One way to get away from OC for a week: Shut off the cell phone, unplug the computer and fly 6,000 miles to the world’s biggest museum, Rome.
The culture’s different there. For starters, Romans are not afraid to eat starch. And they make better red wine than white.
People talk a lot but don’t appear to be doing too many real estate deals. The language is different, though Italian is similar to California’s second tongue, Spanish.
The history is way different. OC’s first settlement, the Mission San Juan Capistrano, was founded in 1776. Rome has parking lots older than that.
Rome has seen kings, queens, emperors, popes and despots. OC has Paul, King of the Big Screen.
The cars are small, and for good reason. Gasoline is sky-high (about $7.40 per gallon) and a Humvee couldn’t fit on a Roman side street. One of the city’s most popular vehicles, the Mercedes Benz-made Smart car, is barely bigger than a golf cart.
But the environment is very much like California’s: mountains, spectacular coastline views (though you have to leave Rome for those), sunshine, warm weather and things blooming everywhere.
Italians don’t like to wear ties, either.
And being unplugged for a week doesn’t leave you entirely out of touch with events of American interest. Italian television keeps a visitor apprised of the uneasy truce in Lebanon and Mel Gibson’s sentencing. The International Herald Tribune runs baseball scores.
Some additional observations from a visit to Rome and Sicily:
Familiar theme: The big concern among Italians is immigration. Italy, Spain and France are a destination for Africans smuggled across the Mediterranean in boats.
The wave is small by American standards,boat people enter Italy by thousands a year, compared with the tens of thousands of Mexicans entering California. But the numbers are growing.
Italian citizens complain that these new arrivals go on welfare and do not assimilate. And they complain that politicians talk about the problem but don’t do anything to fix it.
Eurozone: Europe has been an economic star lately, but don’t try telling that to the l’uomo della strada. With relatively low productivity, Italy has been a regional laggard.
Chance encounter: With former U.S. Sen. Gary Hart and wife Lee, who happened to be celebrating their 48th wedding anniversary at Rome’s upscale Girarrosto Fiorentino restaurant.
It’s a small world: Roman police officer Paolo Puglisi never blinked when asked to pose for a photograph of her holding a copy of the Orange County Business Journal.
“Oh, Orange County,” she remarked in perfect English, smiling and rolling her eyes.
Puglisi, it turns out, spent several years with relatives in Southern California. She said she moved back to Italy because SoCal is “too expensive.”
Diplomacy: Bush and his foreign policy are unpopular in Italy, as in the rest of Europe. But whether they were signaling admiration for, affinity with or resignation toward Americans, Italians queried on the subject were muted in their criticism.
“We seem to do whatever the U.S. wants, even more than Great Britain does,” said Sicilian driver Gaspare Cracchiolo, noting Italy’s prominent role in the proposed peace-keeping force for Lebanon.
Bicoastal: The main drag of tiny Borgetto, Sicily, features Manhattan Pizzeria and Bar Hollywood.
Building bane: In California, developers worry about finding a gnatcatcher on their site. In Italy, developers worry about finding pottery.
Great parks: When it comes to planning, even The Irvine Company could learn from Rome. The city’s many cafe-and shop-lined piazzas bustle with life, in park-like settings amid the crowded metropolis.
And not to suggest another junket, but the planners of Irvine’s Great Park should check out the lush Villa Borghese, a 400-year-old estate that, like most of Rome, has been adapted and embellished through the years. Today it is a wooded sanctuary of gardens, lakes and culture that rivals New York’s Central Park in beauty and scale.
The developers did it: 2,000 years bring a lot of damaging wind, rain and earthquakes, but contrary to what you might think, they weren’t the chief reasons the glories of ancient Rome came tumbling down.
Tour guides reveal the real culprits: People.
Barbarians, Christians, aristocrats and clerics tore away at the edifices. To build the next cathedral, palace or villa, workers were sent out with picks and shovels to bring back marble, stone and bronze.
The Roman Forum was turned into a quarry, complete with a smelting furnace. The Coliseum was scavenged brick by brick until later popes ordered an end to the plunder, hence the structure’s resemblance to a half-eaten birthday cake.
Giant obelisks, taken by the Roman emperors from even more ancient Egypt, were moved around the Eternal City. The most famous one stands in St. Peter’s Square.
Besides being the standard of empires, Rome also is history’s grandest recycling project.
