As you know, Cowboy Bob and I traveled to Rome to see what we could see. I had been to Rome before, sometime after the Colosseum was built, but before Pope Frances took over, but Cowboy Bob had not, and we had a lot to see. We stayed in a nice hotel, a three-minute walk to the Spanish Steps, where we saw a lot of things unfamiliar to both of us, and felt like fish out of water, but that’s what makes a great adventure.
My loveliest of lovely travel professionals, Miss Cindy, placed us in a wonderful hotel, the Hotel Manfredi, which used to be a theater, and we oohed and aahed as we discovered all its amenities. It was just what we wanted for a trip to Italy, a quaint Italian hotel that oozed character at every step. Brocade walls, a raised panel ceiling with gold Frieze trim (Cowboy Bob gave me that information, obviously he knows more than calving). Anyway, what a great hotel, but then, I went into the bathroom, which doubled as a closet. I took a quick look at le toilette, which, of course, I know how to use. It also had le bidet, not in my immediate vocabulary, and the water didn’t seem to be connected, so I let that slide.
And then the shower. Oh, dear. It was a glass four-foot round cylinder with a seat that moved up and down, which I thought might be an ejection seat. I didn’t see the On/Off knobs, but it had a control panel on the wall with 14 different small pictures closely resembling ancient hieroglyphics. All I needed was Off/On and perhaps a temperature control, but not one of the 14 pictures seemed to fulfill that need. I found my flashlight and spent some time trying to decipher the little figures, but couldn’t make heads nor tails from them, as most of them were just squiggles and were light gray on a white background. I understood two of the symbols, the music and light symbols, but nothing else and even though I poked them multiple times, nothing happened. Finally, I found a set of Off/On buttons, hidden behind the ejection seat, and they worked, so all was well. I still don’t understand the hieroglyphics, but at least I got my shower.
The elevator was another part of this great adventure. Our room was on floor two, which really was the third floor, because the ground floor was designated as floor zero. The elevator was a cage elevator, which held two or three people, depending on which sign you read. If two people plus a suitcase entered, red lights flashed and it began to groan, but Cowboy Bob assured me that all was well, even though it had a few minor discrepancies like a frayed belt and a misaligned cinderblock weight system. It had a dual door system, not unlike prison doors: open one, close one in the right sequence.
All great adventures should have kinks in them, and this one had a few, but nothing that would deter the Cowboy or me from launching another trip to somewhere. We have a couple more planned…and hope you will tag along with us.
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