A Remarkable Day in Monti

Today burst out with the strength of the full sun on St Stefano day and we took the opportunity to take a long walk around Monti and see a museum that's been on my bucket list for a month now.  

The Nationale Museo a Strumenti Musicali.  After a pretty wet November, we’re getting just blasted with sun and mild (mid 50’s) temps in late Dec. Perfect walking weather.


The NMSM was all it was cracked up to be. More so actually. Some of the Google map reviews were less than flattering, but I can only guess that they were made by non-musicians. For anyone who is a player and/or owner of musical instruments this tiny, tucked away in an old villa museum is a must-see.


We saw:  The first piano ever made, by the inventor of pianoforte, Bartolomeo Cristofori, in 1700., lots of harpsichords, guitars, basses, lutes, mandolins, violins, wind, and brass. Just fantastic. The docent was kind enough to open the back of the pipe organ and how us the naked pipes. Amazing, and we were sworn to secrecy to not let on that she'd opened the back of the organ for us.  Don't tell anyone, please.


Some photos in no particular order:

B. Cristofori's first piano....

So many beautiful inxtruments. It was heaven. The docent had some yt vidos of some of the more esoteric instrumts, like the weird bass and the 25 strings lute/basso combos, so we could hear what they could do (not the insttrumets under glass, but reproductions and privately held and still played early insttruments). 

Then a twenty minute walk away we found another tiny Museo tucked away on a side street. The Museo di Nationale liberazione. A history museum dedicated to 1935-45 Rome under the fascist yoke. A place with a grisly past as a holding cell and torture rooms for the Roman Jews during wwll before they were shipped off to Germany and Poland. No internal pictures but it very well laid out in newspaper and pamphlets/proclamations and photos as to how Rome felt, looked and dealt with the fascist period and after surrendering, the resistance and fight against the Nazi occupation. A somber but ultimately a triumphant place.  I swear to God, Rome has enough museums to last a history nerd a lifetime

Hungry, we then lunched al fresco (have to try and enjoy every second of these sunny warmish days) at an osteria far from the madding crowds and had the most amazing experience.



A  linguistic epiphany
First, the owner, super friendly and chatty, told me my Italian was excellent. Blush. The best thing was I had a linguistic breakthrough and for the first time was actually able to understand about 85% of what he said. Maybe he wasn’t talking at hyper speed like most other Romani, but nonetheless, it was empowering. I've been struggling with comprehension of the rapid-fire patter of the Romani -  my reading is a high level and I was easily able to read the newspaper accounts of the pre-war and resistance era Rome in the Museo, and my spoken word, while still full of verb tense mistakes and vocabulary holes, works pretty well and I'm confident and conversant in most situations. But my ears and brain had not yet had that flip-over from individual word translation and to that zone where one is understanding and thinking the foreign tongue and not just internally thinking in English.


Today that flip happened after I asked about the regionality of the honey* that came for dipping our cheese into. It was empowering and for the first time, I felt like I was standing at the doorway of fluency, getting a peek at what that is going to look like and feel like someday. 


*a blend of southern, Campagna, Puglia, Tuscany and Abruzzo regions. Light and delicate, lots of fruit and citrus present


The aforementioned honey (or marmalade) and cheese:

The lovely street scene on a sunny Friday in Monti at Bistro al 133

Ephiphany #2

When our friend the owner brought the conto he said they don’t take cards and, sadly we were about $25 short of cash  - and in a quiet neighborhood with nary a bancomat we'd seen for the last few hours.  

Remarkably, He said to come back later. "Pay me later, whenever you can.". 

Amazing. Of course we did. Found a bancomat about a ten minute walk away and hightailed it back and happily paid the nicest osteria owner we've met so far.

I have to include a photo of the simple yet perfectly cooked county comfort food.

Ravioli con ricotta and polpette nel pomodori sugo e spaghetti.

I'd rate this as just about a perfect day. 

A presto....