Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Gorgeous: the wondrous Castelli Romani...



Well, this is what the grapes look like in Lazio the first week of September! When you live in Rome you really get attached to the "house wine" (= the cheap wine) of the local eateries which more often than not comes from the lovely Castelli Romani southeast of the city. On Saturday we were there for a baptism and walking the fields was a delight!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I suppose Cardinals don't like like this anymore, but there was an old documentary out (in Italian) dated from the early 1950's of a Roman Curial Cardinal who was in his late 70's at the time, and a highpower member of a major Congregation in Pius XII's Vatican.
He planned all the ceremonies for Holy Year 1950.
Anyway, he was born a real Prince of the Italian nobility, became a Cardinal in the reign of Benedict XV in his early 50's, and was still serving under Pius XII in 1950.
He had a spacious appartment in the Vatican from which he frequently entertained, and also had a country villa near Rome which had a magnificent vineyard. He loved to tend the grapes, and did so frequently in a plain black cassock.
He had quite a wonderful life ( died, 1961). Luckilly, he missed the disaster of Vatican II.
But seeing the photo of the grapes reminded me of this wonderful Cardinal who had such a great life.
(By the way, he also had a reputation for piety and devotion....so he wasn't just a careerist Cardinal !!)

Anonymous said...

If this video is on YouTube can u send a link? Tanks!

Anonymous said...

+

Yum!

Anonymous said...

The documentary video (produced by the Italian state Television office in the earlt 1950's) was available only thru a TV company whose reason for existance is copying old newsreels and documentaries upon request for a fee (per minute).
The video in question (1 hr.) was $275.
I don't believe it is available anymore, because on their on-line catalog it says o.p. (out of print).
But they do have several hundred film clips going back to Leo XIII to Paul VI (around 1964 or so, newsreels faded out of existance), so there are not any clips on Popes past about the year 1964-65....or on any other topic.
Once TV news developed, the old movie newsreels died out.