All the roads lead to Rome.... has a new meaning today

Everyone's heard the saying “All the roads lead to Rome”. While normally that is considered to mean that...well... all road lead to Rome, at least in the time when all roads were actually build by the Romans. Then all roads literally lead to Rome. Today this saying has maybe a bit different meaning..

My definition is a bit different. Yes I admit that my road as well has lead to Rome, well total of 3 times. This time a bit longer time, for some 5 months. After one month in Rome I have noticed the biggest problem in Rome. No it is not the mafi... you know what I mean... but it's the roads. All those roads that lead to Rome.

There is some 8 million people leaving in Rome. Seems that all those 8 million have a car... well maybe not all of them, since it is not legal for children to drive (some do anyways I know). The roads in Rome are ancient, some from literally from first century C.E. Unlike in Toronto where roads are literally straight... and tens of kilometers directly to one way... none of the roads in Rome are straight. Maybe that is the reason why the traffic in Rome is so bad, so slow.

Last Saturday it took us 1 hour to driver some 35 km, to the other side of Rome. Sure there was a Juventus and Lazio (Rome) finals football-match. Sure we did not know that when we head on our way. We did see that the traffic on the motorway was standing still, so we took to the small-roads... with the others who thought the same way. On the way back home late in the evening it only took some 30 minutes for the same trip.

If you want to get from A to B in Rome, you might have to take two or three buses, a metro and maybe a train. Journeying for just some 25-35 km inside Rome can take as long as 2 hours. So make sure that you live next to or near your work/school. You don't want to spend 3-4 hours a day in public transportation. While you are on your way, have a book with you, to use your time more wisely. Anyways you'll be exhausted when you come home after all that Journeying, so you don't have energy to do much reading at home for sure.

Metrolines are good in Rome, but unfortunately there are only 2 lines, the A and the B lines. It is not like in most big cities where metro-lines cover most of the city. In Rome that is not happening. One metro goes from West to East and one from South-West to North-East. Also metros stop working at 9pm except on Saturdays. So they do not help much when you are traveling home in the evening time. No wonder people here have their own cars... just to be able to get home in the evenings.

Also another very Roman thing is to strike. Bus strikes are very common. You don't want to get stuck on the other side of the city on a day where there is a strike, so take a habit of checking out from www.atac.roma.it pages in case there is a strike for the buses. On a strike-day the busses normally run in the morning and again from 4 to 8pm. During the day or late evening you are on your own.. literally. No buses so you better make sure you are home in time! I once almost didn't make it home. Would have been nice to walk 10km in the evening. Most likely I would have gotten lost on the way... That road would not have lead to Rome...

The traffic is something that controls the life of people in Rome. It is as usual topic here as the weather is in England... You might have a plan what to do for the day and then the traffic changes your plans totally. You never know how your day turns out to be, it all depends on the traffic... all those roads leading to Rome...

Trying to send post packages in Italy...

Some of the things I have taken for granted and never really thought of how well things work in my home country. One of those things is the postal services. Earlier in Finland most post offices closed at 5pm with a few exceptions of post offices that were open until 7pm. But then came a big new change and some of the small post offices were closed and their functions were given to regular grocery-stores and small shops.

The hole Finland seemed to be in chaos. People almost revolted for this new procedure. Sure at first there were some missing posts - yours truly filled a document telling the authorities that I was moving - that document never got to the authorities and still today I have the wrong moving-day in their files. But now I have come to accustom to the fact that I can take care my post matters until 9pm in the evening in the near-by store - Collect my post-packages, send post and so forth.

Also Finns seem to be postcard people, postcards are sold EVERYWHERE. Literally everywhere, kiosks, food stores, department stores, post office, bookstores and so forth, every place sells a good quantity of different types of postcards. Never really thought of it before I came to Rome.

2 weeks ago I was desperately trying to find some postcards here in Rome. Postcards that would not read "Buon Compleanno" (Happy birthday). Hmmm.. didn't do that well in finding another type of postcards. I went shopping in a big  shopping mall, with several stores, but could not find a regular postcard. Carrefour shop had only those Compleanno -postcards. The bookstore had NO POSTcards at all, strange I thought. So the hole shopping mall had only Happy Birthday cards. Ok, I'll try from downtown tomorrow I though.

Next day I finally found a bookstore downtown and found a few postcards without text. Great, one thing done, another to go...

Finding a postcard is one thing, but completely another issue is sending postpackages in Italy. I did that twice last week. Let me tell you about it...

First you need to find a post office that is actually open after 2pm - I mean who makes it in the post before 2pm anyway. After I found one some 400 meters away from my home I decided to walk to the post office. But my roommate said that there is no road to walk to the huge shopping mall area practically next-door. The only way to access the shopping mall is by car. Even with bus there is only one bus from downtown Rome... WHAT????????????????????? No way to enter a shopping mall that is just 400 meters away. That is crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But being a Finn, I don't give up that easily. So way I went - WALKING - to the nearby shopping mall, since that is were the post office is. Sure I got a few strange looks from the cars passing by, while I WAS WALKING IN THE DITCH... Sure the few cars that saw me passing a busy motorway did not quite get it why I was there ON THEIR ROAD. But I made it in the end and found the post office.

So in I went to the postoffice and waited for my turn to come... and by the way there is ALWAYS A LOT OF PEOPLE WAITING at the post office in Italy. My turn came and I explained in English that I need a big envelope and I need to send something to a friend. Way he went to fetch someone that can speak English. In the end I finally got the package on it's way....

Then another day I needed to send a package to Holland and again I went to the post office (different one this time... with no crossing motorways) to send the package abroad. Guess how many papers I had to fill in... 3 documents.. all with the same details, sender and receiver. 3 times or actually 4 times since I had to add the same details on the envelope I purchased from the post-office. All this time while I'm writing these same details the postman was waiting, waiting and waiting. And the queue behind me was waiting, waiting and waiting. I thought to myself that if they would have one paper to fill then this hole process would be faster and both the post-officer and the people would not have to wait for so long.

This ordeal of trying to find a postcard made me decide one thing... next time I see nice postcards - I WILL BUY THEM IMMEDIATELY! Just to make sure I don't have to search for them again...

Washing hair in the dark....

Funny thing happened yesterday evening. I was home alone around 8pm (I share the flat with 3 friends since appartments are big in Italy and way too expensive for one to rent by themselves). I went to wash my hair in the bathtub, when all of a sudden the lights went off. There I was in the total darkness... home alone... and only cold water came from the shower (since no electricity to warm the water)... hmm... I thought, I'm sure it will come back soon. So after a quick rinse of my hair (in the dark and cold...) I got off the bath.

I went to explore where the fuse-box might be (after just 2 weeks in my new home I am not quite sure where everything is yet... at least when it is dark and I have to go around in darkness) and found it in the hall near the entrance. The lights were on outside our door so I knew it is only in our flat that has no electricity. But all fuses were fine to my knowledge (or at least what I could see in the dark...). So I thought maybe there is another one of these boxes in the other part of the flat (flat is quite big and has two kitchens etc). But since it was dark I would never find it I thought. I had some battery left in my computer so I thought I'll watch something from the internet to keep me occupied while waiting for the others to come home.

So I waited for some 2 hours and finally I thought I'll go and ask help from my new friend upstairs.. at least he would speak English. So I went upstairs and rang the doorbell and an old man - I've never seen before - opened the door.. uuupps.. wrong door. I managed to tell my business in Italian and he came back with me.. in his pajamas... But he could not find the problem either. So I rang to one of my roommates and she was just coming home soon. After she arrived she could not find the problem either. We tried to call the owners of the house but it was 11pm by then and they were not answering. We send them an sms to explain what is happening and decided to go to sleep since there was nothing else we could really do - in the dark... luckily I had bought myself a hot-water-bottle earlier and luckily there were gas-stowe in the kitchen, that I could get the bottle full of hot-water. Since no electricity meant - no heating! So I went to sleep early, 11 pm, with the help of Melatonin to make me sleep at this early hour... and with the company of the hot-water-bottle to keep me warm.

In the morning still no electricity so no work either then... so I got myself some warm clothing and blankets and hot tea and did some reading on my sofa while waiting for the electricians. They finally came around 11am with the house-owner. Seems the fuse in the fuse-box had burned from the back-end, there was a big hole in one of the fuses. The electricians said that it was an old model and were wondering who ever put it there in the first place. Well that might explain the common problems with the electricity my roommates have experienced in this flat.

One of my roommates said today that I am being tried by "Life in Rome".  Seems that Live in Rome is full of waiting and stress and problems, but you must take them with humor and content, otherwise you'll go crazy with waiting and things not going according to your plans. I'll take these incidents are new experiences that I can take humor from. Positivie attitude is the key of things not getting to you, but for the things bringing a smile to your face! Welcome to the Middle Ages - to Rome!