I was just browsing through my pictures of Rome when I recalled an incident at Via Merulana. I wanted to blog about it but somehow forgot.

On my 2nd day in Rome, I went to a middle eastern restaurant called Shawarma Station alone for dinner. Linda was just too tired to go out for dinner. After having my dinner, I walked out from the restaurant and that was when I saw a car pulling over by the roadside. As a row of parked cars separated us, a man from the passenger’s side screamed out to me. From his hand gesture, I knew that he wanted me to come near him. I shook my head in refusal and walked on. My heart was beating fast. I smell trouble. He wasn’t all satisfied and screamed ‘polizia’ to me with the hope that I would be so naively stupid and think that he’s a policeman and go to him. But I am not an easy target to fall prey into such situation. My thoughts ran wild and I could not help but created an imaginary scene in my head where he would just grab and tuck me in the rear seat, seal my mouth with duct tape, tie my hands and drove me off to a place where they would rape, kill and ditch me at a nearby river (thanks to CSI tv show, I am able to imagine the worst).  The imagination along with faces of my son, husband and mum kept rolling like a repeated non-stop montage in my head.

Having the thoughts of what might happen, I ran faster and seek refuge in a nearby cafe. I waited for awhile before peeking from behind the wall of the cafe. I saw him leaving with the driver of the car. If he had came for me, I would SCREAM for help. I’m very sure such big scream will not fall on deaf ears.

I was all blue in the face, and to make it brown again, I bought a latte from the cafe. I ran fast to the B&B where I stayed and quickly locked the main entrance and went to my room.

Lucky me, this was the only bad incident happen during my trip to Italy. Other trips to Venice and Firenze was smooth and safe. I am taking this chance to advice you to take safety precaution when walking alone in an unfamiliar land. Have a friend walk with you, no matter what. But if you have to walk alone, be extra careful and you should always bear in mind that danger is lurking around the corner.

Picture taken from inside the B&B

Top view of the B&B, screen-printed from GoogleMap.

Sunday – 21st March 2010

{Note: I apologise for not being able to blog as often as the Boscolo Hotel (B4 Hotel) is having an internet connection problem. I got connection from an unsecured line today and many thanks to the owner of the unsecured line!~ Emila, 27th March 2010, Bologna, Italy}

Went to the Porta Portese Sunday Market as early as 7am. Linda and I wanted to have more time to look around the market as we have to check out from B&B Maggiore at 10am. As per instruction by Arnold, the assistant keeper of the B&B, we walked to the Termini Centrale to take bus number H to the market. I looked for the Bangladeshi boy who spoke Malay the other day to buy tickets but his shop was still not opened so we just bought tickets from a machine nearby.

The bus to Porta Portese

We board bus H and found empty seats beside a big fat lady. A really big fat lady. After awhile, Linda looked at me and I looked at her. I spoke to Linda in Malay, “Linda, you ada bau sesuatu tak?” Linda replied, “Ada la, makin lama makin kua.t” So we decided to find seats in the front part of the bus. After having my seat (my seat was facing her), I could not help but looking at the lady. She has blonde hair, shabby clothes, shoes that she only wore half of them and a very big bag. Anyway, she has two whole seats to her. Pardon me I know it is rude to stare but my eyes controlled my head. She noticed that I looked at her, panicking, I quickly turned away. Later she took out an eyelasher curler and slowly curled her right eye’s lashes. Later she put the curler back inside her bag. After looking left and right, she took it out again and curled her left eye’s lashes and put it back inside her bag. Her face looked very confident after the curling session as if she was saying out loud, “hey, look at me, I am pretty now.” But, still; the smell won’t go away. Most of other passengers around her, moved to the front part of the bus as the longer you smell it, the harder you are keeping yourself from puking.

Anyway, when the bus moved, I totally forgot about her as the view outside the window was more interesting. The bus took us to Transtevere where the market is located. Arnold told us to board off the bus after we see the river. The river we saw and off we board from the bus.

Linda walking towards a newspaper stands to ask for direction

There was no sight of the market and we just walked until we saw a man and we asked. He told us to walk straight and could notice the market from far. And that was in sign language and a bit of Italian but we comprehended. It was a 15 minutes walk!!! But that was ok, we got to see pretty things…

We finally reached the market after the 15 minutes walk and Linda and me got to buy a jacket for each of us for only 3 Euro!

Porta Portese market

Bread dough decorations

Chinese trader selling scarfs

It was 9.30am and it was time to fetch our bags from the B&B and checkout. As there was a marathon in Rome, most of the major roads have been closed down so we took the train back to Termini Centrale. We bought our train tickets to Bologna. The Eurostar ticket made me poorer Euro65!

Trastevere Train Station and two girls from the marathon who passed by B&B Maggiore

After checking out B&B Maggiore, we headed back to the terminal to board our train to Bologna. The ride took us more than two hours.

Me posing in front of Eurostar (thanks to Linda for taking my picture!)

The Bologna signboards (left) and the Boscolo Hotel (right)

Hello!! Buongiorno!

Yay! Am blogging live from Italy! My publisher, Linda Tan and me arrived safely in Rome at 8.20am in the morning despite the scheduled 5.30am arrival. The flight from KUL to ROM was delayed for more than two hours and we had to switch aircraft as the one we were boarding was having a problem.

As we arrived, we were fetched by a driver sent by the owner of B&B Maggiore (the place we’re staying) and the journey took about an hour despite a 45 minutes drive. The driver couldn’t find the place!

from the airport to Rome

The building where B&B Maggiore is situated

Upon settling down at B&B Maggiore, we had a quick rest and later went walking to Coliseo de  Roma or better known as Colosseum (in Latin). We didn’t really went into the theatre because the queue was so long!! The walk to Coliseo was about 15 minutes and we enjoyed the view very much.

Here is me, a self potrait using tripod and remote, inside my room at B&B Maggiore: