Grazie Roma

In 1984, I was in Rome during the European Cup final between Liverpool and Roma. The Roma fans sang “Grazie Roma” constantly during the lead-up to the game, which Liverpool won on penalty kicks. In the days before the game, I saw Liverpool and Roma fans toasting each other in bars and singing songs to one another. The day after the game, people were cursing at me as they went past. Thinking quickly, I would shout “Americano” and point at myself. They would mumble an apology. Normally I’m proud to be an American, but then I was simply relieved to be an American.

(By the way, I think they like the song “Grazie Roma” because the lyrics are easy to remember when they are drunk. It goes, “Grazie Roma. Grazie Roma, Grazie Roma, Grazie Roma” – over and over again. It could be worse – could be Hail to the Redskins.)

By the way, I watched the game down at Circus Maximos, where a bank had set up a huge TV screen (stadium size) for 5,000 or so people to watch. After the game ended, we all marched silently up to the Colosseo in the dark – whoa, that was a goosebump feeling.

Back to the present day. . .we did laundry at a nearby laundromat, got gelatto, and generally slowed down the Iron Tourist pace. After a bit, Carol was taking a nap, the kids were chilling, and I was bored. So I went into the girls room and asked who wanted to take a walk. Only Maddy was willing (which I expected). We then walked for 90 minutes, over to a park, down shopping streets, into a church, and through some narrow alleys before coming out by the Forum. At one point I noted that “if you find a narrow street – take it. We don’t have streets like this in America.” Later, Maddy opted for the narrow street over the main road. I have began the training of the next generation of Iron Tourist.

We wandered around the Forum, past the Colosseum, and found a different way back to the hotel. It was a nice, easy paced stroll throughout much of ancient, and current, Rome. In the park, people were playing basketball, sitting on benches talking, walking (but not curbing) their dogs (watch where you step).

Then, since it’s all uphill back to the hotel, we stopped for a Fanta and Peroni (Maddy had the soda, I had the beer in case you were wondering and I hope you trust me enough not to wonder) at the patisserie/gelatto/bar/sandwich place on the corner and grabbed a table. After a while Maddy was ready to go, but I wasn’t – so she went into the hotel, up and got Carol down. The waiter brought another beer, some cappuccino for Carol, and some olives. It was a pleasant way to wind down the first fully sunny day we had in Rome.