It’s getting late and I have to catch a super early flight, so lemme summarize!
The first day in Rome I spent by myself, just wandering around. It was pretty decent :) Still haven’t figured out exactly when I’ll feel in want of company and when I won’t. My feelings in this regard are rather erratic. I had some amazing pizza at this little shop I found, not on Yelp, which I found, even filtered to 1 EUR sign, is plagued by tourists with more money than me, but on a blog post about legit cheap food in Rome. I started talking with a Taiwanese gal there who was by herself on her phone. We walked over to the Vatican area together, took some selfies. She went in, and since I was planning to do the Vatican the next day with my buddies, I went back to this really neat castle, which was the seat of the papacy before the Vatican was built. (Castel del’ Angelo?) It was EUR 7, not bad! The artwork was freaking amazing. The papal library had a beautiful ceiling, mythological figures in bold color against creamy white plaster, and a frieze all around the upper trim depicting, weirdly enough, frolicking mer-men and women with the upper bodies of humans and the lower bodies of fish and octopi and stuff. I asked the guard there, who turned out to be an enthusiastic historian, about the weird omnipresence of pagan themes in the art in the papal library (also naked angels). He basically told me it was really complicated, in more interesting language; that back in the day there was not such a crisp distinction.
The other highlights of the castle were:
- Meeting an American prof and his wife–we chatted politics and he told me about the bell on the terrace we were standing on, how it had been the site of the final suicide in the opera Tosca. Gotta see that. :D
- Rooms where the military memorabilia of the Italian army were once stored. They were decorated in gorgeous simple Art Deco style with clear iconography. Lots of swirling banners on the ceiling, the trim carved into eagles, weapons of different kinds, so on; another room had an array of laurel trees on the ceiling representing the laurles of victory.
After the castle, I walked around a lot more, past one side of the Roman forum, on and on. I stopped for pasta at another place on the cheap eats list. 4 EUR for pasta and wine, but not a huge portion.
Went back to the hostel, got groceries on the way back. Made myself an omelet and potatoes and bacon. It took forever b/c weird hostel equipment and stove but it was really good. Hung out with a boisterous Brazilian guy and his quieter mates, which was fun but finally got annoying when the quieter mates could hardly get a word in edgewise. Fortunately, my friends Morgan and Tiffany from Nice came in just at the right moment and saved me. I took them to that great pizza place; they really enjoyed it.
Man, this was supposed to be a redux! Ok, here we go! At breakfast we met two Asian dudes, best bros, one Canadian, one American. We walked around all day with them. The higlights were definitely
- the Vatican museum, which was almost indescribable. More art and sculpture and majesty than my eyeballs could soak up in a lifetime.
- The sunset on the Spanish steps, which was the prettiest thing I’d seen in the past couple of weeks of bad weather. It was stunning. The sun set over the serene blue-green basilicas and the clouds were lit in orange and gold; the plants on the rooftop gardens waved back and forth in the light breeze.
I wasn’t sure whether I enjoyed walking around with the group better than by myself. I had my logistics done for me, but gave up a great deal of autonomy. And the social banter was dampened for me by the fact I’d probably never see these guys again. It wasn’t too interesting in and of itself, so… it just kinda wore me out after a while.
The evening was cool; I made potatoes and omelets again while they got pizza. Befriended an Albanian guy who buys used cars and ships the parts back to Albania–offered him my extra potatoes then he offered me some wine. He was really nice. Showed me some magic tricks with cards and I reverse engineered the heck out of them, which was really satisfying :D He was pretty impressed :D I had had a couple of beers by this point and with my Nice friends, our Asian buddies, and their friends, we got into a roaring game of Peanut Butter :D A great time! I still was not tired so I played some chess, then crashed.
On the third day we all woke up early to make breakfast (I will bring Insane Brunching to the ends of the earth). It was delicious. But we were too late to skip the line at the Basilica. While the others waited, I wrote some postcards. The Basilica was absolutely breathtaking. You could fit almost any other cathedral in Europe inside the thing. One thing that struck me–in massive letters and gold ribbon, a huge inscription dominating the whole church. Who got to decide what to write, which Bible quote, which recitation or creed?!
I hadn’t finished writing the postcards yet so bailed on the others when they went to lunch, finished with the postcards and got myself incredible gelato instead. I think it was the best I’d ever had. 4 flavors, topped with delicious whipped cream. Whoo! I was psyched and my spirits were lifted–it was strange, as truly magnificent as the Basilica was, I could hardly see the majesty with so many people milling around, and the others weren’t super majesty oriented. The sun came out too, which was great.
Met them back at their lunch place and we walked, slowly, to the Coliseum. Had a beautiful vantage on the ruins of the Forum and surrounding areas on the way. I really wanted to go inside the Coliseum but I’d been too lazy to check the closing time and I was too late. Hung out with my buddies a while longer. Finally went back to the hostel, took a long hot shower, and hit one more place on the cheap food list, this time for Indian food! It was amazing. Also started reading Endurance, about the great explorer Shackleton saving his crew against all odds. Pretty compelling.
Got back, had my second beer, played some chess, wrote a huge pile of logs, said goodbye to Morgan and Tiffany, and prepped for my flight to Bucharest in the morning!