Rome....The Heat Goes On!
This is the continuing tale of a couple's travails to modern Italy on the back of 2 episodes of an American sitcom.
As a recap - we tavelled, we checked in and we wandered. A kind of modern day version of Julius Caesar's supposed pronouncement of "I came, I saw I conquered!"
We were on a 2 day sojourn in Rome before leaving for our main destination of Anguillara Sabazia.
On this day we had so far seen the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain and a church or two.
When you last left us my wife and I were enjoying a cold beverage (whilst various groups tried to sell us a selection of items for sale, such as collapsing condiment trays and other paraphanalia). We probably stayed there longer than most visitors. We deduced this because the sellers of tat started to make a second pass at us even though they were politely but firmly rebuffed he first time.
The heat.... forgot to mention it. By this time of the afternoon my wife felt that having her hair hanging around her face was too much in that heat. As we progressed down the Via delle Muratte we came upon a small market. Accompanying this was a "fringe" market of sellers that sold... well... knock offs quite frankly, and the odd living statue. Also a young lady was offering the passing trade a chance of enjoying cornrows being teased into their hair. Just the job, she (mywife) thought. Money was exchanged and I wondered off around the market whilst my dearest had a new, temporary hairdo. Quite striking it was too and looked pretty good. I felt happy for her as this would make the intense heat of Rome in August a bit more bearable.
And it may have done just that. For what my beloved had not informed me of was the intense pain her scalp was in at that moment such was the tightness of the cornrows. Not quite facelift territory but close. She bore that pain stoically for about an hour. The tipping point came when the pain from hers scalp was so intense she craved just to feel the heat of the afternoon and not the the intense heat PLUS the axe that seemed to have been buried in her head. So the cornrows came out. To be fair we didn't mention the heat again for the rest of the day!
Time for the famed Italian ice cream. Which was alright. I know, I know, what a miserable git you must be thinking but I reckon good ice cream is available all over the place these days so much so that the Italian version just isn't so different. Come to Rome and make your own mind up!
Whilst consuming our semi frozen dessert we chanced upon a square with a church in the middle of it. Subsequent research tells me that the "church" was in fact The Pantheon. Had I done my research whilst in Rome we might of spent a bit more time there. We are from a place that also had an edifice built for or named after the Emperor Hadrian,
I shall pass over the next part of our afternoon quite quickly. We went to see the Vatican, you can't really come to Rome and not do this. There was no service today. Apparently Popes leave the city at this time of year..... because of the heat! I managed to dissuade my wife from joining a tour of anything there. The queues were long and the so were the tours. Having seen and been in St Marks square I was as close as I cared to be to the Sistine Chapel and all that stuff
I was also disappointed by the rampant commercialism surrounding the Vatican. We were once again in need of refreshment and noted how much the address seems to hike the price. The toilet of the establishment was a disgrace and had the cheek to ask for a donation towards the cost of maintaining a facility that they obviously didn't spend on the upkeep of .
The beggars were a different class too. All the worst deformities were on show and I was put in mind of the Monty Python sketch"Alms for an ex leper" in Life of Brian.
It was not chance that brought these poor souls to this area. Vatican bound apostles were very generous it would seem. I wondered in a disparaging way whether curing these people would rob them of their income?
Anyway. Homeward bound, we were tired and sweaty, really sweaty.
Once back in our room the air conditioning had obviously gone on holiday itself. The room was slightly warmer than when we had left even though I had set the air con to "Antarctic". Being English, we persevered and showered and cleaned but after felt that we would be repeating this again before we set out for dinner.
I wound my way down to the concierge. Again. The homily "buy cheap buy twice" in my mind. As soon as I mentioned the Air conditioning he began writing on a pad and handed me a set of directions. To different hotel. The air conditioning was out all over the hotel and we would be re housed at no extra cost. This was nice but they waited for people to complain before taking action! We packed and left. The next hotel was a rather plusher affair altogether. It might have been my imagination but I felt there were a lot of Russians there. Just saying. The room was a bit smaller but...... the air conditioning worked. It was only for one night anyway.
Shower and change and out to dinner. We spied a restaurant earlier that looked like it was serving nice pizza, it was on the Via del Viminale, just behind the national museum of classical Roman art. I didn't take the name of the restaurant and the one I see on Google Earth may have changed hands etc.
The night was warm and humid. Perfect for alfresco dining. We strolled around the Termini station and made our way to the restaurant.
Once seated and our order taken (vegetarian Pizza for my wife and I probably had a version of pepperoni) one of my wife's pet hates reared its ugly head. The wine arrived. There is an ettiquette around accepting the wine. The purpose in generally to make sure the wine has not "Corked" The problem is that teh chemical responsible is one of the strongest and bitterest chemicals known to man. It can taint wine with only the faintest suggestion of it's presence.
So why does it fall to the man to taste the wine? The (not extensive) research I have done suggests it is for purely patriarchal reasons. This served to irritate all holiday. It was endemic to Italy it seemed. Men test the wine!
Apart from this the meal as ok. My wife spotted a ruse that we had seen before in Rome where waiters bring food to the table that is not ordered. Fortunately for us this appeared only as Olives, oil and bread but tonight one table appered to have a whole course turn up. They were very quick to tell the waiter they would not be paying for it as it was not ordered at which point it became complimentary as per head waiter
With our tummies full we limped our way back to the hotel and our air conditioning.
And so ended our brief Roman excursion.
Next time:
- Travel plans upset
- how fast can a fully laden Opel Corsa actually travel?
- Anguillara Sebazia, was it worth the wait? (Spoiler alert - Yes it was!)
