Getting out of Rome

Trip Start Mar 22, 2008

Trip End Jun 23, 2008

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Flag of Italy Palestrina, Lazio, Italy
Sunday, May 4, 2008

Well, in a way a lot has happened and in a way not much has happened since my last post. It is getting more difficult to find interesting things to write about because to a certain degree I am now experiencing another kind of "normal." Fortunately one of my fortes is that I find value and importance in all kinds of normal. But UNfortunately, it is typically difficult for me to put in to words. This post will likely be very random in nature but will hopefully be interesting!

I have gotten at least slightly out of Rome twice in the last week, just for day trips. The first was to a little town called Palestrina, about 30 miles to the east of Rome. Getting there was actually quite simple, although it required a bus ride, followed by a metro train, followed by a regional bus. (Once again, what I wouldn't give for transportation like this in the U.S.!) Palestrina is a sleepy little town perched on a hill, that is one of the VERY ancient sites in the area

Palestrina 1

. It is home to Etruscan ruins from the 2nd century B.C., and an archaeological museum that houses, among other pieces, some very precious mosaics. It's pretty fascinating to see that the more modern mosaic pieces look SO crude in comparison to these archaic ones. They are composed of the tiniest pieces you can imagine, and when standing back, they are so detailed they look like paintings. The details are truly amazing; I can't even comprehend the time it would require to put something like this together.

Besides visiting the ruins and museum in Palestrina, I ate my first truly Italian meal - by this I mean ALL the courses. Oh boy. What a treat that was! Getting out of town a little bit allows one to eat amazing food for pretty cheap. I had a meal that included wine, antipasto of bruschetta and some marinated peppers and olives, a pasta dish, a meat dish (something like a pork chop), and a salad. Believe it or not, even with my appetite, I couldn't eat it all. But I really enjoyed it. We were in a restaurant that had panoramic views of this little town so we just sat there and took our time.

My second outing was to the beach! Jaime and I didn't know it would be so atrocious to go to the beach on a Sunday, but holy cow. Once again, all we had to do was hop on a couple trains and we were there. But the quantity of people on the train was something I can't put into words. It was a true test of my ability to deal with my mild case of claustrophobia, and required lots of breathing and positive self-talk! The beach was rather uneventful, although I will say that just like everything else I've experienced in Italy, it was a cluster-f*ck of confusion. It must be in the Italian nature to make everything as non-evident as possible

Palestrina 2

. I won't go into details but I will just say that I found it ironic to have another example of this madness. My acceptance level of this concept has surely risen though...because what else can I do???

So we cooked ourselves in the intense Mediterranean sun for a while (and it is intense by the way) and then headed back. Here's where the "fun" began. Ugh. The ride back was NOT fun. The trains were completely packed again, and full of teenagers making out all over the place. This was TOTALLY tolerable in comparison to our bus ride home from the train station. Imagine if you will...a hot sticky, humid day, a city bus...and now imagine packing that bus LITERALLY with as many people you think will fit, crammed like sardines...and then add a good 20%. Just when you think that not even another single person will fit, ten more do. You are literally trapped, with nowhere to even put your arms other than straight up in the air. It is so uncomfortable that even with so many people here, it is practically dead silent. A bunch of sticky bodies and hot smelly breath. Yay. This is when I go back to the value of a personal vehicle!!! F*ck public transportation!! So, I haven't yet conveyed the worst part, which still makes me cringe. Just to the back of me was some old man who was obviously very close to me. The longer the bus ride goes on, the closer he gets. I begin to feel like something EXTRA creepy is going on. Yes, I can feel things I DON'T want to feel right on my ass! I keep moving forward, turning my body, doing whatever I can to get away, and somehow it keeps happening again. I'm just about to turn around and punch the guy but of course I choose to think that maybe I'm imagining it?? Even though I know I'm not. I'm dying. I'm looking at Jaime who is making all sorts of faces and cringing. This goes on for way too long, and we finally decide to get off a stop earlier than ours and walk because we can't take it any longer

Palestrina 3

. So we get off the bus and we both start screaming at each other that OH. MY. GOD. Some guy's dick was pressed up against my ass. What?!?! You had the same thing happen?!?! Was it the guy in the blue jacket?? No, it was the guy in the plaid shirt! WTF, there were two of them? EWWWWWWWWW. Double ewwww. Poor Jaime had hot breath on her neck in addition to the other nastiness. Well, now that we know it's real we will surely slug the next offenders. Sleezy pathetic bastards.

OK, now that I've gotten that off my chest...I'll move on to something more interesting. But this is long enough, so I'll go ahead and make it a separate entry. Read on...