Wednesday January 29, 2020
Sunny 58°F/14°C in Cedar Park, Texas, USA
Partly Cloudy 60°F/16°C in Roma, Lazio, Italia
Buonagiornata,
And, suddenly,
it was over! My more than two months in the City of Echoes (la città
degli echi) was behind me, and I was aboard a Delta jetliner headed toward
New York’s JFK International Airport on the first leg of my flight home to the
Austin, Texas area and my cozy apartment in Cedar Park. During 2019 I had spent more than four months as a resident of
the eternal city. Actually, I hadn’t planned to return to Rome until the late
Spring. But, that all changed with Michael and Laura’s announcement that their
first child – a boy – would be born in November. Well now! I would HAVE to be
back for THAT EVENT! So, even though I had just arrived, I had to begin making
plans to come back!
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| Alexander Botula |
And so, I did!
After suffering along with millions of other Europeans through a heat wave of
epic proportions in the early summer, I returned to my second home city on
November 21, 2019 planning to stay through the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New
Year holidays along with my birthday on January 17th and fly back to
Texas on January 22nd. The weather – which had been over 105°F/40°C at
times – had turned rainy and cold since I had been gone. Our first stop after
Michael picked me up at Fiumicino International Airport was to make a beeline
for Michael and Laura’s to meet my new grandson, Alexander Botula. There, I met
the little bundle of joy who was to play an important part in my life for the
next two months. As I held him in my arms, I could visualize a similar
experience 45 years before, when I held Alexander’s father in my arms for the
first time. Son, grandson…it was a testimony to the continuing cycle of life!
In our
effort to find an apartment for me on short notice, we reached out to everyone
that I had rented from in the past, starting with Stefania, my landlady on
Viale Oscar Sinigaglia, but that apartment was no longer available for
short-term vacation rental. My friend Mohamed’s place on Viale Cesare Pavese
was also booked. Then, I called Amina whose cozy little place I had rented
several times. Another strikeout – she had reserved it for her family members
who were coming from Paris for the holidays. But, Amina had a friend – Maria,
who had an apartment a few blocks away. She would check on my behalf as to
availability. Sure enough, word came
back about a week later that the apartment would be available at a
special rate because I was a friend of Amina’s. Problem solved, I thought,
until two weeks before my departure date, when Maria called me to say that the
contactors she hired to renovate the apartment would miss their deadline and
Maria’s apartment wouldn’t be available after all. Since I had purchased my
non-refundable plane ticket, I was suddenly in a very big bind.
Several
days later, my son called to tell me that he had put a deposit on a place just
off Viale Cesare Pavese – the notorious Vittorini Penthouse – whose
shortcomings have been recounted in an earlier Rome Diary! And so, my
adventure came full circle with my move to Via Laurentina 605. It was the
ideal, if expensive, solution to the problem. The new apartment came complete
with an affable pair of new landlords – Cristiano and Delia. Cristiano spoke
the better English of the couple, but Delia and I soon made good use of the
translators on our IPhones. Soon, we were chattering like magpies. She would
come in to clean the apartment every week. The result was that the place was
nearly always spotless. After all the
anxiety of getting shut out of one apartment and having to flee another, I had
found the perfect place.
I then
sent Mohamed a message asking when he would be in Rome. As it turned out, he
would not be in Rome until December 24th. Marsha would be traveling
back to the States in mid-December. There would be no December Rome Comedy
Night this year. So three of my close friends would either be traveling during
the holidays or they wouldn’t arrive for several weeks. As a result, I saw an
awful lot of Michael and Laura and the baby during my first several weeks in
Rome
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| Amina in Vietnam |
Wasting no
time after all of the anxiety of my first days in Rome, I called Amina and
invited her for coffee. We met in front of my apartment and immediately
adjourned to a nearby bar for caffè. She would host her family
for the following week, she told me, whereupon she would follow them to Paris
for Christmas and the New Year. She would return to Rome briefly, then she
would be off for a holiday in Vietnam, of all places. Bottom line: we
would probably not be meeting up for coffee after that evening. But, in the
next breath, I agreed to be her guest for lunch the following day, at her place
of employ – FAO – the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. FAO is one of the
largest employers in Rome – 11,500 scattered throughout the city. Nearly 4,000
people, including my friend work in the massive complex built by Benito Mussolini
during the 1930’s as his colonial headquarters. The complex overlooks the Circo
Massimo! And so, the following day, I stepped aboard the bus that stops
conveniently in front of my building, to be whisked to the Laurentina Metro
Station and the subway ride to Circo Massimo and lunch with Amina in
the rooftop cafeteria overlooking the oval track where Ben-Hur raced in
an epic contest!
Thanksgiving
is not an Italian holiday! But,
my son has brought the holiday with him. This year,
Michael ordered two turkeys.
One to smoke Texas-style in his smoker, and the other one to deep-fry. The Italian word for turkey is tacchino. Two
turkeys are tacchini. We had duè tacchini at our Thanksgiving,
primarily because with little Alexander’s arrival, the family has a lot to be
thankful for this year! Christmas and the New Year passed in similar fashion,
small, intimate gatherings with family and friends. Since Laura and I have
birthdays which are two days apart, this was cause for a special celebration.
And so, it was back to Tiziana and Pino’s apartment for the celebration. After
a hearty Italian lunch – a special birthday cake was brought out and everyone
joined together in singing Happy Birthday to Laura and me – in Italian,
of course!
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| Family Birthday Celebration |
A few days
later, I would board a plane for the flight back to Texas, and my other home.
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...now with Google Translator for our international audience!]
© By Mike Botula 2020
