Arrivederci Roma

We were in Rome at the weekend for the Italy v England rugby game. The previous weekend had seen Rome carpeted in snow for the first time for about 25 years, so we were not surprised when the skies went dark on the Friday night, and about three inches of the stuff deposited itself on us.

We were in the rooftop bar of the hotel at the time, so the sights were very spectacular. Our need to eat got the better of us though, and as there were no taxi hires available we cancelled our first choice venue and walked, or more likely slide, down the hill to a nearby pizzeria.

We had a tolerable meal, however the highlight was watching the Roman equivalent of a grit waggon in operation. Coming slowly up the hill was a builders truck of the type you would expect your jobbing roofer to have. Open at the back it housed several bags of grit and two men with garden trowels. These two individuals then sprayed the salt onto the road before a bulldozer followed along behind and picked it all up again!! Priceless.

The game this year was played at the stadium built for the 1960 Olympic Games, and a very fine stadium it is too. There was no under soil heating though so the game went ahead on a partially snow covered surface, and suffered a bit for that, but a win is a win and England move on to face Wales in a potential grand slam decider.

The stadium was my sixth Olympic stadium, although I have no particular wish to tick the rest off.

So all in all Rome was extremely cold and extremely expensive. Most meals worked out at about £50 per head and our top bar bill was £157.00 for 12 drinks. The Euro zone needs to get itself under control before I think about going there again.

Still at least we got a match in, pity the poor Irish supporters in Paris who had to travel from the centre to Stade France only to be told the game was off, so having to travel back into town only to find somebody had nicked their seats, they have to do it all over again on 4th March, c'est la vie.

Interestingly the reason it was built without under soil heating is because it was build on a rubbish tip and there are, therefore, pockets of potentially explosive methane still underneath which the heating pipes could ignite.