t.r.a.v.e.l.i.n.g.

Rome was really only one day. Surprisingly rome seemed much more manageable then I'd imagined. I've heard about how its the biggest city in italy and all the tourists, etc, but since I got there the day after christmas, the city was pretty empty (even a roman told us that) The vatican museums were free on the 27th, the next day, so we went there, but we ended up climbing the dome thing and looking around the church. Of course I was going picture crazy, but I know the vatican is one of the world's most photographed monuments, so nothing I got could have been any better than pro photographs. We walked WAY TOO MUCH in rome, because we only took a bus to the vatican and then walked back in the direction of the colosseum, so it was a huge trek. From the vatican, we stopped to get lunch at a little pizza place, and I order a pizza with mozarella and tomatoes, fresh (uncooked), and instead of tomato sauce or no sauce on the bread, there was MAYONAISE, and a lot of it. In my experience thats not a very italian gastronomical move/concept, so I was pretty grossed out, but after a while it tasted like a sandwich. In that pizza place I met a guy whose studying to become a priest at the vatican (or nearby at one of the vatican schools) and I know 2 already ordained priests through middlebury that are in rome, and I hoped he knew them, but no such luck. Regardless he's from texas, and wanted to speak to us in english. (seems to only speak a lot of italian)

After lunch, we walked over to the pantheon, and on the way we passed this HUGE childrens carnival/fair (I have pictures) and it was SO festive. Awesomely festive. I love the vibe in italian cities when they're celebrating something, and they celebrate EVERYTHING-saints days, good witches, old pagan holidays, high holy days, I lose track. There's always afestival of some sort. Then the pantheon was this AWESOME building with a huge hole in the ceiling. It's been transformed into a modern catholic church, but it is obviously REALLY different from any other church (especially the shape). My roman history sucks, but apparently it was the romans place of worship for their gods, and its basically a huge circular shape. I liked it a lot. There were so many people there. It was NUTS.

Someone in one of the piazzas, I heard some very gypsy-esque music, and followed the sound till I saw this 6 person band (bari sax, alto sax, accordion, bass, drums, and trombone) playing, and they were tearing it up. They were awesome. Really cool time signatures, modes, and energy. They would drop down to 2 people for the beginning of a solo section and then everyone would come back in and build these cazy long solos. The alto player was good too. They sounded jazz trained. The drummer had his small bass drum and cow bell and wood block strapped to him, like Dick Van Dyke in mary poppins at the beginning of the movie, you know? I took at least 40 pictures of them (for my tweek portfolio-tweeking musicians is definitely my favorite type of picture to change) They were good though. I sort of wanted to buy a cd, but I gotta not spend all my money.

Anyway, from the pantheon, we saw a bunch of other cool piazzas with important bernini sculptures and obelisks stolen from egypt, and then we went into this TOTALLY awesome church, I dont know why I liked it so much out of the hundreds of churches i've been to in this country, but it had amazing frescos. I dug it. I took tons of pictures of it. Then finally made it to the spanish steps—can you say tourist? That was annoying. There are immigrants who sell roses all over italy, and these rose-sellers were clever, they gave u a rose for “free” and then made you pay them for it, but of course I didnt want it, even though it was already in my hand, so its awkward cuz they wont take it back from u, but u have to pay for it. They basically try to awkward the shit out of the situation, so u feel like you can't walk away. So that was weird, then I went to this other piazza where there was a guy dancing to michael jackson music, dressed up in this funny golden jumpsuit, and he was literally the wrost dancer I've ever seen, but there were at least 90 people watching him.

Then I went to dinner at paolo's house, one of the teachers from the program I did in lecce. He had me and joey over for dinner and we swapped stories, talked about italy, and ate tiramasu that he'd made the day before-SO NICE! The food was good and free, which was really nice of him.

So today, on the way to florence, we're in this really long commuter train (3 hours) and the trains packed because its so cheap right? SO i'm looking for 2 seats but its tough to find 2 together, and then I find some and across from the 2 seats theres a young girl (25) sitting next to an old man (75 at least). We sit down across from them, and I didnt even think about why they werent sitting across from each other, but then, I take my computer out and we're just looking a tmovies etc. But the guys is like staring at joey the whole time, and then I realize that the his hand was definitely on the girls ass, stroking her lightly. She was turned away from him sleeping against the window and he had his hand wrapped around his back, touching her. So I start FREAKING out privately, cuz I hadnt noticed, but that definitely expalined all the weird staring, and the jacket over his lap , and the sitting next to her instead of across from her. How did he know he wouldnt wake her iup? SO at first I'm like maybe thats her hand? But then I could see both of hers. Then I was like, well how could it be his? So hard to explain how he was sitting. But then I notice him move and pull his hand out from behind him, because the ticket check guy had come in the compartment and was about to check our tickets. Then he got off at the next stop and I was like KJHAKJHF:SKDHJG:KHJS!?!??!?! are you serious?

I'll comment on this later. I'm pretty sure all the readers of this blog would agree that that is HUGELY inappropriate. I felt like SHIT for not waking her up and saying something. I'd be so upset and angry if that were me....sigh. But also, it brings up that weird ethical dilema—if someone is blissfully ignorant, is it better to let them continue not knowing a painful truth, or to tell them? I'm pretty sure I already know the answer, but I didnt say anything... fuck

Signing off for now. Going to florence today. Bologna is next! I miss it!!!!