Wandering about Rome today and passed a number of impressive sites.
Basilica di Santa Maria in Montesanto (at Piazza Popolo)
And finally, congrats to the U Conn women's basketball team and their win over UCLA to make it into the Finals. I got up at 3:30 am to watch this one live.
Today has been a very good day. Not because of anything I have done, but because of how I feel. I am starting to have glimpses of that “travel mode” frame of mind, of just paying attention to what is right before me, of what I am experiencing right now. Just being. That is enough. I think this is the key to my love of travel.
10 observations about Rome:
1. There is not the same pedestrian street crossing etiquette here.
2. It is really difficult to sweep the sidewalk in front of your shop on cobble stone roads.
3. Tourist kiosks are sometimes not very helpful.
4. There are sooooo many people in Rome today. I wonder if spring Break has started.
5. Some little Italian cars do not have to worry about parallel parking.
6. There was a trio singing opera in the Piazza del Popolo. I stayed a listed to their whole set. It turns out I recognized all of them. I had no idea I was acquainted with so many Italian opera songs. I did recognize one from my youth when I watched Gilligan’s Island.
7. I have now had 2 experiences with patisseries. The chocolate croissant was not so good. Maybe the Italians don’t make the French desserts very well. Maybe it was just this patisserie. Maybe it was because it was the afternoon and it had been sitting all day. So I decided to try an unrecognized dessert: pasticciotto pistachio. It was maybe the best thing I have ever eaten.
9. This building seems to follow me all over Rome. I know it is the same one because of the color of the walls and of the shutters.
Laundry shot from my balcony this afternoon:
April 3rd was a day of firsts: first time to use Italian for something more that grazie, scusi, or Buongiorno. I was understood completing entire sentences:
Parle Englese? (Do you speak English)
Non capisco Italiano. (I don’t speak Italian.
And most importantly, Dove it bagno? (Where is the bathroom)
This day was also the first time I used the Italian Metro system. I actually used it 6 times: 2 trains, 3 subways, and one bus (the bus I do not recommend).
On Noah’s recommendation, I decided to visit The Church of God the Merciful Father (linked here), which as a bit out of town. After a train, a walk, a subway, and another walk, I made it there. It was nice being outside of the city. The area was a mix between suburbia and the countryside.
Then back in town for the Basilica di San Giovanni (linked here)
The highlight of the day was pasticciotto pistachio. I had tried a chocolate croissant on the previous day and it was not good. Maybe the Italian patisserie are not as good as the French. Maybe it was because it was the afternoon and the pastry had been sitting all day. I don’t know. But I decided to try something unrecognized, and it was one of the most delicious things I had ever eaten.
Here is a really bad formula for a plan: decide to go for an evening walk to a park in the south (I had not walked south yet) and not really check to see how far it is. I did make it there a little after sunset, and was able to watch kayak soccer in the lagoon, which was very cool. Luckily for me, there was a subway station nearby, so that and a short train ride and I was back in my neighborhood.
