FIFTIETH
DAY
THE
PRISON AND THE COPS
November
1, 2005
Today is
a national holiday in Italy, All Saints Day; the people at the Academy have
advised that nothing will be open. The weather is slowly turning cooler in the
mornings. The forecast is for rain. The
rain makes touring in Rome rather difficult.
One thing is certain; there are very few pauses in the Rome tourist
thing. We spoke to a cab driver the
other night and he indicated that the only slow months were November and
February. Even then it is busy. I think it is the tourist capital of the
world. I know, New York, New York but
because Rome is the center of the Catholic world and because of the antiquities
and the hundreds of museums, libraries, palaces and churches, the merry go
round never stops. Today we visited
Castel San Angelo. It is a huge round
castle near St Peters. It was originally
the site of Hadrian’s tomb built during his reign 117-138AD. It towers over the Tiber and comes with
extensive grounds, two bridges and lots of statues. Singularly missing are the normal number of
fountains but there must be a reason for that omission. We arrive mid morning
and the line stretches out to the walking bridge. The crowd is large, but so is the
Castle. The big thing about this
magnificent place is the view from the top that is a 360 of Rome. I am sure that I got some of my best photos
of Rome today. It is too bad that the
sky is gray; I think I will go back when it is blue. The walking bridge has 8 Bernini sculptures of
angles. Apparently, he was very prolific
or he had lots of help. This rugged old
castle has stood the test of time and is a wonderful place to feel the
historicity and grandeur of the Roman experience.
Speaking
of Roman experiences, yesterday the great Ms Kim had one of her own. While I was doing my part for learning and
education in Rome taking down the intaglio press (see yesterday’s journal) Kim
went to the historic center to get more flavor from the Capitaline steps and
museum. Normally, on Monday she goes to
Italian class but because of the holiday class was cancelled. As a side note she is doing well and loving
the class though the work is hard and the language difficult to speak. As she was exiting the bus, the bus cops were
coming on and locking the doors so that nobody could get out. They started checking tickets and Kim’s pass
was out of date. She usually has a weeks
pass but hadn’t renewed it because of the holiday. She was summarily issued a 50Euro fine. Those of you who know Kim will find it
amusing and normal that she only had 5E in her pocket. I can’t believe she still does that no money
thing. The cop would not be swayed; she
either had to pay the fine on the spot or it would cost 150Euro and they would
keep the copy of her passport. After gamely fighting to get out of the ticket
using the “I don’t understand Italian” ploy, she talked them into letting her
go to a bank cash machine for the do-rey-me.
The matter was resolved but Kim was not happy. She told me the cop was a “butt”. I told her she should have bought a bus
ticket and or carried more Euros. This
is by far the funniest thing that has happened on the trip so far. I would have given anything to have seen it.
For Kimberly, getting a ticket for 50E literally makes her crazy. I am laughing as I write this note.
As we
prepare to leave the Academy, I also note, that we have had a great time
here. It was so much easier coming here
first. While effusive welcome is
withheld from Visiting Scholars, still they do a great deal to make life easier
for us. I will apply for a permission to
use the library when we return. It is a
nice place to study and by hanging around here we can keep up our contacts at
the Academy.
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