The long walk home

By now it was about 10:30 PM and just over an hour since we left piazza Navona. We had walked non-stop and were only just arriving at via Aurelia antica.

I was sweating like crazy, my shirt was soaked and I was carrying my jacket. It was hot.

We headed down the narrow entrance to via Aurelia antica, with no discernible footpath on either side of the road, just a narrow strip about a foot wide on the left hand side separated from the road by a white line.

It made sense to use what little walking room there was so we crossed over to the left hand side and made our way down the hill along the road. It was dark and poorly lit. At this stage the two women I was with had removed their jackets and thank goodness they were wearing white tops. The cars whizzed along the road towards us, the occasional car flashing its headlights as they spotted us walking along this really dangerous road.

We kept going as far as we could along the left until we came to one of the famous Porta or arched entrance gateways along the road. These porta were the entrance ways into Rome in ancient times and clearly there was no concept of traffic versus pedestrians then. Thus there was no footpath. On the left we approached the porta (the exact one shown to the right here) and crept up close to the stone wall to see if there was room to squeeze through.

A car zoomed through, flashing its lights at us. We stepped back onto the grass and waited. One of the women poked her head out and made a dash for the other side of the road on the far side of the porta. She ran diagonally through the gate and made it safely through.

She gestured to us from the other side of the porta that it was safe and I stepped out cautiously. Approaching the gate from our left came a car at high speed. I ran and made it across and looked back to see the other woman hesitate. "Run" came the shout from the other side of the porta.

The car horn blew and she dashed to the right and across to where I stood.

It was dark, very dark and by now this was getting really dangerous. We walked on, this time on the right side of the road.

By now the Aurelian wall was high and dark along the left side of the road and to our right, next to where we were walking was a high ditch of brush and trees. There was little or no room to walk but we edged quickly along the road nonetheless.

Shortly after we ran out of space to walk on the right and had to cross to the left again. Now the Aurelian wall was made up of a series of arches, all of which had been bricked up. There were pillars sticking out of the wall at the sides of each arch and we dashed from arch to arch along the wall.

Cars streamed towards us, interspersed occasionally by scooters and motorcycles. In the distance I could hear a scooter and when I looked I could see it had no lights on. It zoomed towards the city and just as it approached out group the idiot driving it swerved towards the woman at the front of our group, forcing her to jump in behind one of the pillars for safety.

We edged out again and continued along the road.

This pattern of crossing from left to right and back again continued for the best part of 40 minutes.

Eventually the road came to a fork and we took the left fork, heading down an even darker section of the via Aurelia antica. This time the lights were even more sparse but thankfully there were fewer cars. Soon we passed under the motorway bridge carrying the new via Aurelia above us.

We knew we weren't too far from the Hotel now.

We continued along the road passing a field of pampas grass that was at least 15 feet high. Incredible. We came to a junction and spotted the lights of a petrol station and the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

We passed the Crowne Plaza Hotel and came to the intersection of the two via Aurelias, the old and new. We crossed the street and turned left. Our hotel was not far away now.

We travelled along on the footpath on the right hand side, until we realised that now all that remained was the motorway with no footpath.

We couldn't walk on the motorway. Could we?

Well it turned out we had no choice. We were so close to the Hotel now and the only way to get there was along the motorway so we went for it.

We edged along the wall of the motorway and luckily came to a motorway exit not more than 500 metres away. We climbed up the off-ramp and crossed the intersection at the top. We walked down the on-ramp on the other side along the edge of a large car park of an electronics superstore.

We edged past the fence until it was low enough to climb. I suggested that we get off the motorway and walk through the car park instead. The women were not keen on it, worrying about getting their clothes dirty of all things!

They relented and we all climbed in where the fence was just 3 feet high. Walking through the car park there was a huge sense of relief and eventual safety. We exited the car park, crossed some waste ground and came to the entrance to our Hotel. A short climb up the driveway and 2 hours after we left piazza Navona we were finally back in one piece.

What a night.

All the women were worried about was what to say if anyone asked how long it took. They settled on an agreed response of 45 minutes. Right.

I have to say I slept well that night, after a 20 minute shower that is.