plus the random rustlings/bustlings that go along with packing up to leave a place, all morning until they finally got out of here. The Russian left yesterday but is supposed to come back today and in her place was some girl I haven't even talked to yet since she was sleeping by the time I got back last night.
Yesterday didn't have nearly as many landmarks thrown in as the day before but the ones I did see were particularly impressive: the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Palatino Hill, the Trevi Fountain, and the area around where the Pope maintains his summer residences, near two tiny villages in Rome's suburbia.
The day started off inconspicuously enough. I got up and took off for Rome, meaning to catch sight of the Pope at his weekly Sunday address to the crowds of St Peter's plaza. As the train went through the stations, I noticed one on my way labeled "St Peter Basilica" and on my map, a stop marked off as St Peter's which was located just north of the plaza. Thinking that I'd hit the jackpot (and not taking in any of the physical facts, such as the stops immediately before/after that one were still about 20/10 minutes south of city center, respectively) I jumped off and took a running start in the directions my maps told me to head. After about 15 minutes of seeing nothing which would correspond to my maps, I bumped into another metro station and realized just how off track I was. It turned into a frustrating game of "Where am I?" that actually worked out in my favor as, once I was on the train again, I learned that the Pope doesn't live in Vatican City during the summer and that I wouldn't have seen anything in the St Peter's plaza this morning aside from the normal Sunday crowds.
I got off near the Trevi Fountain instead and took my lunch in a cafe overlooking that massively impressive piece of work. The crowds were also massively impressive -- nothing but tourists as far as you could see. The cafe's waiter started getting really uncomfortably friendly so I finished off my plate of Italian antipasto (slices of deliciously cured meat, olives, and cheese) then took off nice more, grabbing a cone of coconut and Nutella ice cream to keep me cool ^_^
I passed by a wax museum with a model of Albert Einstein staring dejectedly out into the street, as if it were saying, "Physics, nuclear theory, and now...this job." I ran into this enormous white building and discovered it was the Victor Emmanuel Monument, Italy's first king. The building is amazingly huge and was completed pretty recently, in Roman time, only finished in the early 1910's.
It was there that I met a guy who would turn out to become my unofficial tour guide for the rest of the day. His name is Dominic and he's an old math teacher who's about two months away from retirement and speaks only halting English. We were near the top of the Victor monument, I was enjoying the view, and he started up a conversation about what the word "view" was in Italian, about how magnificent the scenery was.
The conversation turned to where I was walking to next, since I could see the Colosseum from where I was standing, and he asked if I would want to go with him there since, being a teacher, he was entitled to skip the lines and get in free and would be able to get me the same deal. I enthusiastically agreed and off we went.
On the way, we stopped first at the Roman Forum and Palatino Hill. They are these ruins that heavily reminded me of the ruins in Athens, here you see the remains of what was once great meeting halls and enormous arches. All that's left now are blocks lining the hill like skeletal remains. The lines to get into these sites were ridiculously long and incorporated no shade in to keep tourists cool -- I felt pretty freaking lucky to walk passed all those people and head straight in.
The Colosseum is even huger than I imagined! It's also very tore up inside, very much rotting way. You definitely have to use your imagination a lot to enjoy the view. The steps going up and down levels are very steep and slippery from being worn down through so many ages. The number of tour groups and tourists is astounding. Aside from the people selling information, everyone was a tourist.
Afterwards, we grabbed some fresh juice that he said was orange juice but it was definitely red and tasted slightly like grapefruit, only not nearly so bitter. I'd mentioned how I'd started off to see the Pope this morning only to learn that he was outside Rome itself, and Dominic suggested we take a quick trip out to see the Pope's summer residence. It was about 20 minutes outside of Rome, the Pope living in a huge house overlooking one of the most beautiful valleys I've ever seen.
Nearby were two other small villages that we stopped at, Marino and Froncisti, and we grabbed some authentic Italian dinner, nothing more than slabs of roasted meat on huge chunks of bread. There were the stereotypical Italian musicians strumming away on their guitars, singing hopelessly romantic tunes in the most musical language I could imagine.
The sun was beginning to set and when we got back to Rome, I said goodbye to my one-day friend and hopped onto the metro to get on my 40-minute way back to my room. I got to my stop and hopped onto the shuttle bus that would drive me back to the county club where a girl sat down next to me who looked frustrated with her very drunk American boyfriend, giving him a solid smack on the back of the head and telling him to stop harassing the Italian man he was sitting next to, an Italian who obviously understood nothing the American boy was saying. I struck up a conversation with her, noting how she was shepherding him around like a child, and we had a great ride back to the country club. I found out that she was Italian but had studied for some months in Wisconsin with a Colorado roommate, that she was giving her boyfriend a tour of her home city, and that she was half Venezuelan of all things! We excitedly exchanged stories about our visits to the country while her feeling-left-out boyfriend shot her sad looks and funny faces, trying to get her attention back.
I got back to my room a little before midnight, having stopped at the pizzeria because I was hungry again and hadn't gotten in my pizza fix yet.
Location:Viale del Circuito,Rome,Italy
That sounds like a really fun day, tottering around with a retiring math teacher! I bet that it was just a fun and easy day, besides, who doesn't want to shar a day with a friend, even if you've just met. I can't believe, though, that there are other Venzuelan mixes out there! The other day I was joking around with John and told him that he'd never find a Danish-Venezuelan girl again, but I guess he will just have to settle with some different mix. Lol, what the heck! An Italian-Venezuelan, that is like Abuelo. :)
ReplyDelete