giovedì 3 aprile 2008
My Italy
Our first assignment in our photography class was to take pictures that showed what we think of when we think of Italy. The following is what I think of. Enjoy.
Rain Storm
One morning I was awakened by the sound of a clashing of two cymbals. Shortly following was a random pattern of light coming in through the window from the lightning outside. What made this situation so funny was just the night before I was talking to my father about how when it rains here it doesn’t rain for real, it just trickles. This, however, was a full on Missouri rainstorm. And the funny thing was it didn’t last for very long. Shortly after the sky cleared up and was sunny by the time I left for class. That night was scheduled to be a movie night, which I gladly attended. We had Chinese food and everything was great. At the very end of it all, it started to trickle so everyone started to leave. But not me. I had caught word of Fabiana’s boyfriend being in close proximity and I wanted to stay to meet him. He came up and we chatted. He was a gorgeous, tall man with excellent build. The longer I stayed, the harder it rained. I thought I would just wait it out. Then I heard a loud crack of thunder and that was my cue that it wasn’t going to stop and I needed to truck my caboose home before it got completely dreadful. I said my goodbyes and headed down stairs. I got to the awning out front where I was stopped straight in my tracks by hail, yes, hail. I stood there waiting for that to finish and while I waited 
I took pictures. Shortly after, Renato, Fabiana, and Leo came out. Fabiana stood there talking to me while Renato locked up his bike and Leo went to get the car. Fabi then walked out to throw the trash but shortly ran back to the safety of the awning when the loudest clash of thunder struck. It was so loud that it set off car alarms and I had a headache all the next day. She and Renato ran back to where I was standing, clutching my chest out of fright. I was so freaked out that I was close to tears. She asked if I was ok and I told her that I just missed my fam when things like this occur. She offered me a ride and I accepted. It was my first time being in an Italian car and it was really freaking cause I thought he was going to slide and that would be the end of me. I made it home fine and I lived through the storm. Two points for me.
Ariccia
This is one of the small towns that we visited in Italy. Fabiana and Renato took us and I think that what I enjoyed most about this trip was talking with them. I also really liked the food there. They are famous for their prochetta, which is a type of pork with herbs and stuff cooked into it. Rome ships their porchetta from Ariccia but its not as good as what’s fresh from Ariccia.
This is a view of the city, if you could even call it that. its really small but cute.
It surprises me where one can find graffiti in Italy. Its always really random but very interesting.
Right after we got there Renato asked us if anyone wanted a coffee. I said yes and we went into this really cute shop and had one cappuccino and two caffè plus some frappe and castanglioli. Amazing.
This is everyone that went on the trip minus me and Fabiana.
This is a view of the city, if you could even call it that. its really small but cute.
It surprises me where one can find graffiti in Italy. Its always really random but very interesting.
Right after we got there Renato asked us if anyone wanted a coffee. I said yes and we went into this really cute shop and had one cappuccino and two caffè plus some frappe and castanglioli. Amazing.
This is everyone that went on the trip minus me and Fabiana.
giovedì 27 marzo 2008
God hears my prayers
The day that our class had a trip to Santa Maria Maggiore, we had to walk all over the world and take buses and walk some more and all kinds of craziness. Well, on the first bus that we caught was a little boy and his grandpa. The little boy was crying at the top of his lungs and it was really hard to sit there and listen because he was so adorable that all you wanted to do was pick him up and make him stop crying. The old man noticed that his cooing wasn’t helping the situation so he picked up the boy and exited the bus. Our bus was at dock so we waited there for about 15 more minutes. About 10 minutes into our wait, the old man and the boy returned, this time quietly. Not much time had passed before the boy started crying again. With the little Italian that I know, I caught that the little boy wanted his dad and there was nothing that the old man could do to calm the boy. The bust finally got started. The old man picked him up and boy and his cry turned into more of a whimper. At that moment I looked at the little boy and I thought to myself “I wish that my grandpa was here to hold me. How lucky that boy is and he doesn’t even know it.” Seconds after having that thought I remembered that my grandpa was dead. You see, the thought was me thinking that my grandpa was back home and how much nicer it would be if he were here. I had forgotten that he was dead. And when that reality check hit me I almost burst into tears like that little boy.
This is the little boy
Two days after that incident something wonderful happened. I was rushing home to meet with Renato and someone who was inspecting our house. I was running late, of course, but I am a firm believer that God has you where He wants you to be, and I have never found that to be more true than this day. I missed my bus by a few seconds, which normally makes me made but it was so worth it. I got on the next bus and tried to find a spot to stand. There was a man sitting a few rows ahead of where I was standing and he was wearing a fedora similar to the one that my grandpa had given me my junior year in high school. I wanted to tell him that I liked his hat but I didn’t know how to say hat in Italian. Usually when I don’t know how to say something I don’t bother trying but something was urging me to try. I squeezed my way up the isle and tapped him on the shoulder. In my attempt to tell him that I liked his hat I said “Mi piace il tuo” and then pointed to his hat. The guy sitting next to him explained what I was trying to say filling in the word cappello, which means hat. After that we had a 20-minute conversation spanning the remainder of the bus ride. We asked each other all types of questions and found out so much information about one another. His name was Franco and his friend sitting next to him was Nando. He told me about how his family has lived here forever and that he is 80 something or other and he is having a birthday on March 31. He asked me where I was from and if I had family in Italy. We even talked politics. He asked me if I was a supporter or Hillary or Obama and I said Obama. And he gave me this smile. I asked who he liked and he said "Obama!" He was soo happy. He said that he wanted to visit America sometime and I told him he could go home with me. People all around us were engaging in our conversation, throwing in their two cents where they saw fit. Everyone kept telling me that I spoke wonderful Italian. I said thank you even though I didn’t fully believe the statement to be true. When we were at his stop he stood up and told me to take his seat. I said I was fine but thank you for offering. He took my hand in both of his and leaned in really close holding my stare. He said something that made me want to cry but instead all I did was smile big and say thank you. He said, "Sei mia nipote." That means, "You are my granddaughter." He exited the bus and that was the last I saw of him.
The day that I saw that man with his grandson all I could think was “I want my grandpa.” And it wasn’t that I wanted the dead man to be alive again. No, I wanted they physical being of my grandpa to be present. I think it didn’t occur to me that he was dead because I don’t think of him as being dead, I just think of him being gone. So when I said I wanted him, it was my way of asking God to give him to me. And that is just what happened. I had my grandpa, even if it were just for a brief moment. God gave me just what I wanted more than anything, and I am ever so grateful.
This is the little boy
Two days after that incident something wonderful happened. I was rushing home to meet with Renato and someone who was inspecting our house. I was running late, of course, but I am a firm believer that God has you where He wants you to be, and I have never found that to be more true than this day. I missed my bus by a few seconds, which normally makes me made but it was so worth it. I got on the next bus and tried to find a spot to stand. There was a man sitting a few rows ahead of where I was standing and he was wearing a fedora similar to the one that my grandpa had given me my junior year in high school. I wanted to tell him that I liked his hat but I didn’t know how to say hat in Italian. Usually when I don’t know how to say something I don’t bother trying but something was urging me to try. I squeezed my way up the isle and tapped him on the shoulder. In my attempt to tell him that I liked his hat I said “Mi piace il tuo” and then pointed to his hat. The guy sitting next to him explained what I was trying to say filling in the word cappello, which means hat. After that we had a 20-minute conversation spanning the remainder of the bus ride. We asked each other all types of questions and found out so much information about one another. His name was Franco and his friend sitting next to him was Nando. He told me about how his family has lived here forever and that he is 80 something or other and he is having a birthday on March 31. He asked me where I was from and if I had family in Italy. We even talked politics. He asked me if I was a supporter or Hillary or Obama and I said Obama. And he gave me this smile. I asked who he liked and he said "Obama!" He was soo happy. He said that he wanted to visit America sometime and I told him he could go home with me. People all around us were engaging in our conversation, throwing in their two cents where they saw fit. Everyone kept telling me that I spoke wonderful Italian. I said thank you even though I didn’t fully believe the statement to be true. When we were at his stop he stood up and told me to take his seat. I said I was fine but thank you for offering. He took my hand in both of his and leaned in really close holding my stare. He said something that made me want to cry but instead all I did was smile big and say thank you. He said, "Sei mia nipote." That means, "You are my granddaughter." He exited the bus and that was the last I saw of him.
The day that I saw that man with his grandson all I could think was “I want my grandpa.” And it wasn’t that I wanted the dead man to be alive again. No, I wanted they physical being of my grandpa to be present. I think it didn’t occur to me that he was dead because I don’t think of him as being dead, I just think of him being gone. So when I said I wanted him, it was my way of asking God to give him to me. And that is just what happened. I had my grandpa, even if it were just for a brief moment. God gave me just what I wanted more than anything, and I am ever so grateful.
lunedì 18 febbraio 2008
Chruches
One thing that is really great about being in Italy in general and Rome in particular is the fact that churches are everywhere. Within any given 4-block radius you will find at minimum 2 and up to 10. I love it. I have two classes with the same instructor and the great thing about him is that even though he is boring, he takes us out every class period to some church or monument. Very fun. The following are pictures that I have taken from the various churches that he was taken us to. I hope you enjoy. And if you have any questions about where they are I believe you can find more information out at http://www.wikipedia.com but I don’t know how specific or knowledgeable they are.
Santa Maria Maggiore
This is the very front of the church. Very big and elaborate.
These are the angels that sit right under a stained glass window at the front of the church. They are everywhere, in every church and sometimes on a random corner. I love the angels.
The nave of the church was so beautiful. Above the columns, along the walls there were mosaics depicting what was thought to be either the most interesting or important stories. There was one with some of the disciples being called in from the sea. It was nice.
Santa Maria della Concezione
This church was by far one of the most interesting churches I have been to, ever. I wasn’t able to get pictures of what’s under the church but I was able to take some from upstairs. Before I get into explain this picture let me tell you that you have to visit this site because it explains the church way better than I can. There are a few pictures as well, and I wasn’t able to take these so enjoy. As for the upstairs, it was all very plain except for the fact that I was able to take a picture of myself in a mirror and it was more fun that I ever would have thought it would be. Che magnifico. When I was done entertaining myself, we left to go to the Trevi Fountain but that did not end up happening because we were sidetracked by clothes.
This man was someone selling ties and he was the most adorable man ever. He didn’t want to take a picture because he said he looked “schifo” and I thought that was great. His name was Francesco, che bello uomo.
Santa Maria dell’Anima
I went to this church with one of my classes. We were looking at the different frescos and the phases of restoration. It was quite remarkable. One piece that really caught my eye was the Jesus piece because of 1) how it was displayed and 2) because of the different types of mediums used to express how Jesus might have actually looked on the cross.
Another thing that I really liked about this church was the Pietà. The most famous depiction of the Pietà is in Saint Peter’s Basilica but I really liked this one in comparison. The reason I like this one is because of the way that the head of Jesus falls. The one in St. Peter’s has his head going away from Mary. When I think about someone being cradled I see them laying their head on the holder. This looks very realistic.
This church was like so many other churches in Rome with the very elaborate altarpiece. Notice the vaulted ceilings, the use of gold leafing, the focal point of the fresco, and on either side a tomb of some official of the time.
This was by far my favorite piece of stained glass. For one, it is very intricate, with the detail design going around the outer frames acting as frames themselves. Then you have the Madonna and Child in the center, not an uncommon theme, but you hardly ever see it done as a stained glass piece. There are two people at their feet, indubitably the Apostles John and Peter, and two angels resting to their sides. They make the classic shape of a triangle and show perfect symmetry. All in all it is a stupendous piece.
The next few pictures are just things that amused me.
This was in the church and I thought it seemed so out of place just because it didn’t look old, it seemed like it belonged in Germany or Finland or some crap like that, and because it was random.
This is a depiction of a tomb. This was the first time that I had seen a skeleton sitting upright on a tomb and he looked so relaxed that it seemed worthy of me showing you.
I used to go to this place all the time. I stopped because the doorman at our school told me it was schifo and that there is a place ten times better down the street. But when I used to go there they were good and I loved their lemon more than anyone elses.
Chiesa del Gesu
We went to this church on another class visit. This is the view from the front of the church. If you look at the statues on either side, you can see that there is a person just below the feet of the statue. That person is an evil spirit trying to escape from hell and the statue is a Jesuit that is keeping that from happening. Also, and I don’t think you can see it in the picture, but just in front of the large door there is a homeless person sleeping. I thoroughly enjoyed this church because as I was going into this church a couple of old people were coming out and I stopped to hold the door for the two of them. I then helped the second woman down the stairs that stretched the entire front of the church and as I was about to walk away she said to me “Aguri”. I looked at her with a confused face and she said “È una brava ragazza.” I asked them if they needed anymore help and they said no, thanked me, and walked away. What the woman was saying was Luck to you, and then she said that I was a good girl. Che bella.
We weren’t really able to see the church because we went on Ash Wednesday and they were about to start mass but we did get to see the front of the church and we got to see the ceiling. It was so beautiful made with stucco and frescos. It felt like they were there in 3D even though, for the most part, they were not.
This picture baffles me every time. I know that its just a painting but I have no idea how they got it to look like they are coming to life and trying to flee a scene. I can sit and look at it for hours, seriously.
San Pietro Basilica
I have been to this church so many times and yet each time I find something new and feel something different. I try to only take pictures of the new things that I see but sometimes I take pictures of something that I have seen before yet I see it in a different light. Forgive me if you see a picture in here that I have showed you before or if I tell you about something that I have already said. As for this picture, I had never noticed this building that sits to the right of St. Peter’s if you are looking at the front of the basilica. It is the Pope’s apartment. Cool, right.
This is on the floor of the inside of the basilica. It is a marker that says how long the church is from one end to the other. Pal Rom is Roman Palms and it was their form of measuring back in the day. M stands for meters and below where it gives the measurements for the basilica it says “additis parietibus”, that means including the porch, which was an addition to the basilica and with that it made the length even longer. St. Peter’s is the longest basilica in the world and if you walk down the nave you will see in the very center a slew of other basilicas and how long they are in comparison to the St. Peter’s.
Michelangleo’s Pietà.
Another something new that I found. This is a mosaic of Peter holding the keys.
These are the angels going around the inside of Bramante’s/Michelangleo’s dome. The angles were painted in a test run before they were painted on the dome and what is left of the test ones can be found in a museum in Ariccia, Italy. We went there with our school.
Chiesa Nuova
When we got inside this church, I must admit that I did not pay very close attention to the instructor as we walked around. But I did however notice this wonderful organ. There was a set of pipes on each side of the altar. It was stupendous.
This was the “Jesus Piece” just above the altarpiece.
Golfone
This was a church turned museum. When this was a functioning church, it was run by what is called a confraternity. It just means brotherhood. But what made this church special was the procession of the passion that they reenacted. They performance was so realistic and gory that they were forbidden to do it. So what they did instead was they had the walls going around the entire church painted with the scenes of the passion. This is one of those scenes.
They guy that opened the museum for us told us that if we wanted to we would be allowed to play the very old organ. No one else was going to do it and our instructor had just tripped up the steps going to get the guy to turn it on so I felt someone had to do it. you know what that meant, Sara to the rescue. I sat there and pretended to know what the heck I was doing. It was a lot of fun.
The Lutheran
This was the original church of the Pope and I didn’t take my camera with me that day so I don’t have any pictures but just google it and you should find something. Something that I can tell you about it is there is a street that connects this old home for the Pope to the new home for the Pope and it is called the Papal Way. Also, the people of Rome don’t accept the Pope as being Pope until he is crowned in the Lutheran, or so a Roman told me.
Farnesi Church
I have no idea if this church is actually called the Farnesi Church but I do know that Cardinal Farnesi had some kind of affiliation with the church and he was also the one who commissioned Caravaggio to paint for one of the chapels in the church. This is a picture I took of one of the paintings in the chapel. This is Caravaggio’s St. Michael and the Angel. It is one of three paintings in this chapel done by Caravaggio. They other two are The Calling of St. Michael and The Martyr of St. Micahel. I love, love, love Caravaggio and if anyone has any interest in seeing these paintings, you just let me know and I’ll take you when you get to Rome.
Santa Maria Maggiore
This is the very front of the church. Very big and elaborate.
These are the angels that sit right under a stained glass window at the front of the church. They are everywhere, in every church and sometimes on a random corner. I love the angels.
The nave of the church was so beautiful. Above the columns, along the walls there were mosaics depicting what was thought to be either the most interesting or important stories. There was one with some of the disciples being called in from the sea. It was nice.
Santa Maria della Concezione
This church was by far one of the most interesting churches I have been to, ever. I wasn’t able to get pictures of what’s under the church but I was able to take some from upstairs. Before I get into explain this picture let me tell you that you have to visit this site because it explains the church way better than I can. There are a few pictures as well, and I wasn’t able to take these so enjoy. As for the upstairs, it was all very plain except for the fact that I was able to take a picture of myself in a mirror and it was more fun that I ever would have thought it would be. Che magnifico. When I was done entertaining myself, we left to go to the Trevi Fountain but that did not end up happening because we were sidetracked by clothes. 
This man was someone selling ties and he was the most adorable man ever. He didn’t want to take a picture because he said he looked “schifo” and I thought that was great. His name was Francesco, che bello uomo.
Santa Maria dell’Anima
I went to this church with one of my classes. We were looking at the different frescos and the phases of restoration. It was quite remarkable. One piece that really caught my eye was the Jesus piece because of 1) how it was displayed and 2) because of the different types of mediums used to express how Jesus might have actually looked on the cross.
Another thing that I really liked about this church was the Pietà. The most famous depiction of the Pietà is in Saint Peter’s Basilica but I really liked this one in comparison. The reason I like this one is because of the way that the head of Jesus falls. The one in St. Peter’s has his head going away from Mary. When I think about someone being cradled I see them laying their head on the holder. This looks very realistic.
This church was like so many other churches in Rome with the very elaborate altarpiece. Notice the vaulted ceilings, the use of gold leafing, the focal point of the fresco, and on either side a tomb of some official of the time.
This was by far my favorite piece of stained glass. For one, it is very intricate, with the detail design going around the outer frames acting as frames themselves. Then you have the Madonna and Child in the center, not an uncommon theme, but you hardly ever see it done as a stained glass piece. There are two people at their feet, indubitably the Apostles John and Peter, and two angels resting to their sides. They make the classic shape of a triangle and show perfect symmetry. All in all it is a stupendous piece.
The next few pictures are just things that amused me.
This was in the church and I thought it seemed so out of place just because it didn’t look old, it seemed like it belonged in Germany or Finland or some crap like that, and because it was random.
This is a depiction of a tomb. This was the first time that I had seen a skeleton sitting upright on a tomb and he looked so relaxed that it seemed worthy of me showing you.
I used to go to this place all the time. I stopped because the doorman at our school told me it was schifo and that there is a place ten times better down the street. But when I used to go there they were good and I loved their lemon more than anyone elses.
Chiesa del Gesu
We went to this church on another class visit. This is the view from the front of the church. If you look at the statues on either side, you can see that there is a person just below the feet of the statue. That person is an evil spirit trying to escape from hell and the statue is a Jesuit that is keeping that from happening. Also, and I don’t think you can see it in the picture, but just in front of the large door there is a homeless person sleeping. I thoroughly enjoyed this church because as I was going into this church a couple of old people were coming out and I stopped to hold the door for the two of them. I then helped the second woman down the stairs that stretched the entire front of the church and as I was about to walk away she said to me “Aguri”. I looked at her with a confused face and she said “È una brava ragazza.” I asked them if they needed anymore help and they said no, thanked me, and walked away. What the woman was saying was Luck to you, and then she said that I was a good girl. Che bella.
We weren’t really able to see the church because we went on Ash Wednesday and they were about to start mass but we did get to see the front of the church and we got to see the ceiling. It was so beautiful made with stucco and frescos. It felt like they were there in 3D even though, for the most part, they were not.
This picture baffles me every time. I know that its just a painting but I have no idea how they got it to look like they are coming to life and trying to flee a scene. I can sit and look at it for hours, seriously.
San Pietro Basilica
I have been to this church so many times and yet each time I find something new and feel something different. I try to only take pictures of the new things that I see but sometimes I take pictures of something that I have seen before yet I see it in a different light. Forgive me if you see a picture in here that I have showed you before or if I tell you about something that I have already said. As for this picture, I had never noticed this building that sits to the right of St. Peter’s if you are looking at the front of the basilica. It is the Pope’s apartment. Cool, right.
This is on the floor of the inside of the basilica. It is a marker that says how long the church is from one end to the other. Pal Rom is Roman Palms and it was their form of measuring back in the day. M stands for meters and below where it gives the measurements for the basilica it says “additis parietibus”, that means including the porch, which was an addition to the basilica and with that it made the length even longer. St. Peter’s is the longest basilica in the world and if you walk down the nave you will see in the very center a slew of other basilicas and how long they are in comparison to the St. Peter’s.
Michelangleo’s Pietà.
Another something new that I found. This is a mosaic of Peter holding the keys.
These are the angels going around the inside of Bramante’s/Michelangleo’s dome. The angles were painted in a test run before they were painted on the dome and what is left of the test ones can be found in a museum in Ariccia, Italy. We went there with our school.
Chiesa Nuova
When we got inside this church, I must admit that I did not pay very close attention to the instructor as we walked around. But I did however notice this wonderful organ. There was a set of pipes on each side of the altar. It was stupendous.
This was the “Jesus Piece” just above the altarpiece.
Golfone
This was a church turned museum. When this was a functioning church, it was run by what is called a confraternity. It just means brotherhood. But what made this church special was the procession of the passion that they reenacted. They performance was so realistic and gory that they were forbidden to do it. So what they did instead was they had the walls going around the entire church painted with the scenes of the passion. This is one of those scenes.
They guy that opened the museum for us told us that if we wanted to we would be allowed to play the very old organ. No one else was going to do it and our instructor had just tripped up the steps going to get the guy to turn it on so I felt someone had to do it. you know what that meant, Sara to the rescue. I sat there and pretended to know what the heck I was doing. It was a lot of fun.
The Lutheran
This was the original church of the Pope and I didn’t take my camera with me that day so I don’t have any pictures but just google it and you should find something. Something that I can tell you about it is there is a street that connects this old home for the Pope to the new home for the Pope and it is called the Papal Way. Also, the people of Rome don’t accept the Pope as being Pope until he is crowned in the Lutheran, or so a Roman told me.
Farnesi Church
I have no idea if this church is actually called the Farnesi Church but I do know that Cardinal Farnesi had some kind of affiliation with the church and he was also the one who commissioned Caravaggio to paint for one of the chapels in the church. This is a picture I took of one of the paintings in the chapel. This is Caravaggio’s St. Michael and the Angel. It is one of three paintings in this chapel done by Caravaggio. They other two are The Calling of St. Michael and The Martyr of St. Micahel. I love, love, love Caravaggio and if anyone has any interest in seeing these paintings, you just let me know and I’ll take you when you get to Rome.
Movie Night
Every Monday all of us movie lovers go to the Arcadia office to see a new film that is either in Italian, about Italy, or in some way or other portrays an aspect of Italian life. Sometimes I think that movie night is more about us getting together than watching a movie but it always seems to be a win-win situation. Each Monday better than the one before and we always leave with a new story to tell. Like they say, there is never a dull moment.
La Vita È Bella
This is the first movie that we watched since being in Rome. Oh my goodness, what a glorious film. Because it was the first time that they ran this we watched the movie in Tina’s apartment, which made for a nice setting and close quarters. She had pizza and drinks for us and I brought the wine and cookies for her and her daughter, Giulia. The general concept of the movie is that life is beautiful, even in the ugliest of moments. Roberto Begnini’s character showed the importance of making someone else happy and how through that you can be happy. I really am not doing this movie justice because I am not the best at describing movies but it truly is something that I would suggest you all see. I laughed and cried and cried from laughing. It’s a new all time favorite of mine.
I Cento Passi
The second movie night that we had we watched this. Because they had just bought a projection screen, projector and couch cover we were able to watch this in the office. It was nothing like Tina’s apartment, that felt more homely, but it was still fun. The view of the screen was definitely nicer. This movie was something special. It was about a kid who grows up in Sicily and almost everyone there is afraid of the mafia, the same mafia in which his family is associated with. But when the mafia kills his uncle he decides that he wants to be a communist. He talks about the mafia and how terrible they are and his father disowns him. It was just a heart-wrenching movie that shows the typical relationship that a child can have with both the mother and father. The mother is always trying to protect her son whereas the father always wants to beat the shit out of him for not walking on eggshells when talking about the mafia.
Sotto il Sole della Toscana
If you didn’t guess this one already I will tell you the English title now, Under the Tuscan Sun. This is one of my all time favorite movies. I remember the first time that I saw it I watched it over and over again, not because I wanted to but because it kept coming on TV. I was at the hospital with gramps and he was pretty much passed out while I was watching it. I kept closing the door because I was laughing so much and he would randomly wake up and tell me to open the door so he could see what was going on. That man was so nosey, but I miss answering a call and having him eavesdrop. We were supposed to watch a movie titled bread and tulips but it was only in Italian with no subtitles and Renato wanted us to somewhat understand what was going on. He ran out the door to go get another movie and when we were about to start it we came to find out that it only had subtitles in Italian. I offered to go home and get a movie in Italian and came back with this. The movie is about a woman who goes through a divorce and gets an offer to go to on a romantic tour of Tuscany. The catch: it’s a GAY tour of Tuscany. She moves out there and the rest is history. Main story point is you don’t need anyone to make you happy, you just need you. I really like that. It’s not a real tearjerker but it will make you laugh and there is one part that I almost always cry at. Watch it, figure out where I cry, and email me to see if you’re right.
If you would like to learn more about these movies I would suggest you either A) go to , B) call up some movie rental places to see if they have to movie and go rent them or C) try to search for the movie and just buy it. I wouldn’t spend more than $20 considering that I bought Sotto il Sole della Toscana here for €11 and that is the equivalent of $17 or so. I recommend La Vita È Bella to everyone and Sotto il Sole della Toscana to all of you who love Dianne Lane. I Cento Passi is for more of a movie connoisseur. You have to have infinite respect for movies to really enjoy it, mostly because it’s not what you would think of when thinking of a mafia movie.
La Vita È Bella
This is the first movie that we watched since being in Rome. Oh my goodness, what a glorious film. Because it was the first time that they ran this we watched the movie in Tina’s apartment, which made for a nice setting and close quarters. She had pizza and drinks for us and I brought the wine and cookies for her and her daughter, Giulia. The general concept of the movie is that life is beautiful, even in the ugliest of moments. Roberto Begnini’s character showed the importance of making someone else happy and how through that you can be happy. I really am not doing this movie justice because I am not the best at describing movies but it truly is something that I would suggest you all see. I laughed and cried and cried from laughing. It’s a new all time favorite of mine.I Cento Passi
The second movie night that we had we watched this. Because they had just bought a projection screen, projector and couch cover we were able to watch this in the office. It was nothing like Tina’s apartment, that felt more homely, but it was still fun. The view of the screen was definitely nicer. This movie was something special. It was about a kid who grows up in Sicily and almost everyone there is afraid of the mafia, the same mafia in which his family is associated with. But when the mafia kills his uncle he decides that he wants to be a communist. He talks about the mafia and how terrible they are and his father disowns him. It was just a heart-wrenching movie that shows the typical relationship that a child can have with both the mother and father. The mother is always trying to protect her son whereas the father always wants to beat the shit out of him for not walking on eggshells when talking about the mafia.Sotto il Sole della Toscana
If you didn’t guess this one already I will tell you the English title now, Under the Tuscan Sun. This is one of my all time favorite movies. I remember the first time that I saw it I watched it over and over again, not because I wanted to but because it kept coming on TV. I was at the hospital with gramps and he was pretty much passed out while I was watching it. I kept closing the door because I was laughing so much and he would randomly wake up and tell me to open the door so he could see what was going on. That man was so nosey, but I miss answering a call and having him eavesdrop. We were supposed to watch a movie titled bread and tulips but it was only in Italian with no subtitles and Renato wanted us to somewhat understand what was going on. He ran out the door to go get another movie and when we were about to start it we came to find out that it only had subtitles in Italian. I offered to go home and get a movie in Italian and came back with this. The movie is about a woman who goes through a divorce and gets an offer to go to on a romantic tour of Tuscany. The catch: it’s a GAY tour of Tuscany. She moves out there and the rest is history. Main story point is you don’t need anyone to make you happy, you just need you. I really like that. It’s not a real tearjerker but it will make you laugh and there is one part that I almost always cry at. Watch it, figure out where I cry, and email me to see if you’re right.If you would like to learn more about these movies I would suggest you either A) go to , B) call up some movie rental places to see if they have to movie and go rent them or C) try to search for the movie and just buy it. I wouldn’t spend more than $20 considering that I bought Sotto il Sole della Toscana here for €11 and that is the equivalent of $17 or so. I recommend La Vita È Bella to everyone and Sotto il Sole della Toscana to all of you who love Dianne Lane. I Cento Passi is for more of a movie connoisseur. You have to have infinite respect for movies to really enjoy it, mostly because it’s not what you would think of when thinking of a mafia movie.
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