August in Rome 2006

We left our hotel in Palermo at 12noon. We arrived to our apartment in Rome at 11pm. If you're interested in why it took so long check out our flight adventure in the 2006 journal of Western Sicily.

But getting to Rome late at night is never a problem. In fact, at this time of the year, there are more people are in the streets at 11pm than at 11am.  Even though the city seemed at ease ( Rome also clears out in August for the Feragosto Holiday), Mr Vinood, our apartment greeter, reiterated (many times), the “rules of security”. We were on the second floor but Vinood made sure we understood the need to lock the security locks at all times, even when we in the apartment. We later heard a story of Roman thieves who sprayed some kind of sedative into a second floor apartment and as the tenants dozed off into a drug induced sleep, they cleaned them out. Sure, there is crime everywhere, but as long as you’re aware of how to act in a big city, shoulder bag worn in front, wallet in front pocket, don’t wave money around, don’t look like a stupid tourist; you’ll be just fine.

Rome is one of the best walking cities in the world, every turn at every corner is a new treasure; sometimes old, sometimes new. We spent our days eating and walking, walking and eating; pizza, gorgonzola gnocchi, pasta arrabiata and spaghetti carbonara at the cafes along the Piazza Navonna; carciofi giudaica (jewish artichokes), fiore di zucca fritti (fried stuffed zucchini flowers) and saltimbocca in the old jewish ghetto near the Teatro Marcello; ice cold Moretti and Nastro Azzurro beer with lunch and delicious red wines with dinner; Brunello di Montalcino and Sangiovese from Tuscany, Nero D’avelo from Sicily, Montelpucciano d’Abruzzo from Abruzzo and Aiglionico from Basilicata. We ate gelato, lots of gelato. And after so many visits to his ciy, our favorite is still the L’Angolo Gelateria across the street from the Vittorio Emmanuale Bridge. And in the mornings, we’d walk over to the Café St Eustachio in Piazza San Eustachio near the Pantheon for the best coffee in the world. Life could not get much better than this.

August is a great time of the year to just be Roman, enjoy the easy summer life and pulse of the city. Our apartment was perfectly located; 2 minutes from Campo di Fiore, 2 minutes from Lago Argentina, 5 minutes from either Piazza Navonne or the Pantheon, 5 minutes from the old jewish ghetto and 10 minutes from the Campidoglio and the Roman Forum.

We took walk along the river, up to Piazza di Spagna and window shopped  the trendy clothing shops around the Via Condotti. We walked up the river by the Campo di Marzo to the Piazza di Popolo and strolled along the art galleries of Via Margutta (for all you "Roman Holiday" fans, Gregory Peck's character, Joe Bradley lived at #51 via Marguttta). We hiked through the grand Borghese Park; we thought about taking a tour through the Borghese museum but it was sold out and it was too beautiful a day to be inside, so, instead, we crossed the river and meandered through the small streets of the Trastevere.  And no matter how lost we got, which was quite a lot, we always ended up back in Piazza Navonna. It is the magnet of Rome.

A day at the Forum –

I don’t really remember how we met Antoinette. We were standing in the Forum, next to the alter of Julius Caesar and suddenly, there she was, asking us if we needed a tour guide.  She was American, originally from Hershey Pennsylvania she said, lived in Rome for 27 years she said,  and spent her days giving tours to English speaking people. She charged 30 euros per hour, but she didn’t wear a tour badge. Your not allowed to give a guided tour unless you have that very valuable badge that shows you’ve gone through the extensive series of classes and exams. You’re also not allowed to solicit tours inside of the Forum. We chatted her up for a few minutes, but when we asked her why she didn’t wear her guide badge, something strange happened.

One of my favorite Abbott and Costello routines involves Lou Costello sharing a jail cell with a strange old man (played by the amazing Sydney Fields) who, of course, has to tell the story of his life. He was young and in love. They got married. And then they took off for their honeymoon where she met another man and everything went wrong. As soon as he says the destination, NIAGARA FALLS, he goes berserk and starts to throttle poor Lou. Every time NIAGARA FALLS is mentioned he goes into it again; “slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch, until I found them at NIAGARA FALLS”.  Just thinking of it makes me laugh.

Antoinette’s reaction was similar but not as funny. Somehow the thought of badges turned into something slaves wore so they could be returned to their masters and somehow after that, everyone in the archeological park turned into Barbarians. “They’re all barbarians” she said, her voice getting louder and louder with each mention of the word.  We had no idea who the Barbarians were, but we did manage to leave before anyone mentioned Niagara Falls.

Although Gretchen bought an audioguide for the both of us, I couldn’t stay with it for very long. I usually like the audioguide historical explanations, but this one, written and narrated by Lord Windbagus Plushbottomtook, was as dry as a mouthful of hot pepper on a parched hot afternoon.

After an hour or so, we once again passed the alter of Caesar on our way out of the Forum. There was Antoinette chatting up a group of 5 or 6 Americans. All we could hear as we passed was, “Barbarians….. They’re all Barbarians…” We looked back at the faces of her captors. They were wide eyed, desperate, looking for a way out. NIAGARA FALLS.