Skip to main content

Roma, day One


I left my flat very early in the morning, but still managed to be so late to my flight that they had given away almost all of the seats and had to put me in business class. Woe is me! I had to use real silverware and drink out of an actual ceramic cup! I wish I could always fly business class--it makes you feel like a real human being. I landed in Italy and found the train into the city. The view from the train windows looked much like Chicago or the outskirts of any major city. Apartment buildings crammed together, laundry hanging from balconies, graffiti here there and everywhere, lots of trash... but there were also Mediterranean-type palm trees (which I haven't seen in a while) and a general Santa Barbara-type feel to all the city-ness that made it quite an enjoyable train ride. The station was a fifteen minute walk from my hostel and I had printed out a detailed map from Google to help me on my way. My little wheelie suitcase bore the jutted cobblestones very well, and the Italians seemed not to mind the entrance of another tourist into their city. There were lots of shops, but nothing remarkably ancient. Chaeli was asleep in the hostel when I arrived, for she had been travelling for about 22 hours or something like that. I was going to go out and explore for a bit, but found that I, too, was tired. So I took a two hour nap, woke her up, and we left to peruse the city. It was evening by this time, so we headed for the Spanish steps (I believe in the film Roman Holiday, Gregory Peck holds a watermelon on these steps while Audrey Hepburn eats gelato. I could be wrong...). The church at the top of the steps is supposed to be worth looking at, but a column-monument directly in front of it was having some work done, so I mostly saw lots of scaffolding. The view from the top of the steps, however, was not a disappointment. There were lots of city lights and a few important-looking domes all lit up across the landscape. Chaeli and I followed this with some dinner (I had gnocchi with gorgonzolla sauce; very yummy) and more wandering around. Altogether, I was struck with a remarkable sense of safety. Either Rome is a very gentle city (excepting the pickpockets), or the Spirit of God was favouring us with particular grace. This sense of safety lasted the entire trip, no matter how late or how lost (though we were never really lost) we found ourselves. All was always very well. Everyone around us was very gracious and full of goodwill.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Can someone please explain why my Quicktime isn't working? Anyone with prophetic awareness of my little Atlas, none so old but recently behaving so?
8 comments
Read more
because you were all wondering what I'm writing my dissertation on, here's a brief synopsis of my 'research context': When James Macpherson published his Fragments of Ancient Poetry in 1760, he went to great lengths to make the Fragments appear to be authentic remains of an ancient, heroic oral tradition. His reasons for this were largely political, and as such, influenced the content of the epics themselves. As an attempt to establish a particularly Scottish identity, the poems were quite effective. However, to do so required both a simplification and a manipulation of traditional mythology. Stripped of anagogical significance, the Ossian epics more or less represented an Enlightenment version of history, tradition, and mythic heritage. The stories themselves were changed by their very purpose and in turn changed the manner of representing myth in future narratives. Moreover, the emphasis on the Ossian epics as authentic tales from the past, as ‘fragments,’ served...
6 comments
Read more
I just finished Shiver , by Maggie Stiefvater, the other day. From the first few chapters, I had every reason to expect this book to rival the other dark-teen-romance novels recently released (you know which ones I mean). And in a way, it did. There was nothing obnoxious about this book. The characters were mostly believable and endearing. The story was subtle and simple. Maybe a little too simple. At times, maybe a little too subtle. The best chapters were the ones from Sam's point of view, when he's a wolf. That doesn't take up a whole lot of the story, unfortunately. I mean, it would seriously hamper the progression of the plot if he was a wolf for much more of the time, but the writing was still at its best then. Perhaps because it seemed that the poetic, lyrical passages were justified. I like Rilke just fine, and I know plenty of people who compose song lyrics in their heads, but Sam as a human was just maybe a little too emo for me. It could just be that I'm almo...
3 comments
Read more