BOB’S TOP TEN ROMAN MEMORIES
21st March 2018
In anticipation of a more detailed presentation on this blog and not wishing to preempt any specific highlights of the recent international trip to Italy, I have made a quick selection of my top ten memories and present them here in no particular order:
- Liquid refreshment: Nastro Azzurro and the River Tiber (or Tevere in Italian) Hadrian’s mausoleum in distance
- Monumental majesty: even the colloseum is painted on the buses
- Garden of delight: the ‘musical’ fountains of the Villa d’Este (listen to the composition by Listz on Youtube)
- Hoodies at dawn: hooded crows scavenge throughout the city, but the green (rose-ringed) parakeets are noisier
- Trail of the lonesome pine: Pinus pinea or stone pine provides an ever-present evocative backdrop
- Selfie-stick salesmen: and if rain is forecast or falling, they will rustle up a cheap umbrella
- Rome wasn’t built in a day: the main building materials are the ubiquitous ‘granite’ setts in the roads and travertine (a kind of limestone) in the buildings
- SPQR Senatus Populusque Romanus: The Senate (government) and the people of Rome – originally the ancient Roman Republic but now used everywhere even manhole covers
- The reputation of Italian waiters: Formula Uno restaurant – nothing is ever too much trouble
- Homage to Hadid: Zaha Hadid’s design for the Museum of Modern Art (MAXXI)
