Some thoughts from Bill

Our first week (and a little more) has been filled with explorations.  I have to admit that while we had immediate good luck with cafe's and shops, just wandering into restaurants hadn't produced anything very interesting.  One of my colleagues at the University lives in the neighborhood, so I asked for advice, noting that we had been experimenting.  A look of horror came over his face, and he declared "experiments can be dangerous."  Granted, he's a theorist. We went that night to his first recommendation, Trattoria Monti.  We look forward to more advice, which we will pass along here.

That first night at Trattoria Monti was funny because, nominally, they didn't have a table.  Even on a Tuesday night in February. The waiter did offer that if we could eat in an hour (a bit of a crime) he could fit us in.  We promised, and figured that we could come back for a leisurely meal another time.   Among other things the special of the evening was a ravioli stuffed with a white fish, which was quite remarkable.   The picture in Char's post below is of a different pasta dish (with zucchini and pumpkin), from the leisurely follow up meal.  Also in that first brief dinner, dessert was a mousse made from ricotta cheese. We thought to be good and share one between the two of us. We had to order a second one, to the great amusement of the waiters.  

It turns out that Trattoria Monti is not a secret, having made it into the New York Times about a year ago; see Frank Bruni's 36 hours in Rome.  Still, nice to find it, and to be guided by locals.

My life at the University is not (yet) too demanding. The much vaunted Italian bureaucracy indeed is impressive, but so far no disasters. All problems seem to vanish in the wake of a wonderfully helpful group secretary, who also scouted apartments for us.  My office is in the "old" physics building, named for Marconi. Actually this building, with the rest of the campus, dates from the time of Mussolini. The real "old physics building" is just a few blocks from our apartment, on the via Panisperna. It was there that Fermi and his young colleagues ("the boys of Panisperna") did their pioneering work.  Fermi did spend two years in the Marconi building, and it is now also the repository of memorabilia. I must say that walking in each day to a larger than life portrait of "the boys" is pretty funny, especially since I have to connect the image of a sweet young Emilio Segre to the tough old man I encountered as a young faculty member in Berkeley.

On the other hand, seeing those pictures reminded me of a seminar which Segre gave in Berkeley about the history of the Rome group. Remarkably, he actually did a demonstration of the induced radioactivity experiments on the table at the front of the lecture hall, complete with a bath of water to slow down the neutrons and make them more effective (as evidence by the rapid clicking of the Geiger counter). It would be nice to see the original goldfish pond on the via Panisperna where the experiment was done first.

The Marconi building is becoming a maze as the locals try to carve out extra office and lab space from the once grand corridors. Much of the structure and entranceway is newly restored, faithful to the original plans. The portrait of Mussolini was of course removed long ago, and thankfully not replaced. What has been added is a plaque in memory of the architect, who died in the Mauthausen concentration camp.  The whole campus' grand fascist era architecture in some ways has a stark beauty, but of course it is also pompous and filled with bad associations. There is a new layer being added, as the names appearing on buildings (like Fermi and Segre) become those of great figures who fled the fascist persecutions. Perhaps this active wrestling with history is the best that one can do.

On a lighter note, I find the peace and quiet of being truly away from things already is giving me time to think.  We'll see what bubbles up.