Italy in Winter

 Day One. Why the hell are we here in the dead of winter and during a political firestorm while the Pope is dangerously ill? I’ve never seen Rome. Aside from flying into and out of Fumicino airport and spending a single night during a heatwave in a hundreds year old house without AC, I’ve not seen Rome. While Caesar Caramanico was teaching, we always opted to travel during the summer and Rome in summer is huge crowds and unbearably hot. I despise crowds and CC hates  the heat, so we always would say “next time” and end up next time on the beach somewhere on the east coast of Italy or visiting a hidden gem in a town high in the mountains without tourists. 

So, when I heard it was a Jubilee Year for the Catholic Chirch and Caesar’s first year not teaching, I planned our trip to coincide with Carnevale and Ash Wednesday. After sharing my ideas and plan with CC, who has already been to Rome, and doesn’t share my fervor about the plenary indulgence (more about that later) we will receive, he wanted to add a couple days in  Bologna, a city he never visited, and a chance to attend a soccer game. So, here we are in Italy in Winter. 

When we rent our car, we are told to pick up a  bag of tire chains from the attendant as it is a law in Italy, to have chains in your car in anticipation of snow through April 1st. As we leave the rental garage, CC driving and me in the passsenger seat, the final attendant asks for Caesar’s license ( the same one that he rented the car with fifteen minutes earlier) and  a lively conversation ensues between the attendant and Caesar about his license but I can’t fully follow the conversation (in Italian) except that apparently Caesar’s license is expired and he cannot rent a car. Caesar then inforns me that they are plotting ways around this prooblem including me driving the car.  I’m horrified in English and Italian and after consider punching Caesar for not renewing his license, it occurs to me that there is no way that his license renewal would be floating around our home office without my knowledge or incessant nagging him to attend to it.  At this point, i ask to see the license, which clearly does not expire until 11/2/2025. The man is reading the date Italian style, so it looks to him like it expired on 2/11/25. I had to produce my own license to convince him of this truth, thankful that my  expiration date  is a 22 and obviously not a month. 

 The first thing we notice when we get outside is that it really is more like spring, especially around Rome where the grass is already greening and the cherry blossoms are blooming, than winter. As we drive north toward Bologna ( note-still only have seen Rome airport so far) it does get cooler and wetter and feels more like winter but  compared to our Philly winter this year, totally comfortable.

 We stop in Siena for pranzo and a difficult but much needed passagiata and promise that we’ll be back to this lovely town. We arrive in Bologna at nearly 8PM after being awake, except for cat naps, for 36 hours. We get twisted, miss turns, drive into the restricted area, can’t find the AirBnB, climb four stories of stairs ( description said elevator I swear, Caesar) with bulky luggage and I realize the truth to the meme I saw recently “traveling might be expensive but you can’t put a price tag on arguing with your spouse in a different city”.