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The Roman way : Rome — and the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, seen from Villa Miani’s balcony. -
The Roman way : This fringed lamp was specially installed at Villa Miani for the launch of the Lavazza calendar. -
The Roman way : This room was also decorated to suit the themes of the calendar. -
The Roman way : Italian model, Eva Riccobono, poses as a Venus-like figure surrounded by Dolce & Gabbana gowns for Annie Leibovitz’s “La Moda” photograph for the calendar.
WORDS: Johan van Zyl
If 48 hours is all the gods will allow you in Rome, head for the historic heart of the Eternal City. The chaotic cobbled streets filled with divine food, coffee and gelati will provide ample consolation.
On the Vatican side of the Tiber River stands a beautiful nun, a melting ice cream in one hand, a cellphone in the other. She looks a picture of bliss.
Outside the Zara boutique in the Via del Corso, below a poster of Kate Moss in impassive mid-stride down a city street, a gypsy woman sits begging. Her face is lit with a smile.
Three bent widows shuffle past the Trevi Fountain with their shopping bags. They bestow a benign glance on the hordes of tourists tossing coins in the water, and plod contentedly on.
In the Via Condotti a swarthy youth, jacketed and Italian-shod, dismounts from his Vespa, orders an espresso and knocks it back, standing.Women, slim, dark-haired, mysterious, watch him from the café tables. He flashes a sparkling white smile at each of them, leaps onto his metal steed and zooms away.
Excuse me, but what is going on with the people in this place? Alessandro Arsi, Business Development Manager at Lavazza’s headquarters in Turin, sits next to me on the way to the launch of this cult coffee company’s calendar.
He nods in agreement: “Well I’m also a happy guy … I just don’t look as happy as the real Romans do! We in the north are more focused on business and everything there happens faster – and more punctually.
Rome is a relaxed, cosmopolitan capital, almost like Cape Town in comparison with Johannesburg. But unfortunately, with Johannesburg’s traffic,” he adds.
The drivers of Rome are also officially the most dangerous in Europe, but then the city’s ancient patchwork of narrow cobbled streets and piazzas – plus an urban symphony of hooters, gestures and pealing church bells – is enough to test even the patience of a saint.
Enjoying life to the full
The Romans, says Alessandro, tend perhaps to the theatrical, but they enjoy life; they have style, patience and a sense of humour. They are proud of their traditions and culture, their food and wine and their fashion and design.
The bus finally stops at the Villa Miani on Monte Mario, one of the seven hills of the capital. The view is breathtaking, the city a never-ending monument below us. For the multitude of ancient ruins, churches and museums you would need an eternity, but even the most insupportable of fates – a meagre 48 hours – is a gift from the gods that you cannot refuse.
