ROMAN SUMMER HOLIDAY

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 October 1934, Page 12

ROMAN SUMMER HOLIDAY

“SHADE PIRACY” COMEDY. Beatrice Baskerville, “Daily Telegraph” Rome correspondent, writes: ° In the dog days Rome is a wilderness. Cats take possession of her torrid squares, rows of shuttered shops bear the legend “Chiusura Estiva” (summer closing). Even provincial honeymooners go elsewhere, and the public parks are left to the blackbirds, the lizards and the grasshoppers. Like his ancestors, the Roman has gone to bathe. He is not far off. If impecunious arid a. good swimmer, he -strolls betimes to the river, which has a peculiar . fascination for him. Tawny, swift, treacherous, full of holes and whirlpools, Father Tiber takes his yearly toll ot devotees. But he is cooler than the sefi, and so the floats are huddled close together between the city’s bridges. There .is Ostia; it means safety, to say’ nothing bt bright young athletes, large mammas with enormous families,. diplomatists who rashly took their leave earlier in the year, arid meinijci'S.of. the permanent staffs al the Govcrnriieht offices. In ten niirilites your car is clear of the city, headirig for tlie Mediterranean. Ostia, Vvliich spi-ang up as in the I night , near Tiber’s mouth, caters for I all. It is an odd mixture of Margate [ami Cowes, forty minutes from towii I by electric train, twenty by the autostrada, a bread, smooth road reserved for iribtbr traffic. It lies a, couple of miles beyond the dead Ostian Port of A.ncieiit Boirie, beloved of archaeologists. •

The tideless beach is dark with the iron in its saiid, and teems with humanity. Ostia caters for one and all, from who can afford exclusive hilts, at the southern, end to children in .camps at the other extreme. Between them are .restaurants, oyster bars-j--a pier., and a mile of bathing huts, tents, and umbrellas let out by the day, week, or month. It irilght be a thousand miles from the Vatican; whence come sonorous condemnations of scanty bathing apvainisfied hails, hrixed sunbathing, and suchlike heathen custoins. The Victorian bathing dress recently designed witliiri the shadow bf 'St... Peter’s Square has not yet been seen at Ostia. Bronzed, statuesque figures there arc; and fat ones, too. All go bathing In -Sun, sand, and sea. This section cf the beach is a happy, noisy place, where Mrs Giqndy is.flouted with impunity and stout fathers teach their children how to swim.

On this stretch of the coast the sun is extremely powerful; but sun-bath-ihg sceihs even hiore popular than swimming and. sun-fidihg. From morri till late afternoon the Romans think akout getting as black as can be.- Then they, .take to their midday ineal, brought from home and enlarged with ices arid pastry hawked on the spot. Anti, of course, they flavour it with Wino fibm the Sabine Hills. ■ The,nex't, thing is tlie .siesta-— -unless they hap fieri to be tile victims of sliadc-pir.ates. Then the neighbourhood will ring with the sounds of battle.A .shade-pirate is a man, siren or plain woman who surrept’ticusiy and with in any followers sits when you are looking the ether way on the spot of the precious shade thrown by your hut. . it. is the only place tor miles armind where you can sleep jii comioiL Shade-pi.acy is a recognised gtime. Everybody may fall to its allrement, no niattci- what , they think and say when they themselves happen to be us victims. The temporary owner Ci the shadogiving hut, or tent, makes r. .Hiss, and brders off the intruders. But they . refuse to 'budge. “Tbo shade, like the sun, is the gilt Beaten and free to all,” they declare.

. ‘‘lt eciries frbin the hut which I paid fbi,” shouts tlie injured party, and this staits .the wordy war.

All . legitimate shade-owners back the victim; all pirates support ■ their crin. kind. The. inevitable lawyer, wearing ..little more than a sun hat, ctriies aibhg and argues against iirid in favour: cf, each side in turn. The equally inevitable attendants, grasping brooms, in bronzed hands, listen open-mouthed, and remain severely neiitiah '.. ■ . Ai o..net the tips of pirates equal to the .tips.of thejr,vicitms? A policeinaii -hopes, somebody will strike the fii.st blow, .but refrains from giving his opinion. Aigumcnts rain hot and lurieiffi; friendships arc made and I-.c-kcn; the- pirates rise in their excitement.; bitt tjie victims are too Lysy talkirig to snatch their rightful shade, and the game proceeds until some bright lad discovers that it is time tor an after-dinner swim.

BATHS OF THE CAESARS

Everybody rushes into the sea; the fight ends lor licit of spectators. But it will start again to-morrow. Feeling runs high;’ tor the ownership of shade is. a fine problem. One distinguished ioreigh journalist has been known to metint guard over his shade all the afternoon. He prefers the sun, but it. is a. question of principle. He does not believe his shade belongs to all; he has paid for it. Things are not so lively at the South end of the beach. There is a legend in the tent-arid-hut territory that diplomatic protocols are taken there with the bathing kit, and followed. to the bitter end; that a Minis-tcr-plenipctentiary-extraordinary, for instance, could not rescue a mere secretary from sharks until lie had consulted the protocol on this point. This may be sheer gossip. Tents and protocols do not go together, and there are ho sharks at Ostia, anyway.

Out at Acqqe Albule things are less cut and dried. Ah ex-monarch has been known to dive off the same beaid as his barber. These sulphur baths are oh the Tivoli road, and have been popular with Romans since the Caestirs went there.

They consist of open pools, hot baths tor invalids, sun-bathing terraces, restaurants, outdoor amenities, and a special pool for dogs. There arc no pirate?, because there is shade for plenty. The opalescent water flews straight through the pools from tufa rocks a short distance away. Its temperature is 73 degrees Fahrenheit all the year round.

The atmosphere is restful. The greatest excitement on record is when a .dbg invaded, one of the pools reserved for humans. Brit, the water is so charged with sulphur that it is unwise to linger after sunset. AU the sam.e,.Acque Albule is one of the best spas within a hundred miles of Rome. Those who care to go further afield find good bathing at Fregene, Anzio, and other places north and south of Rome. But Ostia, the Tiber, and

Acque Albule are the handiest. Given a certain amount of leisure, you cun keep cool in August; and no true Roman ever lacked leisure.

The real victims of a Roman summer are chickens and sucking-pigs. In the dog days every housewife worthy of the name provides polio, arrosto (roast chicken) for the beach. During the August Bank Holiday (the 15th) Rome is said to have bought tons of poultry.

For centuries the vendor of suck-, ing-pig has invaded the city. He rents a corner in a wine shop or eating house,-brings his pigs, roasted, covered with crisp cracknel, stuffed with pot herbs, and carves them into thin slices from morn till midnight. Eaten with bread and watered with wine, sucking-pig is delicious. When the dog days are done he disappears. Nobody has ever been able to tell me whence-he comes, whither he goes, or how he earns a living for the rest of the year.

He is one of Rome’s mysteries, like her underground rivers and the origin of political jokes.