TUTTA CITTA

Rome rocks. It’s so fucking cool here. I had an hour to kill today in between appointments to see apartments- so I took Crazy Baby Blue (a name I am considering for the new Vespa- what do you think?) for a little joyride. So fun to just drive aimlessly around with no destination in mind. Its a hellava lot easier to enjoy when I don’t have to pull over and consult that god damn map…. Actually they have an excellent map here. It’s called tutta citta. Which means “the whole city” and it works a lot like a Thomas guide except it’s not quite so large… just a magazine really. But I feel like I can get anywhere with that little book, that and my Vespa. I mean- sometimes I have to KEEP pulling over and having a look- but I always get where I’m going.

So I drove all over and eventually landed in the Piazza Nuvona. Which is really the best people watching ever. Tourists from the entire world. Different languages at every inch, Asian and Arab street merchants, an all silver completely frozen human dressed as the stature of liberty, 3 older gentlemen with electric guitars doing Pink Floyd and Dire Straits covers…. Side walk restaurants packed with people soaking up the afternoon sun drinking wine and eating gnocchi. French school children on group tour… one girl stands and teaches her schoolmates about Bernini’s famous fountain in the center… she consults her notes and a boy in group smiles at her which makes her blush….

At a café today I sat next to an English couple that were negotiating with their guide book how best to fill the 4 days they had in Rome. It was all could do not to stand and tell them – I CAN TAKE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD. I LIVE HERE! But I resisted and just listened to them weigh out Piramede (basically an ancient pyramid in the middle of an intersection) and the Etruscan Museum…. Neither of which should be missed in my opinion, but what do I know… I liked all that shit so much I uprooted my entire life to have more time at things like Piramede…

Later I wandered over to the pantheon… which is probably my favorite place in all of Rome. There is just something about the hole in the ceiling. It’s so fucking cool. It’s just a hole. I n the ceiling. I love it. I can’t wait to go there when it’s raining. I have to see that…. Rain just pouring in… Awesome. Truly AWE-some.

Anyway. The apt hunt continues… seen some promising ones… I will report properly when there is actual news to report.

On a side note- for those of you that know Justin Dragonas- you might remember his ex-girlfriend Andrea? Well, either way she lives here… and the other day I called an real estate agency about a listing I had read. And a girl answered the phone- who, wouldn’t you believe it turned out to be fucking Andrea…. It was pretty amazing. She was going to email me photos of an apartment- so I gave her my address, and she said “wait…. Chase Carter?…. Do you know a guy named Justin Dragonas?” Holy shit what a small world. It was pretty terrific really.

I take it all in like an omen. Like all of this was meant to be.


Finally I am finishing today with a poem a dear old friend sent me today.

It is exactly how I feel.

Moving Forward

The deep parts of my life pour onward,
as it the river shores were opening out.
It seems that things are more like me now,
that I can see farther into paintings.
I feel closer to what language can't reach.
With my senses, as with birds, I climb
into the windy heaven, out of the oak,
and in the ponds broken off from the sky
my feeling sinks, as if standing on fishes.

-Rilke