We came to Rome just after a walking tour of Naples with a middle aged Italian man named Gianni who kissed people's cheeks and cracked corny jokes in the most charming way you can imagine. But after seeing Naples, I have come to the conclusion that Naples is to Detroit as Rome is to Boston. That's over simplifying it a lot. What I mean is that Naples is pretty sketch. It's the crime capital of the world. The mob's headquarters. Or something like that. Rome is clean and beautiful. Granted, all big cities have their dumpy areas. But Naples was 90% dumpy. The contrast between the two cities may account for my initial reaction when I saw Rome. Part of me was just thinking, "thank God I got out of Naples alive!" I have found the light at the end of the dark tunnel! Alas, this is the Italy that I idealized in my head. So I will forego details of the Naples walking tour because the only part worth nothing was our fantastic tour guide who I already mentioned. Oh and I had the best pizza that has ever been created by humans. Anyways. I will jump straight into Rome because Rome is all that matters right now. Rome is "bae," for those of you who understand what that means.
We got to our hotel. We went straight to group dinner at a restaurant that I cannot pronounce. It lasted about 3 hours and we got 5 small courses. 2 pastas. Salad. Meat and peas. Fruit. I don't know what's wrong with me but my appetite had been embarrassingly small since we've been here. I didn't finish half of my food. But it was quite good. And so was the company. After dinner, some of us went for gelato near the Vatican. Cause that's just the casual thing to do here... Stroll around near the Vatican. Still blows my mind. Anyways. End first night.
Full day 1 in Rome: walking tour. Good lord. What a day. Walking tours are great I guess, but when your tour guide's English is choppy and the tenor of his voice could lull a baby to sleep, then no one is happy. I found myself in Lalla land for the majority of the six hour tour. I just kept imagining that I could see the ancient romans still sitting around chilling. Telling their slaves what to do or voting for some sort of political thing or conquering some people. Or fighting with swords. All of them looked like Russell Crowe from gladiator, of course. I will say, I did enjoy the coliseum. Everyone enjoys the coliseum. And we went into a few churches full of the most breathtaking decoration I've ever seen. When the tour was over, however, I cheered. We finally separated from our tour guide, Mauro, and our professors left us, forcing us to find our way back to the hotel on our own just to prove we are capable of using a map without getting lost. After we made it back, I went for a run around a castle. Because that's also normal here. Just casually jogging in a park around a castle that is centuries and centuries old. Guys, I'm pretty much a local here now. As soon as I'm fluent in Italian, I'll be good to go. Goodbye America. At dinner after my party in the park, I had the best pasta of my whole life. It spoke to me. It moved me to become a better person. It inspired me and it gave meaning to life. Our waiter said my name in an Italian accent too. First time I've ever heard this. I really recommend it. I swear everything they say here just sounds like a beautiful sonnet or a concerto. My name had never sounded so good. Is it sad that him saying my name has been a highlight of the trip? He wasn't ever good looking or anything like that. It just sounded so delicious. Just not as delicious as my fettuccini. Nothing will ever be that delicious.
So a few hours after dinner, some of the girls and I decided to try out the ice bar. It's a bar that is made with 40 tons of ice. The cups are ice. The seats are ice. Everything. Ice. Why? Who knows. But it was cool. It was -5 celcius inside, and they gave us all huge parkas before entering. Aside from 2 Canadian girls, we were the only people in the joint. We stayed for about 30 minutes then headed off to an Irish pub. An Irish pub in Rome? Yeah, we're pretty lame. But I don't regret it. We got a taxi to bring us back to the hotel because we were several miles away and didn't think it was the safest idea to walk so far at 2 in the morning... See, even I have some sense.
So that brings me back to today. I slept until about 11:30 to catch up on all the sleep I missed because of these dang walking tours that start so early in the morning. Me and another girl spent all morning just wandering around and shopping for nothing in particular. I got back to the hotel around 4 where I ran into Dr. Letteri who decided he would help me try to hunt down some tickets for the soccer game tomorrow night (the Italian cup championship game: Lazio vs. Juventus). We searched high and low for these tickets. I'll tell you the shorthand story in bulletpoint form because that's the only way it will make sense:
Concierge tells us to buy them at a bar across from the metro station.
Bar across from the metro station points us in the direction of another shop.
We don't find other shop.
Instead, we find a workout facility.
We get a discount rate for workouts for the next few days.
Man who owns workout facility points us back to the first bar we initially tried.
He comes with us to speak to the guys at the bar.
(No one speaks English very well. Most don't speak it at all.)
Guy at the bar tells us to go to "the betting place."
We are thoroughly confused.
We go in direction of betting place.
We find a shop that sells lotto tickets.
We talk to the owner of the shop. He's really fat and Italian looking.
He speaks no English.
He points us back toward the first bar!!!
We continue searching for the "betting place."
We go further down the road and find a casino.
Guys in the casino place tell us to get on bus #2 to go to a plaza across town to find tickets.
But one guy points to a spot on the map and says we could find then closer.
We don't get on the train, but we walk to the closer spot.
We get there and we don't see what place he was talking about.
We go inside another shop that sells lotto tickets.
This man tells us to walk to the Lazio shop, just 20 meters to the right then take a left.
We follow his directions.
No Lazio shop to be found.
We give up.
No tickets.
Fail.
So Letteri and I bonded pretty hard during this tragic process. Hopefully we will have better luck tomorrow because I gotta go to this game. This kind of stuff doesn't happen in the states. And I may not ever get another opportunity. So we got back to the hotel around 7 and most of the other students had already left for dinner. Thus I got stuck with the three professors, which ended up working out in my favor since they bought my dinner. And of course I just love listening to really smart people talk. My favorite English professor is on this trip, so I'll never complain about getting to go to dinner with him. And now I am completely exhausted. I have no soccer ticket to show for it. Every gift I bought at a store today I have to return because I realized that Italian sizes run way smaller than American sizes. Go figure. We are all obese. But despite the depressing outcomes of my day, it has probably been the best day yet. Just because of the company. And because finally there was a day without scheduling. I feel so free!
No comments:
Post a Comment