying about you, right in front of you, because of course they assume you can't understand Spanish, ¿no? Trouble is you actually can because you used to work with the second most unbearable living Uruguayan in the universe (the first being Luis Suárez) for nearly ten years…
When the nightmare renovation was finally over, I started feeling pain in my right knee… and soon after also in my left knee… I was feeling like a wreck, and actually still am, I’ll have to have an X-ray, and to go and see an orthopaedic doctor (or an orthopedic one, if you're from the US) to figure out what’s happening.
(spoiler: I'm getting old, that's what's happening.)
And so everything became delayed, including my self-given ferragosto deadline for the short play I was writing for
's Teatro Immediato project — my first short play ever. I actually finished writing it by mid-August, then realised I wasn’t happy with that at all, so I ended up rewriting the whole thing all over again. Three times. I eventually sent it to Cheryl yesterday, hoping she won’t be too disappointed by it…While still mulling over Tenente Allocco & co., a few days ago I went to Viterbo, la città dei papi (Popestown!), for the feast of Santa Rosa: way before the effin’ bathroom renovation happened, I’d booked a nice place to stay for three days with my Mum, because I thought everything would’ve run on schedule (yes, I’m that naïve), and I knew I wouldn't have found many available and affordable places to book had I left it for later in the summer. There's a new macchina di Santa Rosa, and everybody wanted to see that!
Our little flat (thankfully in a building with an elevator!) was in the medieval neighbourhood of Viterbo, San Pellegrino, which is not on the route of the macchina, so on Tuesday evening we went to my friend Nicoletta's, as her home has windows right on the main road, which is where the macchina is traditionally shoulder-borne by a hundred facchini.
On my Instagram there's a video from 2018, starring the now retired macchina called Gloria, filmed by me as it arrived from Porta Romana and stopped right in front of Nicoletta's balcony.
Architect Raffaele Ascenzi, the same designer who previously built Gloria and also Ali di luce (“Wings of light”), designed and built the new macchina, Dies Natalis:
The trasporto was spectacular, even my usually over-critical mother loved it. So hurrah for the facchini and everything!
Facchini de Santa Rosa! Sémo tutti d'un sentimento?
(that's what the capofacchino, the man conducting all the others carrying the macchina, yells moments before they hoist those 5400 kilos, i.e. nearly 12,000 pounds — that roughly translates as “porters of Saint Rose! Are we as one?”)
One thing became clear to me while we stayed in Viterbo, though: I won't be moving there for the foreseeable future, for a multitude of reasons (not just because I’m a wreck and spent those three days carrying myself in pain through the cobblestone-paved old town…) I don’t feel like writing down as of yet. Am I disappointed? Of course I am, I wanted to move there so badly, but the Universe said no. I'll have to stay in Rome.
So, at this point, I was wondering if I should change the title of this newsletter to…
(the book: https://www.lulu.com/shop/phil-mccarthy/rome-alone/paperback/product-eqn9je.html
the board game: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/rome-alone)
Anyway… we're now back in Rome, and on Saturday it was my late sister's birthday. She would’ve been 44 now, but she'll be forever 37 instead.
I'm perfectly fine with aging (well, except for the knee pain, of course!), what I can't come to terms with is the idea of aging without my sister, the age gap between us becoming bigger every year, my beautiful little sister frozen in the annus horribilis 2017. When I was little I loathed being an only child, I longed for a sister for what seemed centuries (but in fact were just six and a half years, which in child-time is an eternity), and now I'm sort of back at that stage, although as a middle-aged only child now, one who has experienced the joy if being a big sister (even though Carola called me sorellina, little sister…) for thirty-seven years, three months, and eight days… but sisters should be forever, sisters are forever, I'm not an only child. I am, and forever will be, a bereaved sister.
A couple of weeks ago, as Oasis announced their reunion tour (…) I was reminded of that time in 1996 when I bought tickets for their gig here in Rome at PalaEUR (aka PalaLottomatica) as a birthday present for my sister, only for them to cancel the gig thus ruining my sister’s 16th birthday. I’ll never forgive them for that, and yet I would now give anything to be able to take Carola to their stupid reunion.
Watch out for cancellations, anyway, never trust the Gallaghers!
Speaking of concerts, on Saturday 14th September, mezzo Vivica Genaux will be performing a programme of baroque repertoire at the Acquario Romano (which also serves as the HQ of Rome’s Association of Architects, aka Ordine degli Architetti Pianificatori Paesaggisti e Conservatori di Roma e provincia — that is its name in full, a bit of a mouthful…) — that’ll be the closing event of the first edition of BaRò, a Baroque music festival organised by Enea Barock Orchestra. I have tickets (yay!), but as I already mentioned I currently also have awfully wonky knees (boo!), so I’m not 100% sure I’ll be able to attend…
And I also hope I’ll be able to attend the presentation of my friend Gaja Cenciarelli’s latest book, A scuola non si muore (Marsilio, 2024), on Friday 13th (😱) September at Libreria Spazio Sette. While this newsletter was on Summer hiatus, news broke that they would be producing a movie based on her previous brilliant book, Domani interrogo (Marsilio, 2022) — and indeed they actually started filming a couple of days ago!
So, it seems that I'll be trapped in Rome with painful knees, bracing myself for 2025: ER GIUBBBILÈO (the Jubilee…) is almost here.
In the meantime, since everybody knows that the new year actually starts in September, I got myself a couple of new diaries, and there's also a traveller’s journal from the 17th century to be written…
(*) ...and David Sylvian hasn't released enjoyable music since Dead bees on a cake, which came out in 1999. Twenty-five years ago. These are facts.
I'm so sorry about your knees! And despite your pain, the play is great fun, as I knew it would be when Tenente Allocco still needed a name. I think you should keep Puntarelle's name as is, though putting "Rome" in there would certainly draw more armchair travelers and expat wannabes. I say do what you want and don't pander to subscriber/views numbers.
Puntarelle is a nice name. I was hoping for writing in Italian when I subscribed, but I keep reading because I enjoy your voice, and your stories about life in Rome. I don't get there as much as I would like, and I am not likely to relocate there full-time ever, but it has always had a pull on me. When I do travel, it's always alone, but I never look for advice (maybe I should). Heartfelt condolences on the loss of your sister.