Chroma Rome

I went to Rome for Turkey Day. Italians don't know about Thanksgiving, but the Xmas decorations sprung out on Friday, right on time. Santa Claus and Baroque architecture, childish to ancient, profane to sanctimonious. In Rome, a city where nothing is new, the opposites don’t attract, they just tolerate each other in a stand-off. Lingerie ads on the churches.

Rome is the eternal city, 2765 years old, according to the ...

... schedule once again. We thought we were still going to make up time as when we were on the runway ready to depart we were only 15 minutes behind schedule. However, we were then advised that due to some unknown reason to do with the other airport, Fiumicino, we had to wait. So we sat for half an hour on the runway. Meanwhile the captain of the aircraft was trying to find out why we weren't allowed to take off ...

... got to the hostel. What made it worse and ended in almost a migrain was that they put us in a room up four flights of stairs with a horrible drilling sound in it. We stayed there about 5 minutes and then went back to the reception to get another room. Fortunately they had spare beds right next to the reception which were ideal as they had no drilling sound and were right next to where breakfast was served. However I still felt like **** so crawled into bed while ...

... We had no such problems subsequently....) The next day, we walked to Vatican City, which was absolutely was insane with tourists. The line to get into St. Peter's filled the entire square, and the line to get into the Sistine Chapel was about 3 hours long (I am not kidding!!!). We decided to walk to Trastavere and return to the Vatican in the afternoon, in the hopes of finding shorter lines. The Trastavere area was great!!! Such a fun and cute neighborhood ...

... a bleeding patient, I must have waited for 30 more minutes. As calm as I was they couldn't understand my Italian and I had to wait for my roommate, Simone, to arrive to help me. Mind you this all was happening at mezzanotte, midnight and later. They called a doctor down and he gave me 4 or 5 stitches, I still haven't seen them. Afterwards we waited at the hospital for 45, trying frantically to find a ride back home. A taxi came and took me home where I passed out. I wanted to ...

... ate, and another loop to reach our hotel. Waking up with Roma I have always enjoyed cities as they awaken, and after a fitful night's sleep, I was up, dressed, and out of the hotel in time to join the early Roman commuters. Eight streets led off Piazza Barberini at different angles, and after counting carefully, I picked the wrong one. I ...

... to 2007 at the Big Apple Bar, where the music was good and the bartenders were super nice and very generous with strong drinks (not like those Copenhagen drinks!). Luckily, the walk all the way back to our place at 3am did not include running from firecrackers. We then spent our lazy New Year's day very well at a place I'd never been. If you take the metro & then the commuter train out of Rome (only 1 Euro each way!), past Ostia Antica (old ...

... especially the young men. However, dressing in business casual with nice shoes and accessories seems to be the norm. It's doable even if you own no Prada. 7. Random fact: Yes, they *are* that into soccer. We have seen children playing nothing else, and sometimes the group includes children as young as two. That's all for now. It has been a very, very long day. Will update on Riomaggiore and Pisa in the morning.

So now Im on my own. Im alittle scared but very excited. I checked out of my luxurious hotel to move to a hostel.. What a difference!!!! I wasnt quite sure where it was so I decided to go by taxi with all my luggage. It was only 10.00 euro away. not so bad.. I couldnt move into my room right away because the rooms are on lock down between 10 am to 2 pm. ummmm. not a good sign. so I checked in and left my luggage in the lockers ...

... time that I was there the whole 4 weeks. this is so disgusting here. you know what -it looks like market street in san francisco, the civic center area, pictures I have seen of detroit and then times square....ugh! I am so disappointed. atleast at the church with michalangelos moses they were redoing him but the outside was ofcourse disgusting. I was not sure what would be in side. Interesting enough they also claim to have the shackles ...