ACROPOLIS, NOW!
Some 45 years ago, having been not long resident in Paris, I joined some friends for a road trip through Italy and Greece, the final destination being the Acropolis in Athens. This is the tale of getting there, and getting back, and in between -- Acropolis, now! ITALY It had been raining at the Gare de Lyon at 10 p.m. the previous night. It was already hot and sunny at 10 a.m. at Rome Termini. As I stepped onto the platform, having spent the night in a T3 with two noisy French ladies, the handle of my travel-bag snapped. I should have heeded the omen and got back on the train. I ran (as best I could, with both arms wrapped round a broken travel-bag) the length of the platform, ready to hurl myself and my bag into the arms of Rupert, who would be waiting at the gate looking tanned and gorgeous after a week in the South of France. He was doing neither. Alf was hunched at the end of the platform, the eternal roll-up in the corner of his mouth. “Rupe ...