Souvenirs from Rome made in China

Ginestra

“My boyfriend comes from here and he is not happy with how Rome has changed in last few years” – said American girl who we randomly met in Ginestra. She was playing with her long curly hair, dark one with a hint of grey and she asked how long we have been here. She was rather surprised that we already spent two weeks on a village and asked what actually we were doing here. Well… You can do many things in Ginestra. For example you can sit, like Maya does.

I am not surprised at all because to sit in Ginestra is a fantastic thing to do. You can sit on the red plastic chair against the wall outside the village bar, having great cappuccino and pastries. You can sit on a bench opposite car park, where Padre Pio in a shelter made of bricks watches over the place. And from there you can see local gangs of cats, having a sun baths on the front of the cars. Even when you want to say good bye to locals they may ask you to sit down for a while with them. 

Ginestra

Obviously you can leave Ginestra and take a trip to Rome. It is only 50km away north-east and it easy to reach by the train. To do it you have to travel to one of the local train stations, let say Fara in Sabina. The building looked abandoned, information and selling points were shut, ticket machine did not work. You could still hear the voices of people, probably Trenitalia employees, coming out of the windows. Knock it and do not be tempted to ask them in Italian if they speak English. “I am Italian, I live in Italy, why should I speak English?” Eventually you manage to find out that they do not sell the tickets. Right – we decided there must be the opportunity to buy tickets on a train to Rome. So we jumped into a train and awaited a ticket inspector. He came after few minutes, and we even managed to say in really poor Italian that we would like to buy tickets to Rome Tiburtina station. He looked at us like we were total idiots and said that he does not sell the tickets. He left us and when my partner came to him to insist on paying for the trip, he just said: “Si! Si! Roma Tiburtina!” and he left and we never saw him again. And that was it. So apparently you can go to Rome by train for nothing. 

Roma

You can also stay in bed 5 minutes longer than usually on lovely sunny Saturday morning, perhaps have one more slice of tasty bread for you breakfast, say good morning and have a chat with the lady who does not seem to remember that she had met us before and we had a sort of interview on Tuesday, so she had to ask again who we are, and where we live. And then you can have a cappuccino in bar called “Sport” and finally go to the station only to find out that you have missed your train and the next one is n about two hours.  So you can decide to go to Rome by car. Pay for you parking space on the parking in town centre (Roma Centro), have a romantic walk with somebody you love, buy a fridge magnet for somebody who collects them from all over the world, sit on the Spanish Steps and do things that you do in Rome.  Then you can come back to you car and see that somebody broke into it and the window on the back seat is totally smashed. Ironically there was nothing left in the car, so the bloody robber did not make a great deal out of it, however it took him fifteen seconds to do it and it took us days to sort the problem out. We had the opportunity to meet carabinieri (type of police) in Rome and small village near Ginestra (Poggio Moiano) and find out that they are very reasonable and helpful. I can’t really say as many warm words about the garage in Rieti. OK, OK, there we quite busy before summer holidays, and the secretary seemed to be very excited about her upcoming wedding. It seemed like “Lost in Translation” scene, when I was trying to say that glass should have been fitted in one rather than three hours, as promised (eventually it took over five hours…) and she was showing a gesture of putting a ring on her finger and singing Mendelssohn's "Wedding March”. At the end of the day the glass fitted after four days is better than a piece of plastic bag that was kindly fitted by locals of Ginestra and my partner on Saturday night outside the local bar, on our way from Rome. Every time we reached 30mph it started to move, make noise and eventually tear off – what a struggle! I think it was a top story in Ginestra that week – our missing glass. If the locals are going to remember us it will be due to that window and probably our poor knowledge of Italian language.  

Roma

Roma

How about Rome? Rome is Rome. Packed with historical monuments, that are definitely worth seeing and probably you will have to spend a month there and still not see everything. We only managed to spend two days and did not feel like coming back due to the incident with our car… Rome is also packed with people. However there is something about Rome that you only have to go two streets away from Colosseum or Fountain di Trevi to get a peace. And find old buildings of which the old paint is peeling away, shabby benches and silence disturbed just by some everyday sounds: commanding voice of some housewife probably preparing a meal, noise of cutlery jingling against the plates, oh-oo-oor-ing of the pigeons, joy of wedding guest awaiting a bride outside the church or a sound of high heels against the pavement made by a blond bunny girl carrying little dog and the shopping bags from a top designers. 

Roma

Rome fascinates and tires. People tire. Huge amount of Americans making silly comments and being sure of their own supremacy, that obviously only they have a right for. Huge amount of Indian guys or Africans trying to sell you crap or convince you that their Polaroid photo will be much better than the one from you own camera. Massive amount of souvenirs made in China. Waiters outside the restaurants and trattorias trying to catch you on the street and make you eat at their place. Again many Americans and Brits who order chips (French fries for Americans) and coke for a dinner. How about food? Well. We did not have a fabulous meal in Rome. It was average and overpriced. Or not good and overpriced. You probably ask me: where to eat in Italy? And I will tell you: on the province. I will write about this in few days.

Ginestra