As you know, the “young greens” have been in Roma, the capital of Italy, not so long ago. There was a huge meeting of people, who want make our world better and greener. For this reason few hundreds got together to sign any papers and celebrate it very intensively. But it is another story. I would like to tell you about my experience with Roma and Italians.
First of all, I bought a guidebook. I read it through and thought that nothing can surprise me. What a mistake. With a airplane I crossed the borders, hundreds of meters above the ground and a few minutes later I landed in Milano to change my airplane. We had a one-hour delay and I missed my line and had to wait 3 hours for the next one. In this time I was intensively looking for my bag. Nice girls in “lost-baggage-office” tried to explain me (in English with funny Italian accent), that everything is OK and that I should ask in 30 minutes. After my third visit of this office, I decided to leave Milano without my bag. We boarded our plane and than spent 2 hours sitting in the plane and waiting for better conditions to start because of snowstorm. Sitting behind me were 5 Italians who the whole time were having a very loud discussion. Because of the whole stress and this loud amusement I got a headache (by the way, I met these 5 Italians on our conference and also in the plane back sitting before me continuing with their debate).
Finally I arrived in Roma. Finding of my bag and 18 degrees improved my mood. The next thing I had to wrestle with was the traffic on the streets. Domestic traffic here is very heavy. Even in the night. At half past midnight there are more cars than during the day. After a few minutes I learned local traffic law: the faster wins (/survives). Red or green lighs are for pedestrians and not binding, so you can cross only according to traffic conditions. A big part of the street traffic generates mopeds. Contrariwise I haven’t seen any bicycles in Roma. In this chaos, moving policemen (“carabiniere”) are all around. If the chaos is not acceptable, they whistle and with an upset finger warn the drivers. I am not sure if it helps. There is also public traffic like trams or metro. It is relatively cheap but the most time overfull.
During the first night in Rome the rain was strong so that I welcomed the offer from 2 Italian friends to bring me to our hotel. We boarded small Fiat. Our driver put on sunglasses (even it was raining and deep in the night); opened the window; turned on the radio and the race through Roma began. The next half an hour was an indescribable experience. Whatever; we luckily arrived our Hotel Acropoli (two stars). I still do not know what these two stars mean. The first probably, that you have your own bed and the second, that you get for breakfast one roll and a small dab of jam.
Next night and the last afternoon we did a bit of sightseeing. There are incredibly many sights to visit in Roma. Among others I visited also Vatican. I unfortunately did not see the pope to lend him the last condom I had in my pocket. But there were tens of blacks selling handbags (all the same kind) to tourists. I could present the condom to these people and they will probably send it to their relatives in Africa who need it mostly, but I was not courageous enough. Perhaps next time in Roma – when we will be there to launch the World Green Party. Arrivederci