Oh my Dearest Clementine

I started my day this morning early with a long run.  My roommates, Jenelle and Jill, and I are planning on doing the Valentine's Day 10K in Cornado in February.  Jenelle is a faster distance runner than I am so I need to get into extra good shape to keep up with her!  I ran on the main road outside my apartment, Via Gregorio VII.  On that street there is anything and everything you could possibly find.  From grocery stores, toy stores, coffee shops, hair dresser, Toyota car store, hardware, baby clothes, jewelry, and much much more.  On my run, I pass many many pizza places.  As you walk down any street in Rome, you will see pizza places advertising “Forno a legna.”  Forno is stove, legna is wood, so “forno a legna,” is a special wood fire stove that is used to cook the delicious flat pizza in this part of Italy.  I never thought to stop and wonder where all this wood to fire up the stoves comes from.  Not until a large truck that was  BLASTING music was stopped in the middle of the street.  All of the sudden, people with wheelbarrows materialized and started loading up on firewood.  Wait. What? WHAT is going on? The music, the wheelbarrows, the wood- in the middle of the city!  I was confused until I realized that they were carting the firewood into the pizza parlor across the street, and I had a very slow-dawning “A-ha!” moment.  The legna has to get to the forno somehow, and in order to know the wood has arrived is when you hear the music.

Favorite thing about December in Italy so far? Clementines.  They are EVERYWHERE. In every store, at every fruit stand and even growing on trees lining the streets of Rome.  I eat them like candy.  Don’t mind if I do stop for a quick little snacky during my run.  While running along the street I also admire how old the architecture is.  In America, it’s always “out with the old and in with the new!”  We love to get new cell phones, buy new clothes, upgrade electronics and trade in our cars.  Consumerism defines the US and in fact increased consumption is what keeps our economy on track.  That’s why it feels so strange to be surrounded by things that are so old.  Rome has managed to be a modern city built around an ancient one.  It is impressive to see the balance of old and new.  There doesn’t seem to be the same desire to demolish something and start again.  Instead, you just build around what is already there.  This balance is easily spotted around all the Roman monuments- the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the famous piazzas… but it’s also beautifully done in my neighborhood.