User talk:Johndvincent

Thanks a lot!!!
Ciao John, thanks a lot for 'washing in Thames' (or in Potomac? ;-)) my article about Borgo! I am italian, so my English is filled with italianisms, and very, very far from perfect. I will study carefully your changes! I hope anyway that you enjoyed reading it ;-)

Grazie ancora,

alex2006 05:05, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

About the Portica, two roman viae and my anglo-roman-italian slang
Ciao John,

The italian sentence that you put at the beginning of your kind mail is surely true for each language, but especially for English, which apparently ;-) does not look so difficult, but in reality is one of the most complicated to be mastered!

Yes, actually what I wrote about the Portica is not clear at all, at least in english. When I write 'this' ("questo", in italian) I actually refer to Borgo vecchio, which was also called in the middle Ages Carriera Martyrum, and was actually built on the same place of the Portica (proof of that is that its width - an unicum among all the roman roads - was - up to its demolition in 1937 - constant). This means that during the middle Ages the Archway collapsed, and a new road (Borgo Vecchio) was obtained in its place.

About the two roman roads yes, what I mean is exactly an incrocio (but without semaforo ;-)). Via Cornelia and Via Triumphalis then diverged again. On the Via Cornelia was placed the tomb of Saint Peter.

Thanks again for your compliments about this article! Actually, wandering aroung Wikipedia, I found the stubs of the ancient quarters of Rome, started by a guy who then abandoned the work. so, I started to write something about Borgo (my mother was born there, and I have been baptised in Saint Peter :-) ), and suddenly I found the article ready (except references and notes, and the terrible style which you are correcting). What I tried to do was to write something not too long (I limited myself to 8 pages, altough I could have written easily an article twice as long), with informations about history, art, planning and traditions of the rione. The problem now is that the rioni are 22 (the historic ones are 14), so I have still some work to do ;-) Anyway, as I told you, my worst problem about this article was the language, but thanks to your help I think that now has been solved :-))) I will read (better: study) carefully your corrections during the weekend but, if you have time and lust, go ahead already with your washing!

Thanks again, and Greetings to Londinium Augusta from Turicum,

alex2006 15:45, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Re: About Borgo from John
Hallo John, yes actually I must concede that being christened in Saint Peter's is not bad at all. After that, in order to be considered a 'true' roman citizen ("un romano de Roma", we say in Romanesco, as the one here on the right), all what I need is to climb the famous three steps ("i tre scalini") at the entrance of Regina Coeli... ;-). Yes, I think that the sentence that you proposed, summarizes the meaning of this part of Rome. And, besides that, the article still needs a short introduction, which shortly explains what we are writing about (not everyone has been in Rome ;-)) So, go ahead!

Grazie ed a presto,

alex2006 10:56, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

RE: Borgo suggestions
Hallo John,

Thanks for finishing the hard job of correcting the article. You are right, this weekend I will modify the text as you suggested. By the way, Palazzo Branconio was among the houses destroyed to build Piazza Rusticucci. That block of houses was called Isola del Priorato, because there was the Palace of of the Priorship of the Knight of Malta.

Thanks again, a presto

alex2006 14:01, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

RE: Thanks for the Pic
Hallo John,

yes, it is a beautiful etching by Bartolomeo Pinelli, the great artist who portrayed the customs of the papal Rome in the nineteen century. Meo Patacca is the protagonist of an heroicomical poem of the XVII century, where for the first time the (neo-)roman dialect has been used.

Uploading a file? nothing is easier! Look just on the menu on the left side: here there is a voice "Upload File". Click it, and then upload from your PC, filling the different fields. The only tricky part is choosing the correct copyright. There one could get problems, but if you are uploading a reproduction of an old work, just choose "Author died more than 100 years ago", and that's it!

An alternative is using Wikimedia Commons. It is another wiki project, and basically is a central repository of all the media used by all the Wiki Projects. I upload my files there since a couple of months. The process is identical to that which I described already, but you have to sign in there too (it's another Project).

I uploaded the changes this morning, I think that now the article should be more or less readable. ;-) The introduction should be more or less ok now. The problem was that the reviewer of the article wrote that he did not understand at all what I was writing about...shame on myself! :-(

I forgot to say that writing something about Raphael as architect is a great idea. I inserted in the voice about him two among his main architectural works: Palazzo Branconio and S. Eligio degli Orefici: the guys who wrote the article forgot completely that he was not only a painter ;-)

A presto,

alex2006 14:54, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

RE: Can we Talk ?
Ciao John,

of course, but unfortunately at the moment I cannot, because after tomorrow I am leaving for two weeks (forced vacation, first in Rome, where I am going to visit the exibition about Raphael in the Galleria Borghese, of course ;-), then in the second Rome), and today and tomorrow evening I am invited by friends and by the company. But we can hear each other when I go back (around the first of August, insch'Allah ;-) ). Yes, writing in another language is quite difficult, but is also a challenge. And, moreover, I think that it is much more important to write about Rome and Italy on the english Wikipedia rather than on the Italian, where a group of competent romans is already active (they opened there a cyber-osteria too ;-)) The fact is that I have been reading so much quatsch (german word, but it gives the idea) about my city here, that I think it is my duty to rise a little bit the level of the information about it. If you take a tour about the two or three non-empty voices about the rioni (like Trastevere, for example), you will understand what I am talking about...

Ciao, have a nice evening,

alex2006 15:19, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Ciao!
Hallo John, I came back from my vacation and, yes, I did it again! What? Another article, of course ;-), this time about Sant'Angelo. If/when you have time and lust, you can have a look at it...

Ciao e buon fine settimana,

alex2006 15:42, 18 August 2006 (UTC)