Back Alley Rome Adventure

Before I get to writing about Geneva I thought I would add a moment in Rome that Jen forgot but which stained my memory.

After our first day in Rome after seeing the Colosseum and Forum and all the other lovely old stuff we headed toward a "Secret View" that we found in the guide book (secrets book), which had some pretty vague instructions and sounded quite exciting.

It was kind of like a treasure hunt. At one point our instructions took us up a reasonable steep alley that wound up a hill. About half way up there is a gate with some steps and a pretty garden on the other side. We stopped to have water and rest, and found that the place was the home of some cats. As I was getting some photos of Jen patting cats, I noticed a curious sight out of the corner of my eye, which at first glance I thought was a dodgy back alley sex act. I quickly hid back round the corner where Jen was with the cats, and told her I thought something dodgy was happening round the corner where we wanted to walk next.

I peeked around the corner again and found the reality of what was happening more disturbing than my imagination. First the two participants were old, about 60 maybe. Second the act that looked lurid at first glance was the lady cleaning the old man, with napkins, who had just had a shockingly liquid and judging by the effects projectile bowel movement. I stared a little too long and i think the lady looked up and saw me. I ducked back. Then Jen and I spent more time with the cats in the hopes that the next time we looked the alley would be empty. It was, and we saw and smelt the results on our way past, my memory forever stained. I hope my recounting hasn't affected you as much as the telling has affected me.

Anyway out of the alley, and back on the sunny streets of Rome we found ourselves atop a hill next to a pretty garden that had couples lounging in it and a bride and groom getting photos taken. The garden had a fantastic view over the river to St Peters and a lot of Rome. We stood here awhile doing what couples do here (but not old couples). And then followed our directions further up the street.

We were looking for a Church, which to the left of it was a Priory, where if you looked through the keyhole you got a nice view. We weren't sure what we would see but the guide book rated it high and the directions seemed vague enough that most tourists wouldn't attempt it.

We found the church, which looked like it had some very nice art works that you could do a tour of, but the day was late so we soldiered on. Next to it we found the priory and a large piazza out front which had a APC (armoured personnel carrier) and a cluster of very serious looked soldiers with large semi automatic machine guns. They stared at us as we looked around the piazza for a keyhole. Which we found because another excited couple was there looking through and taking photos.

We peered through the keyhole. The view through was quite nice, the journey made it better I think. On the other side of the door is a corridor made of trees, beyond this there is an open balcony. The trees frame a view of St Peters of the Vatican city. Sorry if I ruined any secrets there.

I still don't know why the army was there. Oh just while I'm thinking about the army, at the ponte mammalo train station which is in the suburbs where our hostel was, there are often guys selling belts and handbags and such. As we arrived by bus one day and army truck went by, as the sellers saw it they all panicked and started grabbing there stuff, but the army truck just drove straight past and the sellers after looking around fearfully for awhile set there items back out. I guess they didn't have sales permits.

Next I have to write about our Geneva adventure but I'll save that for the next post.