Notas del episodio
This week on the show, we are welcoming Barbara Saba, a native Roman now living in LA. Barbara is an actress, artist and teacher. She brings her authentic Roman candor to the show and to our Rome series that will air over the following weeks. In this pilot episode, Barbara brings us closer to her Rome; the identities, realities and layers that make up this exquisite city and its people. She shares ways to experience its realness and its rawness more, and how to build intimacy with more of what Rome is, even—or perhaps, especially—as a tourist.
We get into:
- The magic of Rome onscreen
- Rome’s aesthetic, appearance
- Stereotypes about Rome and Italians
- The ideology of purchè se ne parli-“as long as they are talking about us”
- The Roman worldview (Barbara’s candor about this will make you smile, and make you think!), including what they think when they travel abroad (hint: nothing compares to Roma!)
- Milanese style and dress versus Roman importance on historical affluence
- To really get to know Rome, Barbara breaks down the difference between being a ‘tourist’ and a ‘traveler’
- Tourism as an “abuffata”—a Roman word that she uses as a food and gluttony metaphor of trying to consume as much as possible in a short amount of time
- Ways to slow down to get to feel and know the pulse of the city and her favorite ways to build intimacy with the city
- Both women explain how they relate to the famous places and monuments of their respective cities (which brings them into a whole new much more immersive perspective
- Plastic menus, spelling mistakes, and the real Roman food you actually don’t want to miss
- “Just slow down!”
- The beauty of inter-permeation: letting a place work its magic on you, while you leave something sweet of yourself there interchangeably.
Places and things we mention:
- Italian director Sorentino and his film La Grande Bellezza
- Tiber River
- Trastevere neighborhood
- Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere
- Tour of the life of Anna Magnani (first Italian actress to win an Oscar in 1955)
Food (as ritual) to try in Rome:
- Laborer Lunch: pizza col la mortadella —White pizza with mortadella with pistachio, small cold beer eaten on the steps of a monument
- Roman artichokes
- Puntarelle: a seasonal vegetable available from January to April in Rome
Find out more about Barbara and her work:
IG: barbarasaba.12
FB: Barbara Saba
For images of our guest and her photography of her home city, head over to the show’s website for the full show notes: