Escaparse de Nueva York

Before I left my cousin’s place, I had one more treat in store. It was January 6th - the feat of the Ascension (sometimes known as “Little Christmas” among the Eastern Orthodox). This was one of three days, along with New Year’s and (Big) Christmas that the town put on a live nativity scene.

Now, this wasn’t just a few people dressed up like shepherds and hanging out or anything. This was an elaborate spectacle of at least half a dozen scenes of life in Judea at the time of Jesus. A crowd was waiting by the manger scene (Baby Jesus was played by a doll - it was too cold to have a real baby out there) for the big moment when the three wise men were going to make their entrance.

The coolest part of this? The scene took place in a series of hillside caves near the town - old Etruscan ruins. There was an Estruscan amphitheater next to it - they could tell it was Etruscan and not Roman because the Estruscans carved the entire theatre out of one big rock. For someone from a country where history is measured in decades, putting on a 2000-year old historical scene in something that predates it by centuries is pretty amazing.

I was happy that my first impression of Italy included actual Italians. Instead of a backpacker hostel or cheap hotel in the middle of the city, I got to stay out in a little town an hour North of Rome with my cousins. But despite not speaking a work of Italian, I felt right at home.

The town itself is really interesting - like many small Italian towns, it was originally an old castle. This leads to another difference between old world cities and new world cities. Many old world cities started out as castles, forts, or other military settlements. As a result, they’re situated on the highest ground possible, leading to hilly towns, generally with a main street running at the crest, and smaller networks of alleyways and stairs down each side of the hill (with stray cats running through them nonstop). In the new world, by contrast, cities were generally built on flat terrain. Building a city of a hill is a pain in the neck (just ask San Francisco), and generally avoided unless some kind of defensive military advantage is needed.

But the most interesting thing about the city was the people. I only got to hang out with a few of my cousin’s friends. He explained that because of Rome becoming so expensive, a lot of Romans, as well as foreigners (I met a old New Yorker while there) were moving out to the surrounding town. The folks from the towns, by contrast, were moving to the newer developments surrounding the old castle. Kind of like a new-law tenement on the Lower East Side, an 800-year-old stone house is charming for expats, but miserable if you’ve actually grown up in one.

But the best house I saw there was actually a converted horse stable. And although we just dropped by for a few minutes, the Italian family that I met there were my favorite folks yet. The warmth and excitement was genuine, as was the disappointment that we hadn’t shown up an hour earlier for lunch, and that we wouldn’t be back for dinner. We did stay for a drink. We got a special homemade liquor. I guessed what it was distilled from: basil (how Italian).

Sorry for the lack of updates about anything really travel related yet. I've got the pictures, but I'm going to have to add them later. And I'm going to break with my general style and just ... [Continue reading this entry]