Rome Weekend - Day 5

When you see a Fiat Multipla, possibly one of the ugliest cars on the road, you do not immediately think 'projectile'. In the hands of a Rome taxi driver it is a projectile aimed indiscriminately at other road users and at the often non-existent spaces between them. There is no denying that many Italians drive needlessly dangerously relying solely on their brakes and presumably wearing them out frequently in doing so. They dash from place to place much as a Subaru driver would in the UK but the Impreza-nable would generally stay in lane. An additional technique of the taxi driver is simply to drive in two lanes with the intent, I imagine, of taking advantage of the minutest gap in either. My attention was mercifully focused for the most part on all the wonderful things we might see on another trip to the Eternal City. For anyone with fear of flying this might well be the ideal way to reach the airport as their largely unfounded anxiety would have diminished into some sort of proportion by the time the taxi pulls up in front of the terminal. It takes some time (even at inappropriate speeds) to leave the suburbs and reach the Autostrada. I had to smile when we accelerated along it, not from relief but at the Glasgow-M8-like exhortations on the overhead signs; the first "Guidare con Prudenza", disastrously redundant; the others suggesting keeping to the right and fastening ones seatbelt, equally risible in the circumstances.

I had been tempted to record in this blog that the Italians have neither words in their language nor room in their psyche for the concept of queuing. Whilst this was true at the opera where they unwisely kept the doors closed a little too long, I have to concede that it is no longer universally true. I had already noted an especially orderly system at Termini's ticket office and, today, an even greater surprise awaited me. In Via Lazio, near our hotel, there is a hole-in-the-wall pizza place where they actually have one of those little tear off ticket things just like in A&E. On a fourth straight day of unbroken sunshine I stood at the junction with Via Veneto and ate superb pizza whilst reading a poster commemorating "La Dolce Vita". The sweet life indeed. Rome is fabulous.

The airport procedures were swift and friendly and the BA lounge faced north which, with the position of the afternoon sun, facilitated some happy photography even through glass. Our flight was on time, the meal very good. At Gatwick, baggage was delivered swiftly and our car was ready. I believe I am sufficiently refreshed and uplifted to be sustained until our departure for Los Angeles.