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Rome 2004

Rome 2004: Day Four

Barry Price
2006-02-20 15:01:47

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I come out of the bathroom after a shower and a shave, and she’s watching CNN Europe. I laugh, asking “what about your reputation?”. She does not have a TV, and likes letting people know it. We get ready, and head our separate ways for a day alone.

We didn’t discuss a timescale, I realise later. I don’t want to arrive back too late in case she’s been waiting for hours, but I don’t want to have a half-hearted day and rush back too early either. I pack Pilgrim, The Picture of Dorian Gray and my journal, grab my iPod, and emerge into Rome.

Solitude has made me feel more like myself now, and I wander towards the park and ruins we encountered on the first day. I walk for a long time searching for an open shop to buy some water, then retreat to another park, across the way, listen to some Suede, and write this. I make good progress with Dorian Gray, and find myself so much more relaxed for taking in all of this culture underneath the perfect blue summer sky.

Later I walk the length of via XX Settembre, in search of horses - there is a picture of a horse over this street on my map, so surely there will be horses here. I find gardens and a statue of some horses, laugh, and then contrive to lose myself completely and find myself quite unexpectedly at Trevi Fountain again. The signposts may as well say “You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike”… I wander further, get asked for directions by a young Asian girl, have no idea where we are, let alone where she wants to go, and apologise profusely for my uselessness, in a language she does not understand.

Then further wandering, and the long walk back to the hotel. I get back at half past four, and hope she’s not been waiting on her own for too long. It turns out that she is not even back yet. I lie and read, and wait. I realise I have eaten nothing at all yet today - unthinkable at home!

At around 6.30 she returns, tells me where she has been (many of the same places as me), and then disappears to the lounge to read and write, while I catch up on my books.

Just as my stomach starts rumbling, she returns and produces some food - some sort of sugary pastries which she devoured before I could even ask what they were, then a rum chocolate truffle which I managed to get a share of - great stuff. My hunger awakened, I head off for a takeaway pizza while she reads. Afterwards I manage to finish Dorian Gray - a good read. And then sleep.