Italy Cycle Journal

Day 2 - Rome

Day 2 – May 14, 2005

Let’s see – we landed a few minutes late, but not too bad. Customs was easy, just walked through in a few minutes. Picked up my bags and found my way to the train station to take the train into Rome.

The view from the train was interesting – in every city, the airport is always around the shitty part of town. It was no different here, but the fascinating thing is that even though it was run-down and shitty, it still had a quaint, old-world feel to it – in a crappy kind of way.

On the train, there were people all around me text messaging other people. It is SO big in Europe! Noticed it the last time I was in Paris, too. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t get how big it is – unless you’re trying to be quiet, why not just call? Maybe that’s it? Maybe Europeans consider it rude to shout in the phone when you’re in a public place?

Why does text messaging cost more with most cellular plans? You’d think the carriers would WANT you to text other people – it must used about 1/10th the signal time. Maybe they charge more because they can.

The airport in Rome is really in the middle of nowhere – it’d be like plopping LAX down in the middle of Palmdale (sorry Melissa – you’re in the middle of nowhere).

An hour or so later – checked into the hotel and dropped off my bags. The hotel is REALLY nice – I was pleasantly surprised. I’m used to doing the discount thing when I travel to Europe, so having a bathroom with full toilet and a bidet was a new thing for me. In the shower, there was an ‘alarm’ cord. Not sure what the Hell that was for? What kind of emergency could you have in the shower that requires pulling an alarm cord? Help!! I forgot to bring conditioner!!

And off I go into the city. I just wandered pretty much aimlessly. Since I’m coming back to Rome for several days at the end of the trip, I just wanted to explore and check out a number of random places. Get a feel for the land. The city is much smaller than I expected. I walked from one end to about the halfway point of the city in 45 minutes or so. Walked past the Coliseum, the Pantheon and a number of other amazing buildings – can’t wait to get back to check it out more closely.

I dressed a little nicer than I typically would if I were doing the tourist thing – didn’t want to stand out too badly. Must have worked because Italian people kept trying to stop me to ask for the time or for directions. I was like “Dude, not only can I not give you directions, I can’t even tell you that I can’t give you directions!” Not sure why they thought I was Italian – maybe because I wasn’t dressed like a tacky tourist, but I also had my glasses on – the frames are kind of similar to glasses Italians were wearing.

Giolitti’s – okay, so for 2 weeks I heard nothing about Rome from Lisa other than “Go to Giolitti’s” over and over and over. Nothing like ‘Oh, make sure you see the Vatican” or “Check out the Pantheon, that’s kinda cool.” It was nothing but “Make sure you go to Giolitti’s.” Have to admit, I thought she was freakin’ nuts. Jeezus – it’s ice cream, who gives a rat’s ass? But I stopped there to give it a try, since it happened to be along the way while I was walking (and I promised – 45 FREAKING TIMES).

Oh. My. God. It was amazing. I ordered a large cone with a combination of chocolate and cremina ice cream. Cremina was kinda like whipped cream flavored ice cream. Wow. Fucking amazing. Lisa – I apologize for thinking you were crazy. Well, at least as far as Giolitti’s goes.

Let’s see – did a lot more along the way. Bought a cell phone that I’m still trying to learn how to work. The damned instructions were all in Italian. I should have seen that coming. I managed to fumble my way through the menus and change it to English. Now all I have to do is figure out the country codes and how to re-load it with added time (it’s a ‘pay-as-you-go’ phone). Then, I’ll be able to make a couple calls. The cool thing is that I can receive unlimited calls, so once I fig ure out the number, I’ll be able to let people know. I know the number – it’s the country code and city code I’m not quite sure on yet.

In the evening, I had some pizza at kind of a fast food pizza place. Didn’t want to have to have a full sit-down meal quite yet. Even the fast food pizza was delicious. I’m seeing what people have been telling me about authentic Italian food.

Before heading home, I did a couple other things. Stopped at a little bar/café called Trinity College. Kind of an Irish pub looking thing. The bartender looked like John Stamos. And when I say he looked like John Stamos, I don’t mean it in a nice way (is it even possible to say that in a nice way). I mean, full-on General Hospital, fully gelled 80s hair and sleeveless vest instead of a shirt.

Finally, on the way home I explored some more. I know, walking unfamiliar streets in the dark at around midnight isn’t exactly the safest behavior in the world. C’est la vie. Oh wait, that’s French (I keep doing that – someone will ask me a question and I’ll answer ‘Oui’ instead of ‘Si’ – all I can remember is French).

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to walk around the backlot of the studio at night. It’s really eerie when it’s dark and empty. Walking around the streets of Rome felt exactly the same way. There were certainly streets around me that had a lot of activity, but some of the smaller streets were dark and quiet and totally empty. Like some gothic horror film. Felt like something was going to jump out of the shadows at me. Of course, without any light, there weren’t any shadows. So, I had that going for me. Which is nice.

It was wild, though. So quiet on some of those small streets. You’d think there’d be some noise or light is some of those buildings, but a lot of them were absolutely empty. It really was like walking a fake backlot set, didn’t seem like they were real, inhabited buildings.

Well, how’s that for a full day? Much more went on, but that was the essence of the day. All in all, managed to do quite a bit in less than 12 hours.

Oh, and I found a bunch of places that had internet access along the way, but wasn’t carrying my laptop with me. I’m guessing that I won’t be posting this stuff too often, since I don’t want to take my laptop with me everywhere. When I get back to Rome, I’ll know where to go.

posted by Joel @ 12:30 AM