roma!
february 9 - 11

i arrived late friday night after a long delayed flight but feeling quite good about being back in continental europe. after having been "prego'd" about 30 times already, i spent the bus ride into town deciding what it meant. it was already dark when i arrived so i didn't pick up on much going by except for the signs that i didn't really understand and the cabinieri. they made me happy. i think perhaps the resemblance to the policeman arthur from postman pat?

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regardless, i met camilla and we went to get pizza (clearly). we stayed near the termini station, which is very central. we were able to walk pretty much everywhere, which was maybe a little silly since it didn't stop raining on saturday. but we got a lot in. and despite the rain, i liked rome. camilla also decided that when people speak italian, they aren't being serious so walking around and listening was always entertaining.
we started off toward the colosseum and the forum, pretty good starting places, i reckon. the forum was, of course, pretty amazing. and the brilliance of it all is that it is literally in the middle of the city. you walk down a big street (via nazionale) and suddenly there's a restored site right next to you. i think compared to turkey, and i admit my memory might be failing me here, the basic level of intactness in rome was much more impressive. i don't really know too much about excavation and restoration but it looked pretty rad from where i was standing.
i liked walking around the forum a lot. but to be honest, the colosseum was a little overwhelming for me. i couldn't quite get past the 'woah it seriously IS that massive' feeling enough to start looking beyond its massiveness. there were also two men dressed up as gladiators standing around outside, which was just silly. my initial reaction to the area (colosseum, forum, arch of constantine etc) was basically, "ok. the romans are just showing off with the arches and the columns and all this artsy stuff now..." and i somehow managed to avoid taking a picture of the monument to vittorio emanuele II, which you can pretty much see from everywhere in the city. it's pretty monstrous and all marble and just like a power trip gone seriously wrong.
we also went to the pantheon but all the pictures i took look kinda stupid. and the rest of saturday we spent walking around trying to figure out if we were up to going out. we did end up going out to trastavere to grab dinner. it was pretty nice. a full meal and a bottle of wine. pretty standard, i'd say.
sunday was beautiful. we woke up to sunshine and a much warmer day. i decided i wanted to go to the vatican city, and on our way there, we realised that's where everyone else was going too. it was a mad house. there were so many people and so many cameras and we were honestly a little confused. i stopped to ask a man what the deal was. he had a big camera with reuters stickers on it so i thought he'd be helpful but he rudely replied, "what do you think? why don't people read their guide books?" and i said, "for the pope, you'd think there'd be a bigger crowd, no? this is more like an unorganised party" and walked away. jerk.
so yes. the pope, or papa, makes an appearance at noon every sunday. he delivers a quick mass and then addresses his people in several different languages. he was standing by a window with a red banner hanging (second from the right) and clearly you can't see him because i gave up all photo opportunities by taking video instead and my zoom sucks anyway.
but actually, i really liked the vatican city. despite it's theme park feel (it was the crazy people), i thought it was absolutely gorgeous. walking away from it, it just seemed kinda surreal. it's so clean and white and pretty... you do sort of feel like you're not allowed to touch anything.
i think that's something in general that i liked about rome. it's a walkable city but you have something to look at pretty much everywhere you go. if you're a nerd, like me, you get excited about things like this:

and for everyone else... statues and fountains, grand buildings and ghettos of small alleys and buildings that are falling apart. i personally liked the intensity. check out the examples of intensity strewn about the city at very random places... aren't you just thinking, "harp man, why do you look so sad? what grief befalls your soul?" or whatever... and what about these ladies? well actually, i don't know what i'm thinking when i look at them. i just really liked it when i saw it. it's on a bridge going away from the vatican city and crossing the tiber back to the centrico. but honestly, how can you get more intense than this? standing on that monument to vittorio emanuele II looking south east over the forum and toward the colosseum. i mean...rad. i got a little bit dorky with my 600 page blue guide to rome... but where else was i gonna find out the names of the different popes and emperors/kings over the last several thousand years?
the rest of sunday was tiring. we spent a lot of it sitting and eating or drinking and hanging out before going back to the airport. camilla and i were tired and grumpy from about 7pm on so i will save you the bitter comments we made for the remainder of the night.

prego.