thedonproject
Europe: Venezia, train, Roma
Personal
Published 08-10-2009 on my old wordpress blog.

The room, B&B Ai Musici, Venezia, 7:44

I woke up (for only the second time tonight!) in the middle of a dream about being at a Pixies covers show performed by local Seattle bands. Part of it was in a small field in the middle of the city and I was sitting on a really tall chair like a lifeguard, leaning back on a tall white fence. The first song had a cool drum thing in the chorus and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a Pixies song. The second song I can’t remember, but the drummer was from H is for Hellgate, that’s for sure. She had a drum solo and kept flinging sticks all over the place. After this song, it was my job to jump down and unplug some mic cable for some reason. Maybe someone i knew was working sound and I volunteered to help just like old times. The third song was maybe a Pixies song or a Jawbreaker song. The chorus said “please don’t go” and I can’t think of a song from either band that does that. The song came from a venue just up the hill from the field. I was rocking out so hard that it woke me up. I need to go to a show.

Train to Roma, over the Adriatic sea, Italy, 10:43

I’m sharing my booth with a Japanese family. I haven’t given any hint that I know any Japanese yet. The rest of first class is filled with Americans. I like only paying $15 for a first class trip to Roma from Venezia. I like air conditioning, as well. Carrying that backpack in the heat is pretty not awesome.

On the train between Firenze (Florence) and Roma, Italy, 13:58

I love the mountains. After passing some italian mountain villages, I’m now also looking forward to seeing some Swiss alps and what not. I hope I can climb all up on them or something. My horoscope in the Italian train magazine said the word for the summer was “recreation.” I guess I’m supposed to scream or something whenever anybody says that word? That’s what Globey told me anyways.

In the shade of a museum behind the Roman capitol building?, Roma, Italia, 17:20

I’m glad I’m seeing Roma last. You haven’t seen old until the year something was built had three digits. Or less. Seriously, first century A.D. Plus, this is basically the home of the Roman empire, which was pretty big, I guess. Hang on, I’m going to go to the fricking Colosseum really quick.

An outdoor seat, some restaurant, by some museum, Roma, 19:55

So, the Colosseum is about 2000 years old. And you can just pay 12€ and walk all around inside. It’s pretty impressive, but I should have gotten here way earlier, because my euros got me in to see some ruins and the Palatino, as well. Not the font, as far as I know. Remember when Joaquin Phoenix was at the Colosseum and gave the thumbs down to Russell Crowe? That was some history right there. Apparently the pope comes here and visits, but only on good Fridays. On the bad ones, he’s out counting his money and cursing Sinead O’Connor (aren’t we all?).

So, Austria was a pretty bad ass empire, but the Roman Empire would have laughed at it’s weak territory. Roma pretty much ruled all of Europe. Even stupid Britain, if you remember. My homies, the Germans and Prussians or whatever they were then were able to keep them at bay and then the goths destroyed everything. All that face makeup makes you really pissed when it’s this hot out.

At any rate, there’s all these connections between the U.S. Empire and the Roman one that you’ve probably heard before. There was a quote next to one of the bits of old marble behind glass in the exhibit at the Colosseum that basically said, “the people only want bread and games.” I’ve been quite introspective on this trip and one of the myriad topics that has crossed my mind is the balance between my desire to have fun and my need to do the right thing. I’ve started almost to resent those that spend their entire life on entertainment. Yet I have tried to do the right thing far too much and ended up where I am, a little bit unable to appear to have any kind of fun at all. So, what do I do now? Should I have succumbed to the strange urge to drink vodka in Prague? Should I just give up my old-fashioned “morals” and change the focus of my life from doing good to having fun? If so, why don’t I just start doing heroin, then? I think this trip has just created more questions I can’t answer. Oh well.

Antarctica Room, When in Rome Hostel, Roma, 21:40

As I was saying, I’m lame and would like more invitations to things so that I won’t be so lame. I’ll say yes to pretty much anything. Except the stuff I’d say no to.

I ate some Ravioli finally. The thing about picking restaurants at pseudorandom, based on proximity to the place you get hungry an their nearness to nerdy streets like Via Gallileo Galilei, is that sometimes they are not the best restaurants in the city. This one was pretty not the best. Maybe I shouldn’t have stopped by that gelateria first…

I feel like I need more time in Rome. But, I’m going to Napoli early tomorrow (after my free breakfast) and I am going to sit on the beach for at least 5 hours. Don’t worry, I have lots of sunscreen left. Plus, that is basically the only reason I came to Italy anyways. Except for adventure.

I’ve been making nice faces at all the pretty Italian ladies, but they are waaay out of my league. And probably none of them like good music. Some ladies from Utah did ask me for directions to a bus that I had no idea existed, though. Oh, and earlier at the train station, I helped some ladies from Buffalo find their way to Florence (it’s Firenza, ladies!). So my good face isn’t totally useless. Maybe I’ll have to up the game and try bolder advances when I get back to Seattle. Maybe I should clean up this blog and make it look like I don’t have metaphorical heart cancer. Maybe I should just find the cure.

Well, I have some pictures to upload over at the old Flickr account. I have taken over 1000 pictures with my fancy camera and about 25 minutes of video. Also, the Flickr account has all the good iPhone pictures, so about 100? One week left!

If you like this page, you can buy me a coffee.

Keywords: europe, italy, travel

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