La Biblioteca Regionale Universitaria

(If you are not interested in Italian libraries/doing research in Italy this post may seem a bit boring. Ok, you’ve been warned.)

I mentioned a bit of this in my previous post, but I’ll risk repetition for a complete story:

I began research on Monday by taking a trip to the main library of the University of Catania (a whole 3 blocks from home), La Biblioteca Regionale, in Piazza Università. I then explained my project, showed my presentation letter from Chicago, and a woman, Geraldina, began to help me with finding books, and showing me around the library in general.

I first noticed how small the place is. There are a series of 3 small rooms, maybe each about 10’x15’ – the first has a small desk where you receive an entry number and have to put your bag in a “security bag” that only the staff can open and close. The second room is where the entire catalog is – rows of filing cabinets organized by author and subject, with drawers full of notecards. You fill out a request by hand including the catalog number, and wait for it to be retrieved for you. The last room is for photocopying and checking out books (I haven’t figured out which ones can be checked out – apparently none of the ones I need.) Off the last two rooms is a larger reading room with some reference books. There are eight large tables, which are never full, where you’re supposed to do all your reading.

What baffles me the most isn’t the lack of air conditioning, technology, or people, but how they handle their older books. In Chicago, requesting a rare book requires going online and requesting it maybe a day in advance, then going to the rare books collection, signing in after locking everything but a pencil and a notebook in a locker, signing a form, and then sitting in a glass room supervised by the staff. Here, requesting a book from the 18^th century is as easy as requesting one from the 21^st – submit that same form, and then get it 10 minutes later.

What was even more incredible is that one of the books I was reading, Vito Amico’s Lexicon Siculum Topographicum pub. 1757, was categorized as a dictionary, and therefore shelved with the reference books. Nothing needs to be submitted – you can just walk in and pick up a centuries-old book off the shelf.

Some of these older books I’m looking at have folded up maps on the inside – which to me seems crazy. I am almost certain that at the Reg they would remove these and then carefully unfold them, trying to cause as little damage as possible. Here, they are torn, missing pieces, and usually illegible along the folded lines. On one hand, I’m shocked that they would treat these books in this way. On another, I’m kind of pleased that they are kept like this – after all, they were meant to be read as books with map inserts and handled in this way.

Overall, I’m pleased with the amount of books – especially books containing 18^th century prints! – I’ve found in this library, but there are so many other libraries and archives I need to see! I feel as though I could drown in all the information I could potentially unearth – the task now is to narrow down so Geraldina will stop telling me how vague my topic is.

Settling into Catania

I have officially been in Catania for just over a week. Tara and I arrived after doing the “best of” in Rome for about 24 hours. We went from the Colosseum to the Vatican, and everything in between.

We arrived around 11 last Monday, and checked out the apartment I found online. It wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for. Yes, it did have a terrace and a large room, but we found a cockroach in the bathroom on the first tour of the place, and everything just seemed kind of dirty. Also, there was incredible traffic noise outside seemingly 24/7. Tara finally convinced me to search for another place, and off we went.

We first found about 20 numbers advertising apartments by looking at a bulletin board in a university building. After calling those, only one place was in the correct location, and also willing to rent to me for only 3 months, so we went to search for more. We found a paper of apartment listings, and managed to get 3 more appointments to visit.

We ended up looking at 4 places - one of which was horrible (sharing an apartment with a grandmother terrified of thieves, and wanted me to pay 700 euro at the beginning, all in cash), the other two all right, and the last one, the one I chose, was perfect. There are 4 female roommates, though I’ve only met two so far, it’s in between Piazza Dante and Piazza Università, and each has a library that I’ll probably be using in my research.



Here's a picture of the street next to mine - you can see all the way to the Mediterranean!
The view from my terrace - you also can see the sea, but it doesn't really show up in film.


My kitchen!

The other major plus is that the landlord’s son, Daniele, who seems to take care of pretty much everything with the apartment, happens to be the most social person in the world. He has decided to take me under his wing, which means accompanying him to all the beach parties, his "country house" (i.e. a house on a hill just north of Catania, with a pool and overlooking the sea), showing me around Catania, and introducing me to Catanese food/drink/dessert. And he knows everybody. Every place we go, be it a cafe, a beach party, or the market, he has to great at least 10 people. It's incredible.

The beach parties are amazing. Imagine everything you'd think of with the Mediterranean - flowing white curtains, beautiful people, overlooking the sea, blaring house music - and I don't know if that even does it justice. Daniele gets in for free, doesn't have to stand in line, gets his friends in for free, and gets a coupon for free drinks – one per person. (Did I mention he knows everybody?) Everyone he introduces me to says how I couldn't have found a better person to show me Catania. And these parties last until the wee wee wee hours.

My favorite food that I've tried here, again, thanks to Daniele, is almond flavored. There's this one drink, latte alla mandorla, which is milk with sweet almond syrup. Another amazing almond thing is the granita di mandorla - like sorbet in that it's not made with cream, but is more like cold flavored ice. It's texture is more like gelato than an Italian ice, and its absolutely amazing.

I also began my research yesterday. Thanks to Daniele (again!), I knew where the university's library was - literally 3 blocks from my apartment - and it's going very well. The library doesn’t have any air conditioning, but there are so many books and so much information. In Chicago I was afraid of not finding anything, and now I have to really narrow down my field quickly so I don’t drown in the many books I could potentially read. In any case, I’ll probably stay at the library for a while and get more background information so when I visit the other cities and ask to see the archives, I will know what I’m looking for.