Around 2 in the morning (I think?) one of the girls in the room next door started Facetiming with her boyfriend (I think?) which woke me up. Now, if she had been quietly talking to him with headphones in, I probably wouldn't have stirred. BUT NO. She was SCREAMING! For like an hour! Yelling at him! And he kept being like, "I'm so in love with you" and all that, but she was so mad for whatever reason. She said something like, "You and me, we're like Romeo and Juliet!" I told Katie later in the morning that I wish they would just make like Romeo and Juliet and DIE.
Finally, at 3, an RA came and knocked on her door to remind her that it was quiet hours. God bless that RA.
THEN, though, at like 7:30/8, the cleaning ladies came to clean the bathroom across the hall from my room and were having a loud discussion that woke me up AGAIN. I was not happy. But, I was able to fall back asleep again until almost 10. Naturally, a chill morning followed, as we were tired and quite disturbed from the night before.
A little after noon, we went to Fonzie's, which was mysteriously closed the other day, but luckily was open this time. It was yummy as usual, and necessary to go to one last time before we head to Spain.
Next, we took the long metro trip out to EUR, the fascist-designed neighborhood that we were supposed to go to as a class on Thursday. I have to say, it was really neat to see. As Katie said, it felt more like being in a US city than in an Italian one, as it was mostly office buildings and such. There's a nice big reservoir-type thing (I tend to call all smallish bodies of water like that reservoirs because we have so many reservoirs back home) that we walked around. I was delighted to see lots of ducks, geese, and fish. The ducks quacked a lot, too, which was exciting.
We basically hiked up this hill, following a bunch of guys in business attire, to get to what we thought was some sort of sports complex. I now know that it was the Palalottomatica, the Sports Palace, which was built for the Olympics. In addition to sporting events, conferences are held there, which is clearly what was going on when we walked around it.
We headed up the main road, Viale Cristoforo Colombo, where we finally saw all the museums and structures we read about for class. At one point, Katie and I both tragically tripped over the same bump in the sidewalk because we were looking up at the fascist obelisk. We didn't fall or anything, but my sunglasses did. They remained unscathed (Ray Bans are the best), but we were quite disturbed. In any case, though, the obelisk was really cool.
Not the best picture...but there were randomly lots and lots of magnolia trees!!
We finally found the main building we were looking for: the square Colosseum. It was so cute! And the best part is that it is now the headquarters of Fendi corporate! I love Fendi.
Eventually, we headed over to the other EUR metro station to head back to campus. On the way, though, we saw a precious little kitten all alone in the road. It clearly used to belong to someone, as it came right up to us and let me pet and hold it, but it was pretty dirty and definitely underfed. It also was afraid of grass for some reason. Any time we tried to get it out of the street and into the park, it freaked out. If I held it over the sidewalk, it was super chill, but if I held it over the grass, it flipped out. We wanted to bring it to the cat sanctuary in the city center, but if it wasn't going to let me carry it, there was really nothing I could do. Heartbroken, I left the kitty behind.
We went to look at some monument in the park before going to catch the metro when we saw ANOTHER cat. This one was also super friendly and definitely underfed, but an adult cat. I pet it for a little while, but then it saw a dog and went back to its hiding spot. Finally, we left EUR.
That trip was pretty exhausting, so we rested up for a while before heading out to the Keats-Shelley Memorial House. It's the place where John Keats tragically died, and is also a museum honoring the Romantic British poets/writers who had a connection to Rome, namely Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Seeing all of their handwritten letters and manuscripts and locks of hair was SUPER exciting for my English nerd self. I also ended up buying a lame T-shirt to add to my English major T-shirt collection. (I call it lame, but I'm so excited about it).
Since the Keats-Shelley Memorial House is right by the Spanish Steps, which aren't super far from the Trevi Fountain, which is right by Gelateria Valentino...we obviously then went to Gelateria Valentino. Had to go at least once more before we leave. It was amazing as usual. The same father-daughter pair who are always there were there again, and this time the dad got really into Katie's flavor selection. She just wanted dark chocolate, but he said she needed another flavor. She said she'd also get pistachio, then. He said dark chocolate would go better with Ferrero Rocher, and she was fine with that. He also gave her a tiny cone of pistachio, too. It was great.
We headed back to campus on the Via del Corso, the shopping street. I realized now would probably be the best time for me to check the Adidas and Nike stores for the soccer scarves Will had been begging me to get him. Adidas didn't have anything, but the right in the entrance of the Nike store was a table of Roma gear, including the scarves. I bought one right away, but not without being "proposed to" by the cashier first (it was more like, "Do you need a husband?? PLEASE marry me! I need green card!").
Back at school, we rested some more before going to the ever-wonderful Spaccio Pasta for dinner. I had some wine and my favorite truffle pasta. It makes me sad to think I probably won't get to go there again.
Of course, after a bad night's sleep and a tiring day, you would think I would've been able to go to bed early like I wanted to, but instead I had a hard time falling asleep. Classic me!
No comments:
Post a Comment