Roma, Italia
The site of my last weekend excursion before leaving Europe was to Rome. I was there from Friday to Monday; Kirthika joined me until Sunday when she had to leave because her flight back to the US was on Monday.
We had a good time. Kirthika was really excited to see Italy. She's taken a year's worth of Italian. She's majoring in biology and classics, with a specialization in Latin (or something like that). So she knew a significant amount of the background and history in Rome and wanted to finally see everything in person that she'd learned about in her humanities courses. The first thing we did after checking into our hostel was to go find the Colosseum. We were there too late to gain entrance, but we took several pictures from the outside. Our first night, we took a walking tour of central Rome. Our guide didn't speak English very well, but she was nice. Kirthika and I switched cameras and took pictures of each other everywhere. We walked and saw the Trevi fountain that evening. I didn't throw any coins in. I wanted to know what it symbolized before I did it; I thought I would be back later, but we never revisited it. I missed my chance to ensure a return to Rome or a new romance or something.
On day 2, we took a walking tour of the Vatican. We got to walk into the Sistine Chapel. It's supposed to be the most amazing fresco painting in the world on the ceiling. Our guide told us about the art before we entered because it's supposed to be silent in the chapel. It definitely wasn't quiet though. Every minute or so, a uniformed chapel employee would project his voice over the room, saying "Silence!" but everyone ignored him. My reaction to seeing the ceiling wasn't that strong. I don't tend to appreciate art that much, especially when I have to crane my neck to look at it. There was definitely a lot to look at though. I have to say, Michelangelo had talent. It's a huge ceiling made of several images of scenes in Genesis with random naked people scattered everywhere. After the tour ended, we climbed to the top of St. Peter's Basilica for a 360 degree view of Rome. It was very crowded at the top, but you know me and panoramic views--I loved it.
We again headed to the Colosseum, this time going inside. We were still too late for any tours inside though. Kirthika wanted to at least get an audio guide or something, but I was all tour-ed out. The Vatican thing had been like four hours long. I can only stand one tour per day; I don't have enough of an attention span for more than that. Maybe I should have just sucked it up and gotten an audio guide for Kirthika's sake; I should have been looking to her interests rather than my own. I guess I was a little selfish.
We ate in a sit-down restaurant after that. I ordered pasta. It had tomato sauce, but it was a little spicy. It made my Coke taste terrible. Does anyone know what I mean? When you eat something spicy and then drink Coke, it makes it taste bitter, almost like beer, but not quite as bad. To cool my mouth, I ordered ice cream for dessert. Speaking of ice cream, I ate a lot of it while in Rome. There was no shortage of gelaterias. I had gelato at least twice a day except the last day, when I just got an ice cream cone from McDonald's. I know, I know; what was I doing ordering that? But it was only 50 cents for a good-sized cone. That's a quarter of the price I was paying for the gelato elsewhere. And it still tasted good. Let's face it; there's no such thing as bad ice cream.
After dinner, we went back to the hostel for a little break and to wash up a bit. You start to feel pretty gross after a day of walking around Rome. It had to be in the 90s all day there, and you could feel the grime sticking to your sweat. That day, actually, my flip flops had caused a blister on my foot which popped and created a small open wound. I think some Roman dirt got in there and I had a little infection. My skin was puffy and swollen right around the area, and it hurt really badly. It was very tender to the touch. Kirthika wanted to go and see the Castel Sant' Angelo, aka Hadrian's Mausoleum. There's a cool bridge over the Tiber leading to it depicting the passion of Christ, with statues of angels holding items that had some significance, like a crown of thorns or a spear used to pierce His side. We were expecting to go inside the Castel Sant' Angelo, but there was an event that night--a classical concert or something. So she walked/I limped back to the hostel. I felt pretty miserable on the way back. My left foot was pulsing with pain. I was exhausted from a long, hot day of walking around Rome. And now we'd just come all that way just to turn around. The next day, though, after some refreshing sleep and some Ibuprofen to help with the foot ache, I was ready to go out and do it again. We went to the Pantheon and again to the Castel Sant' Angelo. This time, we got to go inside. There's a large round terrace at the top. I got to look out on Rome and it wasn't as crowded as at the top of the cupola in St. Peter's Basilica, so it was even better.
We took yet another walking tour of Rome that afternoon after eating lunch in view of the Pantheon. Our last two tours, the Vatican tour and the Rome city tour, were both offered through the same tour organization, Rome-ing Tours. Americans gave the tours. They talked very fast, slipping in jokes and sarcasm, that kind of humor. Most of the jokes revolved around sex and they'd say them with a straight face and try to act cool. It's hard to explain, but if you know what I mean, you'll understand. The tours were definitely geared toward younger people.
Near the end of the Rome city tour, it began to rain lightly. I've never been so happy to see it rain; it helped cool things off somewhat. Kirthika left the tour a little early so she could catch her flight back to Aachen. I was on my own for the rest of Rome. I walked straight back to the hostel after the tour. I would have taken the metro, but I was completely out of cash and couldn't afford a ticket. I tried to stop and buy a postcard at a souvenir stand, but I didn't even have enough money for that. A creepy guy approached me while walking back. He introduced himself, shook my hand, and tried to invite me to go to a cafe. I kept declining, but he kept asking. "I like you," he'd say. I really hate travelling alone and having this happen. I thought I lost him, but later he drove by. He must have gone to pick up his car. He tried to invite me in for a ride, but I again said no. Finally, he went away for good. I gave me feet a rest that night and went to bed pretty early. Then my last day, I basically just went shopping. Kirthika and I had tried to shop a little, but we weren't in the right area for it. By this point though, I'd discovered where the good shopping was. I spent a decent amount of money. I don't know when it happened, but sometime while in Europe, I became a shopaholic. Maybe because I'm spending euros instead of dollars, it just feels like I'm handing over Monopoly money.
Then I took the Leonardo express to the Rome Fiumicino airport where, of course, my flight was delayed. I'm beginning to expect that. It's a rare occasion that my flights actually leave on time. I eventually made it back to Aachen though; and now, the next time I leave, it will be for good.
We had a good time. Kirthika was really excited to see Italy. She's taken a year's worth of Italian. She's majoring in biology and classics, with a specialization in Latin (or something like that). So she knew a significant amount of the background and history in Rome and wanted to finally see everything in person that she'd learned about in her humanities courses. The first thing we did after checking into our hostel was to go find the Colosseum. We were there too late to gain entrance, but we took several pictures from the outside. Our first night, we took a walking tour of central Rome. Our guide didn't speak English very well, but she was nice. Kirthika and I switched cameras and took pictures of each other everywhere. We walked and saw the Trevi fountain that evening. I didn't throw any coins in. I wanted to know what it symbolized before I did it; I thought I would be back later, but we never revisited it. I missed my chance to ensure a return to Rome or a new romance or something.
On day 2, we took a walking tour of the Vatican. We got to walk into the Sistine Chapel. It's supposed to be the most amazing fresco painting in the world on the ceiling. Our guide told us about the art before we entered because it's supposed to be silent in the chapel. It definitely wasn't quiet though. Every minute or so, a uniformed chapel employee would project his voice over the room, saying "Silence!" but everyone ignored him. My reaction to seeing the ceiling wasn't that strong. I don't tend to appreciate art that much, especially when I have to crane my neck to look at it. There was definitely a lot to look at though. I have to say, Michelangelo had talent. It's a huge ceiling made of several images of scenes in Genesis with random naked people scattered everywhere. After the tour ended, we climbed to the top of St. Peter's Basilica for a 360 degree view of Rome. It was very crowded at the top, but you know me and panoramic views--I loved it.
We again headed to the Colosseum, this time going inside. We were still too late for any tours inside though. Kirthika wanted to at least get an audio guide or something, but I was all tour-ed out. The Vatican thing had been like four hours long. I can only stand one tour per day; I don't have enough of an attention span for more than that. Maybe I should have just sucked it up and gotten an audio guide for Kirthika's sake; I should have been looking to her interests rather than my own. I guess I was a little selfish.
We ate in a sit-down restaurant after that. I ordered pasta. It had tomato sauce, but it was a little spicy. It made my Coke taste terrible. Does anyone know what I mean? When you eat something spicy and then drink Coke, it makes it taste bitter, almost like beer, but not quite as bad. To cool my mouth, I ordered ice cream for dessert. Speaking of ice cream, I ate a lot of it while in Rome. There was no shortage of gelaterias. I had gelato at least twice a day except the last day, when I just got an ice cream cone from McDonald's. I know, I know; what was I doing ordering that? But it was only 50 cents for a good-sized cone. That's a quarter of the price I was paying for the gelato elsewhere. And it still tasted good. Let's face it; there's no such thing as bad ice cream.
After dinner, we went back to the hostel for a little break and to wash up a bit. You start to feel pretty gross after a day of walking around Rome. It had to be in the 90s all day there, and you could feel the grime sticking to your sweat. That day, actually, my flip flops had caused a blister on my foot which popped and created a small open wound. I think some Roman dirt got in there and I had a little infection. My skin was puffy and swollen right around the area, and it hurt really badly. It was very tender to the touch. Kirthika wanted to go and see the Castel Sant' Angelo, aka Hadrian's Mausoleum. There's a cool bridge over the Tiber leading to it depicting the passion of Christ, with statues of angels holding items that had some significance, like a crown of thorns or a spear used to pierce His side. We were expecting to go inside the Castel Sant' Angelo, but there was an event that night--a classical concert or something. So she walked/I limped back to the hostel. I felt pretty miserable on the way back. My left foot was pulsing with pain. I was exhausted from a long, hot day of walking around Rome. And now we'd just come all that way just to turn around. The next day, though, after some refreshing sleep and some Ibuprofen to help with the foot ache, I was ready to go out and do it again. We went to the Pantheon and again to the Castel Sant' Angelo. This time, we got to go inside. There's a large round terrace at the top. I got to look out on Rome and it wasn't as crowded as at the top of the cupola in St. Peter's Basilica, so it was even better.
We took yet another walking tour of Rome that afternoon after eating lunch in view of the Pantheon. Our last two tours, the Vatican tour and the Rome city tour, were both offered through the same tour organization, Rome-ing Tours. Americans gave the tours. They talked very fast, slipping in jokes and sarcasm, that kind of humor. Most of the jokes revolved around sex and they'd say them with a straight face and try to act cool. It's hard to explain, but if you know what I mean, you'll understand. The tours were definitely geared toward younger people.
Near the end of the Rome city tour, it began to rain lightly. I've never been so happy to see it rain; it helped cool things off somewhat. Kirthika left the tour a little early so she could catch her flight back to Aachen. I was on my own for the rest of Rome. I walked straight back to the hostel after the tour. I would have taken the metro, but I was completely out of cash and couldn't afford a ticket. I tried to stop and buy a postcard at a souvenir stand, but I didn't even have enough money for that. A creepy guy approached me while walking back. He introduced himself, shook my hand, and tried to invite me to go to a cafe. I kept declining, but he kept asking. "I like you," he'd say. I really hate travelling alone and having this happen. I thought I lost him, but later he drove by. He must have gone to pick up his car. He tried to invite me in for a ride, but I again said no. Finally, he went away for good. I gave me feet a rest that night and went to bed pretty early. Then my last day, I basically just went shopping. Kirthika and I had tried to shop a little, but we weren't in the right area for it. By this point though, I'd discovered where the good shopping was. I spent a decent amount of money. I don't know when it happened, but sometime while in Europe, I became a shopaholic. Maybe because I'm spending euros instead of dollars, it just feels like I'm handing over Monopoly money.
Then I took the Leonardo express to the Rome Fiumicino airport where, of course, my flight was delayed. I'm beginning to expect that. It's a rare occasion that my flights actually leave on time. I eventually made it back to Aachen though; and now, the next time I leave, it will be for good.
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