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Report 1396: Roman Holiday

By Doug Phillips from Canada, Fall 2007

Page 12 of 16: Tuesday September 12 – The Canadian Embassy in Rome

Ristorante Ditirambo

Tuesday morning, BW & I caught the earliest ferry back to Naples, took a taxi to the Terminale and bought two Eurostar tickets that got us back to Rome shortly after noon. Steve & Brad decided to stay on the island and do some hiking. We returned to the apartment, retrieved the required documents, including our plane tickets to Paris and back home and headed over to the Canadian Embassy at Via Zara, 30. I can assure fellow Canadian Slow Travelers that our government is not throwing away our tax dollars to create a lavish presence in Rome. The embassy is in a modest building on a very small street, apparently sharing at least part of the building, as well as a security guard, with the Embassy of New Zealand. Its presence is inconspicuous to say the least. We had to ask directions twice, even after making it to Via Zara.

We were handed a large number of forms, parts of which were impossible for us to fill out. Fortunately, a consular officer came to our aid after about an hour. She zipped through many of the sections on the forms and even phoned one of our guarantors while we were there. Her role in this situation, she explained, was to help Canadians in distress. After about an hour and a half we had completed the forms, then had to proceed to a nearby photographer to get our passport photos, which we dropped off at the embassy. Our passports would be ready tomorrow afternoon.

In the evening we returned to the Campo dei Fiori area once more, to Ristorante Ditirambo on Piazza dell Cancelleria, directly across from Grappolo d’oro Zampano. We enjoyed our best meal in Rome. There are so many restaurants in the area and we ate relatively early – 8:00 – 8:30pm – that we never had to make reservations, although at some there were line-ups when we were leaving.

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