A brief adventure into Roman life.
Before I traveled to Germany for Christmas this year, I decided to make a stop in Rome for a couple of days. My sister and her son were also going to meet me. So the day of their arrival, I went to the flat that we rented for a few days to meet the owner and get the key.
Mariegrazie was a delightful woman and before we walked to the flat, she showed me how to turn the breaker switch back on. She explained if we turned on too many appliances in the flat that the power would go off. Good information. Once inside, things seemed straight forward. There was a wall heater in the bedroom and the living room. We could only turn on one at a time or the breaker would shut off. Oh, and one more thing, the internet wasn't working. She hoped that someone would come in the next 4 days to fix it.
As I told my sister, welcome to Italy. We are now living like every day Italians. The neighborhood was great because it was where real people lived. Three doors from our flat was a small store that sold cheese, meat, bread and wine. The wine was in large stainless steel vats with a spigot and for about $4.00, the woman would fill a plastic liter bottle like a soda bottle. No tourists means no tourist prices.
A block away was the coffee bar where Italians went for their morning breakfast. A cornetto (croissant) and capuccino were around $2.50. Breakfast was taken standing at the granite bar, shoulder-to-shoulder with complete strangers. While I speak no Italian it was fun to watch the banter and gestures that were part of the free show called breakfast.
Three blocks away was a 7 day a week market. A friend told me it was called the Sicilian market and that the vendors were from Sicily or source the products there. My favorite was the fish mongers. They had beautiful whole fish, some very large that were sliced to order based on the needs of the customer. They looked so fresh I almost thought they would jump out of the case. Also the fresh fruit and vegetables were amazing. I had a hard time believing that it was December.
Most of the businesses on our street were local with a retail space smaller than a one car garage, more like a size that might fit a medium size American car. There was a dry cleaners, a furniture repair shop, bike rental and of course our wine by the plastic liter bottle store.
So one night, my sister and I put our electricity to the test...the heater was running, her son was taking a hot shower (on-demand water heating) and then she turned on the hot water kettle. In an instant we were in darkness. But true to Mariegrazie's word, with a flip of the switch, the power was back on.
One of our day trips was to the American cemetery in Nettuno and from there we walked for an hour to Anzio. My sister said that we can come this far to see Anzio and we were going to see it. We got there at 6:00 p.m. famished as we had only had a sandwich on the train. We went to 3 different restaurants trying to find one that was open. Finally, the last one said that nothing opens in town until 7:30 p.m. which is when people eat dinner. Of course, what was I thinking?
So we found a pizza-by-the-slice-place that was about the size of a walk-in closet. There were plastic chairs and tables outside in what looked like the alley. I think it was one of our best meals in Italy because we were so hungry. Then we walked around the corner and I think truly found the best gelato in Italy.
I know why there are so many pizza-by-the-slices places in Italy, for all the people who can't wait until 7:30 p.m. to eat dinner.
One of our last nights we went to a restaurant to watch A.S. Roma (one of the local football teams) and A.C. Milan, one of their biggest rivals. It was a good match which ended 0-0. My nephew is a big football fan and watching him watch the game and provide commentary was priceless.
We had a great trip. Rome is a fascinating place with so many sites to see and things to experience and then there are the museums, churches and Roman ruins.
Viva la Roma!
