Tuesday Poosday

Tuesday Poosday was actually a Wednesday (9th November), but the assonance is too good not to use.

We had a rough start – the Bacardi Mojitos, numerous birras and a late night speaking Irish-Italian all took their toll.  Check out was at 11 AM apparently, so you can imagine how thrilled we were when at 10:32 AM there was a bang on the door and we got the boot.  Apparently it was a 10:30 AM checkout.  We emerged from the room with our sunglasses on, and shuffled to the train station.  I haven’t been sleeping at all well since I left Dunedin, and the night before was no exception, so that plus stinking hot sunshine was not my favourite recipe for the day.

Roaming

Our first full day in Rome started off very nicely with good weather and a lovely wee stroll down the road.

There are no umbrella sellers when it’s sunny, which is such a relief.  A couple of the umbrella sellers have followed us when we’ve shot a non grazie at them, but the majority willl just try for a sale and then leave you alone.  I’ve tried rationalising why I don’t want an umbrella (“I like getting soaking wet”, pointing at the umbrella we’re sharing, or, once in a moment of frustration Beth shot a “F*** off, just f*** off will you?!” ) but it doesn’t work, so we have fallen back on the ‘real Italian way’ of dealing with them, and just pretending they don’t exist.  The fact that there were umbrella carcasses all over Rome didn’t exactly make me want to buy one either.  I feel sorry for them though, them and the Senegalese fake Prada bag-sellers: life must be pretty crap at home if it’s a better life being glared at by Italians and bewildered tourists in a strange city.