time.for.hitting.the.road

Saturday morning, early

Finally, I’ve found out what time it is (I think) … 2.15 am. Oh, goody :-) Below me, down the hill along the Claudian Way, the sounds of early morning traffic are building up ~ what time do these Romans go to work? People, it’s sleepy bye time!! Well, unless you are some time out of space travellin’ gal, I guess. Hey, there are sirens and horns … ssssshhhhh, people are trying to sleep. Well, not ME, obviously.

This reminds me of years ago when I lived in a flat on the first floor, right above one of Sydney’s clogged arteries, Victoria Road. “Do you find the traffic annoying?” guests would shout, over the grumbling roar of peak hour. “What traffic?” I would reply, not even hearing the squealing truck brakes, axle bracket clop clopping and wheezing exhausts droning past. It is just what you’re used to, and in three days I’ll be used to this again ~ it is, after all, not so different to the sounds of pre-dawn inner city Sydney, just more of it. The gentle early morning dragonfly buzz of my beautiful suburban life will be the sleeping memory for a little.

The wireless connection here is very weak, because the old walls are thick, so getting onto the web may not be as easy as I anticipated. Of course. Everyone who warned me, may now say “I told you so” in full voice. You did, you did tell me, and I blithely went on my way, imagining that everything would be easy just because it’s the age of instant communications. Ha! Computer age, meet some stone walls built by masons in the time of Claudius. Have fun.

It’s actually hard to get my head around this whole “I’m in Rome” thing. So, first I’ll tell you all about my trip here, and that should help put the thing into perspective for me. And we all love airline stories, don’t we.

The first leg was Qantas to Hong Kong, a nine hour flight I wish could have lasted all the way. The “passenger load” (with thanks to Qantas cabin crew for adding to the great descriptions load) was so light that we were invited to sit wherever we liked ~ well, except first class. Damn. Younger passengers laid themselves across the central rows of four seats, blankets pulled up tight for a full length sleep, but I noticed I was not the only old fogey remaining upright and using the seats beside me to spread out the carry on luggage :-)

Arrived in Hong Kong at about 11 pm HK time, to find most of the airport shops beginning to shut up for the night. And who can blame them. Sad for anyone wanting a nice cup of coffee, though …

A brief walk around convinced me of two things ~ Hong Kong airport is HUGE and it is also hugely expensive. That nice cup of coffee ~ $10.00 Australian. I mean inner city Sydney is expensive, but $10.00 is really desperation time! Of course, I paid up without demur, drank my coffee and stayed nice and wired for the second leg, Cathay Pacific to Rome.

What a difference. When I walked into the waiting area, I knew things had changed. “That’s why the call it cattle class,” the guy next to me said, as we surveyed the hundreds of people waiting to board. Most of them, like me, arriving from elsewhere aboard half filled flights. Not a spare seat in the plane. Luckily, I have an aisle seat (Thank you, Harvey World Travel!), but my large size male neighbour is not as happy about his accommodation, and spends the night with his arms crossed and his legs akimbo.

Caught between awake and asleep, we cruise across asia and southern Europe throughout the night, arriving in Rome at about 6.20 am, and pour out of the plane stretching and yawning stickily ~ like thick, lumpy molasses.

After being admonished for taking photographs inside the terminal, but otherwise unmolested, I pass quickly through the customs area and am so very pleased to see a friendly face who has made the journey across Rome at this hour to pick me up, and I am very grateful indeed :-)

The Roman traffic is busy, but it is not yet peak hour, so we travel fairly quickly ~ on the ‘wrong’ side, of course!!!
It’s not long before we round the corner into the Piazza Ss Giovanni e Paolo, where my home for the next few weeks sits quietly behind high ancient walls - and very nearly opposite one of Italy's largest television studios! I wonder what those ancient Romans would have made of all this. Not enough blood and gore, probably ... or maybe they would have approved!

The photo shows just a little of the ancient aqueduct (left of pic), which is located within the grounds, and which my morning walk takes me past. The aqueduct was built by the ancient Romans not, as our history lessons would have us believe, to provide wtaer to the city, it actually provided water to the Palatine Hill, where the wealthiest Romans lived in huge palaces. The poor people lived in appartemento building, some ten stories high. If they wanted water they had to go downstairs and carry it up. Guess some things never change!

On the right of the photo, you can just see the top of the walls of the Convent, which is inside the Monastery walls. The place is so huge, it is like a small village in some ways, including a large population, of both the human and animal varieties!

I'll post more pics of the grounds and Rome itself soon!

Ciao!

posted by Christine @ 1:42 pm