Roma! part 2

Now for my time in Rome…

We just hung around all day Saturday until we went to meet Barbara Anne at the train station around 18.00. After we dropped her stuff off at Julien’s apartment, we went to go get pizza at this little hole in the wall place. They just make huge sheet pizzas and then cut rectangular pieces to whatever size you want. They use huge scissors to cut the pieces. It was goofy. We ate our pizza while watching all the cats run around the ruins. I forgot how infested Rome was with cats. It’s kind of ridiculous.

We then continued our nice nightly stroll through the Vatican and then up this hill that Julien loves because you can get a pretty good view of the city from it.

The next morning, Sarah and I got up early to go to Palm Sunday service at St. Peter’s. It was pretty amazing. There were seats set up in the square, and then tons of people were standing farther back. We did not want to get up early to try to get seats, so we just stood in the back. There was a processional where all these priests brought palms up to the steps of St. Peter’s, and the Pope followed them from the monument in the middle of the square.

They had a really great choir and several passages were read in a few languages. The Pope gave the sermon, but it was in Italian, so we got kind of antsy standing in the heat for so long, so we left.

We went to a café near the Pantheon to get a drink, and afterward, when we were maybe two blocks away, I realized that I had forgotten my palm on the table. We went back to try to find it, but the table already had another patron at it and our waiter was not in the mood to ask around for us. Oh well. I’ll just have to go back some day.

When Sarah and I got back to Julien’s, the rest of them were having a picnic out in the courtyard. We hung out there for a while and one of the old men that lives in the complex fell in love with Sarah (she has blonde hair and blue eyes, so go figure). He came outside and started painting these small statues of the Virgin Mary, and then he motioned for Sarah to come look at them and then he showed her all the statues around the courtyard that he had painted. He was adorable. And Sarah knows a little Italian because she befriended a lot of Italians in France, so that was good because they old guy knew no English. That night we made chicken, risotto, and asparagus for dinner and we brought the table out to the balcony so that we could eat outside. It was awesome. Then we went on a walk to the Forum and Colosseum. I loved wandering around Rome at night when all the (other) tourists were at dinner or asleep. It was really peaceful.

We found a random mattress in Julien’s apartment, and so Alex and I decided to bring it out to the balcony so that we could sleep outside. Around 3.00, Julien’s really drunk roommates came home and outside and they woke us up. They went to the other end of the balcony so it was no big deal, but then the balcony was shaking and we didn’t know what was going on. Alex and I were both groggy since we had just been woken up, so I thought that he was moving around and it was just the mattress that was shaking, but he thought Julien’s roommates were making the balcony move. Whatever we thought, we were annoyed, so we moved inside. When I went into my room, Sarah asked me if that was an earthquake or people jumping on beds. I laughed because I thought that the idea of an earthquake was ridiculous and so it must have just been people jumping on beds. The next morning, I walked into the dining room and Julien goes “so, how bout that earthquake last night”. We looked it up at it was like a 6.3 on the Richter. That’s not a small earthquake. It was about 60 kilometers away from Rome, and it shook the house that much. Granted, we thought it was people jumping on beds, but we were tired and confused. But it’s pretty crazy to have experienced an earthquake. It shook the house for ten seconds or so. I don’t know how I didn’t realize what was going on.

On Monday we bought a ticket to go see the Colosseum, Forum, and Palatine Hill. There were lilacs all over the place and they were so beautiful and smelled like heaven. I was happy. We then went to check out the Trevi Fountain.

We decided to make Tuesday our day trip day, and we agreed on the beach. This place called Ostia Antica is apparently a wonderful little town on the coast, so we decided to check it out. We never really made it to the little town though because the metro went past it to get to a stop closer to the beach. Oh well. We brought a picnic and just hung out all day long. We had so many picnics, and they all consisted of bread, cheese, and fruit. I don’t know how much cheese we all ate that week, but it was a disgusting amount. It was just too delicious to pass up. It wasn’t the warmest of days, but it was sunny and the water was actually surprisingly warm for April (probably just because we’re all used to the freezing NH beaches). The boys went swimming. We got gelato at a little place in the town, which was a cute Italian version of a beach town. I loved all the houses.

We went to the Pantheon and the Spanish Steps on Wednesday.

And then we went to this huge park and rented a four person bike and a two person bike. The seats were side by side on both of them, so they were like little cars. We had a blast racing around the park on those things. That night, we went to dinner at a place that Sarah had read about in a travel book. It was called Alfredo e Ada. And they don’t have menus. We sat down, and Alfredo (who was the cutest old man alive; I fell in love with him) brought us over a jug of wine and a basket of bread. He then brought out the first course, which was a pasta dish with absolutely delicious marinara sauce. I don’t know what Ada did to it, but it was awesome. We then had a choice between veal, beef, or fish for the second course. I chose the beef, which was also fantastic. Italians really have it down. Then Alfredo brought out these desert cookies that we had been watching other dip into their wine, and so we did the same. I didn’t think that made them any better really, but they were still great.

On Thursday we did the Vatican thing. They were setting up for that weekend inside St. Peter’s, so I couldn’t get directly underneath the dome to take a photo laying down like I did back in the day, but oh well. We climbed to the top of the dome again, but then it was absolutely packed at the top, so we didn’t spend too much time outside.

That night we made pizzas. So many pizzas. They were fabulous, but we pretty much couldn’t move after eating so much food. And we couldn’t find yeast (or we didn’t know how yeast was said in Italian) so we just kind of made the dough with flour. It was weird, but it turned out okay.

Julien’s professors had told him about a park a few miles outside of Rome where there are really neat ruins of the aqueducts, so we went to check them out on Friday. When we got off the metro stop, we didn’t really know where to go, so we just started walking in a random direction. Eventually, we could see the aqueducts in the distance, so we just kept walking toward them. This was a bad idea, because we got to the park a really roundabout and ridiculous way. We had to cross train tracks and climb over fences and then walk through random fields. But in the end we got to the nice part of the park. And, of course, we had a picnic.

We went out to dinner on Friday night for Alex’s birthday. I got an amazing artichoke pasta dish with veal. It was delicious.

Sarah and Barbara Anne had to leave on Saturday afternoon, so Julien and I took Sarah to her metro stop while the other two walked Barbara Anne to the train station. Then the four of us just hung out all day. That night we went out around the Trastevere neighborhood, which is where Julien’s apartment is. Italians are crazy. A network of about ten streets is just packed with people during the weekend nights. The cars and scooters have to go so slowly to get down them. And people just hang out on random people’s doorsteps. We were sitting on one for a while, and the guy who lived there just knocked on the door so that he could come outside. It was goofy. I had a good time.

The next morning, on Easter, I had to get to the train station at about 9. The service at St. Peter’s was at 10.15 and I couldn’t find any earlier services (probably because every Italian is out so late on Saturday nights), so I had to miss Easter Sunday this year. It was really weird. I hadn’t even thought about when I booked my flight a few months ago. Oh well. As I walked to the train station, tons of bells were chiming throughout the city. That was pretty neat.

My flight went well, but this Australian kid wanted to talk to me the entire time. I was not in the mood for small talk; I just wanted to sleep. Oh well. I got into London Gatwick, caught the bus, and was back in Oxford around 16.00. I was so happy to be home and able to stay in one spot for a while. But then I was locked out of my house. Our deadbolt was loose, and I was consistently tightening the screws so that it wouldn’t fall off, but while I was away, it got to a point where one of the screws had fallen off and made a problem. I don’t really know what happened with it, but Amanda couldn’t even open it from the inside. We just took the entire deadbolt off and it was fine, but I was very annoyed with the whole deal.

For the past couple of days I have just been lounging around, watching LOST, and getting ready to move. I am moving to:

11a Little Clarendon St.
Oxford, UK OX1 2HP

It’s in an area called Jericho, which is really busy and where lots of students hang out, so I’m thankful to be moving. It’ll be nice to have two different experiences for my two different terms. And I emailed a kid from the OSAP program to see if he would sell me his bike, so hopefully that happens. My family is getting in on Saturday morning and I am so excited! I cannot wait to see them.