How Italy Changed My Life

I've Never Really Been To Rome Before

    We arrived in Rome yesterday on our Around the World trip.   It's a bit strange to me that with all of our travels, we've never really been to Rome.  I set out there a long time ago and never made it, and my life changed (for the good) forever. 

    So I will tell you the story with some of our pictures of Rome tossed in for good measure  ...

Okay so we're going back in time a little bit here -----

    A True Story:  I have always liked to travel.  It kind of runs in my family and is part of my DNA, and I have passed along the gene to my own children.  I also married into a soul mate who also loves to travel. 

    A long time ago, I was a young man with an adventurous spirit who set out to see the world.  I was nineteen.  I went to Europe with a great friend Paul Whitlock, and we visited a bunch of places on (and off) the beaten path.  We were backpacking in the days of hippies and counter culture and the Vietnam war and revolution.  

We grew up in the 60's, and this was 1972.  

    At one point on our trip, we were making our way from (somewhere in) France to Rome.  The strategic thing to do at that time, was to take an overnight train and sleep on the train, thereby avoiding hotel or hostel fees, and you wake up and voila! there you are in Rome or whatever your destination.  

    So that was the plan.  However, upon entering Italy on the train, we were awakened by an Italian border train guard.  It was real early in the morning.  I was kind of groggy and not completely awake.  

    The border agent / train conductor asked me for my ticket and passport.  I reached into my pocket where I kept my wallet ... and no wallet.  I patted myself down like someone looking for something in his pocket, but no wallet.  The guard demanded to see my ticket.  

    When I looked down to see my pocket, it had obviously been cut open, like with scissors, and my wallet was gone!  Not good.  I showed the train border guard my pocket and said, hey! look, somebody stole my wallet and my ticket (among other things).

    He was unsympathetic.  If you don't have a ticket, you have to get off the train.  "but I had a ticket!  can't you see that someone stole it?  gimme a break, I've been robbed!"   

    Apparently someone with a degree of skill had come into our train car while we were dead asleep, and cut my pocket and stolen my documents.  At least I still had my passport ... which brings up another story for another day altogether.

    So at the next stop, I get thrown off the train.  It was in Genoa Italy.  Genoa is a long way from Rome.  Paul still had his stuff (I was the lucky one) and he got off the train with me.  

    We talked it over and decided he should go on to Madrid Spain, and we would meet up later, at a pre-arranged time and place.  This was 1972 and there was no internet or cell phone or email.  Just blind luck, as it turned out. 

    So here I was stuck in Genoa Italy, on my own, no money and barely nineteen years old.  I slept in a burned out car, got pretty grimy, and tried to hitchhike, but only got about five miles before I gave up.  

Intermission - some pictures from today

    This picture is from the Pantheon, an amazing and relatively unknown landmark in Rome.

This picture shows the Circus Maximus, the original stadium in Rome, now in ruins. 

Sunset over the Tiber River, which runs through the heart of Rome.

Rome is incredibly spectacular.  Everywhere. 

The Colosseum - after 2000 years.

Amazing scenes that never seem to end.

Rainbow over Rome at Sunset

Okay, so back to the story ...

   Long story short, I was able to get some money, and bought a used car from a ancient Spaniard seaman in Genoa, whose name was Juan Allegria (Allegria means happy in Spanish, I'm not making this up). I assumed he had the right papers. 

    I drove to Madrid Spain, and again, by completely blind luck, was able to find Paul, basically walking down the street in Madrid.  No way!  By this time he was also broke and said he had talked to a guy on on the train who said they were hiring on the Oil Rigs up in Scotland. 

    Sounds good to me!  Let's go.

    So we drove to Scotland (it's a long way from Madrid) and made our way to the town of Aberdeen, where we got jobs pretty quick on the oil rigs out in the North Sea.  

    So I met a young girl there and we kind of hit it off.  She was a lovely college student at the University in Aberdeen, and her name was Fiona Kennedy, and she eventually became my wife. 

    Okay, so for those of you who have been patient enough to read this story, Fiona and I are in Rome, catching up on lost time.  My life changed since I first set foot in Italy.  Now we have finally made it to Rome ...

    

    More soon on our current trip. 

    P.S. Turns out the car I bought was stolen from somewhere in Germany.  How was I gonna know that?  At least I didn't get busted for auto theft ...

    P.S. Believe it or not, I actually got my wallet back with everything (except the money) about a year later.  There was a theft ring on the train involving the conductor.  Life can throw you a few curves ...