ONE WEEK IN ROME - PART 1

FROM THE FICTIONAL DIARY OF A TRAVELER FROM BRITAIN

Well, let's start from the beginning: why did I decide to spend few days in Rome and to stay at San Lorenzo Guest House?

To make short a long story it's because, on May 2016, my bank account suddenly increased by about 50000 pounds and also because of the history of my family.

How did it occur? I am a strong fanatic, supporter of Leicester City Football Club, I am actually a citizen of Leicester, and, at the end of the 2015-2016 season, the Foxes, that's the nickname of the club, won the Premier League championship. That has been a great surprise, many believes the greatest one in the history of of team sports. 

I am not a fanatic of betting but every year, when the season starts, I bet few pounds on the victory of the Foxes. At that time the victory of Leicester FC was given 5000 to 1. That's the reason why my few pounds becan approximately 50000. Well, I invested most of them in my business but enough money remained to enjoy life.

Likely, most of the credit of the victory has to be given to the trainer, Mister Claudio Ranieri, a native of Rome, from the Testaccio neighborhood, as I discoverd later, the heart of the supporter of AS Roma. But in reality that was not yet enough to decide to make a trip to Rome and to stay in San Lorenzo

Obviously in Leicester we celabrated a lot the victory, with a lot of beer indeed. And I like beer very much. A lor of people from other countries came to Leicester to participate to the celebration, drinking a lot of beer along with us. Indeed it was a wild party going on few days.

Among those arrived to Leicester there was a guy from Rome and we became quickly friends; it's very easy to become friend after few pints of beer.

Roman castrum

So I learned from him something more about Mr. Ranieri, I learned that the name of my city has a Roman legacy, from castrum, the military camp of the roman legions that were here many centuries ago. Actually, if you come to Leicester you can still see the reamins of the roman walls, but till that moment  I was not too much interested in archeology and history. I  also learned that my family name, Proeti, looked very roman. Actually in Rome it would be Proietti. But to understand that I had to ask to my grandfather, who is almost 100 years old but still active and with a clear mind. And I learned a lot more and curiosity started to rise.

You have to know that my grandfather, despite living since more that 70 years in England, has still a strong american accent, being originally from USA. His grandfather, so my grand-grand-grandfather, was actually from Rome and, in the mid XIX century, he emigrated to USA. More correctly he had some problems with the papal Justice, at that time Rome was under the sovereignity of the Pope, so he decided to look for fortune in a place where his problems were not know. When he arrived to USA, his family name was too difficult for the employee of the Immigration and it was changed to Proeti. One way or another he managed his new life, created a family that grew, he had sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters. Among the grandsons there was my grandfather. 

Boeing B-17

When my grandfater was in his twenties, World War II came. He served in the US Air Force and, on July 19, 1943, he was on one of the aircrafts that bombed the city of his ancestor, hitting mostly the San Lorenzo neighborough where almost 3000 people were killed. That fact was traumatic for him and for that readon he never spoke too much about that.

Few months later he was moved to a squadron based in UK and there he met a british girl serving in the auxiliary troops. And he got in love with the girl that, at the end of the war became his wife, my grandmother, and decided to remain in UK. My grandmother is still alive, too, and still with with my grandfather. Probably it is because they never stopped to discuss, even hardly, about everything, starting from the toothpaste to finish with the right temperature to be kept inside their home. My grandfather is always saying that my grandmother wants a too high temperature and that he is not suffering from the cold, but I suspect that he is a little bit tight with money. That's not exactly the same story I had with my former wife. After being married for three years she told me to decide between her and the Foxes. I believe you already know what i have selected. 

So now you know the reasons why I decided to travel to Rome, first of all a tribute to Mr. Ranieri, and the desire to know something more about the city of my ancestor that is also the city from where people that civilized Britain came. And you know also the reason why I selected to stay in San Lorenzo, well, not the most important one to be fair. During the planning of my trip I discovered that it is the university district and therefore there are a lot of bars serving beer at a budget price. Did I already tell you that I like beer, and wine too?
Well, in the net part of the story, I will tel you why I decided to stay at San Lorenzo Guest House.

The Fan