{"id":3328,"date":"2017-04-09T06:20:20","date_gmt":"2017-04-09T06:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=3328"},"modified":"2017-04-19T00:09:25","modified_gmt":"2017-04-19T00:09:25","slug":"tuesday-april-4-bitch-slap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=3328","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday, April 4, Bitch Slap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Italy bitch-slapped me today. I never saw it coming. If you want to skip the rant that follows, skip down to pulled up my socks and walked on.<\/strong>
\nNow, I was not shocked that Vodaphone was playing with a loaded dice \u2013 like, you owe 15 euros but payments can only be made increments of 10 euros and 20euros <\/em>aaaand down the rabbit hole I went. It was some solace that one of the hotel’s dear obliging desk clerks has also been screwed over by Vodaphone and despises them too. Lost time, lost patience, lost trust. Whatever. You have an internet provider, at some point you get bitten in the ass. I\u2019ve had more expensive lunches. It\u2019s the principle.<\/em>
\nNow, the men at the TIM store in Trastevere, who said only one plan was available for 49 euros, gave me a receipt but no contract,<\/em> and the chip is used up a week later? That was outright thievery. Thus my move to Vodaphone store, flanked by two Italian friends who walked me through the purchase of this chip, which was great and it worked out well, until it didn’t. Sadly, it set me up for this last round bit of chicanery. But I don\u2019t blame Italy for this, this is a pain felt worldwide.<\/em>
\nNo, what is breaking my heart a little are the two tobacconist stores, your source in Italy for public transportation ticket, stamps, Vodaphone payments (ha), mints and cigarettes. Directed there to purchase stamps, and when asked for postcard stamps, using English, GoogleTranslate and holding up a postcard to illustrate clearly what I required, sold me stamps that turn out to be invalid in the Italian postal system.<\/em>
\nThey are not only overpriced, not a shocker, they belong to a different, private system.<\/em>
\nIt would just be money I wish I hadn\u2019t spent if I hadn\u2019t, in good faith, put postcards into three different public post office boxes, the kind on the wall on the street with two slots, one for Italy, one for everywhere else.<\/em>
\nI would never have known if I hadn\u2019t spotted an open Post Office door today and gone in to mail a postcard and buy more stamps. The post office clerk tossed my card back to me and said, \u201cno good.\u201d Another customer who spoke excellent English interpreted for me and that\u2019s how I found out I might as well have dumped them in the Tiber. He was as shocked as I was.<\/em>
\nI mailed some cards from the Vatican \u2013 which has its own postal system – \u00a0and those have arrived.<\/em>
\nI have some of the other \u2018stamps\u2019 left and the PO clerk said to go back to the tobacconist and ask where to mail them. Too little, too late. So I bought ten legit stamps,<\/em> pulled up my socks and walked on<\/strong>.
\nI bought some shoes. Few purchases are more guaranteed to lift the spirits. \u00a0I loved these shoes when I first saw them. It was a good sign that four weeks later I still thought they were delectable. Well-made, sturdy and cushioned for walking, supple and a gorgeous color. They were men\u2019s shoes, which like to kill the Italian man who waited on me. He hastened to tell me they were for men. When I said it didn\u2019t matter to me, I could see he was dying to ask if I was aware I was female.\"\"<\/a>
\nI bought a cheap pink scarf in a street market. Because cheap and pink; win-win! There was a\u00a0blue scarf with an interesting, subtle geometric pattern I really liked but not for \u2013 gasp – 149 euros. It was made by Ferrari. For that kind of dough I want at least a hubcap. Maybe the knob on the top of the shifter.
\nI went back to the Barberini<\/strong> and loved it. Will probably go a few times more. Drew Judith Slaying Holofernes<\/em> \u2013 just what I was in the mood for after the post office and Vodaphone chip debacles. \"\"<\/a>I drew in my sketchbook, so take that you lying, cheating tobacconists. At one point I was startled by several camera flashes. Turned out an art class on a field trip had been watching me sketch\u00a0and asked if they could take some more photos of me for ‘homework’. Um, sure. I was finished, but I faked it for them. \u00a0I moved on to another room with a sleeping cherub. Drawing that peacefully slumbering putto that helped to calm me down.\"\"<\/a>By then it was 2:30 and I walked La Matriciana<\/em> for a late lunch of scallops, which were the best I\u2019d had in a long time, and an artichoke, roman-style.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Back at the hotel, \u00a0I read a pleasant obliging email from the Context tour company, asking if they could take photos while I\u2019m on my Tivoli trip and use them on their social media. If so, please sign and return the attached release. I read it, and no. Hell no. Here are the points that really chapped me and that I called out in my reply which follows,
\nSorry,\u00a0but definitely no. Mainly because of the provisions –\u00a0the irrevocable and unrestricted right –<\/strong> \u00a0and –\u00a0and any other purpose –<\/strong> but especially\u00a0–\u00a0<\/strong>and to alter and composite the same without restriction\u00a0and without my inspection or approval.
\n<\/strong>I might have considered limited use with my approval, but not this. I asked them to just tell me to stay clear of the shots and I will happily comply.<\/em>
\nTomorrow is another day. And hey, if bad things come in threes, I’m done. I have four churches I want to visit that are on the other side of town. My plan is to rise and shine early, spend some time in holy places with heartrendingly glorious art, and then buy some of that wicked good chocolate from\u00a0Quetzalcoatl<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Italy bitch-slapped me today. I never saw it coming. If you want to skip the rant that follows, skip down to pulled up my socks and walked on. Now, I was not shocked that Vodaphone was playing with a loaded dice \u2013 like, you owe 15 euros but payments can only be made increments of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rome","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/medusa.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7OBxc-RG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3328"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3632,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328\/revisions\/3632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}