Rome-ward Bound + Rome for the Holidays

Those were the titles of my last two entries, but I had to condense them into one since I haven't had great internet access and now I am both back in Rome, and my birthday/Father's Day are over. I was also going to post pictures on this entry because I came back to the Rome Center to pick up some of my luggage and take it to my hostel where I am staying until I leave on Thursday, but I somehow forgot my camera. I'll either find some internet later this week, or post them after I get home.

Rome-ward Bound:
Friday I left Florence and visited Pisa. I saw the Field of Miracles, the Duomo, the other building, and the ever-popular Tower of Pisa. I wasn't going to climb the tower because the line looked huge, they only let 30 people in every 20 minutes, and I pretty much just wanted to go back to Rome and rest for a while. I bought a ticket anyway, because I realized they queued the visitors, and went and had a nice lunch at a restaurant that was showing a some professional track meet on their TV, which was fun. A new 100m record was set last month, I think. Then I climbed the tower, and it was a nice view, everyone kept exclaiming about how weird it was to be walking at an angle, when I didn't see what the big surprise was...it's leaning...it's a leaning tower...you're going to be walking at an angle. Most of the people had to stop at some point and catch their breath, too, which was also a little annoying. People need to walk up stairs more often. 294 is not that many. I realize I'm in pretty good shape, even for someone my age, but people need to get out more, seriously. Speaking of which, is anyone at home working Dunc's butt? Or is he still a sea lion? Someone had their pug at the Field of Miracles, but I don't think they allow them up the tower. Oh, speaking of pugs, I forgot to tell this story a while ago. I think I was in Venice, but I was walking somewhere and a guy was walking his pug with his (assumed) wife and her friend, and the pug looked pretty tired. Then the pug just laid down. The guy stopped and pulled on the leash, but the pug didn't budge. He just laid down, his legs sprawled out, his tail totally straight, panting, looking at the guy like "Seriously? Keep pulling the leash. This pug is going nowhere until he's had a drink, a six hour nap, and some Cheetos." It was pretty awesome; he was very much the definition of pug. But I digress. After Pisa I took a train back to Rome, and stayed in a hotel for two nights, then checked into the vastly cheaper hostel down the road (most of the hostels were full for the previous two nights).

Saturday was fairly uneventful. I pretty much just walked around Rome and became reacquainted with the city, reading a book all day.

Rome for the Holidays:
Yesterday was my birthday. I am 21. It was fun. I had lunch at the restaurant below the Rome Center, and went out to dinner at 7:45 with Stephen, one of the guys from my program who's still in Rome, and Robin, the TA for the Greek class while we were here. I had spaghetti as a first course, and my "secondi" was basically a plate of prawns. But it was all good, and we had some wine with dinner. We walked to the Trevi Fountain after, stared at it, got some gelato, and then we parted ways and all went home. Holiday"s", because it was also Father's Day. My phone is dead and Robin's wasn't working to the U.S., so I was going to call but was unable to last night. But Happy Father's Day, dad.

So now I'm in Rome, and I will pretty much just hang out and enjoy myself until I leave on Thursday. Days that look nice I might take the 20 minute train out to the beach, tomorrow or Wednesday I'm heading to E.U.R., the super fascist city that was supposed to be the model for the fascist world or something, to see the museum there, where is housed the Plastico, a plastic model representation (that's huge) of ancient Rome. We were supposed to cover that in the program, but we went on a Monday, and most museum are closed on Mondays. Stroup's informant had told her that the museum would be open, but like most museums, when we got there, it was closed. The train takes a while to get there, so there was no way she could take us back (it was the last week of class), so I'm hoping to go on my own before I leave.

My plane leaves Thursday at 9:50pm, and I'm going from Rome to Milan, Frankfurt, Portland, I believe, and I should get in to Portland around 11:20am on Friday, I think. Just enough time to get home, unpack, wash clothes, repack, and head to YMA. I might be able to squeeze in saying hi to the family. Hopefully I'll have access to internet again before I leave, and can post some pictures, but if not then I'll post again once I'm back in the U.S.(S.R...).

Latin Word for the Day: dominus, domini (tr: master)

Valete, amici.