Rome: DAY 4

FOURTH DAY

September 16, 2005

Just in case anybody is getting confused, it is September 16, but I am writing about our day, yesterday.  It always starts with the light here.  Maybe I have more time for it or perhaps I am paying more attention, No matter, as Kim and I take our coffee on the terrace of our floor, the light lifts us into the day, Kimberly is very intent on doing the apartment thing.  I have decided to stay and do some local grocery shopping which means looking for a bigger market and trying to find the local gym.  We hang out for a while reading the Herald Tribune and sort of putting the start-up off. Finally, it is lunchtime, and we still haven’t started but Kim does have an appointment to see several apartments.  Lunch is a sort of buffet affair with some cold pasta, salads, and fruit.  The reason we have been sticking around for lunch is to get a chance to meet some of the inmates.  Since we have been in Rome, I don’t think we have been overeating but with no scale to check ourselves, it is more about how our clothes fit.  The walking is dynamite but my hips don’t much like it.  Our lunch companions are either boring or we are and finally it’s over.  We leave the table to pursue our separate adventures   It is the first time we have not done whatever we are doing together.  I can sense Kim’s nerves and finally she asks me to go with her.  I decline and hand over money for cabs etc.  She goes and I put on my backpack and we both head out to brave the world by ourselves.  Without much trouble (one wrong turn), I find the new supermarket and figure out what I can carry including water, diet coke and of course that staple, Scotch Whiskey.  incidentally, booze is cheap.  I am not sure why, but even with the lousy exchange rate still less then Costco.  Our neighborhood is in the middle to upper middle class range and cute.  Mostly apartment houses with lots of flowerpots and vegetation.  The streets are quiet but with lots of small businesses.  They are all closed for the afternoon siesta, but the market is clean and well lighted with everything I need.  There are lots of open-air markets in our part of town and they are closed by about 1:30pm and reopen in the early morning.  I suspect that the place I am going is about l/2 to3/4 of a mile from the school.  So just up and back about a mile or more.  It is hot, too.  The pack is heavy too.  I feel old too.  Oh well.

Kim comes back with a smile and some fun stories of riding on the back of the agent’s motor scooter.  She got to look at 3 different places none of which seem to work.  It is really only day one of the search.  We are making good contacts and will find our place. I am not altogether sure of our mission here, but I know that Rome is a good spot for trying to find out.

It is late afternoon and we join with our group of fellows, and scholars for a walk with one of the staff professors for a walk along the hill of the Aventine.  The group about 30 strong takes a public bus down to the starting point.  The weather and feelings are magical.  While on the bus, some guys try to steal Richard Barnes’s wallet, but luckily it slips to the floor of the bus.  I saw them trying, but it is so fast that it is hard to react.  The Barnes’s are friends of Kris and Owen’s. In any case, I was able to tell Richard which of the guys were making the attempt and they got off the bus immediately. I wish I could have hit them with my walking stick, but I was too slow.  The wall and the churches and the trees and light as well as the super lecture by our guide took away the irritation and as we came down the hill to the Palatine, I realized once again how lucky we are to be here.  The group marched on and we took a bus home.  By the way, I am learning why I don’t like buses much.  It was rush hour and it was crowded and hot.  It is also bumpy too but useful and cheap. I am happy to be home to drinks and a shower.

We discover that we will probably have a renter in SF for the house.  Good!