DATE: Monday 10 July, 1995
PLACE: London to Rome
WEATHER: Warm
REMARKS: Early start to the day. Bathed, dressed, breakfasted
and packed by 0800. Then wait for Bryce to finish getting
organized. He has decided to take the day off again, so takes
us to the airport. We all squeeze into the car again (and
we have left a bag behind for our return) and race to Heathrow.
Check-in is noisy but less intense than LAX. Shopping (cigarettes
and camera) completed, we board. Kids menus are good, but
no travel pack for them this time. Jayne is kept amused by
a walkman and story tapes.
Rome is visible in the distance under a haze as the plane
lands. Again we seem to take forever to get off - that's what
comes of sitting down the back, in the smoking section! Getting
through customs is a flick of the passport. Getting the luggage
however takes an age - and there are no trolleys around. Once
with luggage and exited, we find the trolleys, all at departures!
Then we face the task of locating and getting to the rental
car counter. It transpires this is actually in another building.
So escalators must be used - trolley and all. I guess that's
why they have brakes. But taking a loaded luggage trolley
up and down escalators is a daunting task and not without
excitement as it tips forward or runs back onto me or refuses
to come off at the top!
Collecting the car is a breeze; getting to Rome anything
but! We have directions, but still miss the first turnoff
from the autostrada. Immediately we are on what looks like
a heavily used country road, and the only rule seems to be:
keep right, more or less! Then we have to get petrol. The
attendant fills the tank and takes what I hope is the correct
money (plus tip).
We manage to return to the Ring Road (the Reccordo Annulare)
and pointed in the right direction. Speeds are anywhere from
flat-out to even flatter-out! or so it seems. Actually anywhere
between 60 and 120 kph. And we are on the right-hand side
of the road, in a left-hand drive car. It takes some getting
used to.
We eventually find the turnoff we want and that only makes
matters worse. Obviously parking areas are wherever a driver
decides to stop; keeping to a lane is a polite fiction borrowed
from other countries.
Intersections are a cross between chess and Russian Roulette
-with loaded lanes!
We get lost; try again; get found; change maps; get located;
get directed; and then, despite the one-way street system,
find the Hotel Alimandi.
It looks good; it's cool; they are expecting us; and will
park the car. What more could we ask for? A swimming pool
according to Jayne - but, hey, you can't have everything?
And we are only one block from the Vatican Museum. How's that
for central?
Rome's buildings, on first (& very brief) acquaintance
are every thing one expects: 3-5 stories, close-packed, over-looking
the streets, shuttered windows, relatively unadorned, sheltering
cool and curiosity-inducing courtyards, and a mix of colours.
Desiree is immediately taken by the shops on a brief pre-prandial
stroll and decides she needs new clothes (or is this a long-harboured
and withheld secret?) - who am I to argue? Certainly the shops/clothes/jewelry/shoes
are lovely and many prices look good at Lire 1,000 = $1.
Dinner in a sidewalk pizzeria (did they see us coming?)
turns expensive.
Sleep is difficult with no air-conditioning, temperatures
high, and constant traffic noise. Romans certainly seem to
live either 'on the street' or 'on the road', and the noise
is loud and incessant. Maybe we just haven't adjusted to their
timetables?
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