Tube Stops: (First visit) Termini, Porta San Paolo, Navigatori (bus stop), Ostiense, Barberini, Flaminio. (Second visit): Barberini, Termini & many taxis...A return visit from one of my friends from the UK came just as the Summer was drawing towards its hottest period: obligatory dresscode? Linens and layers, tshirts and portable aqua portable. Having returned from a week in Sitges, being spoilt by endless bronzing sessions on the beach (being white, a tan is nigh on impossible without chemical enhancement and a concession towards the influence of the cosmetics industry in portraying dark skin as a beauty 'ideal') and tapas without end. Where long, happy yet clumsy saunters around the twisting cobbles of the town's night-life district resulted in revisiting the retro-pop bars and cavernous clubs of our previous visit. Being with friends who have been around at the start of each other's lives when the wildness of university's unpredictable life-style ended and careers and responsibility began meant deep conversations matched with an endless supply of in-jokes.
But then the return... Rome wasn't the same. The question I'd been previously mulling over whimsically and thinking about again on the beach, whilst simultaneously toasting my body in front of a cat-walk of Atkins models, suddenly had an answer. It was time to return to London. The hushed buzz of a Rome nell'estate, devoid of locals, had become a deathly silence. The metal shutters hiding shops displaying notices of being closed for 'estiva', were sullen declarations of a reluctant community disavowing their own economy, unreliant on any form of custom. Friends were suddenly found in distant locations and I missed the sudden cold onset of Autumn that England would soon be experiencing (to everyone's chagrin.)
With TFB's arrival, it was soon time to reconnect with London albeit vicariously. We were former flatmates, now room-mates with T crashing out on the top bunk of my bed, which lead to various items falling on me in the middle of the night, accompanied by a conversation had half-waking, half-sleeping, involving T's father and a mysterious shopping list. Each night, whilst getting ready for the evening meal, we had drinks at Pimms o'clock out on my balcony, and chewed the fat about everything and anything.
Check out the washing in the restaurant windowbehind TFB & S: 'outdoors' indoor chic!
Spend time with a Londoner and you realise they never truly sit still; whilst having been here, I've truly learnt how to savour times when moving isn't really a necessity. I was picking up an old recognised form of energy: a new position in the city was waiting for T at the end of the month and I knew I wanted a career again. But having come this far, I felt like opportunities would be there for the taking.
As the heat of Rome was at its height, we sauntered through those four days, eating outside at a restaurant in Trastevere where inside the restaurant, fake clothes hang from a decorated washing-line: the tops of villas and buildings have been painted along its walls. Another restaurant saw friend M take us to 'Romolo e Remo' where you and your friends are invited to take up the challenge of eating 28 (yes, 28) different pasta dishes and not pay a single cent. Eat 27, and it's a three-line (actually, better make that a many-line) whip. On TFB's last night, we were kindly invited to Harmony & Detto's roof-top pad at Navigatori and treated to a fantastic spread, prosecco and then rounds on a hookah, before yours truly upended the thing all over the table. Fail. I was sad to see TFB leave - we had never been roomies before, which made more sense to have happened in the UK. My mind was becoming made up, familiar ties were tugging me northwards.
The Motley crew post flavoured smoke enhancement :)
As the heat of Rome was at its height, we sauntered through those four days, eating outside at a restaurant in Trastevere where inside the restaurant, fake clothes hang from a decorated washing-line: the tops of villas and buildings have been painted along its walls. Another restaurant saw friend M take us to 'Romolo e Remo' where you and your friends are invited to take up the challenge of eating 28 (yes, 28) different pasta dishes and not pay a single cent. Eat 27, and it's a three-line (actually, better make that a many-line) whip. On TFB's last night, we were kindly invited to Harmony & Detto's roof-top pad at Navigatori and treated to a fantastic spread, prosecco and then rounds on a hookah, before yours truly upended the thing all over the table. Fail. I was sad to see TFB leave - we had never been roomies before, which made more sense to have happened in the UK. My mind was becoming made up, familiar ties were tugging me northwards.
The Motley crew post flavoured smoke enhancement :)
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