Okay, here is where things start getting a little frazzled on the blog because it’s time for me to try and fit the rest of Rome into one or two (or three) short posts before moving on to Athens.
There was one more place of note in Rome that I wanted to visit, and visited, and photographed, and now am writing about. That place is the Pantheon. As the name suggests, it was a temple built for all gods, Roman gods that is, and I believe I saw that it was built in the second century A.D. Most of the temples built at that time are now in ruins, but this one was converted into a church in the seventh century and has been used as such ever since. Because of its consistent use by the religion that is in power in Rome, it has escaped the destruction that has befallen almost every other contemporary structure and remains fairly truthful to its origin. Unfortunately, the Pantheon was going through renovations, so my pictures are obstructed by scaffolding, but you get the picture, so to speak.
I think that, this being post four about Rome, that’s enough about the touristy stuff. What else is there? Oh, there was soccer. Or almost soccer. I wanted to go a match at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome while I was there and Lazio was hosting Bari, so it seemed like it would work out. Since neither club is very good this season, I was hoping I could get tickets at the stadium before the match. Online, I saw websites that said this would be possible. I hate those websites now.
I went to the stadium, but because I got lost in Rome and couldn’t find a metro stop earlier in the day, the earliest I could get to the stadium was about an hour ahead of time, though I thought that would still be enough time. I got off the bus, walked across a bridge and a few streets and arrived at the stadium. I looked all over for a ticket booth, exactly where the website told me to look, but to no avail. Finally, I found a booth for online tickets. I stopped by and asked where I could buy a ticket. The person at the booth told me that the only place to buy the ticket was at a store in a piazza on the other side of the bridge. I went to the piazza on the other side of the bridge, but couldn’t find the store. By this time, it was five minutes before kickoff and I decided that if Lazio wanted my money, they should have made it a lot easier for me to give it to them. Frustrated, though far from heartbroken, I gave up and went back into the city.
I also spoke with a few people while I was in Rome. First, I met up with Cecilia, who was a student in the TEFL class that I took in Buenos Aires. She works at an art gallery near the Spanish Steps, so I stopped by to see her a little before she left work. When the gallery closed, we went to an Irish pub because she swore there was one around and I told her that I had not seen one. She was right. (Before the week was over, I found four more Irish pubs and a Scottish pub.) We stopped by for a beer and then went to some place “more Italian.” The “more Italian” place was a bad wine bar that had no other people. It wasn’t very Italian. Oh well. She is relatively new to town and we both learned something and I had a good time, nonetheless.
I also spoke with some old dude at the Scottish pub, where I went to watch Inter Milan eliminate Chelsea from the Champions League. He was one of the many Europeans I’ve met that professes to know more about the United States than any American and can list in great detail all of the things wrong with the country and the people even though he’s never actually been there and I doubt seriously whether he’s known very many Americans in his life. Since these people amuse me, though, more than irritate me, I talked with him throughout the match, or at least before the match and at halftime.
After the match, my journey really began. I left around 11:00 pm, a little drunk, and got some dinner. The dinner was a chicken & broccoli pizza and a liter of wine. Okay, now I was more than a little drunk. I took that a step further by getting lost. Now, drunk and lost in Rome, I had no idea how to get back to my hotel and couldn’t find a soul to direct me. Eventually, I decided that a little clump of trees that I saw provided adequate shelter and I decided to go to sleep. Around 2:30 am, I woke up, started to sober up and realized that I had fallen asleep in some trees right outside of the Roman Forum. If nothing else, at least I knew where I was. I actually had the state of mind to take some photos of Rome at 3 a.m. on my way back to my hotel, where I arrived shortly thereafter. Afterwards, it was a little frightening to think about, but it all worked out well in the end, so I’ll just be thankful and hopefully learn from my mistake.
I think the next post will be food-oriented. Maybe because it’s almost breakfast time for me.
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