I saw the word costanza in an article recently, and it was like getting hit in the face with a marble rye. SEINFELD. George Costanza (aka Art Vandelay).
In Italian, the noun costanza means constancy or stability. It comes from the Latin, constare: to stay together, to be still, to remain stable.
In other words, it doesn’t have anything to do with George Costanza.
The Assistant to the Traveling Secretary himself
Friday May 18th:
L-Ektrica Deluxe Closing Party: The season of L-Ektrica parties is almost over, and Lanificio is hosting the last one, featuring Nicholas, a 25 year old DJ from Perugia, spinning deep house and techno. Lanificio’s resident DJs will follow.
Where: Lamificio 159 - Via di Pietralata, 159
When: 11:30 PM
Cost: €10 with drink before 1 AM, €15 with drink after 1 AM.
For more info check out the Facebook invite of Lanificio’s event page.
Touch the Wood Closing Season: Another closing party scheduled for tonight, this time from the Touch the Wood club series at Radio Cafè. The bassist from super popular British electro-pop group Metronomy will be throwing down his own DJ set, and then joined by some “chummy friends”, aka more DJs!
Where: Radio Cafè - Via Principe Umberto, 67
When: 11:45 PM
Cost: €8 with drink on the list (email touchthewood@live.it), or €10 with drink at the door
For more info check out the Facebook invite.
I Mostri Release Party: Head over to San Lorenzo to catch Rome’s own I Mostri. This group is pretty great: they write their own quirky lyrics, in Italian, about life in Rome (and Americans in Campo de’ Fiori). As they describe themselves on their Facebook page, they are “explosive in all respects… giving a pure adrenaline rush, literally spawning from proto-punk and ska.” This concert will showcase works from their new album, La Gente Muore di Fame. Two other groups will be performing as well.
Where: Locanda Atlantide – Via dei Lucani, 22
When: 9:30 PM
Cost: €5
For more info check out the Facebook invite.
Saturday May 19th:
In case you aren’t partaking in Rome’s Notte dei Musei, or if you want to boogie after checking out some art, I suggest:
Deep Ink: As the tagline for this event describes, “London, that great garbage dump where all the loafers and idlers of the empire irresistibly flow.” What’s that mean? Well-known British DJ Simon Baker is in Rome and will be spinning deep house and techno. Four other DJs will also be performing both indoors and outdoors, which is pretty cool! Yay summer!
Where: Circolo degli Illuminati – Via Libetta, 1
When: Midnight- 6:30 AM
Cost: €10 with drink
For more info check out the Facebook invite.
ROCK ON!
Friday: Get yourself over to Castel Sant’Angelo tonight at 9pm as the first cars of the Mille Miglia roll into town. This classic car rally started way up in Brescia on Wednesday, and rolls into Rome for the southernmost stop on the 1,000 mile circuit. Close to 400 cars are participating, so expect to see some classic Bugatti, Officine Meccaniche, Fiat, Talbot and Mercedes models cruising by the castle tonight. In fact, one of the qualifying criteria to participate in the race is that the car must be a model that drove in the original incarnation of the Mille Miglia – an annual event from 1927 through 1957, before it was revived in the 1970′s.
Saturday: The annual Notte dei Musei takes place tomorrow night, as the great majority of Italy’s museums and archaeological sites go nocturnal and free for the day. Most sites are open until 2am, with last entrance at 1:30. There are also quite a few concerts and special events going on in conjunction with the evening, so check out the Musei in Comune site for a full list. If you’re more into calcio than Caravaggio, don’t forget the Champions League final is Saturday night at 8:45pm – you can count on most pubs (Scholars, Abbey, etc) to be showing the Chelsea/Bayern match.
Sunday: Sunday is the final day of the Festival del Verde e del Paessagio, a three-day festival dedicated to the greening of Rome through urban and home landscaping. The event is taking place up at the Parco della Musica, and features a mile long stroll which various gardeners, garden designers, landscape architects, nurserymen and craftsmen, have enhanced with their sustainable design solutions. Apparently there area lot of hanging gardens involved, which just sounds magical. Additionally, the BNL Internazionali Tennis Tournament concludes today with both the men’s and women’s finals. This information isn’t particularly helpful, because tickets are sold out, but it will explain the traffic you’ll encounter trying to get up to the Parco della Musica.
La Notte dei Musei
Update: Following this morning’s tragic bombing in Brindisi, the city of Rome has cancelled tonight’s Notte dei Musei. We will update with more info when we have it.
Once a year, the Ministero per i Beni e le Attivita Culturali (MiBAC), indulges our collective childhood fantasy of running around museums after dark. This Saturday, May 19, they are bringing us the 2012 edition of La Notte dei Musei – which is just the Italian way of saying that most of Rome’s best sites and museums will be open all night and without charging you that pesky admissions fee.
Starting at 8pm on Saturday night, the participating sites will reopen until 2am on Sunday (last entrances will be around 1:30). Check the website for a full list of participating sites and times (scroll down to Lazio), but take note that some highlights include the Villa d’Este and Villa Adriana out at Tivoli, and Castel Sant’Angelo, the Terme di Caracalla, and the Villa Giulia here in Rome, along with most other museums. The Galleria Borghese is participating as well, but be sure to call ahead to reserve your free 9pm entry. Unfortunately, despite its presence on the poster above, the Colosseum is not participating as a free site, but they did recently restart their Friday and Saturday evening tour initiative.
In addition to the MiBAC sites, the MAXXI is joining in on the fun by staying open until midnight and offering a reduced price ticket (8 euro instead of the usual 11). The Musei in Comune are participating as well – a full list isn’t provided, so I guess we can assume all of their sites are in (this includes Trajan’s Markets, the Capitoline, Centrale Montemartini, and many more.)
Lines for the popular sites can get quite long, so if you’re set on seeing something, get there early. Most of all, have fun and don’t eat the pictures.
..Nettuno we have a baseball team!*
Ah, Summer. There’s nothing quite like unpacking the old leather and Wonderboy, listening to the crack of the bat, gargling out a few aimless “hey battah battah whaddya say kid?”s, and dragging on a cigarette while sipping some espresso.
Wait. What?
Yes, there may be a few quirks thrown into the storied American past time, but baseball is alive and well in the Mediterranean. The Italian Baseball League, founded in 2007, boasts eight teams. The squad closest to Rome is just a short hour and fifteen minute train ride south in sunny Nettuno, where baseball first arrived in Italy along with guns, grenades, and Old Glory during the Italian Campaign of World War II. The American soldiers who were stationed in Anzio/Nettuno after pushing the German forces off the beaches taught the game to the locals, and the tradition has remained ever since.
Nowadays the Danesi Caffè Nettuno…Nettunos — they don’t seem to have a mascot, though Cleveland Indian hats are common, which probably just has to do with the similarity in jersey color — can be watched every other weekend in their home digs, Lo Stadio Steno Borghese, located just outside the Nettuno city center. It takes about 20-25 minutes to walk from the train station; beware, dear readers, as sidewalks are few and far between. Tickets are €5, Peroni Grandi €3, though security is nonexistent so one could easily bring in a bag of food, beer, etc. Seating is first come first served. Also, dogs are allowed. And bicycles. And cigarettes. And smiles!
Go to enjoy the sun, the electric atmosphere, or to cheer on Americans Chris Criscenzi, Marc La Macchia, and Ray Sadler (who played in the MLB and oddly enough homered off of one of my favorite ballplayers, Noah Lowry, for his first major league hit back in 2005).
Here’s the schedule. Catch ‘em while they’re hot like the espresso sipped in the stands; they’ve rattled off nine straight wins.
All your base are belong to us.
*Cool Runnings reference credit to loyal reader Matt.
Spassarsela comes from the Italian reflexive verb, spassarsi, meaning to amuse oneself, or to have a good time. Specifically, spassarsela means to live it up, or to have a great time.
I couldn’t find the etymology of this word, but I did find out that passarsela also exists, and when used in conjugation to ‘bene,’ passarsela bene, means to be well off. When used in conjugation with ‘male,’ as in passarsela male, it means to have a hard time.
The Italian verb passare makes up the two verbs stated above. Among its many meanings, passare also mean to spend time with, or to pass time with someone, or doing something.
So in my etymological genius I conclude that spassarsela (spassarsi) comes from passare, and means to spend time living it up hardcore. Don’t forget, conjugate the verb as all reflexive verbs with a direct object!
Example:
Me la spasso a Roma. – I live it up in Rome.
The lights of the Ponte reflect on the Tiber River on a spring evening
La pacchia è finita is a famous phrase in Italian. It means that the fun has ended, the party’s over, and it’s time to return to a less fortunate or less relaxed state or situation.
The phrase centers around the word pacchia, which means a state of ease, or living without preoccupation or worry. Basically, the good life, one devoid of problems. Che pacchia! is like saying, “piece of cake!”
There are a couple of ideas regarding the etymology of pacchia:
1- From the Latin pacho, meaning a fat pig
2- From the Latin spalancare, meaning to open wide, as in your mouth.
In both cases there is a connotation of something large, spacious, or wide. I like to think of it like spreading out on a bed, taking up all the space, not having a care in the world.
It’s the weekend, so it’s time to learn some pick-up skillz. Well maybe not the skillz, not in this forum anyhow, but at least how to say it in Italian!
Abbordare: Literally meaning to board, as in a ship, abbordare is also used in the figurative sense meaning to affront, to broach, or to tackle. Slangily, it means to pick someone up, or to chat someone up. In that sense, I suppose it relates closer to abbordare‘s figurative meaning. Maybe taking the ‘to tackle’ meaning to a literal level though…
Rimorchiare: Coming from the noun, rimorchio, or a tow/trailer car, rimorchiare is the act of towing, picking up, or pulling. Coming from the literal meaning, ‘picking something up,’ rimorchiare is used when talking about picking up someone. Here, the literal meaning was taken to mean a figurative ‘pick-up,’ or at least I hope so.
Acchiappare: Meaning to seize, or to catch, it’s pretty clear how acchiappare has come to mean to flirt or pick someone up.
Examples:
-’Hai rimorchiato ieri sera?’ – Did you pick anyone up last night?
-’Non posso acchiappare, sono fidanzato.’ – I can’t flirt, I’m in a relationship.
Happy flirting!
Sunset at Santa Marinella. I didn’t even instagram this.
Flying in to either of Rome’s main airports, you might notice the large body of water to your left (or right, depending on your direction of arrival). Yes, that is, in fact, the Mediterranean Sea, whose proximity to Rome is often forgotten upon entering the inland chaos of the city. And while I’m not about to call Rome a beach town, I am about to tell you how easy it is to escape the city for a day of seafood, sand, and sunsets.
There are quite a few little seaside towns dotting the coast around here, of which I’ll highlight a few over the course of the summer, but let’s kick things off with my favorite, and, in my opinion, the most convenient – Santa Marinella.
Your day begins at the train station – Termini, Trastevere, or San Pietro – depending on what’s closest to you. Check the TrenItalia site for times, but there’s generally at least one train per hour (Civitavecchia is the end of the line). Purchase your 7 euro roundtrip ticket, hop on board, and let yourself be whisked out of the city and to the coast. 30-40 minutes later, the train will pull into Santa Marinella, and you will disembark. There’s only one street leading out of the station, so take that. Several yards later, you will approach an intersection, and also your most significant decision of the day. Do you first want to encounter fish in the water or out of water? If you’re eager to get to the beach, then hang a right. You’ll walk down the street toward the water, hop down some stairs, and be there. I suggest packing a picnic ahead of time – there is a supermarket in Santa Marinella, but its stock is always, well, sparse, to say the least. However, if you want to indulge your taste buds in a marine menagerie, then by all means turn left. Presumably there’s a bus that will take you in the proper direction, but if you’re up for the walk, prepare yourself for a nice 25 minute stroll down the Via Aurelia.
Some time later, you will encounter a garage, that, for some reason, has a giant sign up top saying “Tavola Azzurra 2″. This is where you will stop. You will ask for a table. Outside, preferably. You will get a cold bottle of white wine. And an antipasto misto. And then you will sit back as plate after plate of Sardinian specialties are brought out to you. If the crudi, verdure, alici, sarde, polpette and more haven’t fully satiated you, then you might want to indulge in a plate of spaghetti alle vongole (spaghetti with clams), or steamed cozze (mussels). You will certainly want to indulge in an order of seadas - a cheese filled disk of fried dough that arrives drizzled with honey.
Mussels, vongole, fritti, and some other good stuff
And then you will pay the rather small bill and amble back the way you came, towel in hand, ready to nap and swim until it’s time for the sun to set.
What: Beach day and/or fish feast
Where: Tavola Azzurra 2, Via Aurelia 111b, Santa Marinella (or just the beach!)
How: Hourly trains from Termini, Trastevere and San Pietro will drop you off at Stazione Santa Marinella, which is a 5 minute walk from the beach.
How much: Come high season, you will need to rent an umbrella for a spot on the beach. Just set up shop and someone will come over. Lunch runs about 20 euro each.
When: I much prefer Santa Marinella in the slightly off-season (basically up until everyone else realizes it’s beach season). For fish, however, go any time.
Young in Rome
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