Oh Rome, you’ve stolen my heart – just as I expected you to.

I love the food. I love the sound. I love the sights. From time to time, depending on how close to human feces (yup!) or a dumpster I’m standing, I can even love the smell of you. Your old men all seem to smell of baby powder and cigars. Your street vendors offered to sell me a glass of wine at eleven thirty in the morning. We won’t talk about your men – there might be children present.

I went to sleep early last night. Like, really early. Being on a seven hour time difference from home in the middle of the week means that, to catch Mike for a chat before I go to bed requires me to stay up until at least 10:30, just to say hello – midnight if I want to have an actual conversation. To do that, I’ve been taking a lot of afternoon naps – laying down around 6 or 7, local time, and getting back up around 10 to pop downstairs. It’s a compromise that lets me get enough sleep, while still getting that tether to home. Yesterday, though. Holy shit, internet. I dont know if it was the sun – I’ve been graced with the most amazing weather this entire trip – or the walking, or the dust triggering my allergies, but I was absolutely exhausted and, when my phone alarm went off at 8:30 to prompt me to go get some gellato or another frangipine tart before hitting the internet, I glared at it, turned it off, rolled over and went back to sleep. I was just too tired to move. I didn’t wake up until 5AM.

Part of me is really glad I got the sleep I needed, it means that my last day in Rome will be a well rested one. My plan for today is to stop by the Trevi Fountain somewhere around 10:00-ish, double back to the hotel to drop off the camera, and get to MACRO right after it opens. I’ll spend the day there, find something for dinner, and then head back to the hotel to pack up my suitcase for (kind of) the last time. (Don’t worry, there’s a really huge, really old, really busy gellato shop a few steps from my hotel – when my bags are packed, you bet your ass I’m stopping for one last scoop.) Tomorrow, my flight leaves at eleven and one of the many things I have to do before I can leave the airport is finally stop at one of the currency shops to have my Euros and Pounds swapped back out for good old greenbacks. After that, it’s a nine and a half hour flight back to Boston. Originally, I harbored great illusions of catching a few hours sleep on the flight so that, when I land in Boston at 2:20 in the afternoon, I would still be kicking and able to see some of Boston’s sights but 10 days is a really long vacation for me. In truth, I haven’t taken one that lasted more than four since I was thirteen. While I’m certainly not tired of being off of work – and I have until the 3rd to face that beast again – I am sort of…tired. As much as I have loved London and am still loving Rome, I desperately miss home. I miss my bed. I miss my people. I miss my bitchy rabbit. I miss preparing a meal just so. If there were a flight that left Boston tomorrow night, instead of Sunday morning, let me assure you, I’d be figuring out how to switch to it.

I wrote (most of) this post last night before falling asleep, so forgive it for feeling disjointed.

While I was in the process of resenting the hell out of Paris, I decided to funnel some of my time productively and planned a route through the historic center of Rome for a walk. Wandering – and getting lost completely – was OK in London, when I had no qualms about the availability of Underground stations or my neighborhood. In Paris, it was out of the question. Get lost after 3:00 and it might have been nine-thirty by the time I made it back to my neighhorhood, and I didn’t have the impression anyone liked being out there after dark. Here, it’s passibly acceptable. The Rome Metro is very small, and therefore very easy to use. I sprung for the pass (since it got me free access to the archealogical sites and MACRO, plus unlimited usage of all public transit) which means any bus I hop, on, i can change my mind about free of charge or judgement, so when I got turned around today, I jumped on a bus that had a line toward a Metro stop I knew and it was just a plesant surprise to arrive exactly where I was hoping to go within about four minutes. Given the breadth of everything I would like to see, and the meandering little streets that don’t seem to point in any consistent direction, i did want a map and directions, and I made them, and I had them, and I used them.

My first stop was Piazza Navona, for some pictures, some gellato (mmmm…breakfasty-lunchy-whatever). Internet, I did not photograph this gelatto, out of respect for you. But, I will tell you about it. Vanilla gellato, with a coating of chocolate gellato, rolled in cocoa powder. Yeah. You OK? No judgement here. It was just as awesome as it sounds. PIazza Navona has a handful of fountains, kick ass ice cream, and a shit ton of street vendors quietly selling artwork.

After that, I headed for the Pantheon. I will say that, archetecturally, this particular site never struck my fancy. Unfortunate, since every U.S. Capitol is based on it, plus like 97% of banks. Still, I wanted to see it, live, in person and up close.

Holy shit internet.

The word “looms” – thats what this word was made for. The Pantheon stands over the square like a dark fortress, despite being wide the hell open and basically falling apart. It’s almost alien, in its appearance of weight, among cotton candy colored buildings with airy balconies and creeping ivy. It looks almost as though it were dropped there – with a cartoonish thud. I hear it’s a Catholic church now and, while they do, of course, offer admission, i declined on the grounds that, despite being in Rome, I still try to stay out of religious institutions.

My walk took me past a lot of things I’d intended to see, some things that I hadn’t and a lot of stuff that has names I don’t quite remember.

Yes, I resissted the urge to go in there and offer to educate the fine folks of the AP as to their usage of the word “hung”…also “troop” and my usage of the word “asshat”

I saw a cute old mini though. Isn’t he adorable??!?!?

This, Internet, is where the human feces popped up. Just in case you were hoping I wans’t going to tell that story. There is an area on Fori Imperiali where the ruins can be directly accessed, and I suspect homeless people regularly avail themselves of the small shelter still provided. At least, thats the explanation i’m going to use for the giant piles of…well… in the what-used-to-be-a-room next to me.

Much to what I’m sure will be Katie’s disappointment, I elected not to go inside the Colosseum. But i did take this pretty picture! (Truthfully, by that point, my feet hurt and I couldn’t bring myself to get it up for a lot of plauques and stairs.

The historic city center of Rome is exactly what you think it is – absolutley lousy with monuments, ruins, statues, fountains, and street carts. Outside of that, Rome is much like any other city. I seem to be staying in a Koreatown of sorts, surrounded by little clothing stores, peddling wares the likes of H&M for half what they charge. (Mmm…one has to love the smell of child labor in the morning.) Down the street – right across from our closest Metro stop, there’s a little Piazza with a playground for kids. There are small local resutrants and cafe’s, as well as a few other hotels, but the funniest thing i’ve seen so far has been a bit of a mash up. Down the block, if you look really closely, you’ll walk past an “Italian Kebob” shop. They sell, basically, Gyro’s on sticks….nevermind that that’s Greek.