Stramba

Stramba

Thursday, June 3, 2010

last 24 hours in Rome


Funny thing happened this morning...
My sister and mother decided to go on a guided tour of the Vatican and Sistine Chapel. My sister set her alarm for 6 a.m. Her phone rang at 3 a.m. and she woke my mother up claiming it was time to get ready to go on the tour. My mother sleepily sat up, looked at the clock and back at my sister stating- Aliza it's only 3 a.m. I woke up to them laughing. Soon after we fell back asleep.
My father and I were on our own this morning and we took the time- or rather peace and quiet- to walk around. We got breakfast and looked in shops until it was time to go back to our hotel to meet my mother and sister. When they returned from their long half day tour, they complained of hunger. We set out on another adventure, in search for food in the wild- perhaps a chicken, fish or a nice juicy cow. No luck. We walked aimlessly for about a mile and a half, until we decided food was not going to be found in the direction we were headed. So, we turned around and sluggishly walked back settling for yet another italian sandwich. I used to like salame.
Somehow, the bitterness and tension lessened after lunch, perhaps because our tummies were at least full, even if not with what we desired. We got our last gelato and walked out into the RAIN. (What the heck. That wasn't in the forecast.) Without an umbrella, I covered my purse and began walking with a purpose in the direction of our hotel. My father, mother and sister were not far behind- fighting to get under the umbrella. Not caring about my hair or clothes, I wrapped my suede purse with my sweatshirt and prayed it wouldn't get wet. Luckily, it was not too long before we arrived back at our hotel. Drenched.
My sister and I continued to dry off while my mom and dad went off looking for the Harley Davidson store of Rome. My dad's gotta have a Rome Harley shirt....
Meanwhile, it's time to start repacking my bag (hopefully it's under 50lbs) and getting situated for the 5 a.m. (italy time) wake up call in order to make our 9 a.m. flight to Germany, where we'll have a two hour lay over and FINALLY board the plane to head back to the U.S....
Sad to say I am looking forward to home...and air that lacks cigarette smoke.

Dia di Republica...



Wednesday the 2nd of June just happened to be a national holiday here in Rome so when we decided to embark upon a journey to the Colosseum we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. We arrived at the Colosseum to find a large crowd consuming the facility. Unable to see the parade occurring below on the lower level, by the Colosseum entrance, we were pretty much dumbfounded by the large crowds and chanting people. Apparently, the dia di Republica is similar to our 4th of July?! They honor all the military, police men/women and firemen(women). Attempting to peep our heads through the crowds and screaming children, we were able to get glimpses of the marching soldiers.
We continued to wait for this parade to end and proceeded to get in line to see the inside of the Colosseum. An hour and approximately 15 minutes later, we were let in to stampede the ticket booths. Italians do not believe in lines either- another thing I have learned on this trip. They have no organized system of lines to get tickets. I watched people push and yell at each other, fighting their way to eventually get in at the same time. It was interesting to say the least. I let my father take charge and shimmy his way to the front.
The Colosseum is overwhelming to see in person. My sister was able to get an audio guide that explained the history of it's making. She claims it was interesting. She didn't share her guide, but rather summarized what she learned. After, we continued to explore the rest of Roma, however by the time we finished at the Colosseum it was dinnertime and we were all quite grouchy. I believe at this point our close quarters and long spans of time together have caused some tension. And it doesn't help that the amount of smoke in the air here (from cigarettes...don't these people know about lung cancer?) has created issues with each one of our allergies. My dad's diverticulitis is back and I had to help him find a pharmacy to get the medications he needs in order to survive for the last two days...
Basically, we are falling apart and I feel we are ready to come home to our beds, cleaner air, plugs that don't need adapters and more open space in order to prevent us from strangling one another in the next 48 hours. We all suggested conducting ourselves in complete silence...
this probably will not go well....

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Roma chaos...



When I arrived in Rome yesterday afternoon, I was not prepared for the journey ahead. We walked from the train station to our hotel (about 4 blocks down) and found our hotel- the Hotel Canada (don't ask). Sweating and slightly sticky (as it was 77 degrees & humid yesterday in Rome), we plopped ourselves down in the lobby and waited to be checked in. We threw our stuff in our room, grabbed a map and started to venture out into the city. And BOY WHAT AN ADVENTURE! My feet were not prepared for the rough road ahead. Although we were provided a decent map of the city, Italy lacks one of the most important items necessary for travel by foot (or travel period)- they lack street signs. Yeaaaa...not cool. It is quite common here that every so often on the side of a building on the corner there is a street name, however this does not occur on every corner AND the sign is in marble, lightly carved and sometimes hardly visible. Talk about ancient. The second problem with Italy's geographical mapping is that the streets rarely run parallel to each other. They run zig zag, diagonal or into outer space (no not literally). Oh, and the street you're on will often turn into a different street name. So you may start on one street walking straight, and two blocks down it turns into another street. ?!?! Whack.
I got us so close to the Fountain of Trevi, but had to ask a restaurant waiter, a trash man and a local shop owner if I was going the right way. Twice I was told we were walking in the wrong direction. But have no fear, after two hours of walking we found the Fountain of Trevi engulfed by what seemed like a couple thousand people and we proceeded to drag ourselves to the Spanish steps. Praising God that we actually found the two locations, we sat there for quite some time until our tummies began to grumble & we decided it was time for dinner. We slowly made our way back toward our hotel (which by some miracle took way less time) and devoured food like we had never eaten before. Shortly after we all crashed in our rooms for the evening... I am determined to find a specific kind of cookie here in Rome and I have less than 48 hours to do so... I have been gazing into each bakery looking for them... but so far no luck. Hmmm...tomorrow is a new day.