Rome is Where the Heart is

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So.

Back again, are we?

March has been quite a month.

The last time I left you, I had just been getting back from Barcelona. Since then, I haven't done any international travel, just a lot of travel within Italy.

I had a week of CRAZY INTENSE midterms and then it was Spring Break.

My family came out to Rome for Spring break and we had a nice time. After my family left, I went to Bologna and met some of my fraternity brothers who are studying abroad. Our hostel was incredible. It was actually a bed and breakfast, and in all honesty it was better than my current apartment and cheaper on a per-night basis. Goodness.

Bologna is very cool. Bologna was soooo much colder than Rome. Its two hours north of Lazio and in the mountains. It's an old city with an old college (founded in 1088 AD) and has a whole lot of college kids. We went out the first night and got dinner at a place called Posta or something like that. My friend Max who I was with, ate there ten years ago with his family and they were very happy to hear that he remembered it. We saw a few churches in the next day and went to these big two famous towers that Bologna is famous for. Then that night we tried to get reservations at a nice place but they didn't pick up. Bologna is completely booked on Saturday nights, so if you don't have a reservation, you're in trouble. We got a restaurant to give us a table and it was a nice place called Taverna del Lords. Good food and wine. The dessert came in this like buffet style thing where they gave you a plate and a fork, and brought different dessert dishes to your table sporadically. We had great homemade tiramisu and zuppa inglese and all this crazy other stuff for a flat rate. Pretty awesome.

Max and Andrew, my friends, left the next morning because they had to fly to London and Prague respectively. I had some time to kill because my train left at 5 in the afternoon.

(So, each night we got AMAZING fresh food from this store a few doors down from our hostel. Fresh bread, prosciutto, pecorino, mozzarella bufala, olive oil... oh man it was so good. so Saturday night we came back to the hostel after our huge dinner with extra dessert and we didn't have the need for all this food. Because Max and Andrew had to go through customs back to their respective countries, all the food became mine. However, I can get all this stuff in Rome, it was not that much food really, I REALLY didn't feel like carrying all of it on the train, and I was kind of tired of Italian food, so I was looking to get rid of it. I walked around Bologna on Sunday and I wanted to find a worthy beggar or some homeless dude to give this bag of food to. It was a plastic bag with a half liter Moretti Beer, some bufala, fresh prosciutto and a half loaf of bread. So, walking the deserted arcades of Bologna, searching for shifty hobos and/or legitimately down on their luck folk, I was asked by a college kid who spoke pretty much only Italian to sign a petition for something about the upcoming regional elections. I said no and kept walking. Then a few blocks later we ran into each other, and I had been thinking about it, so I had a little conversation with him in horrendously broken Italian saying that I was leaving that day and he could have all this food. He was very, very happy and gave me the whole European kiss on each cheek thing. Just wanted to get that story in writing so I wouldn't forget it.)

Sunday, I got up, took my time showering and changing, and made a little espresso in our hostel's FREE ESPRESSO MAKER (jeez, writing this is making me strongly dislike my Roman apartment) and then packed and went out. I thought the walk to the train station would occupy most of my day. Wow, Bologna is a small town. I got there in about twenty, twenty-five minutes, and stood waiting for my train. Bologna's train station has NO chairs or benches in it except one institutionalized, UV lit, DMV-style waiting room which I'm pretty sure was the beginning of purgatory. I tried to wait, but time was passing so slowly that I decided to explore the town around the station. I found a bar across the street. Bars in the Italian sense are just cafes but they sell beer because Italy is awesome and America hasn't really caught on to the finer things in life yet. I got a chicken sandwich, drank a few Heinekens, and listened to music all afternoon. Wow, that was one of the more enjoyably relaxing afternoons I've had in a while. Time passed, and I took my train home.

Before I forget: on my train to Bologna from Rome, we stopped in Florence and a HUUUUGE six and a half foot tall black transsexual lady/man/RuPaul impersonator sat in the seat right across from mine. Oh my goodness, she was one of the scariest dudes I've ever seen. She had huge hair and big hands and veiny arms. It was emotionally upsetting on an intense level.

Back to the trip home from Bologna: the train home from Bologna was much more tame. I sat across from an old lady, and we both enjoyed looking at the mountains pass by in Bologna. I'm pretty sure she wasn't a transsexual.

Uh... the week after Bologna was a standard week at school. No complaints. Classes are good.

That weekend, we stayed in Rome, and my roommate, Matt had his girlfriend and several of their friends come out and visit. It was a good time. Saturday night, his friend Tom turned 21, and needless to say, it was a good time.

The week after that was a standard week, yet again.
At some point in there, the world cup trophy came to Piazza del Popolo, courtesy of your friends at Coca-Cola, and I wanted to see it but didn't get a chance.

I've been getting pizza verdura at the pizza place by Piazza del Popolo a lot lately. I eat lunch in the Piazza and people watch for about an hour or two.

I've got to write a couple papers this week if I want to not be totally stressed out of my mind in the coming weeks.

I am in this thing at Temple called the Jam Session on March 31st. It starts at 10 o'clock at night. I have a phone interview for an internship at 11 o'clock that night. Awesome.

The night after the jam session, I am playing drums at this bar for this band we've put together. My roommate, Matt, is on piano, a temple kid named Evan is on bass, and this Italian dude helping out with the jam session is on guitar. The italian will be singing mostly, because he's a professional musician. I, however, am pulling a Ringo Starr and singing Come Together while playing the drums. I'm really excited.

This weekend, I was going to go to Prague, but it seems like I will be unable to go because my friend won't be there this weekend, and all my Temple friends are staying with friends of theirs. I really don't feel like staying in a hostel alone, so I'm gonna be with Matt in Rome and I want to see a couple things in Rome. Maybe I'll take a day trip to Pisa if I can.

I can't remember if this is everything I wanted to write, but it's all I'm writing for now.

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