Tourism so far:
I’ve seen the Colosseo, but only from the outside. There were droves of annoying tourists everywhere (I don’t count myself as one of course, native to Rome as I am) plus men dressed up as gladiators who had their pictures taken for money. Seems like an easy job to me. But the crowds around the Colosseo freaked me out (not to mention the prices of the guided tours, trinkets and so on) so I strolled towards Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II, also called Altare della Patria; Altar of the Fatherland. From the name you can tell that the monument is all about grandeur. I saw big statues (with the compulsory themes: women carrying flags, men on horses, soldiers and gods and Caesars and pasta), majestic stairways, columns (or pillars, I don’t know the difference), and more men dressed up as gladiators. Soon enough the crowds, gladiators and patriotism of the place got to me and I had to move on. I had some delicious chocolate ice cream and made my way to Pantheon. The “temple of the gods” was built in circa 125 AD (so Wikipedia tells me) and is awe-inspiring, beautiful, and best of all – free! You can just stroll in and admire the architecture, the atmosphere and the mind-numbing size of the place. The dome of the Pantheon has a hole in it – the Great Eye – that is 8 meters across (or so my guide book tells me) so it’s like being in a church with daylight inside. It was pretty. The gladiators outside kind of resembled the guys outside of Colosseo and Monumento so I started to suspect that they were following me around. I have to say that the best part of my tourist Saturday was the ghetto. No gladiators there, just the great Synagogue surrounded by calm streets and piazzas. I sat down with my (semi-dull) pizza and my (quite decent and cheap) wine at a piazza and just relaxed. Soon a very sympathetic German hitch-hiker struck up conversation with me and before we knew it the whole afternoon had gone by.
I’ll write more about the adventures of the weekend but now I really have to do some more pretend work!
Ciao
3 comments:
Just have to ask....
In which language was the conversation with the German hitchhiker?
How's the Italian coming along?
How's your new Aussie flat mate?
Enjoy the gelato!
Carmel
The nice German bloke spoke English, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to chat since my German is less than non-existent! My Italian is coming along just fine, I'm picking up stray words as I need them. So far I've learnt words like "power cut" and "cucumber"! My Aussie flat mate is really nice, although she hasn't moved in yet. She's funny and relaxed, and we get each other. She thinks it's funny that my accent changes when I speak to her! Her favourite expression is "I can't be assed" and I was the only one who got it, the others thought she was saying "asked"...
'go do some more pretend work'..? What is it that you do?
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