Hop On......

 Phew!  We're tired. Blissfully fatigued. We love our evenings "a casa".  Today was another gorgeous day.  It's amazing, how blue the sky can be. The temperatures have been in the high 60's, some days, reaching 70. Perfect conditions for being outdoors. And, it's Spring.

We're getting ready to change our location and will be leaving Rome on Saturday. Our next stop will be Assisi, the home of most of my heart. We've started packing up. Train tickets are purchased. 

But today. Today we're still here and today we had a lovely time on the rooftop of a Green Line bus.

It was a longggggg walk to the bus stop. We probably would have been better off taking a train to the bus but, we're dedicated long-distance walkers and after several attempts to find the stop, we finally made it to the "Hop-On-Hop-Off" bus stop which is at the Ponte Sant'Angelo, the pedestrian bridge that crosses the Tiber at the Castel.The bridge was constructed under the order of Emperor Hadrian in 136CE to enable access to his tomb from the city center. But, it was Bernini who gave life to the bridge with the sculpting of tall angels that line the bridge since 1668. The bridge offers a magnificent view of the ancient Castle.

So, with that view in the background, we located the illusive bus, found two seats upstairs and began our loop that brought us through crazy-congested "Ancient Rome". It was perfect for two weary old people. We hit all the highlights. Santa Maria Maggiore, the Colosseum, Pyramid/Testaccio Quarter, Circus Maximus, the Piazza della Repubblica, Piazza Venezia. We zigged and we zagged. We left the driving to the driver as we snaked through our very own Memory Lane, now seeing those places from the second tier of a gigantic bus. The new perspectives were certainly worth the price of admission.

To our delight, the bus slowly glided through the Quirinal Hill and  passed by the Chiesa di Santa Susanna....the very same church where Joe and I renewed our wedding vows in celebration of our 40th anniversary. 

So, a peaceful bus trip. No stress. No driving. Just a hop on. And, may I confess, not ONE hop off and on again.  We just sat and took it all in. One, gigantic and lovely loop.

Weekday

 I just completed a morning stroll.  Not far from our apartment, in any direction you can turn your head, are lovely neighborhoods, gorgeous buildings, signs of life everywhere.

People on their way to work.  Nonnies walking babies in strollers. Cafes offering the usual morning fare, one more unique than the next. College students (there are a few major universities in the area, St. John's being one of them), scooters scooting. The Lepanto subway station spilling onto the sidewalk of Viale Giulio Cesare. Gentrified. Alive. Filled with energy. What's not to love for a city-person like myself. But this is not a city unto itself. Remember, Prati is only one part (a "rione") of a very, very large and wonderful city, Rome.

The decision to come here for a two-week stay has turned out to have been a wise one. We've visited Rome enough times to say "been-there-done-it" to the major attractions. And, please, do not get me wrong. Rome is home to the world's top attractions and if, especially if, you plan to visit for the "prima volta" (first time), you absolutely must get on those lines. A bit of a hint here.....don't visit between the months of May and November. This, being March, is not yet full tourist season and there are multitudes of people in the center of Rome. It will get unbearable from Easter on through the Fall. And, mornings are best for crowd avoidance.

So, armed with a desire to get a local culture fix, we chose Prati. The home of the real-time Roman people. We came with the promise of a true Roman experience and we have not been disappointed. There are few "memorials", no tourist attractions, but five minutes away, there are bridges that cross the Tiber River and lead to everything one could expect from the Eternal City. And, crossing the bridges in this lovely weather, is a joy.  One of those bridges takes us directly to the Piazza del Popolo (People's Place). 

Tuesday was a special day. It marked the 100th anniversary of the Italian Air Force. Since we arrived, there has been a huge exhibition in honor of the occasion.  Aircraft, set up in the Piazza (it's huge), for the purpose of allowing people to line up and hop on board (grounded) pieces and spectacular specimens. Of course, children of all ages got a thrill and photo-ops were the order of the day. There were flyovers, jets in formations and jet streams that resulted in banners of red, white and green in the sky above. That, against the backdrop of a jewel-blue sky, was something to behold. Generally, it has been a special pleasure observing the pride that is visible everywhere, Refreshing and so, not American. Just saying.

SMILE!!!!!!

 When you travel without a specific plan and decide to allow serendipity to be your guiding force, lots of wonderful things await.

Before leaving home, I was asked by a friend to describe a typical day,  the type that we have experienced over and over during our many trips to Italy. Hmmmm. I wasn't exactly prepared for the question but it wasn't much different from the one about what a "typical" day as a nurse in a corporation based in New York City consisted of.  When asked that, I would simply answer:  whatever or whomever comes through the door next. Talk about serendipity!

So, our days in Rome, so far have been filled with lots of shoulder shrugs and jaw drops. One can hardly go more than two steps before either reaction. It's Rome. You expect that kind of stuff. If you've been here, you know of what I speak. Rome is filled with adventures.

But, by expecting shoulder movements and jaw dropping, I had not anticipated my very untypical Roman adventure yesterday morning.

Last year, and I can remember the exact moment because we were sitting on a bench in Martina Franca in Puglia, a huge chunk of a molar tooth broke off, leaving a benign but large open area where the back of the tooth had once resided.  From the front, you would not suspect that what you saw was merely a stage prop of sorts. But my tongue persisted in proving that the rear of the molar was gone. And so, when I next visited Dr. Russo (note the ethnic name) in South Yarmouth, he cordially invited me to have the whole tooth extracted by his next-door neighbor, the oral surgeon. I decided to take my chances. The very thought of having a tooth pulled made me queasy. Couldn't I give birth to an eight pound baby instead? We did not argue. I did not make the yanking appointment and lived happily ever after with the hole and the tongue thing.

Do I need to tell you the next part of the story?

I had hardly unzipped my suitcase when the quiet hole became an area of great sensitivity. When touching the affected tooth made me unhappy. Never mind eating anything cold or hot. Never mind biting down at all on the left side of my mouth. 

So, with two whole months to go, I decided that being in a city might be the racer's edge in the area of getting the problem sorted.....the extraction accomplished. And, the search for a dentist, one I could trust and relate to, began. Shortly after, lo and behold, I found the name of an American-speaking pro named Dr. Shapiro (note the irony here) and I emailed on Saturday. Within a very short time, I received a return email. asking if Monday at 9:00 would work? You betcha'.

So, it just so happens that the apartment we are renting has an arrangement with an extremely nice young man who drove us here from the airport. Giovanni. Giovanni who is but a text message away and is "at our disposal".  He drives with the skill of a professional racer but oh so much smoother and calmer. 

At eight o'clock, Giovanni showed up with his black Mercedes and off we went through Roman rush hour (yes, they do rush on occasion) traffic, through the morning rain and off to my appointment. We arrived just early enough for a cappuccino with my new bestie (I wish I had put on some makeup), before he escorted me to the door of "The Smile Center" on the Piazza Vescovio and told me to take all the time needed.....he would be there when I was done.

Feeling very akin to Queen for the Day... with a toothache, I walked into the most, I mean THE most, futuristic, well-equipped and amazingly appointed dental office and was greeted by lovely staff who obviously knew how to run a practice and put patients at ease at the same time.

I could hardly wait to meet Dr. Shapiro and tell him about Dr. Russo. But, alas, the practice may have been his brainchild but this office is credited to Dott.ssa Lombardi Francesca. Doctor Lombardi, who gushed and exploded with happiness when I told her my impressions of her beautiful offices. Apparently, she designed the space. 

My first stop was the room in which a full X-ray of my mouth was performed. I almost thought I was going to have a mammogram! The machine was very similar. Next, the exam room where two huge t.v. screens already displayed my x-rayed oral cavity. I must admit, these were pretty scary looking but kind of fun at the same weird time. 

Enter the dentist. Who did tell me his name but I forgot. Nice, nice, nice man. Totally put me further at ease. Didn't say "Mamma Mia" once! Explained the options and disagreed with Dr. Russo. Save the tooth!  I should have known. Italians are known for their use of every body part of an animal. They are not wasteful and they do respect elders. So....a thorough cleaning of the open space, a "big" filling, and I was back in business. He promised that this treatment of the root canal and filling would hold me until June when I might want to see Dr. Russo again.

As promised, Giovanni was waiting and the rain had stopped. I was home by 11:00 and ready to take on another full set of new adventures. Maybe some of those will now include chewing on both sides of my mouth? 

Buon giornata ! (oh, in addition to my lovely ride, I got a few language tips and some sightseeing in).

Surprise!!

 

Isn't Prati pretty? I mean it's really lovely. The most relaxing place I've been in a very long time and that's not an easy statement to make about Rome. The photo, it's not mine. It's from a really neat website called wantedinrome.com.  I've abandoned all hope of downloading photos.

But, it's pretty.  

The architecture is drop-dead gorgeous.

The Pope lives here.

The cafes and little restaurants are plentiful and each one, begging. Friendly. Charming.

The Tiber River runs alongside it.

The bridges that cross the Tiber are elegant and it's easy to wander over and over them, one side to the other, the rushing current beneath. 

But....and there's always a but.....the trash problem in all of Rome, even in this lovely section, is way out of control.  Way, way out of control.  Rome, sorry to say, is one very dirty city with littered streets and overflowing receptacles on every corner. And, no, there isn't a strike. This is a never-ending crisis that officially got its kick off in 2013 with the closure of its "Big Black Hole", the Malagrotta Landfill. 

So, here's another "surprise".  The landfill was owned by a man named Manlio Cerroni. It was the largest landfill in all of Europe and until 2013, the only site dedicated to the city's disposal of waste for about thirty years.

Manlio had a monopoly (surprise!) over garbage disposal and was known, in fact, as Il Supremo in and around the city. That is until Italian officials ruled the site to be unfit to treat waste, and shut it down (surprise!).

Since the closure of Il Supremo's masterpiece, there has not been a strategy to dump or treat the 1.7million metric tons of trash produced in Rome each year (surprise!) Recycling has fallen by the wayside  if you'll pardon the pun, and successive mayors from successive parties have been unable to come up with any solutions (huge surprise!) All this, despite the hard to bite fact that Romans pay one of the highest municipal waste taxes in the country!

So, here's the really big surprise.....while most of us think of Roman exports as beautiful, we had no idea of the city's biggest export. Trash. The Eternal City ships out 1.2 million tons of garbage every year. Out-of-the-country. Cost, $206 million. Let's not get crazy altogether and fantasize about what that could buy for the people of Italy. Mamma Mia!!

So, 1.2 million tons of dirty, filthy garbage goes sailing away every year to ports unknown.Where does the remaining half-million tons land up?  On the streets of Rome.

No surprise.

It all boils down to (ahem) corruption. Are you surprised? Looks like the big "M" word might be in play here. The Mafia, to put it politely, stinks. And, it appears that the Mafia wants Rome to stink right alongside it. Rome is drowning in trash.

Back

It's somewhat hard to believe that in a country which is home to the most incredible architecture and is the seat of world civilization, achieving an internet connection in one uniquely modern apartment has been so difficult.

I had promised myself and a host of friends back home, updates, blogs, interesting stuff. But, since our arrival on Tuesday morning, a slow and difficult connection to the wifi has made that virtually impossible. I do have a journal book and a pen. How provincial of me. But good thing. I actually have been doing a lot of writing, just not blogging on the Web. How modern...."blogging".....what the heck does it mean anyway? Just so you know, the term belongs to a system of "discreet" "informal" online "diary-keeping". Forget about seeing pictures. At least not for the time being. That's asking way too much of my connection!

We're back in Italy. In Rome. In Prati, a heart-stealing, incredibly lovely area of the Eternal City which spans across a chunk of the River Tiber. Meaning, there are lots of bridges which cross over from this part, tourist-free and very much like New York's Upper East Side (Italian style), to Rome's Centro, the part of Rome that the tourists eat with a spoon.  The part that we have visited many times. But Prati is new to us and we have commended ourselves more than once on how well we chose for the first two weeks of what will be a very long Italian stay for us, our longest so far. 

So, we have walked at least ten miles a day since our arrival on Tuesday morning after a flawless flight in some very nice airline seats. Hey, you don't turn 75 every year! We visited all the hot spots, saw many more tourists than we normally see (most of our Roman adventures have been in the off-season) and have counted our blessings as we returned to our modern and chic apartment known as "Industrial" on Via Fornovo.  Quiet. Prati is home to the Italian judicial system. The area is swarming with attorneys we're told. 

I will try to keep up my on-line "diary" and hope for internet access. Now, if I could only speed up the washing machine cycle and figure out how to use the conduction cooktop stove....

Yes, I do cook, grocery shop, do laundry and do basic housework in Italy. Please don't tell me to eat pasta every day in a local trattoria.  We're here to live our Italian life and we enjoy each and every minute of feeling completely stupid most of the time!!!

La dolce vita.