Torniamo a Roma

Sorry about yesterday's posting, everyone. Even now I can't get into the page myself, in order to re-forward the posting to you in the normal way. But I hope you were able to read it, because we had a wonderful day. The wi-fi here looks a lot better, though, so we should be back on track tonight.

This morning was clear and warm and lazy. We had nothing to do, and a peaceful sunny day to do it in. There was another 8 o'clock wake-up, some reading in bed for a while, then getting up over quite a protracted period of time. Stephen went to the tabacchi to get some breakfast bread and pastries, so we had a number of courses for breakfast, all taken at the table outside in the morning sun.

The land beyond the church;

outside Fratticciola

We read for a while longer. We were packed up by 10 or so, but our train wasn't till 12.34. Yesterday a woman came over to use the washing machine, and we chatted: she was visiting because her daughter would be getting married today. So Stephen and I thought we'd have a wander down to the church, about 5 or 6 houses away, to see if that was being made ready for a wedding, as the woman's vague gestures indicated it would be happening very close. But it wasn't. Still, we had a short walk and saw that the village is a little bigger than we had realized - behind the church are about 8 more houses, new(ish) builds, and 4 of them are in one block, terraced housing, so to speak. But then the farmland stretches out, and there is no more village in that direction.

You may remember that a couple of days ago we asked a taxi driver if he would be available to take us to the station on Saturday. He wasn't but his friend was. The arrangement was simply that the friend would pick us up some time between 11.30 and 12, because he wasn't sure when his previous job would finish, but we could live with that. I sent the friend a reminder at about 10.30, and he acknowledged it, so that was reassuring. And he turned up at 11.40, which was just right. Not too late for us to get anxious, and not too early that we had far too much time at the station with nothing to do.

The train trip was uneventful, from catching it to getting off. The scenery stayed pastoral virtually all the way to Rome, a 2 1/4-hour trip. And almost every town we passed through seemed to be growing. They all had new houses - nice ones, not cheap, nasty council housing - extending the towns outwards. People must want to live in the country and in small towns. It was also interesting to note that traditions are holding firm in the countryside. People grow grapes and olives, and make them into wine and oil, as normally and matter-of-factly as we might grow a herb garden. It's taken for granted as much as growing your own vegetables would be, in NZ anyway. We saw a discarded tray that looked as though it might have been used for wholesale fruit sales. It wasn't made of corrugated cardboard stapled into a shallow box shape, it was cheap pine with handles. Someone somewhere makes them (maybe in a factory, sure) but other people are still buying and using them. Even small businesspeople aren't cutting corners and going for the cheapest, flimsiest, easiest option; they're just continuing to do what they've always done, the way they've always done it. Thank goodness American capitalism hasn't reached everywhere. Yet.

The train reached Rome on time, but the platform was lengthways out of the main station, so we had quite a way to walk to get to an exit. The first exit we came to had no taxis, so we walked over to the other side, again none, and then we found the main taxi line in the middle. With a queue over a hundred metres long. There was nothing for it but to join the queue, but with 4 lanes for cars, there were sometimes 10 cars there at a time loading people on, so we were at the head of the line in only about 15 minutes.

Current room

When we were in Rome at the start of the trip, we asked our B & B proprietor, Martina, if she could take us again when we returned, but she couldn't do both nights. She contacted another B & B nearby, who could take us, so after an email exchange with them, we were satisfied that we could stay in a nice familiar area. It was a bit more expensive that Martina's, but that should mean it would be a nicer room too. But we got there today, and they didn't have our booking. We spent a while at reception, and it was clear there had been a miscommunication in the email conversation.  The receptionist kindly spent some time trying to find us another room nearby for 2 nights.  She finally managed to, and we set off to the second place, trailing our bags behind us. (I've often looked at people wheeling their suitcases through city streets, and wondered, "Couldn't you organize your trip a bit better than that?" Now I know. Maybe a mistake was made at them.) We had a few hundred metres to walk. As we got to the next address, a man came running up to us, calling my name. He explained to us that a mistake had been made in the second booking, and this B & B couldn't take us for two nights, so we would go to another place for tonight and then tomorrow come back to a nice big room in this B & B. I've worked in hotels, I know that mistakes can happen, but this was getting a little silly. We followed him to the third B & B for the day, telling him that we really didn't want to do this, we didn't want to change again, and if this had to happen, we should at least get a discount. He kept reassuring us, while not promising anything because he would have to check with his boss. When we got to the reception of the third place, I explained that we were only here at all because we didn't want to change accommodation from night to night, and pleeeease could you arrange it so that we can stay here two nights. Thank goodness he could. The second B & B just cancelled the booking we'd made with them, with no charge, and we'll just pay directly to Number 3, no mucking around. And the room is cheaper, and he's thrown in the visitor tax (3Euro per person per night) as well. So instead of the 120Euros that we thought we'd have to pay to Martina's friend's place, or the 110Euros to Number 2, we're actually only paying 70Euros to Number 3. The room is nothing special - the same as a hotel room - but that's fine. It's only 2 nights. Come to think of it, this place does call itself a hotel, it just also includes breakfast in its price.

Street of 4 Fountains, Rome, sunset

After settling in, we went out. We had hoped we'd be closer to familiar territory, but we're still not that far away. And when we went walking, aiming for an area that we had come to a few times at the beginning of the trip but using different streets, we discovered that we were surprisingly close to the main sights of the city. At the end of the street we were on: "Is that Victor Emmanuel's statue? Here??" That meant the Colosseum was only a couple of blocks away. We had to rethink our orientation  completely. The familiarity we cultivated here four weeks ago had got lost and confused in all the other images from all the other cities, and it was really difficult to remember what there was in Rome, let alone where it was.

We had a burger for dinner, thinking we were in a gourmet burger joint. We weren't. The burger was the closest thing I'd had to a McDonald's in years. So we had dessert at another place to compensate. Also underwhelming, but not as bad as it could have been if it wasn't Italy. Then we walked up the hill to B & B No 3. And that was that.