Picking up where I left off, Ameedah and I left the Isle of Capri and returned to Rome.
Tuesday
Here's another one of those funny stories. We decided to change our train time to arrive in Rome later than we'd originally planned. I went to one of the automatic ticket machines and reprinted what I thought was a new ticket for both of us.
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| This is what the machine said to me when I thought I'd printed out new tickets! |
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| See the throng of people in picture 5? Yep, that was the ticket line. |
Minutes before the train was to pull off from the station, I went to find someone else who could help, and bumped into a Frecciarossa (train company) rep. Print a new booking? Psshh. He just wrote a new seat number on my old ticket, and I prayed that no angry Italian man would come shout at me because I had stolen his seat. Fortunately, no such event occurred, and the ride was otherwise uneventful. We arrived at our newest lodging, Hotel Fellini, and bumped around in the streets.
We thought we'd have been able to hear the Pope's audience in St. Peters' Square, but alas, the Pope had jetted off to Brazil. We went gladiator training instead, which was hands-down one of my favorite experiences in Italy. Touristy? Yep. And that's fine! I'll let the pictures do the talking...
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| Paolo, our friendly gladiator trainer, first relayed a solid dose of Roman history as a backdrop for our fight. Did you know those huge helmets on our heads weighed 8-15 pounds? |
After the history lesson, we headed out to an obstacle (no photos ㅠ.ㅠ) whose task was to run through a line of five or six swinging sandbags without getting hit. Both Ameedah and I did it with no problems, but a lady in our group was having a little trouble...she kept getting clonked by the bags at the end! We, along with her husband and kids, cheered her on and told her to "feel the sandbags." LOL. She did it, though!
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| Both of us are vicious in the ring, but my short-lived college fencing days helped me knock Ameedah out a few times. :-P Thanks, Maestro Gettler! |
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| #PicturePerfect! |
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| #Colosseum |
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| A beautiful day to check out Palatine Hill |
After the quintessential pasta and gelato break, we headed out for an evening of Roman shopping, which proved interesting. Thanks to Google Maps, which had literally just been added to the App Store that week (good timing, Google/Apple), we found our way to the shopping district nearest Trevi Fountain. Ameedah was bubbling over about going to H&M in Europe — totally legitimate because it is about 293491x better than the ones back home — but was let down hard because the store was small and had a poor selection. I was even more put off because they didn't have a men's section at all! Zara was also a fail because their offerings were similarly sparse and monochromatic.
Mildly defeated and unusually hungry, we sought the counsel and advice of the front desk host, who pointed us to a nice restaurant just two blocks away. Gioia Mia turned out to be one of those friendly neighborhood places with more locals than tourists (always a good sign). The owner, an Italian gentleman in his 70s with sparse hair and glasses, came over to everyone's table to make sure you were enjoying your experience.
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| A little preview of the artisanal pasta at Gioia Mia. It wasn't a mind-blowing experience, but I definitely wouldn't mind dining there again. |
AHA! The big day! My long-awaited, "I'm going back to Europe to replenish my wardrobe" day had arrived. The EWSD (European Withdrawal Sadness Disorder) that I had been experiencing since my days in Spain would finally come to an end. Milan is a great city in many regards, from architecture to food to nice weather. Exhibit A of architecture: Il Duomo.
But I'd be remiss if I didn't mention its well-deserved reputation for being a world fashion capital. Numerous men riding bicycles in 95 degree heat while wearing three-piece suits and sporting perfectly slicked back hair were a testament to this.
We decided to take the serendipitous route and hop onto the first trolley that came our way, getting off when we saw something that looked interesting. We were in luck, because we just happened to hop on a trolly that took us right to Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, an incredibly designed shopping complex constructed in the late 19th century that is home to many of the world's most haute designers. We were fortunate to have an extensive insider's guide to the city provided by another one of my favorite people, Daphne.
I'll spare you the details, but basically, Ameedah ended up tolerating me for about three hours in Burberry, whose flagship store in Milan is like a metropolis. The tailoring specialist, Simone, was super helpful, bringing drinks for us and pulling shirts and bags for me from other floors. Fortunately, Ameedah kept me from spending an obscene amount of money, and I left with one of the seven items on my list: a new wallet. Since I use cash much more in Korea than I did in the States, this was a productive purchase; stuffing money into a thin card case isn't a good idea. My old wallet, which I had relegated to the inside of a suitcase, was so tattered that if I turned it upside down, all the cards would fall out. One point for upgrading!
I'd love to share pictures of Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" painting, but photography wasn't allowed inside the church. It was an unexpectedly magnificent creation whose engaging history led me to pick up an oil canvas version that I will display when I move somewhere where the humidity won't destroy it. If you get the chance to see The Last Supper, don't miss it. Tickets were only about 12 euros, and it was well worth my while. Never had I heard recounted how the bodily positions of each of the disciples reflected his particular reaction to Jesus' news that he would be betrayed by one of them. It's a history worth checking out.
Friday/Saturday
We headed back to Rome for a final evening. After exploring the Via del Corso shopping area, where Ameedah made some great finds, we made a seemingly interminable journey back to Trastevere, the neighborhood that housed out hotel. We walked, trammed, taxied, and generally struggled for several hours. I journaled about this on the day of, and here's the summary:
We took a tram in the hopes that it would carry us back to central Rome...nope! We ended up in Random Rome, an area so named because it's so far out that there weren't even any more piazzas in the area. We thought if we could just find the elusive gold line train, it would take us back. We found a schedule and learned that the trams had stopped running at 6pm...things stop running early on the weekends in Rome. Go figure!
While on this journey to neverland, we asked a pizzeria owner how to get to Trastevere via bus. He released a guttural but not unpleasant laugh and said (half in Italian and half in English) "Trastevere is very far away. On a bus, it is impossible [to get there]." Welp. We found a taxi and asked him to take us to the nearest metro station on the red line. We intended to transfer to Trastevere, but noooo...the Roman subway, which Ameedah and I decided was designed by someone using several illicit drugs at once, didn't take us there. We were stuck, and again in need of a taxi. After 40 minutes of standing on opposite sides of the road in an attempt to hail a cab — mind you, we still had our shopping bags from that afternoon —we went to a restarant and asked them to call a cab.
Funny story alert: We walked in, and the waiter asked if we want a table. I proceeded to ask him if they had a phone we could use. As we made our way to the back, a hostess took one glance at our faces and said "Do you need us to call you a cab?" Clearly, their restaurant was strategically placed to attract lost passersby.
The next morning, we headed back to the Fiumicino airport with destinations of Seoul and Atlanta. The previous day had been a whirlwind, but the vacation overall was refreshing, relaxing, and altogether just great.
Till the next vacation...
~WTRJ~
