Now I am the first to concede that just possibly something is missing in my life.
After all what else can explain the desire yesterday to take the reinstated tram route through St Peter’s Square and having ended up in Victoria Railway Station, jumping onto another which took me just the one stop to Exchange Square?
For me these flights of fancy are an adventure.
But then I am retired, in possession of a concessionary travel card and can pretty much please myself what I do.
Nor was I alone in what the Italians describe as “the sweetness of doing nothing.”
Directly opposite there was someone filming the short journey through the square and another keeping up a commentary on how the place had changed since the 1950s.
Of course the majority of those sitting on the tram yesterday were more interested in listening to their music, texting friends or just working out which stop was best for an afternoon of shopping.
But like the talking guide to all our yesterdays I did rather reflect on just how much both Exchange and St Peter’s Square have changed over the years.
In the case of Exchange Square we are really only talking a handful of decades since it was created after the bomb.
Even so in that time the Big Wheel as come and gone, The Triangle has morphed from an upmarket shopping mall into an exciting mix of restaurants and the metro stop has arrived soon to be joined by the completed Second City Crossing.
By contrast St Peter’s Square is still a work in progress.
The new buildings facing Central Ref and the Town Hall Extension are still being completed, and as yet only two of the metro platforms are in use but already the place has a spaciousness it never had before.
And as you do having ridden through both I persuaded Tina to leave the bus in Piccadilly and travel home via the tram from St Peter’s Square.
It cost me the price of a ticket and we had to stand all the way but it was worth it.
Such are some adventures.
Pictures; at Victoria Railway Station and in St Peter’s Square, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
* “Dolce far Niente"
For me these flights of fancy are an adventure.
But then I am retired, in possession of a concessionary travel card and can pretty much please myself what I do.
Nor was I alone in what the Italians describe as “the sweetness of doing nothing.”
Directly opposite there was someone filming the short journey through the square and another keeping up a commentary on how the place had changed since the 1950s.
But like the talking guide to all our yesterdays I did rather reflect on just how much both Exchange and St Peter’s Square have changed over the years.
In the case of Exchange Square we are really only talking a handful of decades since it was created after the bomb.
Even so in that time the Big Wheel as come and gone, The Triangle has morphed from an upmarket shopping mall into an exciting mix of restaurants and the metro stop has arrived soon to be joined by the completed Second City Crossing.
The new buildings facing Central Ref and the Town Hall Extension are still being completed, and as yet only two of the metro platforms are in use but already the place has a spaciousness it never had before.
And as you do having ridden through both I persuaded Tina to leave the bus in Piccadilly and travel home via the tram from St Peter’s Square.
It cost me the price of a ticket and we had to stand all the way but it was worth it.
Such are some adventures.
Pictures; at Victoria Railway Station and in St Peter’s Square, 2016, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
* “Dolce far Niente"
Whenever I catch a tram at Exchange Sq I reflect on the hippy market that use to inhabit The Corn Exchange until 1996. I miss mooching around that place.
ReplyDeleteHippy market? - now I'd have been at home there!
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