Well, I made it to Rome!
For all of you new to the blog, you're probably thinking...What the heck? I thought Sassy Catalina was going to Spain for six months.
True, true. But as you will find out, while you are spending hours and hours reading the details of my European adventure--in reverse--I made a contract for a studio apartment in Madrid, but it doesn't start until the 1st of March. So, instead of spending more money staying in pensiones in Spain, I decided to hop on a plane and come to Rome for a week! It's low season and cheap, so viva la Roma!
Welcome all new readers...[and welcome back Mom and Dad from NYC..thanks, Dad, for leaving, like, forty comments...] It seems that they're are some unfamiliar eyes reading my blog. How nice of you to drop in! I would have dropped you a friendly hello in the comments section, but really, I have no idea how to do that--and yes, I am that lame. In fact, just to illustrate how lame I am, I will confess that I got dressed and got out this morning at the spritely hour of ten AM--intent of going straight to the famous Palantine Hills to be oh-so-sassy-smart and buy my combined ticket for the ruins and the Colosseum, and thus, bypassing the long Colosseum queue. When actually, instead, I ended up in some other park with Roman ruins, searching for an hour for the Palatine box office. That's what happens when Sassy Catalina reads a map upside down.
Well, okay...I'm not going to go through a long narrative account of my experiences thus far...because a] that would be boring and b] I don't have my pictures downloaded so I can't share and c] I've already been here for two days and I just don't type that fast. BTW, I do have internet in my room in the first hotel that I'm staying in, but it's a complete fluke. It's a tiny hotel and very cheap, and I'm starting to believe--considering how cheap the room is--that I traded heat for internet. Hmmmm...heat vs. internet. Heat vs. internet. It is cold in Rome right now, but DSL internet in my room is very, very useful, despite the fact that someone has switched around many of the keys. So, for example, when I press ? I really get - . Another example, when I press : I really get >. It's a good thing that I'm such a bad typist because anyone who knows how to really type by putting their fingers on all the "proper" keys would be completely foiled.
Okay, so now for some random reflects on The Eternal City> I mean :
1. The Roman ruins of the Forum and Palatino Hill are just that. They are ruins. Like a pile of bricks that the tour guide says to you: you can imagine that this was an elegant sweeping room with arching ceilings and marble walls and painted frescos, and I felt like saying, Really...? Because it just looks like a pile of broken bricks to me.
2. The Colosseum is more impressive in the movie Gladiator than in real life. Okay, that's not really true. But, I really expected to be taken into the bowels of all the tunnels and be told fantasical stories of gore and death and punishment, and instead, the tour was only about thirty minutes long and I only got one stroy of gore and death and punishment--and zero tour of its bowels.
However, it should be noted that the tour guide told us an interesting anecdote. Apparently, in the 8th century, Rome was being overun with Christian pilgrims, and the Roman government just didn't know what to do with all of them, so they figured that they would make up a story about how the Colosseum was the main places were 1st century Christians were persecuted and killed during the Gladiator fights. That way, all the pilgrims would flock to one central location--a symbolic and sacred site--that could easily manage the flood of all the pilgrims. Really, it was complete bunk. The 1st century Romans used the Colosseum to kill everyone equally for sport. They crucified the Christians along main roads, so that they could be seen in public. Just an interesting example of government propoganda.
3. Spanish is very similiar to Italian. I know it's obvious, but until you're actually here, worrying about how you won't be able to communicate in a restaurant--or at the very least, not seem like a completely retarded American, who can't even try to speak some Italian--that you really realize how similar Spanish is to Italian. Many words are identical, or nearly identical. Plus, I've gotten very far on three phrases: 1. buonogiorno 2. chiccolato, por favore 3. grazie
And a grazie and a por favore, pronounced with a very dramatic Italian accent--plus, a friendly smile--will take you a long way, especially with the grandfatherly-types manning the yummie sandwich shops at the metro stations.
4. There are a lot of old women begging for change, and they really look like they need it. Little frail hunchbacks with canes and sunken faces. As Maria would say...it is always woman who is the one who is suffering. And I don't know what it is, but whenever I feel really bad, and stop to give them change, I always get "help" a few hours later when I'm really lost or need a good place to eat...
5. It was raining today. There was a little Indian man selling umbrellas at the Palantino Hills, and he was asking for 5 euros, but when the Italian tourists would scoff at the price, he would lower it to 3 euros. I didn't buy an umbrella, simply because I've been avoiding buying an umbrella since Madrid, and I figure why submit now? But there was a teenage couple who was harassing the Indian street vendor, taunting him about how it wasn't even raining. The teenagers had accents, so they weren't American [thank freaking god], but they were speaking in English. I thought to myself, leave the poor guy alone. He's a street vendor, for christsakes, trying to make a living. Later, it did rain, and even though I didn't have an umbrella, I was happy. I hoped that the teenage couple got drenched. [meow...sassy!]
P.S. I'm sorry, Danny. I know, I know... but you know how I get when people are mean for no good reason!
6. There is a big street along the Piazza Venezia that has a stream of traffic rushing through it and no cross walk. I don't know if it's just this one place, or all the main streets in Rome, but what happens is that pedestrians just walk RIGHT into the road and TRUST that the traffic will stop.
I watched the phenomenon very careful, and indeed, the traffic goes from 40 to zero in about 1 second. Everything halts, even for one lone pedestrian. I'm guessing that pedestrians have the right of way, and the traffic must stop. But it would be kinda like making all the traffic on Michigan Avenue suddenly halt, every time somebody steps out into the street. I confess, I was not so brave to go it alone, so I waited for a group of four Brits to cross--they seemed like they knew what they were doing--and tagged along.
7. The water here turns from frigid to 3rd degree burn scalding in 1 second. And that is not an exaggeration. I burnt the palm of my hand today without even trying, and you have to leave the accordian shower door open half-way in order to leap out, or else, in 0.5 seconds, you will burn to death.
Well, I guess I will leave you all with that imagine... Tomorrow, I am visiting the Capitoline Museums to see some famous paintings [my favorite] and moving to a hotel in the Vatican area. And on Friday, Maria flies into Rome to spend the weekend with me...
Ciao!
