[Leica] ROMAN HOLIDAY

[TTAbrahams <TTAbrahams@aol.com>]

ROMAN HOLIDAY
Well, we are back from the latest trip and the first trip to Rome for many
years. Rest assured that it will not take long before we go back. It was that
good. In 10 days in Rome there wasn’t one grumpy, snarly person. Nobody
overcharged or even tried to overcharge. The Romans were unswervingly helpful,
funny and treated us well. 
 The highlight of the trip was meeting fellow LUGgers Ernesto and Guido. These
are two of the nicest Leica-nuts you can imagine. We spent “24 Hours in Rome”
together and ate well, drank well (when in doubt, let Guido pick the wine, he
knows his stuff!) and shot up a storm. There was enough Leicas on us to be the
envy of even the most dedicated LUGger. Nocti’s, S-Luxes, S-crons and bodies
to spare. In short, it was a great time and if Guido knows wines, Ernesto
knows cheese and they both know how to have a good time! We decided that the
discussions that started in Rome will continue in Cologne at Photokina and we
have all booked in to the same hotel for the occasion. Leica will never know
what hit them when we show up at the booth!
 Rome is a visual feast. You can leave the lens on hyperfocal and just keep
shooting and there will be something on every frame that intrigues you.
Fellini was probably a better editor than director (how do you direct a crowd
wired on caffeine anyway), he just let the camera roll and cut out the few
feet that were boring!
 Some moments of hilarity come to mind: Arriving at St Peters square at the
Vatican one day, we were surprised at the huge crowd outside. It turns out
that on Wednesdays the Pope will bless the people who come there. We were
stuck in the back (you need tickets for front row seats) and standing on a
chair we could see the Pope being shuttled around in crowd, standing in back
of a white Landrover, holding on to the rollbar for dear life, in the meantime
the Vatican Brass strikes up “When the saints go marching in” loud and
slightly out of tune.
 At every stopsign, red light and pedestrian crossing the Romans re-enact the
chariot races from Ben-Hur. It does not matter what they drive, four guys in a
Fiat 500 (about 30 cu. inches of engine and the size of a bathtub) will try to
outdrag hot bikes, Ferraris and nuns on scooters. They probably are aware that
they will loose but they will try and try again.
 Crowds of Japanese girls looking at large Italian men, dressed up as Roman
Gladiators, shields, togas, sword etc., wondering how they could bring one of
these home as a souvenir!
 The classic pose of Caesar with his hand outstretched is not at all an
Imperial pose, he only pre-emted the current Roman pose of standing ,hand
outstretched and trying to figure out why the @#$%&*** cell phone doesn’t
work!
 Coming from the caffeine crazed west coast, you suddenly realize that we are
only neophytes in caffeine consumption. The Italians truly know how to start
the day. A couple of double espressos and a chocolate croissant for breakfast,
standing up at the counter, all gulped down in 4-5 minutes, followed by a
cigarette, then they jump in the car or on the scooter and with total abandon
drive headlong into the Roman chaos that they call traffic. Whenever they have
a chance, the locals have another coffee (and we are talking about COFFEE
here, this is the equivalent of the old Nitroglycerin/ether/methanol mixture
that old time racers used to fill up their cars with, compared with our
unleaded, low octane stuff).
 Food, OK you cannot go wrong anywhere. There are expensive restaurants, there
are medium priced restaurants and there are cheap restaurants, it doesn’t
matter the food is good everywhere. The best indication is to watch where the
locals go and just tag a long. How about Gorgonzola and Spinach pizza (2 of
them) and 1/2 liter of house red for lunch (about US$12), then you take a
siesta ( you need it!) and then you have a couple of shots of caffeine to get
started again.
 Beware though, Italians eat late, at 9 o’clock they start considering dinner,
at 9.30 read the menu and at 10 you order. West coasters like us have by now
eaten the tablecloth (not bad with red wine, mind you) and most of the
decorations on the table!
 Weather was quite good, sunny, a bit cool, 1day of drizzle and 1 day of cold
wind. The summerseason gets blindingly hot and combined with millions of badly
tuned 2 stroke oil/gas mixture engines running amok, the air gets rather
pungent.
 Of course we went to the usual tourist places, the Sistine Chapel (nice
ceiling, dim room, 2 sec at 2,8 with the 35/1,4 in my lap pointing upward !),
the Pantheon, a bit of a challenge light wise as the only illumination is from
the opening in the ceiling of the dome and the dome is 3ft larger in diameter
than the one on St. Peters Basilica. 21/2,8 Asph carefully propped on the
bench in front of me did that. It wasn’t that I dont have tripods, but I know
that when in Rome do like the Romans, walk and walk, on the average you are on
your feet 6-8 hours a day and the weight of the camera bag becomes a major
consideration.
 I brought my M6HM along (its maiden “journey”) and it performed flawlessly.
Works very well with the 50/90 (left the 75 home, Leica take note, a
lightweight 75 would be really nice!) and as a street shooter camera also very
well with the 35, bright finder, nice snap to the focus and with the 35, just
aim and shoot and damn the edges. The 21/2,8 Asph keeps amazing me, it is a
landmark lens in my estimation. Spectacular negs, the absolute tiniest
softening of the extreme corners wide open (this is using a 30x loupe and even
then it is difficult to see) and no distortion (remember that the Romans and
the Greeks like large stone pillars and there are lots of them around to check
if the are reproduced straight.
 In short (actually rather long) if you can, go to Rome, eat, drink, shoot and
get wired on caffeine.
 We thank Julius Caesar who planned it and Nero who did the Urban renewal
projects and all the generations of Italians after that who have put their
marks on the Eternal City. We thank Ernesto and Guido for being great company
and for the tour of the catacombs (why do you think they brought the
Noctiluxes!) 
Arrivederci Roma and we shall be back, not to conquer, but for coffee, wine
and food and more shots.
Tom & Tuulikki Abrahamsson