Christmas fun

Celebration began in earnest last Wednesday with the Christmas/New Year's party. Clear skies and just a small nip in the air to make it feel like we're in the right season. The festivities began with a bonfire, with roasted chestnuts and mulled wine. Santa was there. As I predicted, they had tapped Graham for the job and he was in fine form. I'd heard suggestions that they might ask Sim, but no way could he have ho ho'ed his way through 2 hours of playing the part the way Graham did. Not to mention that it would have taken three Sims to fill the Santa suit, which was even big on Graham. There was a horse drawn wagon so the kids could have wagon rides with Santa, but this poor Santa is allergic to horses and started breaking out in a rash. Yet he still made it through almost an hour of sitting on the platform in Marble Hall passing out gifts to kids. And he had to pronounce lots of Turkish names.

While Santa was doing the gift thing, we were drinking wine and chatting. One great moment was when I was standing next to Maura's husband Gökhan and he said "Moira" (or so I thought) and I leaned in and said "Yes?" and he said, "no, I was talking to my wife."

With gifts handed out we went downstairs for dinner in the cafeteria. After that was dessert and coffee and carols. (Or I should say Christmas songs. Some were definitely carols, but I don't think "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" qualifies.)

Thursday night we went to Maura's for some Christmas cheer. First we sat inside by her fireplace, Christmas songs on the iPod, with a view of her lovely Christmas tree. Later we went out to the garden space and lit up the fire pit which was one of Gökhan's Christmas presents and had a view of the Bosphorus. We were joined by Graham, Danny and Kristine, Metin, and Graham's friend Justin who teaches at the Jewish school in Istanbul. Sim and I managed to leave at a reasonable hour so we could finish packing for Rome.

The trip there went smoothly.  It was sunny and fairly warm here when we took off.  Rome was overcast and we did get fairly wet as we walked around, but since it wasn't cold we didn't mind too much. We poked around in churches, walked around the Coliseum, and finally found San Pietro in Vincoli, right where I remembered leaving it, up a steep stairway off Via Cavour.  The problem was Sim was looking at the map and insisting there was a better way to get to it from the Colosseo  metro station than going back up Cavour.  So we got quite wet and the map was in shreds by the time we found it...off Cavour.  We arrived just before they were closing it up, but we got to see Michaelangelo's Moses and the chains that ostensibly held St. Peter before his crucifixion. 

After a change of clothes and rest and some wine back at the Mecenate Palace, we went to a little neighborhood trattoria, Il Nipotino del Solitario, a five minute walk away on San Martino ai Monti, for our Christmas Eve cena.  Good food, hospitable service from the young couple who own it, and reasonable prices. On our way back to the hotel we found another trattoria just up the street jammed with Italians and with even more reasonable prices, so we went there Christmas night. 

On Christmas eve we napped after dinner and then walked across the piazza for midnight mass at Santa Maria Maggiore.  We found standing room quite close to the altar. There was a huge choir and orchestra and multiple priests celebrating the mass.The main celebrant gave a homily in Italian (which I was pleased to find I understood a lot of) and then spoke in English.  He sounded like he was an American, judging by his accent. 

After a very good breakfast buffet we walked over to the Vatican for the Pope's Christmas message at noon.  There were light showers off and on with bits of sun peeking out.  Here too we got a good view fairly close up.  There was lots of pageantry, with the Pope's guards from various countries in colorful uniforms and head gear and bands playing.  The sun really came out about a minute before he did.  He spoke in Italian and then in English, then German.  After that he launched into one line greetings in about 40 languages (after about the 8th, Sim said, "Now he's just showing off.")  We were a bit surprised he did Turkish (Iyi Bayramlar, Happy Holidays), but Constantinople was the center of the church for quite awhile.  He even did Esperanto, which provoked cheers from the Esperanto fans in the crowd (see the pictures).

We walked over to Piazza Navona to look at the Christmas Bazaar, which was a little bizarre, with an American Indian group in costume performing traditional songs of peace amid the stands selling Christmas ornaments and plastic gladiator helmets,  the carousel cranking out carousel music, the living statues next to the elaborate marble ones.  We were ready to sit, eat, and warm up, so we plopped down at the nearest cafe for 2 very expensive pizzas and Peroni beers.  (Speaking of beer, Sim and Tyler bottled their brew last week and it should be ready in a week or two.)

Sunday morning was brightly sunny and after breakfast Sim and I found a grocery store to stock up on Italian treats to bring home:  a bottle of Lacrymi Christo vino rosso, one of Prosecco, one of limoncello, and packages of salami, prosciutto, pancetta (got to have those pork products) and gorgonzola.

Negotiating the Rome airport was time consuming; we pretty much spent the two hours there standing in line or walking to the gate.  There was no time to get a snack and so we were forced to buy sandwiches on the plane.  Pegasus, the Turkish low-cost airline has good ticket prices, but you don't even get water for free. 

Last week Sim made a fabulous version of fettucine with gorgonzola sauce which we had in the trattoria on Christmas night.  On Thursday night we had dinner at Andy and Felicia's.  F. made a great pasta ragu and salad and we brought antipasti and the rosso.  Friday night, New Year's Eve we had the prosecco at Maura's.  The rest of this weekend was very low-key.  We did some house cleaning and some grocery shopping, watched a movie on tv and read the Times online.  I've got lots of papers to grade and prep to do for the next two weeks.  Then we're into two weeks of finals and then the 2 week semester break. When we go to Sicily we'll get to stock up on those Italian treats again.