18 March 2011: Rome Day One.

Regulazioni e non importante….

Its late afternoon and we make our way through Italy’s customs area, which is an event in itself. Having navigated the relatively strict processes of Melbourne, Singapore and London, Michelle and I are both prepared with passports in hand. As we approach the official at the border booth, the officer barely makes eye contact, doesn’t look at our passports and simply waves his hand at us to proceed through.

As I turn to make a comment to Michelle about how easy it was, she is smiling and laughing saying, “God I love Italy…”

This is my first experience and impression of Rome and the Roman way of life. As best I can translate (with the assistance of my travelling companion), regulazioni e non importante or in English, regulations are not important. It can be experienced as you walk the streets where traffic lights, red, green or yellow, mean its ok to cross – but you might just get run over. Taxi drivers zoom around streets ignoring the lane markings and the double lines in the middle of the road, motorcyclists climb the curbs as they round corners and pedestrians on pedestrian crossings are monstered by all forms of traffic.

This way of thinking is no more evident than when smoking in the bars and restaurants was banned in January 2005. To quote Frommer’s Rome Day by Day travel guide, “whether the legislation will stick remains to be seen, smokers remain ubiquitous, and are tolerated almost everywhere…” regulazioni e non important.

Despite the fact we have travelled for 30 plus hours and covered numerous time zones, we’re both up for a little bit of sight seeing. We walk the three kilometres from our apartment (which by the way was quite gorgeous, thankyou Michelle for sussing that out before we left) to the heart of Rome and happened across a lovely little restaurant called Mercato in the Piazza Farnese. A scrumptious plate of pasta and a nice bottle of Chianti was a wonderful way to complete our first day in Rome.

A perfect day if you ignore the argument that Michelle had with the Cab driver on the way home about the fact he didn't use his meter and asked for 18 Euros for a 6 Euro fare........he didn't get his 18 Euros, but he did get a fair sort of lecture and reduced fee.....he wont forget Michelle.