A quick view from today in Rome.
I met one of my best friends today after Mass at SS. Trinita dei Pellegrini (btw… my Mass was offered today, again, for benefactors… you know who you are), and had a chance to see how the whole family was growing up (what do these parents feed these kids? they grow so fast…), and then we went for lunch (at a favorite place).
We started with a bis of primi, tagliolini al salmone and then gli spaghetti alla gricia.
In case you didn’t get that…
My first bite reminded me of what I had remembered. They balance this just right. I’d like to watch one of their cooks make this. Sometimes this version of pasta can have all the grace of a slap in the face with the fish, and sometimes, if over cooked, the texture of shredded dental floss. Not this stuff. Velvety and salmony and the pasta came through. There was a touch of butter, for sure.
You have noticed the Greco di Tufo in the background.
Then the nice pre-Columban gricia:
I could have eaten full portions of both, they were so good. These guys have got game, and that’s a fact.
That creamy texture requires a particular technique, which we can talk about another time.
For a second I had saltimboca and a Roman artichoke.
Even the puree was memorable.
This is not the best season for the artichokes but… hey… they are never bad when in the Roman style, with mentuccia.
Then we went off to find another friend – let’s call him “The Gate Keeper” – and we discussed the apophatic dimension of the older form of the Roman Rite, and we spoke of mystery.
It is good to be with friends, especially on a Sunday.
Also during the day, I went for personal reasons and intentions to consult with St. Vincent Pallotti for a while. I have long had great affection for this saint, because of the first time I visited Rome, in … 1981? That’s another story!
I was very glad for the good day, in spite of the rain.
There is a new and very bright comet out there. Which of course means that it is the end of the world as we know it… maybe. Maybe not. In any event, it should be bright! And we might need either Bruce Willis, or Robert Duval, or both!
studies at the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum, only a few metres away from Vatican City. Of similar tenor, but with variations of tone and critical understanding, as well as, the barely pertinent references to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, was the news buzzing around the European and Italian media in the following days. The news was quickly reported. In the course of the conference the scholar presented a fragment of a papyrus which bears phrases, translated from Coptic, of a dialogue between Jesus and his disciples about a woman, Mary, whom he describes as “his wife” (ta-hime / ta-shime, which in Coptic corresponds to what we call “woman” or “wife”). There is nothing unusual about this for a scientific congress. However, in this case, the excessively direct link between research and journalism – that makes short shrift of the long periods required by more serious scientific discussion – had already occurred before the conference, given that the very premature news in the American press on Tuesday depended on an an interview that the Harvard academic had already given before leaving for Italy.
