Rome

You are currently browsing articles tagged Rome.

Almost Corner Bookstore – Rome, Italy

February 26, 2010 in bookstore, translation by Kim | 2 comments

When I told people I was visiting Rome, several people suggested I stop by the Almost Corner Bookstore.  It sells English books in a cozy shop with wall-to-wall books.  A center table stacks current bestsellers and books with Italy as the subject matter.  Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, due to the release of the film, received the center spot. An observation from a customer who lives in Rome, “clearly Dan Brown didn’t visit Rome before he wrote the book.” For such a small store, they carried an impressive selection of genres, from English fiction and non-fiction to contemporary Chinese literature.  I also noticed several bestsellers in paperback that were still in hardback in the US. [Aside:  This always irritates me.  I finished the third of the Millennium Trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the  Hornet's Nest, in paperback over the Christmas holidays because a friend bought it overseas.  It won't be out in hardback here until May.]

The atmosphere was fun, when I visited two booksellers were holding court along with a professor from Cal State Los Angeles and an ex-pat who later delivered us to a terrific dinner restaurant.  Their customers are tourists to a certain extent (apparently an Australian Cardinal drops in every time he’s in Rome to buy a novel for the plane ride home), but at least a third are English speaking Rome residents.  Many Italians who read English books because book options are limited in Italian, the publishing world is smaller. The store’s bestsellers are detective and mystery books, even before the likes of Dan Brown, especially if the locale is Italy.  Once Almost Corner buys a book, they keep it until it’s sold.  While the store doesn’t sell used books, some of them may be very old.

Rome was the last stop on our trip to Italy and by the time I reached the Almost Corner Bookstore in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome, I couldn’t help noticing lots of the small bookstores scattered throughout the country in both large and small cities.  Finding a native English speaker and bookseller, I asked about the prevalence of bookstores everywhere.  The answer, there isn’t competition.  To buy a book is to buy it at the local bookstore.  There are bookstore chains, Read the rest of this entry »

  • Share/Bookmark

Art History Challenge – A Journey into Michelangelo’s Rome by Angela K. Nickerson

October 24, 2009 in book review, travel by Kim | No comments

MichelangeloRomeCover179Michelangelo Distilled

After hours listening to art history lectures, wading through biographies and art history books, I found A Journey into Michelangelo’s Rome refreshingly informative and compact.  Angela Nickerson finds the perfect balance between the man, his era, and his art.  Michelangelo’s creations are a product of the intellectual fervor, the spiritual upheaval, and the political patronage system of the Renaissance.  In the opening chapters, the book gives  an overview of the events that shaped Michelangelo’s world.  The book then continues with a focus on his life and his work.  Without any information, Michelangelo’s works are beautiful, but with the right background, their brilliance grows.   

His Art – Technical and Fun

With luscious photographs, Angela leads us through Michelangelo’s life in art, from The Madonna of the Stairs to the Florentine Pieta.   Angela points out the unique aspects of each piece of art and the interesting stories behind them.   While thousands of words could be written about the Rome Pieta, Angela precisely points out Michelangelo’s mastery: 

The composition Michelangelo created involved carving two full-sized figures from one block of marble–a difficult task.  Michelangelo bent the rules of proportion to his own purposes:  Mary is much larger than Jesus to support the weight of a life-sized figure in her lap, but their heads are the same size, making  the difference in size hard to detect.  Mary’s size serves as a structural purpose, but it also allows the grieving mother to hold her son on her lap, creating a tableau that is both powerful and tender.

And the gossip about the piece?  After it was installed in St. Peter’s, Michelangelo overheard someone attribute the work to another artist.  Not happy, Michelangelo carved his name along Mary’s sash.  This is the only work he ever signed.  I love back stories; I frequently find the art more intimate and memorable after hearing them. Read the rest of this entry »

  • Share/Bookmark