“7 High” Chapter 9-4 Two Coins in the Fountain

“7 High”

Recollections of a Combat Defense Squadron “Ramp Rat”

Chapter 9.4

“Two Coins in the Fountain”

Trevi Fountain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevi_fountain

A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome.^[10] This was the theme of 1954's Three Coins in the Fountain and the Academy Award-winning song by that name which introduced the picture.

We found a campground not too far out of town. Located on one of seven hills that surround Rome, I couldn’t tell you which one now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_hills_of_Rome

This place was another large campground, but we found a quiet little spot on the edge with even a little view. While not the cleanest place, it looked like we could spend a couple of days there unless bad neighbors moved in. Like most of these places, they had a set fee for each person, the car, and the tent. This is where we were cheated, because most tents were eight times as big as ours.

In 2012 this would cost:

Adult €11.50 each

Car €5.40

Tent €5.50

That is €33.90 per night before beverages.

http://www.camping.it/lazio/romacamping/

This campground had all the amenities, laundry and showers, swimming pool, money exchange, restaurant and bar. The bar had a nice terrace, filled with friendly tourists, and the occasional butt pinching Italian. The Tiger picked up a couple bruises, but you gotta admit, she did look like a home girl, and would tell anyone who would listen about her Italian heritage. She became violently indignant when pinched, though, and they never tried twice.

Our book, “Europe on $5 a Day”, recommended taking a bus tour, rather than try to navigate, drive and park in the city. Roman drivers were famous.

At the campground office they had a selection of different tours. For different attractions, different languages, nightclub tours, anything you could want to see in Rome, they had a tour for it. We signed up for the daylight, all purpose English language tour of the most famous spots.

We hadn’t been on the bus for two minutes before we realized a disadvantage of bus touring that wasn’t mentioned in the book.

It was the cackling hen with microphone syndrome, and it immediately overpowered our air-conditioned auto bus. This woman kept the public address system cooking at all times.

It was such a relief to get off the bus and became more and more difficult to get back on board.

Tour bussing reminded me of grade school field trips, on a grander scale. Fleets of busses were parked haphazardly at each of the attractions, and tourists milling around everywhere, you had to know your bus. They dropped us off and told us when to report back. There was always the option of following your guide around for an explanation of what you were looking at, we didn’t go there. That skinny little thing could really talk.

Our guide could really rock the PA, here she is disrespecting the cops.

When traffic police indicated we couldn’t bring the bus down this street, our guide told the driver to go ahead, and got on the PA to give the cops a piece of her mind. The driver eventually, after a squabble, had to do a lot of backing up and turning around in narrow spaces.

I don’t remember the traveling orders for the day, but one of the most memorable was the Fountain of Trevi. It was a nice sunny day, and we tossed our coins, so now we gotta go back.

Notice anyone that doesn’t look like a tourist?

You can see “The Fonz” working the tourist crowd. There were a number of scams, and I’m sure there still are. You never wanted to let these folks hand you anything. We had been warned about that. More obnoxious to me was the way these young Italian guys behaved around the Tiger, making kissy, sucking sounds and comments you know were salacious in any language. The Tiger was cautious as a cat, watching her back.

Every corner in Rome seemed to have a statue or fountain. I remember something about the Four Winds, or maybe it was the Four Rivers. Even now I forget what I remember. Maybe it was the winds or the rivers. It looks more like a party to me.

And the aftermath.

The Pantheon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon,_Rome

Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_Vittorio_Emanuele_II

Piazza del Popolo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piazza_del_Popolo

Vatican City

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City

Saint Peter’s Basicila

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Peter Basilica

We walked through St. Peter’s Square and the Basilica.

We saw the Swiss Guards. I thought their boots could use a little work. We waited at the Pope’s window, but he didn’t show up.

We followed a different group for the tour inside. The Tiger had to improvise a head covering and I had to hide the camera.

Michelangelo and other dudes used to work here back in the day. It is a lot bigger than it looks in these photos. Inside the floors were magnificent. Light shown through stained glass windows, lighting the incredible art. Follow the links if you want to be enlightened. It was an amazing tour.

Next, we are off to the Forum.

The Roman Forum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Forum

No self respecting tourist in Rome would miss the Coliseum. Now THIS is a round-a-bout!

The Colosseum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coliseum

More interesting was what was going on across the street. Filming was underway for the movie “The 10^th Victim”. The set for the “Temple of Venus” is in the left forground. “The 10^th Victim” starred Marcello Mastroanni, and Ursula Andress. Your remember Ursula? She was the first “Bond” girl, Honey Ryder, in “Dr. No”.

We spent the better part of the afternoon waiting around, but didn’t get the opportunity to see Ms. Andress. She had done a Playboy layout this year, so I knew what to look for. She was a little old for me, but I was willing to grow up.

Obviously NOT A1C Marston photography here either!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_Andress

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_10th_Victim

http://www.amazon.com/The-10th-Victim-Marcello-Mastroianni

I purchased the film from amazon. The plot revolves around the big game, which was the way to end all wars. The plot logic for World War II, for instance, was that Hitler would have signed up for the big game and been eliminated, thus, no WWII. Bazinga!

Our last evening in Rome, there was a big fiesta with music and dancing at the bar in the campground. I dimly remember boogying on a covered patio with colored lanterns and an excellent local concoction to drink. Tiger loved the dancing. I loved that punch. There was no shortage of friendly folks. It is pretty hazy, but I may have even taken up butt pinching, after all, it is a local custom.

20 August 1965, next morning, not very early, I was suffering badly, we started for Venice. The Tiger was bright and chipper and convinced me that she should drive. It seemed like a good idea at first.

To drive across Italy meant crossing the mountains, and the road turned out to be the Italian equivalent of the road to Madrid, with plenty of narrow roads, switch backs and big trucks. Tiger scared the hell out of me. She took tail gating to a whole new level. If you couldn’t read the serial number on the rear axle, you weren’t close enough.

It wasn’t worth it. Finally, I made her pull off, but you know it started an argument that lasted the rest of the day. It was an awful drive, but we made it to Aviano AB.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviano_Air_Base

We purchased a few supplies at the commissary, and used the APO to mail our exposed rolls of Kodachrome to 925 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, California, USA. We checked for a good campground nearby and picked up a copy of the Stars and Stripes, to find out what was happening back in the world. Items in the news included:

The Watts Riots in Los Angeles.

The Beatles perform the first stadium concert in the history of rock, playing before 55,600 persons at Shea Stadium in New York City.

In Vietnam, Operation Starlite: 5,500 United States Marines destroy a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula in Quang Ngai Province, in the first major American ground battle of the war. The Marines were tipped-off by a Viet Cong deserter who said that there was an attack planned against the U.S. base at Chu Lai.

The next morning we left our tent set up and made a short drive to the pier where we could leave the car and take the Vaporetto to Venice. 118 islands separated by canals and linked by bridges.

The Vaporetto, “little steamer”, is the water bus; here in the Puget Sound it might be called a foot ferry, so to speak. ***I’m going to check on what fancy name they have for walk-on service in Seattle these days. I suspect it is mostly called “canceled”.

Vaporetto, San Giorgio Maggiore Island

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporetto

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Giorgio_Maggiore

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canal

Piazza San Marco. Doge’s Palace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piazza_San_Marco

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doge_of_Venice

Gondola moorage and the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_della_Salute

There is a lot of walking to be done. You can see the bridges in the distance that are part of the same strand. The alternative transportation is gondola or water taxi.

There were lots of beautiful water taxis’. These, ultra cool, retro inboard speedboats competed with hand operated gondolas in the traffic. They sounded as good as they looked. This appealed to my youthful boat handling background and I longed to try my hand at boating in Venice.

Not even looking at the guy they cut off. The gold name says “Oscar”. What a craft. Even if they didn’t let you drive, just imagine a few days playing deck hand would be a hoot and a half. And, I call dibs on the lookout in the upper right, with antenna farm.

In the back streets we found a glass blowing factory. Wanted to buy something but it was all expensive and I didn’t think we could get it home unbroken. We looked at these blue fish for a long time, and finally walked away.

I remember having pictures of the glass blowers at work, but they haven’t turned up yet.

A wide open shot, and then traffic.

I would still love to have a small craft in here. They did have traffic problems though, caused by double parking and the mix of slow and faster vessels. Wouldn’t a jet drive be great in this setting? Just because you can back them down so well. How do they deal with the personal water craft issues these days? It would have been a gas to race around those canals like we used to do back home on Soldier Crick. http://www.youtube.com/

Now St Marks…

Saint Mark’s Basilica

Look out, Tiger!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mark_Basilica

Vendors selling seagull snacks.

Lots of pigeons, lots of seagulls, you know what that means. Bring a hat.

Busy, busy place.

We had lunch at one of the restaurants in the piazza. Rude service, overpriced, tourist food. Just like the book said. It was worth it just to have a place to sit down.

Leaving Venice, we drove north. In a smallish town, we drove past the first A&W we had seen in long long time. Turning around, we pulled in and discovered that it was a real drive-in, with speakers(minor language problem) and car hops.

Even better, on the menu they had real beer as well as root. Talk about conflicted. Finally, we ordered one of each, and bacon burgers with fries. We found a place to camp nearby.

Next morning, high in the Alps, we left Italy, never yet to return. At the frontier into Austria, there was a long line of cars waiting to cross the border. One of the border patrolmen walking down the line of cars stopped when he saw our antenna pennant. He asked if we were Americans, then for a passport. I started to hand him Linda’s passport, but as soon as he saw it he said OK, that we should pull out of line and drive to the border, holding up the passport where it could be seen.

***Here is where I left off. Remind me to finish this chapter, and the next.