The Tiber’s water level in the winter may be so high as to overflow its embankment. In the summer, it’s so dry hardly any boats have sufficient draft to pass through. As a consequence, Rome has no reliable ferry service.
We did not know this when we first paid a visit to The Eternal City.
I stopped at a local bookstore to pick up to take with me on the boat ride to Trastevere, only to discover that I’d have to walk.
No matter.
We found a pleasant little bar by the river and sat down to enjoy Italo Calvino’s postmodernist masterpiece, “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler.”
The book’s first chapter is that of a detective novel, which inspired our current work-in-progress, “The Dead Don’t Remember You.”
Our current new edition was purchased in North Beach where our own narrative takes place.
Check out Libreria Pino for a similar discovery.