Wednesday 20^th April 2011

So back to Rome.  I was there at the weekend. It was a city mini-break.

O Rome! Always a great favourite with Poor Little Rich Gays from 1979. Why? More colours than Florence, amazing melon shades, more shopping and luxe but also not pimped for tourists. Real city. Romantic, run-down, unexpected.  Suddenly, round a corner and you’d be in a country lane, right in the middle of the crashing town. The Campo dei Fiori was a food market: in those days, the Northern European had never seen anything like it and it wasn’t put on like Borough. All the produce appeared to have been transported from the market garden without interval – the quiet, soft gleam of real freshness, not the glare of those polished red apples arranged in rows by arriviste vendors ! Centuries of expertise in greengrocery and fishmongery were at work. The neighbourhood around was virtually in ruins.

But now! I could bewail. It’s been smarted up, the residents driven out; the restaurants have gained that air of menace offered by the fixed-price menus in English.  Piazza Navona, Piazza della Rotunda, Piazza del Populo unspeakable: trash sellers, debased pavement art, tourists in lumps of never less than forty wearing (can you call it wearing?) the classic boil-washed leisure rags of today. Why did I bother with my outfits? Rome, especially in Spring and Autumn, was smart. What’s happened to the Italians? In all Italy we used to wonder at their elegance and beauty. There was never a lapse of taste.

Why don’t they make visitors to important cities submit their outfit plans in advance? What better use of the Internet?

The last straw was a sign outside the Tré Scalini in Piazza Navona. Once it was a grand café, which we managed to penetrate years ago (cheaper if you stood at the bar) in order to have the famous tartufo, a bitter, frozen chocolate block on the verge of being an ice-cream. The sign said, in English, ORIGINAL TARTUFO.

How could they sink so low?

That’s why, you see, you need a private roof terrace from which to view. I mentioned it before. It’s easy to slip into the Hotel Raphael, behind Piazza Navona. You acquire the air of a resident and forge straight to the lift behind the reception desk which goes direct to the roof. And there it is. Your private view. The Roman, mad village-like hubbub of roofs and TV aerials, with St Peter’s rising in one direction, and some slab of countryside or seeming countryside in the other. See graph below.

Do you know? – I fairly sure there was always rubbish going on Piazza Navona, even in the 80s. Dubious luminous fun-items being sold in the evenings. The Campo dei Fiori is a loss: T-shirt sellers now. But there it is. We must have Rome back. If you look up or sometimes even across, it’s all still there. Returning from dinner on Saturday night I was nearly knocked down by the Palazzo Farnese (of which more soon) springing out from behind a wall. What a facade! Fierce, with great blank, modern spaces. Is it beautiful? On Sunday suddenly, in the street between Campo dei Fiori and Piazza Farnese, there was the spire  of Sant Ivo spiralling above the rooftops… But I didn’t graph. Fool.

On Saturday Sonny and I went on the motorino to Palazzo Colonna to see Bronzino (rare sight-seeing) and gain décor tips (see graphs below). He was in YSL smoky brown velvet bomber, I, Paul and Joe Prince of Wales check slacks (now without risotto stain) and the petrol-sheen Prada coat. Terrifying but thrilling to be whizzing along so precarious. We must have been a sight. Then on to the shops: at Prada I made them bring out all their summer slacks but bought none. Sonny was a bitch for a summer scarf: he found one by Lanvin for 90 euros. Also espadrilles at Bottega Veneta. He’s going on a gulet round Turkey in July with some of the other Australian PLRGs. 17,000 euros for 10 days.

That’s new – a summer scarf.  Like Blanche Dubois’s summer furs, although not inexpensive.

Vital this summer.

And yes! Nicholas Taudevin is right. Shorts are everywhere. We’ll have to give in.

So Rome was all right! All still there and rich in décor tips,leading in fashion.

Come back soon to hear about my specialist sight-seeing. I’ve kept quiet about that, I know.

The Unexpected Rural Aspect: View from the Roof of the Hotel Raphael, Rome

Palazzo Farnese: How to Describe that Facade?

Sonny's Bottega Veneta Espadrilles for his Cruise Later in the Summer

Their Bag

Shorts Being Tried on at Prada

Model at Genti Via Babuino, Rome. Note the Summer Scarf

Shorts at Gente: Prep School Style

Prada Shorts at Gente, Via Babuino, Rome

Palazzo Colonna: Why not Hang your Chandelier or Other Lighting in the Window?

Palazzo Colonna: Why Not Paint Your Mirrors?