I arrived by train in Rome on Sunday afternoon. It seemed as though we had temporarily left the rain behind us in Florence, at least for awhile. This was my second trip to Rome in about a month and to be honest, I wasn’t that excited about going back. Rome is a city that either you love, hate or some combination of the two. The best way to describe the city is vibrant…sort of like a New York City but with much more history. The Italians in this section of Italy seem to be much more open and friendly then in the northern cities like Milan. All of the guidebooks make it sound like you have little chance of surviving your visit and will more then likely be run over by a taxi or scooter if you are not careful. I found this to be pretty darn accurate after my first cab ride in Rome…the drivers follow their own set of rules and drive wherever and whenever they want. The lines on the road and the traffic lights are only a mere suggestion of driving a car…God help you if you should step out in the road into their path accidentially! I can only liken it to a ride at Six Flags, and that would be putting it mildly!
My trip to Rome this time was purely work related, though I thought I would have time to sneak in a stop at the Coloseum or St. Peters during my three day visit. I was lucky enough to have my parents join me for this leg of the journey and was able to meet them for dinner after my school visits. My parents had just purchased the Rick Steves Italy guidebook and we sampled quite a few of the restaurants that he had suggested.
My visits to the international schools of Rome were very interesting…the makeup of the schools were very diverse with students from all over the world. While I waited to meet with the counselors, I observed recess several times and was amused at the communication between the children. Often, one child would say something to a friend in one language and the reply would be in another language all together. It is amazing how easily children can understand and learn other languages.
Getting around Rome to my different school visits turned out to be more of a challenge that I had originally anticipated. I ended up missing my train to my first school visit on Monday because of bad information and had to take a cab 2 hours outside of the city to a tiny, ancient town called Viterbo. You can only imagine the bill for that ride! On Wednesday, transportation within the city came to a complete halt when the employees of the train system decided to go on strike. The concierge of the hotel told me that I should probably forget about making it to any of my scheduled school visits that day because there were no available taxis anywhere. My determination and desperation to make it to the other side of Rome in my suit, high heels and pulling my luggage must have won over the concierge. After a few phone calls, she was able to pull some strings and arranged for a driver to take me at least into the city. What would turn out to be my knight in shining armor arrived about 30 minutes later in a georgous black Mercedes benz and wisked me off through the confusion and chaos of Rome and delivered me safely to my first appointment. I was two hours early, but I had made it to the school…an almost impossible accomplishment giving the strike.
The driver (who happened to be super cute) and about my age promised to return to get me two hours later, despite his busy schedule of already booked appointments with other clients. I wasn’t quite sure if he would indeed be there when I was finished, but I certainly hoped so considering that my luggage was still in the trunk if the car. Sure enough, he returned as promised and cheafured me to all of my appointments that day. Luckily, he spoke English so we were able to communicate…a luxury that I miss living abroad. It turned out that he was the owner of the car service company and had driven many famous celebrities and Italian politicians…after much begging he finally told me a few of the famous people that he had met including Tom Cruise, Russell Crow and a bunch of Italian politicians that I had never heard of but who sounded pretty important.
What had started out as a pretty discouraging day turned out to be super fun. I was able to hang out with a true local and he even made sure that I saw a few of the sights from the car along the way. I was scheduled to take the afternoon train back to Lugano but was secretly hoping that the train strike would continue so that I could stay in Rome longer and see more of the city...and hang out with Simone, the driver! My time in Rome came to an end when the strike lifted later that afternoon. With my excuse for staying longer now gone, Simone delivered me to the station in time to catch the 4:30 train back to Lugano….if only I could have brought him with me!
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