Italy, April 2004
Getting to Rome
By foot, metro rail and bus I made it to the Washington Dulles International Airport on schedule.
I was careful not to doze off on the metro rail as I had on my way to Dulles for my trip to Greece a few years earlier;
that can wreack havoc with a carefully timed cross-city transit.
After hunting a bit I found the right line in which to stand and began the process of waiting, ticketing, waiting, baggage checking, waiting, security checking, waiting, shuttle riding and waiting some more
which is the way things happen at Dulles nowadays.
At my gate the wait grew long—too long.
Something was wrong.
We were told that the airconditioning system was not working on the plane.
When we were finally given a new time for departure, it necessitated my making arrangements for a different connecting flight in Munich.
So I waited some more in another line for a new ticket,
then waited in another line with a voucher the airline gave me to use for my dinner.
Perhaps you have guessed that I don't like waiting in lines.
Luckily I am easily amused and enjoyed watching the German families waiting for the same delayed flight.
As often happens I found myself doing more than merely enjoying the lively antics of the increasingly restless families.
My thoughts turned to my German blood and how much of what I observed had appeal
because the nature of the interpersonal relationships I was observing
resonated with some deep rooted Northern European heritage I carry within me
or simply because it portrayed a wholesome, healthy, happy, functional family…
and whether I would soon be missing the company of Northern Europeans in the hot-blooded Mediterranean.
Somewhere in the air over the Atlantic I made my way into Daylight Saving Time.
Europe was making the switch to this time a week earlier than the U.S.
I might not have known except for the globalization of production in the calendar market.
My calendar tells me about holidays in various countries, the different Mother's Days, Boxing Day, British bank holidays
and, as I noticed recently, the different dates for the beginning of Daylight Saving Time.
Not being a big fan of Daylight Saving Time in general,
I must admit to enjoying the fact that I was not only ahead in time from those back home not only by the ordinary amount due to my being in a different time zone,
but I was also even further ahead in time during my first week in Italy due to my getting to Daylight Saving Time that much earlier.
After passing over Ireland and Britain, we passed over the Netherlands and Utrecht in particular
which brought back memories of another transit snafu from my trip to/from Greece.
Note to self: Perhaps I'd better pull out my journal from that trip and add something more about that one to my website.
Perhaps by now some of you are worrying that the rest of my trip will be as exciting as my little Daylight Saving Time account—i.e. not very—or
full of stories about how I got lost here, took a wrong turn there or fell asleep in some other place.
Well…to keep those of you from a reading experience you might eventually find to be a waste of your time
let me tell you what my hopes were for this trip.
As interested as I can be in museums and artistic expression, I find myself more interested in cities:
the street patterns, the situation of parks and other open spaces, the flow of people utilizing differing modes of transportation
and especially good benches from which to enjoy and observe all of this.
Finding oneself lost in a new city is like losing oneself in a good book:
it is something for which one can only hope, something that cannot be planned, not something to be avoided.
It brings with it the fun and challenge of getting to know ones surroundings better.
With this admission down in words and my audience perhaps dwindling away to nothing,
let me continue.
Having arrived at Rome's Fiumicino airport, I discovered that my checked luggage had not arrived.
So with what I had carried on or worn, I found my way by train, tram and foot to Trastevere and my hotel, Santa Maria.
It had been suggested by the guide book I had read, some of the websites I perused and a friend who had stayed there a year or two before.
Uncertain of what the weather would bring during my stay in Rome I grabbed the available light upon my arrival to take some pictures around my hotel room…and
then retook a number of them again when I remembered that my lens casts a shadow with my built-in flash at certain wide angle settings.
Since I was later arriving in Rome than I had planned, my first outing was in the evening.
It was nice to get out, just me and the streets of Rome.
Knowing that I would have plenty of daylight hours ahead of me before I left the city,
I used the night hours not trying to capture things in photographs
but just experiencing the city.
As I wandered awaiting a more Roman hour for dinner, I could not but notice the popularity of gelatin.
This was mentioned in my pre-trip reading, but people everywhere seemed to be enjoying it.
It seemed to be a common first course.
Perhaps it people ate dinner at a more reasonable hour they wouldn't have to use gelatin to bide them over.
I had been prepared for this eating at a late hour by my previous trip to Greece,
but let myself work into it benefiting from my comfort with earlier hours to beat the rush that first night at
Cul de Sac,
a wonderful little enoteca just off Piazza Navona.
Here in Piazza Pasquino eating my beef rolls Roman style and drinking my Petit Verdot
I knew I had fully arrived in Rome.
Who needs luggage.
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