Italy
Conversation in Five-Star* Rome hotelMe: Excuse me the phone in our room doesn't work.
Staff member on reception desk speaking in the manner that a patronising primary school teacher might speak to a slow-witted pupil: This is Italy. Many things don't work.
Being an optimistic I always like to focus on how many things in Italy do work, and Rome in particular, despite the many obstacles. Anyway Rome is always remarkable. That's why you come to this site - for controversial, original, hard-hitting stuff.
Particularly interesting if you have ever been to the Colosseum is this book, which I picked up in a Rome bookshop and takes you authoratively (if such a word is right in this context) through the myths and facts and how our (non-Romans) interpretion of it has changed over the centuries. The Victorians, apparently, were obsessed with seeing it by moonlight.
* This is slightly misleading, it was more of a four-star really and quite cheap by Rome standards, but it did have a groovy roof-top pool which I think in the Italian star system helps you get a fifth. If you ever wish to stay in Rome and are very rich or are on expenses that aren't limited, stay in the Hotel Eden, which is by far the best hotel on all counts I have ever stayed in. But it has no swimming pool.
posted by Matthew @ 5/17/2006 10:54:00 PM
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