Come Away! Come Away!

Coffee at Campo dei Fiori, about a block from our classroom.

This summer, it is my good fortune to accompany my colleague, the (extraordinary) poet Jennifer Maier, on Seattle Pacific University's study abroad trip to Rome. I've been before, both as student and later as writer-in-residence, on similar trips with the University of Washington, and they have been absolutely formative for me as a scholar and as a person. At least half the poems in my coming book are responses to various phenomena I encountered there. A fair bit of my dissertation on The Drive to Failure was conceived as a response to the layers of empire on view in that city and the treatment of artistic fragments in same. I've published two essays about some art I saw in situ, this one on Caravaggio's Calling of St. Matthew and this one on Bernini's David. Basically, I know I would still have been me in some sense had I never been to Rome, but it's hard to imagine how.

Eligible SPU students should consider coming along. While there, we'll see more than anyone could put into words, in addition to furthering mastery of writerly discipline and literary interpretation. There's a reason that generations of Europeans considered their educations incomplete until they visited The Eternal City. Come find out why.

Some highlights, according to previous participants can be viewed in this gallery.

You can apply through the SPU study abroad office, or email me with any questions you might have.

It’s my birthday! So I treated myself to @wearemacphun #Tonality app and made this first B/W conversion. Here’s me in my favorite hat, in Rome’s #Pigneto neighborhood. 

Roman Hours vol. 2.1

Tiburtina Station RedesignAfter a layover in Rome's newly re-imagined Tiburtina--and what times these Romans have ahead of them! Finally, a station worthy of its approach!--my wife and I boarded the new train line, Italo Treno, for Naples.  Since the service just launched this Summer, they're offering 20 euro fares to all the major cities they visit (adding Venice and Turin soon). Though my seat faced backwards, which meant I was curled up in the aisle facing front (motion sickness, see?), how nice it was to find oneself on a clean and modern train, to have waited for it in an air-conditioned lounge with free wi-fi before boarding, to have booked tickets from a beautiful, simple website, and to have been aided by an army of young, smartly-dressed attendants.  

It's only a little disconcerting how much I look like the people here.  Features which one took to be his own turn out all along to have been regional markers: the slightly recessed mouth, downturned eyes, Roman nose (obviously), hairstyle (such as it is), and even particular shade of eye-color were apparently motivated by--the food from this earth? These winds?--this stock and ground.

After finding our hotel (scary from the outside, plesant within) we headed we headed into the last golden splash of daylight for a semblance of a stroll, but really we were so hungry it was more of a hunt.  Good thing then that I accidentally took us to the best strip of pizzerias around.  Amber read a sign out loud "dal 1923" which I remembered from some local blog I'd seen as the identifier of her favorite pizzeria.  We rolled and won on a Pizza Lasagna which was terrific, and afterward had the best gelato really, probably of my whole life. 

Naples feels dangerous at every turn, like the end of the world, or the beginning, or a ruin mid-definition.  It throbs with life and excitment though, and I wonder if sometimes the locals don't prefer to keep the trash in the street just to stay the tourist horde from overtaking, as they surely would, in this Rome-on-the-Sea-but-20 Degrees-Cooler-and-with-Better-Food.

I can't help but love it here, even while I can't help but think that someone with a power-washer and a pot of flowers could be Mayor, raising the city to it's quattrocento glory simply by tidying up. 

Travel Tip: Getting to Rome

The train ride from Roma Fuimincino Airport has been bad for decades, but it's gotten worse recently, and now ranks among the worst things to be experienced by the sensual animal. Everything grates: it's filthy as a port-a-john, there's plastic everywhere and graffiti on that; all alert systems are red since it feels both crowded and dangerous. What's more, the A/C is broken, and has been on all five of my trips to Rome, and, somehow, psychotically, they've bolted all the windows shut. The temperature inside hovers around 100 and one thinks she can imagine the smell, but is still surprised experiencing it. And it's slow. And takes you through the worst part of town. And it's expensive: between 8 and 25 euro depending on which line you get in and whether the man working the desk thinks you look like prey. And th ensigns directing you to the "station" are held up with tape. You get the idea. Half of the visitors' Roman dreams are dashed in sweaty Satanic reality before one even crosses the Flaminian gate.

Hence, this tip. When you arrive at FCO, don't follow the signs that say "In Centro," or "Rome," or "Metro" or "All Trains," or anything else that suggests "You Should Come this Way." That is the broad way that leads to death (Matt 7:13). Instead, go out to the curb where the cabs come, then get to Terminal 1. It's an easy walk from 2 or 3, and a free tram ride from anywhere else (also picking up on the curb). Once there, stand on said curb, enjoying the fresh air, and go to the small sign that says airport shuttle. There are many that operate--one by AiItalia and another that just says 7 Euro" on the side. They're all 7 euro, and clean, modern buses, that stow your luggage, are air-conditioned, and drive straight to Termini (no stops between) via what looks like a tour bus route: you'll see EUR, Colosseum, Forum, St. Giovanni in Laterno, and many other landmarks, just on your way into the city, where you arrive refreshed, relaxed, dry, and excited to begin your pilgrimage.