Italy: Friendly Romans and the best minibus to ride in Rome

Susan Spano’s Postcards From Rome

I’m not far from the Coliseum (above). Follow the link to see a photo gallery from my new neighborhood.

Exactly how friendly can Romans be? This continues to surprise me. The owner of the hardware store down the block — with one of everything — hugs me when I pass.

I’m already on a first-name, cheek-kissing basis with the wedding photographer who works out of a storefront next door. If you’re planning to get married in Rome, let me know.

Last weekend my sister and brother-in-law and I attended a concert at the little church next door, a Baroque-ified early Christian place of worship where a Scottish couple I met outside got married 25 years ago. Maybe it’s something in the water.

Which, by the way, is very hard, full of so many minerals that I’ve stopped taking vitamins.
Some more useless, but I hope, diverting, Roman apercus:

I love to ride minibus No. 117, which I catch on Via dei Serpenti near Via Cavour. It winds through the old Roman slum area, or Subura, over the Quirinale hill on its way to the Spanish Steps, then down Via del Babuino to Piazza del Popolo, which I’ve decided is one of the great public spaces in the world. There I have a double macchiata, which ejects me through the rest of the day.

Recently I had dinner at a seafood place up the street and told the waiter I was from L.A. He said he wanted to move to California and then paid me special attention on the off-chance that I could help him get a visa, I supposed. But his English needed work because he kept calling me “Mr. Spano.”

All the dogs I see in Rome are old, though obviously dearly loved by their owners. I wonder what the average life expectancy for doggies is in Rome.

I went looking for an electrical converter plug on Via Cavour, because the outlets here are varied, with two holes, three holes or three bigger-spaced holes. (Don’t even get me started on the light bulbs.) Fortunately, there’s a very good electrical appliance shop nearby where I asked why Italy has so many electrical plug configurations.

It’s worth quoting the clerk. “Signora, in Italy we have many standards,” he said.

Here’s to all the standards.

Salve, from Mr. Spano.

[Ed.: Stay tuned for more updates shortly...in the meantime, here's a link to Susan's greatest Travel hits.]

— Susan Spano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

[Photo: The Coliseum, Susan Spano / Los Angeles Times]

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 8:00 am by Susan Spano and is filed under Europe, Italy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.