Italy Volume II

Okay, so here it goes:
I've had a very different second half of the week. Starting on
Tuesday, I sorta had a sore throat coming on, so I went to the
pharmacy and got some cough drops. By Friday my sinuses were crazy
though the cough never really got too bad. Today I have the worst
sinus headache ever. So, I'm finding plenty of time to sit and write
because I don't feel like doing anything at all. For those of you who
worry about my health and safety, I'm fine...seriously. It's only a
minor set back and today is the first day I've felt bad enough that I
didn't want to go do anything. Having said that, here is the rest of
my week for your reading pleasure.
On Wednesday, we (meaning Mark and I - and yes I'm still hanging out
with him EVERY day...he's like a little lost puppy) decided to go to
Piazza del Popolo and then to Villa Borghese. It was such a pleasant
day. Admittedly, Mark hasn't been that bad to hang out with. At my
mom's request I've decided to be nice since "he meant well." This I
realize is true. For his own benefit of the doubt, he just finished
redoing his kitchen and it took him a whole month and he really needed
a vacation, and he saw this as his opportunity to have a great tour
guide and enjoy Italy. So, I'm seeing a lot of things I would have
seen anyway and I have someone else to see them with which isn't all
bad, and though he is quite intolerable to liten to sometimes, I've
become very good at tuning him out and doing my own thing all the
while pretending I'm enjoying his company while really just enjoying
Italy and projecting that enjoyment onto him as though it were his
doing. I think I'll get struck by lightning for this, but at least
I'm enjoying my vacation finally.
The Villa Borghese gardens were beautiful! It's like a really large
park and it used to be this huge villa owned by the overly rich
Borghese family. Their villa is now a museum and their gardens are
now overrun by the homeless, the tourists, and now me, so eat that
Borghese snobs! It feels good to stick it to the rich folk
sometimes...maybe one day centuries in the future random people will
be squatters in every one of Donald Trump's huge sky-rise riverfront
properties.
I remember several years ago I used to poke fun at the 'ragazzcci'
that's Italian literally for 'bad boys' or in other words 'punk kids.'
They used to all have the same haircut and clothing style...really
tight jeans that would umbrella at the bottom just enough to slightly
covere their huge-soled sneakers (I'm talking 6-8 cm high) and a tight
fitting florescent-colored shirt (usually pink, orange, or yellow).
Their hair was ALWAYS buzzed pretty much all over except right in the
front where about a 4-5 cm by 1 cm block of hair remained and they
would spike it up with hair glue. Nowadays things haven't changed
much. The shoes (grazie a Dio) have normal soles, but the pants are
still fairly tight and umbrella at the bottom. However, the hairdo is
this new thing termed the fauxhawk: faux- being french for fake and
-hawk being short for mohawk. What this is, and I'm sure you've all
seen it before is this attempt at a mohawk yet far more subtle. The
hair is generally very short on the sides and in the back and tapers
up to the top of the head where the hair is gelled or hairglued into
an attempted mohawk. On some this actually looks quite flattering and
fortunately the tight shirts are no longer florescent though still
fairly tight. But on many of the childish, obnoxious, skinny
teenagers it looks absolutely ridiculous...oh, and it's not exclusive
to the males unfortunately. Ah ragazzacci, where do you come up with
these ideas that you look good?
I needed to go to the bathroom and the McDonalds near Piazza di Spagna
(the Spanish Steps) is the most famous in Rome since it was the first
one, so I figured why not try here? It has amazing marble floors and
walls and interior decorations to match an ancient Roman emperor's
palace. It's also completely packed like crazy with all kinds of
people. Hello? You're in Italy...please tell me you want to pay 6
Euro for a Value Meal instead of 2 Euro for an authentic, delicious
pizza.
On Thursday we toured these ancient excavated Roman ruins that were
not open when I was here 6 years ago. They were fantastic and
fascinating and I took a ton of pictures. I think I'm going to get
some sort of website to post random pictures, but it may have to wait
until I have free internet access down in Naples. I leave for Naples
on Sun afternoon.
We also went inside St. Peter's Cathedral at the Vatican which is
always fascinating. I stopped for a moment at John Paul II tomb which
was surrounded by mourning and praying Catholics. He was a great man
and even in his palsied, feeble state before his death, he was
constantly seen out and about traveling the world. Do the Catholics
have a new pope? I don't even remember his name...well, maybe their
trying to keep a low profile these days.
Friday was a day in Florence. What an absolutely beautiful city! I
took more pictures here than anywhere...I LOVE digital cameras! We
saw the David (this was my second time). When I went before I was
allowed to take pictures and walk right up to the statue, however,
this time around the statue was blocked off with this short glass wall
about 4 square meters in area and photography was forbidden. I didn't
even have my flash on and this women came up to me scared to death
that I was shooting photographs...she couldn't get her English and
Italian straight, so I confused her with French in reply.
Hahaha...I'm so evil! It's very fun to pretend you speak another
language...you get away with so much more ;-)
We saw several different buildings and piazzas all over Florence and
everything was pretty much within walking distance. We met this guy
from Mississippi while standing in line to see David and he came with
us most of the day to tour the city. Our final stop ended up the hill
on the other side of the river with a spectacular view of the city (I
took tons of pictures again).
On the train ride home, I met a couple on their honeymoon from Long
Island. The husband was a high school teacher teaching music and his
wife was an art historian from Spain. A very nice couple whom I will
probably meet again in my future career in NYC.
So, now I'm off to send this e-mail. I love aranciata!
Alla prossima,