Wednesday November 11, 1992 – Rome, Italy
Today was Veterans Day in the U.S. and it turned out, since it was a Federal Holiday and the Forest Service was paying for me to be there, I was entitled to take the day off! I decided to try and deal with the computer and walked over to the place where I saw the IBM sign. When I got there, I had to go through a locked gate by pushing a button to get access to the building. I was finally able to locate the IBM office on the first floor (second floor in the U.S.) and once again, no one spoke English! I managed to communicate my problem using hand signs and my Italian phrase book. The person I was talking with called someone on the phone and asked me to wait. Eventually, a guy came in and they talked with him for a while and then asked me to follow him in Italian. We went up to the second floor to an office where there were about four other guys with one who spoke a little English and who seemed like he was in charge. They tested the power supply and bingo, it was dead. I “talked” with the head guy for a while and said I’d like to have it repaired or get a replacement if possible. He made some phone calls and, much to my surprise, he said they could find a replacement by 4 PM Thursday! We discussed whether the power supply was under warranty, and I decided it probably wasn’t and asked them to see if they could fix it. If not, I would buy the new one. The only problem was the new one would cost 320,000 Lire ($245)! After dealing with the laptop, I planned on taking my laundry to a local laundry / dry cleaner. For some reason, there were no laundromats in Rome or Italy. So, if you don’t own a washing machine or don’t want to wash your clothes by hand, you needed to pay to have it done for you. I checked two different places before I found one that could do it in the shortest time which was 4 PM Friday! It cost 10,000 Lire / Kilogram or 50,000 Lire since my clothes weighed 5 Kilograms. After dropping my clothes off, I took the Metro (subway) to the Vatican and Sistine Chapel. It took about 1 hour to get to the Vatican and another ½ hour to walk to the Vatican Museum where the Sistine Chapel was located. From the entrance, it took about ½ hour to walk through the corridors and rooms before I finally reaching the Sistine Chapel by around 1:30 PM. I spent about ½ hour there until they announced the museum and chapel were closing. They close early every day to prevent and limit exposure to some of the delicate artwork to light and human breath, etc. The Sistine Chapel was spectacular but was jammed packed with people. I learned after I had already taken a few photos and short video (non-flash of course) that photography was not allowed in the Sistine Chapel. I was amazed though at the number of people that ignored the restriction and even used flashes. The colors were more brilliant than I expected which was due to the restoration work that started in 1985. The restoration was being paid by the Japanese who have sole rights to photographing and documenting the efforts. I left the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel at 2 PM and took the Metro to the Spagna Metro terminal where I could exchange some travelers checks for Lire. I exchanged $500 at about 1,310 Lire/$ which I hoped would hold me through the next two weeks. I walked around the Via Condotti area which was supposed to be as posh for shopping as areas in Paris. People were walking around shopping and window shopping. I went into a a men’s clothing store to see how much clothes cost. They had a pair of 501 Levi’s for 110,000 Lire ($84) which still had a U.S. price sticker of $21.00! Other pants weren’t as expensive though (60,000+ Lire). I stopped at an English bookstore and bought some maps of Florence, Venice and Northern Italy. I then took the Metro to the Rome Train Termini to check out the train station. The station was bustling just like an airport terminal, and I was impressed with the way everything looked very modern and somewhat clean. I then took the Metro back to the Colosseum and arrived back at the hotel at around 7 PM.
No comments:
Post a Comment