Saturday, September 04, 2004

16:31

What a day i've had- I started out feeling a bit sorry for myself...but good god- it's 4:30 am and I've just stumbled home- got fantastically lost on the way home....just ridiculous. My sense of direction has fallen to shit here. I don’t know what happened. I don’t remember my instinct. There was a point when I realized I was so lost and a girl and walking alone in Rome at 4 in the morning. I needed a cab- bad. Thank god I wasn't in LA- I got a cab right off- and in fact even figured out where I made my crucial wrong turn....

The streets are so funny here. Just one huge old stone thing after another. And it’s unbelievable how perfectly obvious they are…. they are everything you would expect them to be- old huge faces chipped apart by age but still magnificently perched on top of some old brick thing.

I made some friends tonight, a gaggle of brits, and Irish guys and a kiwi named Damaris. We smoked hash and walked thru the streets on our way somewhere we never made it to. I jumped into a fountain in piazza nuvona... laughed like crazy. Funny people those foreigners... there was a moment when I felt so happy- sitting on the set of stairs outside this pub- me with all these transplants. All in this strange city for some mysterious reason or another. But gathered here because it was Friday night, and we all wanted to do something fun, and here on these steps we all spoke the same language.

Apparently I am NOT the only one who doesn’t speak Italian. People have been here loads longer and still don't speak it for shit. There is such a big group of English speakers. It of course doesn’t seem to hurt that I keep going to an Irish pub… which to my defense is EXACTLY across the street from my apartment- which in Rome means an alley. Its amazing how tall and narrow they all are- and the streets are fucking cobblestone!! I mean, I knew that- but they really are. It’s hilarious. And get this- there are fountains in Rome that have fresh COLD water that is OK to drink all over the place, and everyone shares freely.

I was at the trevie fountain today. And I was perched right over a water spicket. I sat there for maybe an hour. Watching people come and go- all sitting next to each other at the fountains edge and having there picture taken. Cant be a very good picture I thought- I mean there's loads of people everywhere. It’s not like you can frame out the people and still get the fountain. The patient ones did.

Tonight when it was so late and I was walking home- I walked by the pantheon. It was the middle of the night and I had the place all to myself. Perfectly still- and quite. There was a guard out front wandering around and his female partner asleep in the front seat of their police car. I hurried thru even though my instinct was to stop and stare at the majesty of such a structure in the middle of the night all alone. But I thought it best to keep marching. I was far from home- and although I wasn’t lost yet I was well on my way.

I t was really nice to have a conversation today. It had been a few days since I had really spoken, and been spoke back to.

Anyway- I've had the most fun day- but it's almost six am now- I apologize for the late night ramblings.... arrividerchi.

No comments: