In the University of Washington, Rome Center, computer room right now. Most everyone is sitting around on computers checking their emails or trying to chat with people back home.
No sleep last night, aware and awake but everything is coming across a little fragmented now.
Sat for a while on the steps of the fountain in front of Santa Marie in Trastevere, watching an adult play a game with a group of kids involving rolling a soccer ball at them as they screamed and ran around in circles. Every couple of minutes another parent would walk up and drop a kid off before heading into one of the cafés around the square for their coffee. When then the church bell struck 9:30 the adults all suddenly gathered, queuing up to head into the church for morning services.
Aka. Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere
When the traffic light turns green the street fills with the roar of the crowd of Vespas shooting through the intersection, followed by Smart cars, Land Rovers, BMWs, and a mix of a few other car models. Along the sides of the streets cars park everywhere, even beneath the blue signs marked with a red X that I think is an Italian “No Parking” sign. Most of the roads end up with barely enough clear space for a single lane of traffic, barely any left for the pedestrians who seem quite comfortable walking in the roadway rather than on the sidewalks, or the small strips that pass for sidewalks (there are places where old cobbles raise up to form a sidewalk, though I suspect that is less planned and more that drivers don’t like the bump of going up on those cobbles).
People on scooters race down these little streets, honking their shrill horns to try to get through the crowds of pedestrians. Delivery truck drivers swear at us when we don’t get out of their way quickly enough for them, but it is in Italian so even their profanity sounds faintly musical.
England had trash cans that were labelled something like “Recyclable” and “Waste” (not sure I got photos of them). People out on the streets in London would throw trash in the street in front of the street cleaner vehicles as they went by (and they went by a lot, there were plenty of them). Now in Italy there are four types of trash cans: “Plastic, Glass & Metal”, “Clean Paper”, “Non-Recyclable”, “Organic & Compostable”. Along with these four types of trash cans there are fines of 50EU for each misplaced piece of trash.
The University of Washington, Rome Center, is in a beautiful classical old building. We’ve checked in and are getting an orientation lecture right now. On the ceiling of the classroom is a beautiful piece of artwork, mostly restored except for one unrecoverable corner. Odd juxtaposition of this beautiful art and a lecture about personal safety and the threat of pickpockets and groping while in Rome. On the way out of the classroom level, I noticed that the doorstop the maid was using was a small chunk of marble rubble.
1:21 PM Rome time: We broke for lunch, need to go meet up with everyone again in just a few minutes. Got a prosciutto e mozzarella (ham and mozzarella hot pressed sandwich) for lunch and acqua (water) from a little stand on the side of the road, 5EU. Ate that while wandering around the streets near our meeting spot, watching drivers yell at pedestrians, fat Italian men carry tiny little dogs cradled in their arms, more people carrying guidebooks to Rome than people who actually look like they live here, and finally buying a handful of grapes from a fruit stand.
Which was a surprise, the grapes that is. I forget that the rest of the world doesn’t have the fetish for fast food that the US does. Grapes in Italy have seeds, it seems, rather than the type we’ve bred to be seedless and that makes up most of what you ever see in the markets back home. Don’t think I’ve ate a grape that had seeds since I was a little kid. Confused me for a moment, thought I’d eaten a bug or part of the stem or something that wasn’t grape along with the grape. They are delicious though.
( Next: We went to the Forum, but that will get its own post. )
11:37PM: After the Forum we were all pretty much exhausted from the day of walking, and we took the tram (light rail, think MAX for those Portlanders reading this) back across the river and towards where we all are staying.
Off the tram, we wandered into a department store, down a flight of stairs, and off to get groceries. I had plans for eating simple in Rome, partly because I can’t read quite enough Italian to feel comfortable ordering off of the menus and partly because I am too broke at this point to risk running out of money before the trip is over. Three days worth of groceries ran me about 24EU, which included breaking down and buying a big bottle of Coke and one of Fanta Orange.
The Fanta Orange has been interesting, it is a lot clearer than the Fanta back home (less dye to make it bright orange) and tastes less “artificial orange flavor” and more like valencia oranges, very sweet.
I had a bit of a delay on getting dinner, swapping rooms so I can hopefully sleep better, but dinner was a small salad of lettuce and some tomatoes just off the vine.
Tomorrow: Sleeping in, the Coliseum, and not sure what else.