DIARIO DI ROMA V:
Il Mio
Ritorno alla Città degli Echi!
Sunday May 5, 2019
Sunny 61°F/16°C in Roma, Latium, ItaliaSunny 80°F/27°C in Cedar Park, Texas
Buonagiornata,
Rome: City of Echoes! The complete quote is one of my favorites. It was written about a thousand years ago by the Renaissance painter Giotto di Bondone, on his first journey to the Eternal City. Giotto observed,Roma è la città degli echi, la città delle illusioni e la città dell'anelito. (Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning).
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| Giotto di Bondone |
And, I’m returning to my little corner of it!
Last year, I left one of my suitcases with
Michael and Laura along with my fancy walking stick and my laptop computer.
Now, I won’t have to pack so much. Going along with Ben Franklin’s wise saying
about having company, Guests, like fish,
begin to smell after three days, I don’t impose on Michael and Laura any
more than I have to. We usually book a small place nearby through Airbnb, and I’ve
managed to book a couple of gems. They’re both close together in a neighborhood
that I’ve gotten to know well. And, my hosts are both jewels. Mia, whose apartment
I’ve rented several times now, is a Moroccan lady who speaks several languages.
Mohamed, whose apartment I stayed in during a rare Roman snowstorm, is a retired Tunisian diplomat who speaks French
and Italian as well as his native language.
I love the diversity of any great city, and
I’ve hung my hat at various times in New
York City (where I was born), San Francisco, Los Angeles, Berlin (on
both sides of the wall), Amsterdam and Frankfürt. Since I’ve been traipsing to
Italy, I’ve added Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan and Naples to my bucket list. As Mark Twain once said, Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and
narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.
Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by
vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime! Amen to
that, Mr. Clemens!
I don’t drive anywhere in Italy. Roman drivers
have a hard-earned reputation for being hair-raising behind the wheel, and the
city abounds with round-a-bouts, those traffic circles left over from
antiquity. And Napolitano drivers are
crazier than the Romans. I found drivers in Milan to be the most considerate. The Milanese will actually surrender the
right-of-way to pedestrians. In Rome and Naples, it’s always open season on
pedestrians. Instead, I rely on Rome’s public transit system. It’s just a 15
minute walk from either apartment to the Laurentina Metro station, last stop on
Linea B, which stops at the Circus Maximus
and Coliseum before reaching the major transfer point at Termini, Rome’s central train terminal. For intercity travel, I
heartily suggest Italy’s high-speed rail service. Either Trenitalia or Italotreno
can whisk you in hours to Naples or Florence, Bologna or Venice at speeds
approaching 200 miles an hour.
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| Laura and Michael |
On my first visit to Italy back in 2005, I
thought two-and-a-half weeks would be more than enough time to see all the
sights. And so, I sketched out plans to see Rome and Pompeii, and then head
north to Florence and Venice, with a side trip to Pisa to see the leaning
tower. Wow! Was THAT ever wishful thinking in the extreme! I never got out of
Rome. Too much to see and do in Roma. I made another trip in 2009 for two-and-a-half
weeks, and this time got to see Pompeii. But, the life changer came late in
2013, when I came in a time of great personal upheaval and spent nearly three
months. After a few weeks, my son came to me and said, Pop, you’re welcome to stay forever if you want, but we’re going to
give each other some more space. And, that’s how I wound up in a studio
apartment in nearby Mostacciano. As soon as I was moved in and comfy-cozy, the
kids informed me that they were going on a cruise and wouldn’t be back for ten
days. I was on my own, thousands of miles from my stomping grounds in
California…in a strange city, where I didn’t even speak the language. I was
instantly reminded of how my grandparents must have felt when they landed at
Ellis Island in 1903 unable to speak a word of English in their Brave, New
World! If my grandfather
and grandmother could do it, I muttered to myself, so can
I! And, so I did. And, what’s more – I never looked back. My new digs was a
one-room studio apartment on the eighth floor of an apartment building
overlooking the street below. Outside was a large terrace populated by cactus
and other desert plants usually found in North Africa or the Sonora Desert of
Mexico. My landlady, who spoke perfect English, asked me to water her plants
while she was on a month-long holiday in Argentina. That said, she left me to
the tender care of her uncle who lived several floors below and spoke not a
word of English.
She
had a rather large book collection – all in Italian, of course – with the
exception of a lone copy of Dan Brown’s Angels
and Demons, which I sat down to read with gusto, since I had just seen the
movie. Over the next few days, I nervously ventured out of my new apartment to
visit the Bancomat at the Post Office
across the street; the trattoria and ristorante
cinese next to the Post Office. There was also a news stand across the
street where I could purchase biglietti –
tickets for the bus or Metro, and a supermarket up the hill to the right of my
building, where I could buy my groceries. It was a nice, compact neighborhood
with stores offering every creature comfort I could want in easy walking distance
of my front door. Once I got over the shock of being a stranger in a strange
land, I began to feel right at home. By the time that Michael and Laura
returned from their cruise, I felt like a native.
It
was on that visit to Rome that I began keeping my Rome Diary. It began simply enough, but now, it has morphed into a
series of blogs which are posted on my website http://www.mikebotula.com, and carried on Blogspot,
Facebook and Twitter. In terms of individuals chapters of Diario di Roma, this is Chapter Five. That experience launched me
on a new career as a writer, which serves to keep me healthy and in control of
my mental acuity, if not wealthy.
Since
2013, I prefer to visit for at least a month, preferably two or more, and rent
a place near
Michael and Laura. So, in spite of the fact that roughly five
thousand miles separate my son and my daughter, Grandpa is still able to travel
back and forth and keep the remaining family ties well-tended. And, speaking of
family ties! I would be terribly remiss if I did not introduce you to Laura’s
parents, Sergio and Annamaria. They live just a short drive from Michael and
Laura, also have a home in nearby Sabina, about an hour’s drive from Rome. It’s
where I spent Christmas in 2013, and helped usher in the New Year, 2014. Last year,
we all went to see CirCuba together. That’s the National Circus of Cuba, which
I would never have seen at home, given the current political climate. Laura
also has a sister, Chiara, who lives in another part of Rome with her hubby
Maurizio and young daughter Noemi. So, I feel blessed to have, not just one
family … but two.
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| Family night at the Circus |
So then – My passport is up-to-date…I
have my ticket…have a new suitcase for my trip and everything I need to put in
it. Stay tuned, Diario di Roma Cinque: Il
Mio Ritorno alla Città degli Echi! is right around the corner!
Ciao,
MikeBo
[Mike Botula, the author of
LST
920: Charlie Botula’s Long, Slow Target! is a retired broadcast
journalist, government agency spokesperson and media consultant. Mike’s book is available from
Amazon Books. You can read more about Mike Botula at www.mikebotula.com]
© By Mike Botula 2019
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