DAY 172 - ROME

11 October, 2011 

1737 miles/ 3,775, 601 steps

It was an early start as I caught the train down to Rome—there is a High Speed Rail-link so the journey took under three hours, with speeds of 220MPH being reached on some sections. The Italians love speed. I wasn’t so sure. When you are walking everyday for months the idea of sitting down and still moving would be a wonderful experience even at 20MPH, especially through such amazing scenery. Travelling on the High Speed Rail link in comfort and with wi-fi internet access made me wonder whether the plan to blow £32 billion that we don’t have on a new link is a smart move.

Don’t get me wrong, I love train journeys and travel back and forth from Durham to London every week when I am in the UK, but if people want speed then they will fly: they will join the ranks of bad tempered passengers in endless queues at check-in, be required to virtually undress and dump their cup of Starbuck’s coffee and that lethal tube of toothpaste to get through security, then they be squeezed into a tiny seat and be told to stay there. People choose the train because they accept they will arrive an hour later, but they will be in better shape and have had a far more productive and cheaper  experience on the way.

To arrive in Rome is to be intimidated. Around every corner there is some extraordinary monument immediately recognisable from your Classic tutorial or in my case Angels & Demons or Mission Impossible III.

Our excellent teams in Rome and at the Holy See (Lynne McGregor, Justin Bedford and Florence Crovato) had put together an exceptional programme for the visit, but my smart clothes had not travelled well. My parents offered me an advance on my Christmas present to go and get some clothes so I could, “Make sure I looked smart for the Pope.” Of course clothes in Italy do not come cheap and it took longer than usual to find a shop where they had a pair of shoes which were within my credit card limit. I managed and showed up at the gates of the spectacular British Ambassador’s residence with my backpack, walking gear and clutching a bunch of shopping bags—I was amazed I wasn’t bundled to the ground and arrested by the attentive security teams on guard, instead they were very courteous and knew exactly who I was and where I was to go, so the gates slowly opened and I proceeded up the long and winding drive to the front door of the Villa.

I had arrived later than expected on account of my little shopping trip and on being advised of the protocol for the Ambassador’s Reception for the Olympic Truce, which was to start in a few hours, I was asked if I had a suit. I reached into my rucksack and pulled out my rolled up suit bag and was asked politely whether I needed anything pressed, “I should be okay” I replied, as I unzipped the suit bag to reveal a garment that had a kind of stylish discarded toffee wrapper look to it. “Are you sure?” I acknowledged that perhaps it could do with a quick iron.

I was then greeted by Nina Prentice, wife of Christopher Prentice, our outstanding ambassador to Rome. Nina had rushed in from the extensive gardens, where she applies her considerable skill and expertise to managing and designing. In addition, she manages the Villa Wolkonsky – which is busier than most hotels – hosting events for visiting dignitaries and increasingly as a venue of choice for promoting British trade. Having seen how much value Nina Prentice added to the diplomatic reach of the UK Mission in Rome, not least by virtue of the fact that she is of British and Italian parents so Italian is a mother tongue, made me realise the virtue of spouses in postings or for that matter in politics. We live in an era which rather sneers at traditional models of the host and hostess or stereotypes of the MP and his wife, but instead we should be celebrating the extraordinary value for money and advanced social networks which come from married couples – of which the Queen and Prince Philip, David and Samantha Cameron and our Christopher and Nina Prentice are exemplars. As I would know, as well as anyone, that ideal is not always possible, but we should never forget that it is . . . ideal.

There was an excellent turn out for the event: I would flatter myself too much if I thought I was the reason for that because Villa Wolkonsky is revered in Rome as amongst the finest of all the residences. I was particularly pleased to meet some young athletes, two of whom were hoping to compete in London: Marco DeLuca is one of the top Racewalkers in the world and my inadequacy as a walker, if not a human being, was sliced when I mentioned that I could walk at a steady 5km per hour and then asked what his pace was and was told it was about 15km per hour. I also met with Giulia Arcioni, who is hoping to compete in the 100/200 or 400 metres, but will have to go through qualifying next summer before she will know whether she will make it to her second Olympic Games. Like all Olympians I have met on this walk so far, it is not just the athletic performances that are impressive, it is the discipline and focus that the life of an athlete requires that refines their character and makes them so impressive.

I had an excellent conversation with Mario Pescante, from the Commune di Roma, who is putting together Rome’s bid for the 2020 Olympic Games. We spoke about the truce and the fact that implementation of the truce for London had been made so difficult because the bid document in 2005 made virtually no mention of the truce and as a result, LOCOG were only left with the budget for an Olympic Truce flag outside the stadium and a Peace Wall in the Village. I said that it would be great to see that peace and truce were given a prominent place in the bidding for 2020. We’ll see, but I increasingly see that the lead time for these major events is such a critical factor in delivering success.

I had an enjoyable conversation with Minister Koutrakou from the Greek Embassy, built around the fact that she was from Sparta and we exchanged notes on the history of the ancient Games and wondered whether it might be possible for their modern counterparts to recapture the vision of the role of sport in bringing peace and promoting understanding. I was also heartened by the greeting of HE Iztok Mirosic of Slovenia, because he had heard about my visit to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ljubljana and confirmed that they were working on an initiative in Southern Sudan as part of their implementation of the Olympic truce.

It had been a marvellous start to my visit to Rome and things were going to get even better….