09.11.06
Stories from Rome, Part 1
We took a family vacation to Rome last week. We had guests from out of town, so we decided to take one last trip before school starts this week. I was excited to see how the kids would react to such an enormous city.
The first night, as we were on the Metro (subway) on the way back to the hotel, the train was absolutely packed. I was worried about the kids, who are too low to even notice on a crowded subway. Above the murmur of the crowd, I heard a voice say, “This is what happens then you make public transportation so cheap. If they would raise the prices a bit, you’d get the riff raff off the train.”
There are about 100 objections I have to this woman’s comment. But I’ll leave those to the imagination. I was pleased to notice that her English was distinctly not-American. I was glad that, for once, it wasn’t an American making dumb comments. That may sound harsh, but especially when in Rome you see how rude Americans can sometimes be in someone else’s country.
However, speaking of riff raff, tune into the next post…