December 18, 2023
North Pole to Roma, Italia
Buongiorno, maybe. There is no way to know what hour it is really is, as there is no way to tell what time zone you are in. That doesn’t matter anyway, the goal is Roma by 11 am. Sleep came with some difficulty during the flight. These business class pods aren’t very comfortable. There were undoubtedly more comfortable than the seats in economy or economy plus. It appeared maybe the pods had magic fingers; however it turns out it was a really bumpy flight. Still we both managed to get some sleep in.
For the younger set, magic fingers was the idea of a New Jersey entrepreneur named John Houghtaling who created the device in 1958. Houghtaling convinced motel operators that Magic Fingers was a health aid and comfort to the weary traveling, and by the 1970s it was estimated more than 250,000 units had been installed in motels from coast to coast. In the late 1980s the father-son team of Russ and Rusty Gill, from Spokane, Washington, ran an 80-motel network with 2,000 of the machines, which vibrated a mattress for 15 minutes when a motel guest stuck a quarter into a coin box. Russ Gill got into the business in 1983. He drove thousands of miles covering a route from Montana to Idaho to Central Washington. In his best years he said he did all right financially, pocketing about $30,000 a year. He always used the same formula with motel operators: He’d take 80 percent; they got the remainder.
But by the 1990s, the smaller motels that had Magic Fingers units were being replaced by corporate-owned operations. Many of the national chains, like Motel 6, discarded the units because they saw them as carrying a seedy truck stop taint. Motel 6 was worried about having a seedy truck stop image? In addition to the negative image some people may have had about Magic Fingers, there was also the problem of thieves stealing the coin boxes. This lead to motel owners to consider them more a nuisance than an amenity.
The Gills’ still have one motel – the Flamingo, in Coeur d’Alene – that’s still using and promoting the mattress-vibrating gadgets. Russ Gill, 68, has been keeping a stockpile of their last 100 working units up until now. His son, Rusty Gill, 46, who lives in Newport, had sold some of those on eBay. The two men have seen the rise and fall of Magic Fingers, a piece of Americana that makes people think of crewcuts and good vibrations.
Gill said he’d have pulled the units out the Flamingo’s 13 rooms, but Al Williams and his wife Shelley, the owners of the Flamgino, told Gill to leave them there. Al said “they’ll stay there as long as he’s around.” Al and Shelley, see the Magic Fingers units as part of the motel’s retro appeal. “It’s a big point of interest for us,” Al Williams said. “It’s something our guests come in and ask for.”
Yes, skeptics, I have stayed in a Motel 6 and I have seen and used the Magic Fingers device. But that is another story as they say. Back to the plane.
Breakfast took place about an hour before landing. We both choose the fresh fruit and yogurt option. Again, just airline food. The coffee was surprisingly drinkable. We arrived at Leonardo da Vinci International, which is actually in Fiumicino, about an hour west of Roma along the Tyrrhenian Sea. The approach to the airport allows you a great view of the beaches along the seacoast, at least from the right-hand side of the aircraft.
One interesting thing on this aircraft was the electronic window shades. These are not shades that are operated electronically. That is go up and down at a push of a button, but actually privacy glass or smart glass that darkens at the press of a button. The neat part of this is that the flight attendant can close all of them and keep them closed. No one a-hole opening his at sunrise and waking everyone up. There is so little fun left in traveling.
Now we have lots of bags, so we opted to have the hotel arrange a car for us. A taxi will cost between €60 and €100, depending on where you are going to in Roma. In our case the cost was €60; yes because of the bags he got €70. But with the cost of the train being €14 each, the difference of €42 was worth it. Yes, it is 850 meters from the train station to the hotel, most of it downhill.
The best and most economical way to get into Roma is the Leonardo Express. The train goes between the airport and Roma Termini, the central Roma train station. Fourteen Euros one way and twenty-eight round trip. There also various ticket deals if you don’t have any tourism plans. Taker a train to Roma Termini and then a taxi or Uber to your hotel.
Our driver met up just outside the door exiting the airport. He took the larger two bags from us and then drove us directly (?) to the hotel. It is an awesome drive into Roma. You drive past so much history. The Papal Basilica of Sant Paul outside the Walls, the circus Maximus, the Roman Forum, the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, and several others.
Hotel Britannia, where we have stayed a couple times in the past, is centrally located and on a quiet street. It is an elegant building built by Price Filippo Orsini in 1865 at the same time Roma became the capital of the Italy. It sits between two of Roma’s seven hills, the Quirinal and Viminal, and near the ancient Baths of Diocletian and the Quirinal.
The Quirinal hill is located in the north-eastern part of the city. The “White House” of Italy is the Quirinal Palace which is the official residence of the Italian head of state. The Quirinal Place is approximately 1,200,000 square feet. It makes the White House with its 55,000 square feet seem small. According to legend it was the site of a small Sabine village. King Titus Tatius would have lived here after the peace between the Romans and Sabines. Your do remember the abduction and kidnapping of the Sabine women in the mid-8th century before the common era by brother Romulus?
The Viminal Hill is the smallest of the hills of Roma. It is a finger-shaped cusp pointing toward the center of Roma. It is the home to Teatro dell-Opera and the Termini Station.
One of the cutest things about the Britannia is its little, tiny elevator. They even have a sign next to the elevator that says the “lift has been added thank’s to special permissions given by Authorities and its size is the maximum allowed.” The elevator fits two people. The luggage makes another trip. The porter actually put the luggage in the elevator and then walked up to the first floor to unload it. No, it isn’t because we have too much luggage, although that is true, it is that there wasn’t room for him and the luggage in the elevator.
We are in room 103 which faces the street on the first floor. Small and cozy. Smaller than the cabin on the ship will be, but not so small to be uncomfortable.
We got ourselves organized in the room and immediately took a two-hour nap. At three we went out for a walk to find the Spanish Steps are guys roasting chestnuts. We walked south towards the Palazzo Del Quirinale, a former royal and papal residence that is now the presidential place and museum. The views from atop this hill are great.
We walked down the hill to the Trevi fountain and its half-a-million tourists. Then up to Piazza Barberini. A quick left and we were at the spanish steps. The Spanish Steps climb a steep slope beteen the Piazza di Spagna atthe base and the Piazza Trinità dei Monti. At the top of the step is the Trinità dei Monti church. The stairway consists of 135 steps built by the French diplomat Etienne Gueffier between 1723 and 1725. It linked the church at the top, under the patronage of the Bourbon kings of France, and the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See in Palazzo Monaldeschi at the bottom of the steps. You may want to recall that sourthern Italy was ruled by Bourbon kings.
We stopped at Babingtons at the foot of the Spanish Steps. In 1893 two young English ladies of good family came to Roma. They were Isabel Cargill, daughter of Captain Cargill, founder of the city of Dunedin in New Zealand and Anna Maria Babington, descendant of that Antony Babington hanged in 1586 for conspiring against Elizabeth I. The two young women decided to invest their savings (100 pounds) by opening a tearoom and reading room in the capital for the Anglo-Saxon community.
The company at the time involved considerable risks, above all because in Italy it was not common to drink tea, sold at the time only in pharmacies. The Babingtons tearoom was an immediate success both because Italy was the destination of the Grand Tour for the English and because it was part of a Rome that celebrated the Jubilee and the silver wedding of the royals Umberto and Margherita and into which garments flowed of state and exponents of the aristocracy and the beautiful international world.
Initially Babingtons was opened in Via Due Macelli and a year after its opening it was moved to Piazza di Spagna, in the so-called "English ghetto", inside the prestigious eighteenth century building adjacent to the Spanish Steps and near what is now the Keats and Shelley Memorial House.
Those that were the palace stables, this one too, like the Scalinata by Francesco De Sanctis, were renovated and decorated according to the tastes of the time and soon, as The Roman Herald published, Babingtons Tea Room became the meeting point where "the ladies and gentlemen, tired after the visit or occupied for personal reasons in the city center could, in a welcoming and pleasant environment, refresh themselves with a consoling cup of tea ... "
The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 marked a setback to the success of the tearoom which however remained open with great sacrifice of all those who worked there. While Europe was experiencing a moment of great euphoria at the end of the war, Babingtons' decline continued and things got worse with the Wall Street crisis and the death in Switzerland, in 1929, of Anna Maria.
It was also thought to close the tea room, but Isabel's sister, Annie, took the situation in hand and, investing all her capital, decided to make radical changes to the room. Thus the furnishings, curtains and cushions were renewed and, under the guidance of Dorothy, the tea room was filled again.
Despite the anti-English policy of Mussolini, throughout the fascist period and even during the second world war, Babingtons remained always open, with its very clear English sign and the solid bronze characters on a very Roman travertine plaque. Paradoxically, Babingtons happened to meet with hierarchs and politicians in the first room while the third room, around the corner, a few tables away, housed the anti-fascist intelligence agency (which entered and left the kitchen).
Once the war ended and the times changed, the needs of the public also changed. Cakes and pastries were no longer enough, and the menu was enriched with new dishes that still today are the curiosity of Babingtons like the Canary and the Poppy Rice. However, tea always remained the most requested beverage and as such had to receive special care. And so, in a huge London warehouse, Dorothy's third son, Valerio, had the Special Blend, the first Babingtons blend, tailor-made for the water of the Barcaccia of Piazza di Spagna, created. And it was always Valerio who, having to think of a logo for the tearoom, designed the famous kitten. For years, in fact, Babingtons' maids had adopted Mascherino, a cat that lived in Piazza di Spagna at night and during the day was dozing on the comfortable cushions in the tearoom. And in recent years two other big news, this time under the guidance of Chiara and Rory, respectively children of Valerio and Diana: the opening of the Babingtons Tea Shop before and later the inauguration of the entrance on the Spanish Steps.
The whole point of this, is that we need something small to eat and a warm place to relax after the walk. The tea was excellent and the scones fresh. €42, including everything isn’t bad. Remember there is no tipping. €42 is what the menu said and €42 is what they got.
Cousin James would point out that the “cream” wasn’t British clotted or Dovenshire clotted cream. He was correct, this was nothing more than whipped cream. Still the scones were warm, the strawberry jam sweet. The reminds me we need to visit the Old Mill Tea Room on the Dawlish Lawn. Jim and I stayed at the Lammas Park House in Dawlish. It was totally delightful. Worth a trip.
After wards we walked around Piazza di Spagna enjoying the sites. Lots of Christmas lights and very festive. The ever-present man roasting and selling chestnuts was there and for €3 we got a bag of ten. We then walked back towards the hotel, stopping along the way to see if we could find Il Giardino on Via Zucchelli one of favorite restaurants in Rome. It is Monday so it is closed, but I did find it. It has been there since 1909 so it will probably be there tomorrow.
We are tired and it is getting late. Obviously we are still working on California time somewhat. Here we are sitting in the bar at the hotel. We managed to get 10,000 steps in today. It was a lot for Mary. We rested a few times along the way. There are hills to climb. She did well. €
Buonanotte Enrico
Here were are in the bar at the Britannia.
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