Latte macchiato

May 21 2013

Well apparently I have scarred my children for life. Alex, because he thinks I am disgraceful as I am not drinking espresso after lunch. It seems (according to my Italian/Chinese, kilt wearing coffee expert son) that one should never have milk in coffee after lunch. If I really must, I should drink macchiato’s but I am obviously a disgraceful insult to Roma if I drink children’s hot milk with a stain of macchiato. I think my morning cappuccino is acceptable and I think my evening chianti would be OK. Although Lydia is convinced her mother is an alcoholic, as after tonight’s chianti, I did have trouble getting the card in the hotel room door. Don’t you love children that think their mother is totally out of control having one chianti! Although, I do rather love the Italian view of a glass of chianti – I think it is probably half a bottle .. but alas when in Roma ……

Lydia is scarred because of the old homeless woman outside Termini when we arrived. We were walking past and she just lifted the skirt and stood up and had a pee on the pavement. Lydia is apparently traumatised because an old Italian woman bared her ‘big hairy bottom’ [my daughters words not mine] in the middle of a civilized city. I did remind my daughter that the older woman was once 24 and her response was ‘she was probably doing the same at 24’. Lydia’s comment was ‘please get me back to a country where homeless people are at least civilized’.

I am a disgrace, but we did have rather a nice day wandering the Roman streets. It is pretty cool isn’t it how you can be just strolling along and there is a Corinthian pillar in the middle of the street that has been sitting happily there since a few decades BC.

We walked up to Via Settembre and then across to Piazza Barberini. The Fontana del Tritone was all covered up so we strolled down Via Sistina to Spagna to the Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti. It might be the widest staircase in the world but it does make a pretty good perch to people watch in Roma. Piazza Di Spagna is full of extremely expensive shops but people from all nationalities sit and watch the world pass. We wandered on to Piazza del Popolo. The “trident” of Via del Corso, Via del Babuino Via di Ripetta are all full of designer shops and it is somewhat ironic that they all converge in the ‘peoples square’, the centre for Italian executions. We walked across the Fiume Tevere via the Ponte Margherita along a much quieter street past the Castel Sant’ Angelo. As we passed the mausoleum of Hadrian I did think of him and my time spent sitting on his wall in the English countryside with just the cows for company. The bronze statue of Archangel Michael, standing on top of the castel was looking down on the men trying to lure gullible tourists with the latest Louis Vuitton ‘genuine’ creation. We walked back across Ponte Umberto I to the gorgeous Piazza Navona that contains my favourite fountains. Surprisingly, we stopped for gelato and sat and watched the world go past. We sat quietly in the Pantheon and marveled at the oculus to the sky. I am constantly intrigued by sitting in a church where the damn great hole in the roof lets all of the rain in but I do think it is pretty cool that a pagan temple is now a Christian place of worship.  I do think it is one of the most amazing places .. worshipping in a great big Roman temple.

A walk back past the Fontana Di Trevi to throw our coins to ensure that we would return. No matter how many times one stands before the temple to the ‘Roman holiday’ its sheer beauty takes your breath away. Although one does wish you could sit for just a moment without being annoyed by rose selling nuisances.

We stomped back up the stairs to the Qurinale to what I think is one of the most beautiful churches in all of Rome – Santa Maria della Vittoria. Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa is one of my favourites and I love the fact that it is always so quiet there.

We had a lovely dinner tonight on the roof top of Roma. Tomorrow we will visit el papa Francisco. I am totally intrigued by the calendars on sale all over Roma with the dishiest priests portrayed for each month. Sort of like the Italian version of the New York Fire Department muscled men in braces and not much else calendar. I just can’t quite get my head around the whole concept of ‘playboy’ mate of the month in the white collar but we are in a city that sells I heart Francisco t-shirts so I guess Cosi va il mondo.