The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2003

love my ambassador, thought John Lang. That’s not the same as saying I love my job. It was six in the morning, on a day in April, and the sun was beginning to shine on the rooftops. Lang was doing his fourth loop around Piazza Navona. As he ran he had the place to himself, save for the crazy old fellow who always came out of the bar when he ran by, to wave at him and yell “Ho-ho-ho!” No matter. What mattered was run- ning, and spring. And love. In 10 minutes more, he was back in his apartment on the top floor of the oldest building on Via del Governo Vecchio. The build- ing’s dirty stone facade bore the date 1490. Inside, though, his apartment had been lately redone, and it was bright with the early sunshine now, while the street below remained in shadow. Lang had come to Rome from Quito a year ago, to head the embassy’s political section. The admin people had wanted him to move into the big apartment on Via Pinciana that political counselors had occupied for decades. No, said Lang. His wife had left him two years before, he had no children, and he did not want so big a place. Let the consul general take it. Eventually she did. The place on Governo Vecchio had only one bedroom, but it had a large living room and a good-sized dining room, just right for small dinners which were the only entertaining he did at home. A dozen years earlier, Lang had spent three years in Rome as a vice consul. His Italian had become — and it still was — fluent. He had gotten to know the country and its politics, and he had acquired a wide range of Italian friends. A number of them were fellow hikers and climbers, with whom he had spent many Sunday excur- sions in the Apennines. Some of these hikers, he found when he returned to the embassy as counselor, were now prominent persons. Valerio Arata, a career magistrate, had recently become Procurator General of the Republic. Pietro Ardito, an unassuming man who possessed a thousand acres of pas- tures and vineyards and the title of Marchese di Monteleone, was now president of the association of large agriculturists; his wife Maria Teresa had just published her second book on the Etruscans. Franco Fioret, an expert climber and a member of the Society of Jesus, was the Substitute Secretary of State in the Vatican. It was fun to come back and pick up again with these friends, and Lang was all the more content when he found that the high ridge of Pizzo Deta and the beech woods under Monte Autore were as unspoiled as ever. In the city, on weekdays, Lang had worked hard this past year at befriending members of parlia- ment, top journalists and writers, office directors in the foreign min- istry. His six subordinate officers were competent and assiduous. Lang thought his number two, Jane Farnham, might be the very best J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 31 I A N FSO HAS AN UNEXPECTEDLY FULFILLING SECOND TOUR IN THE E TERNAL C ITY . B Y P ETER B RIDGES F O C U S A C OUNSELOR I N R OME Janet Cleland