ROME 26/10– Day 09: very cool and a rare restaurant review

It was 7:14 when the sun strove to illuminate Rome through the clouds. It worked on and off against clouds and rain until 18:41 when it wearily slid away in the West.

1900 is still the cycle for the Ave Maria for the Curia.

It is the feast of St. John Leonardi, et al. His body is in nearby S. M. in Campitelli.

Please keep me in your prayers for a health issue. Thanks.

RESTAURANT NOTE:  I admit to being ignorant about the restaurants along the edge of the Campo de’ Fiori, a place I otherwise know well.  Today, aware of my ignorance and determined to try one, I stopped – an optimist in spite of being a Prussian Dane who studied Augustine – with someone for a pizza.  It was a mistake.   The restaurant in question, rather near Ruggieri, was unfortunately named “Magus Bistro”. Perhaps I was there on a bad day, but… nah…it was the epitome of mediocrity with a touch of pretention on the part of the staff.  The pizza was as unfortunate as the name and even less magical, particularly in regard to flavor.  AVOID “Magus Bistro”.  Your time in Rome is too short for this.  Our time on earth is too short for this.  And, having only wine by the glass rather than by quarter or half liters like civilized Romans, their light pour was an insult to the glass it came in as well as to the client who ordered it.  My lunch companion’s salad was Italian cliché with the inevitable corn on top.  It was served in a rather narrow and yet tall bowl which rendered it an unlikely candidate for both dressing with the oil and vinegar as well as subsequent attempts to draw it up as if from a well and then eat it.  Lastly, we ate outside, rather than in, so I don’t know what the interior is like.

This… it IS going to happen again, of course. Think Carrington Event.

In 1204, a Japanese poet wrote in his diary that the sky turned blood red for 3 nights.

800 years later, scientists drilled into buried trees and confirmed: he was witnessing a catastrophic solar storm that would have fried every satellite on Earth today. https://t.co/T0NUtQ3U2N

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) October 8, 2026

Pure crap.

This is laughably bad, in both content and aesthetics.

Yet another stone in the cemetery of this once venerable prize — and, in a sense, a new level of debasement in the humanities. While the scientific Nobel prizes continue mostly rewarding excellence, Literature is becoming a laughingstock.

— Rorate Caeli (@RorateCaeli) October 9, 2026

And…

Happy Friday 🙂 https://t.co/qdFglnOyWQ

— MedievalistMatt (@medievalistmatt) October 9, 2026

Black to move. Mate in 4.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Leonardo da Vinci designed it 500 years ago.

He never got to hear it.

This is the Viola Organista, part piano, part violin, built by Sławomir Zubrzycki.

The only one in the world 🎹🎻

Sławomir & Magdalena Malec playing together as we head into the weekend. https://t.co/eBEVwvXmf6

— Muse (@xmuse_) October 9, 2026