Intermission

Michelle’s travel journal

Rome, Italy

 

When at home, we indulge ourselves with a steam-unit in our shower enclosure and a combination whirlpool/Japanese soaking-tub in our bath.  I am thankful for these comforts of home, but don’t plan my vacations around the destination’s plumbing, and so I have used the widely varied amenities around the world. 

When I think of Rome now, my first memory is not of the Colisseum or the Vatican.  I think of baths.

You shouldn’t be surprised. The ancient Romans constructed numerous aqueducts to supply water to cities. These aqueducts were among the greatest engineering feats of the ancient world, and set a standard not equalled for over a thousand years after the fall of Rome. They served potable water and supplied the numerous baths and fountains in the city, as well as finally being emptied into the sewers, where they performed their last function in removing waste matter.

Yes, Roman plumbing is of historical interest, but the shower at our hotel in Rome was a particularly interesting example of the modern era

 

I woke early and soaked in the tub and then vacated the bathroom to my sluggish partner in travel.  Tom shook himself from the dead that morning and took my place.  He is a shower kind of guy. 

 

Whether it was his somnolent state, or a flaw in the faucet, I can’t say. 

 

All I know for sure was there was a cry for help.

 

I rushed in just in time to witness the birth of a new Roman fountain, one erupting straight out from the wall–right where the On/Off knob used to be. Volturnus, a Roman god of water seemed to have been reborn in my bathroom.   Volturnus, or Tom as my lesser deity likes to be called, was doing battle with the torrent pushing it back with the closest tool at hand.  Unfortunately, the tool was my hair blowdryer.  Fortunately, it was not plugged in or old Volt would have been zapped into the nether world.

 

My Italian is vestigal.  Having guessed that there wouldn’t be a stock phrase in my book for this situation and needing to use props to explain the urgency of the situation, I snatched the faucet from Tom’s outstretched hand and ran down to reception to get help.

 

By the time the plumber had turned off the water main, there was a half-cooked Tom and a lot of water sloshing around the bedroom. 

 

So much fun, and we hadn’t even left our hotel room.

 

Tom’s travel journal

 

Speaking of hot water, did you know that in Rotoruta, New Zealand the water hazards on the golf course are hot from the thermal activity below?  Sure I saw the steam on the golf course.  But shouldn’t there have been some warning in the men’s room about standing up before flushing?