A noteworthy day

Roma, Italy, Friday 25 September

Haven’t quite got the time zone sorted. I think I am in Casablanca. Woke at 5…again…and couldn’t get back to sleep. Six seems to be the time the housekeepers begin work in this neighbor-hood. There was a hive of activity on the street this morning for just a few short minutes as the maids moved from downstairs to upstairs at five to six.

Not quite like that getting to the Piazza del Popolo – the Piazza for the people. I adventurously detoured my now usual route through the park. An hour later I seem to have completed two full circles of getting no-where finally ending up 10 minutes from where I began! I wanted to see the twin churches. Both called Santa Maria (but with different endings) but one built as a reflection of the other three years later (coincidentally just like my house and the house next door although you’d never know it). When I finally made it there I found one Santa Maria is in restoration so the whole frontage is covered. The Piazza was also in construction, a massive stage is being set up for a summer concert. Boring really.

My sense of direction definitely improved. I was also at the top of the Via del Corso – the Oxford St of Rome, the Fifth Avenue of New York…the Lambton Quay of ...er nah! Actually, I was encouraged to explore this street by a busking violinist. I was amused that the sweet looking Italian gentleman was playing the theme to The Godfather (I know it well, it was also the tune on my childhood music box).

I wandered along as one does and then suddenly, I had packages in my hands. What to do. I kept up the good work. Three hours later I stopped for a bite (and a beer, I am getting quite found of the local Peroni) and because it was so hot decided to walk the long way home, up the very glamorous Via Veneto (I was thinking there would be more shade). The street is said to be the most famous in Rome, not sure about that but the pavements are like roads, and the bling on the locals is blinding…as are the prices. The more I travelled up the street the more and more luxurious it became. ie the outdoor seating became formally styled restaurants but… glassed in for air conditioning (a bit like a fishbowl, but I didn’t mind being the one to look in, they got the poor deal of having to see hot and sweaty tourists staggering by). Along here the (local) women were all gorgeous, paper thin and stiletto shod. Amazingly, many of them were dressed in black… very very stylish but only survivable here if you are in a fishbowl for a long lunch I guess. Feeling very antipodean, I turned the corner… and what do you know… I had to pass more of my kind of shops to get back to the park.

I don’t know what the temp was mid afternoon but it was very hot today. I needed the park. The shade is worth about 5 degrees I reckon. Half way through the park I could hear a saxophone off in the distance. Sultry jazz beckoned me and I spent the next half hour beside a lavender garden with my eyes closed listening to beautiful noise.

Because I didn’t want to fall asleep, and I was about to, I strolled the final 10 minutes home. I don’t think I have mentioned that there is a movie being shot just outside the hotel. It seems a bit of a big deal, part of the street is closed off for the dozen or so Winnie Bago type trailers that have been here since I arrived. Today one of the crew or cast was also inspired by music. This was a learner though. I walked through the front of the hotel, pink from the sun, packages hanging from my arms, to the wobbly tune of the American national anthem!

Pic for today is the view of the city from the top of the Pincio, my daily cross road into adventure land.