Areviderci, Roma

Our good friend, Dick, is in Rome right now. Yesterday he emailed home with an account of all the wonderful experiences they are having. My first trip to Rome was in 1962. I have two very vivid memories. I had participated in the Utah Shakespearean Festival that summer. After striking the set, the cast set out for an 8-week European adventure. The entire trip (including airfare, lodging, transportation, and all entrance fees) was only $600, so it won't be hard for you to believe that Europe on Five Dollars a Day was our bible. We stayed in youth hostels, out-of-the-way Gasthauses and student housing. But when we got to Rome, we stayed in a real hotel. It was old and beautiful, with lots of wood, carved moldings, and sweeping, curved marble staircases on both sides of the lobby.

There was a sign posted in each room clearly stating that no food was to be eaten in the rooms. But students will be students, and we were hungry students. Very quickly we had accumulated an entire two-handled paper shopping bag full of watermelon rinds, pastry wrappers, and Limonade bottles. We couldn't leave them in the room for the housekeeper to discover, and somehow the lot fell to me to carry the bag downstairs and out to a trash can on the street.

At twenty years of age, I was still hoping to become sophisticated. And so, with one hand lightly resting on the carved banister, head erect, and eyes straight ahead, I began my descent. Just as I reached the mid-point, the soggy bottom of the bag gave way. Watermelon rinds catapulted end over end, spraying seeds against the wall. The Limonade bottles clanked their way to the bottom, then rolled across the lobby floor to the front desk. As a SWAT team of bellmen and custodial staff materialized out of thin air, I could only shrug my shoulders, raise my eyebrows, and give them my most innocent "Who, me?!" look. The only two Italian words I know are "Areviderci, Roma," and fortunately, they didn't use those two.

My other memory surrounds the Spanish Steps, a "crush" of Italian men, and a flight for life. Curious?