ROME 6/22 – DAY 1: Getting some stuff

Today – 2 June – your planet’s yellow Sun shall appear from Rome to rise at 5:35 and to set at 20:42.   These the long and languid days of a Roman summer have already arrived.

If God still loved the Roman Curia, and if the old ways were still embraced, the Ave Maria bell would sound, if it sounded, at 21:00.

Yesterday, after prayers, etc. and a quick bite on the piazza in front of the Signoria of Florence, my eyes were turned to the train station and a fast ride to the City.   The night before, however, there was a fiorentina to devour.  You know you’ve found a good place to eat when the potatoes draw your attention nearly as much as the steak.

Florence is, right now, jammed with tourists.  There are rivers of young Americans. In charity, you would very much like to sit down some of these girls and explain that they really ought to put on clothing, that they are not supermodels, they they – frankly – look like hookers, the look they’ve chosen induces at most a momentary and mostly bored glance, and that modesty is fetching for a lifetime.  It’s really sad what the powers that be have done to women.

Sights and sounds.   Firstly, waiting to find out what our track number would be.

An hour and a half later….

My view for a while.   I am so happy to be back among the bells which ring out their characteristic chimes according to their idiosyncratic patterns.

Along the line I’ll share some of this charming little bell tower, which a few of you out there will instantly recognize both by sight and sound.

Today, 2 June, is a big public holiday so the shops are closed.  Hence, my first tasks involved the acquisition of basic food stuffs for the evening and for today.

The first thing I did was hunt up a ferramenta for the sake of a little shopping cart of the sort that you see women hauling around in the streets as they go from shop to shop.

I don’t especially “heart” shopping… well, here I do… but this one was €15 cheaper than its undecorated counterpart and I am nothing if not a skinflint.

Some of the best euros ever spent, my friends.   There’s nothing quite like hauling half a dozen two-liter bottles of water, a couple bottles of wine, and all your groceries with the bunched plastic bags’ handles slowly severing all your fingers down a cobblestone street in a blazing sun as nearly silent electric taxis startle the juice out of you as they pass.  No, the little carrello portaspesa is my new best friend in Rome.

This silent electric or hybrid car thing in Rome is a development that I do not appreciate.   to hell with cleaner air!   I want to know when the enemy is on my six!

Heading for an Amazon drop locker (I needed real ice cube trays and there wasn’t an ice-cubes chance in the Third Bolgia that I’d get good ones here so I “pro-positioned” some), I couldn’t help but see a gaggle of Franciscans, properly habited.  I suspect they were pilgrims out with one of their Rome dwelling confreres, for they were receiving an explanation of the statue.

You had a shot of the fountain in Milan.  If I forgot to post the one in Florence, here it is again…

Meanwhile, a counterpart in Rome, supplying us with its surprisingly sweet tasting, incredibly hard water.

Allow me to say that as civil ruler of Rome, I would cause various things to be done to these graffiti creeps in public view for the edification of their imitators.

It’s nice to be home.

Last night the Great Roman™ dropped in and we fended off death by starvation with Gins and Tonic and a few of these long noodles they have everywhere here.   This batch was made with little tomatoes – obviously – and hot pepper.

A short stroll as TGR™ departed, brought Day 1 to an end.