16-17 November, 2004: Rome, La Citta Eterna

OK, where was I? The shuttle driver dropped us off at our hotel in Rome, we checked in, and headed up to our room. The floor numbering system followed what I understand to be a general European system, where the "first floor" is the "first floor above the ground level". Since we were on "il piano terzo", that meant four floors up a steep windy staircase to our cute little room. And we opened the window, and the shutters, and see... well, exactly what you'd expect, really. This was about as cliché a hotel room view as you could have: narrow windy streets, tiled roofs with cats wandering around on them... it was perfect.

Miz Becky was still feeling sick from the flight, so she napped and I headed out into the street to look around. How quickly was my mind blown? Well, it took at least five minutes, maybe as many as ten. The road I was walking on widened into a little piazza, with a Roman column just hanging out in the middle of it (that's "Roman Empire era column", not "a column that happens to be in la citta eterna"), with a Smart car parked in front of it. That's really when my head started to hurt.

The thing is, here in Seattle, and in most of the US, we're impressed when we still have a building from the 1800's. In some cities on the east coast of the US there are buildings from the 1700s or even the 1600s. But, see, this was an artifact from the 300's. In a parking lot. With a beer can sitting on it.

The phrase that kept coming back to me while we were there is the "depth" of the history. Not only is it old, it's been old for a long time. I know that sounds stupid, but bear with me. My tendency is to think about old things purely in relationship to me: I'm in 2004, that was built in 1000, OK, I can deal with that. But once you start adding other "bookmarks" in between, it really drives the point home: People were coming to Italy in the 1700s on the Grand Tour because it was so old. Other people were visiting in the 1500s because it was old then. There are references to the "ancient buildings" of Rome from the 1200s. And so on.

OK, whatever. Go ahead and laugh. I said my mind was blown... I don't expect to manage a coherent explanation.

I got back to the hotel room, where Becky and I napped for another 45 minutes, and then decided that it was time for dinner. On the recommendation of the desk guy we headed out across the Tiber river to a quiet little neighborhood place he described as "more typical". Two things of interest happened on the way:

1) Miz Becky, on the first night of the trip, nails the prize for best line. No, I haven't forgiven her. We're waiting at a stoplight to cross a busy street. A group of locals come up behind us, wait for a break in traffic, and head across. Becky looks back at me with a smirk and says "Well, when in Rome..." and wades across while I am consumed with helpless laughter.

2) In what was to become a recurring experience, a group of fabulously-dressed Italians stopped me and asked (in Italian) "Do you know where Pizzeria _______ is?" It would have been cooler if I could have answered "No, I don't know, I'm not from around here" -- which I do know how to say -- but my jetlagged and freaked out mind (see above) couldn't put it together, so I just said "Scusi, non parla italiano." They were clearly embarassed, said "OK, sorry" in English, and moved on.

The meal was great, as was the people watching (Look! Italians! They tell jokes! They eat pasta!). We were a little turned around getting back, but made it eventually and fell into our beds (two twin beds pushed together, also a recurring pattern).

The next morning, we woke up around 7:00. Becky was much restored. We had breakfast in the hotel (the usual "bread and pastry and butter and coffee" breakfast that we would see repeated everywhere), and headed out to see how many sights we could see before we caught our afternoon train to Florence.

As it turns out, you can see quite a bit of Rome in not so much time. The Pantheon (80 AD) was right by our hotel, as was the monument to Vittorio Emmanuele II. We could see the Colosseum from VE2, but decided that what we really needed to do was get some lunch and get on our train.

And that's where I'm going to have to leave you, because hey folks, I gotta day job, you know.