| Roma On A Lunedi |
You haven't quite lived until you've ridden over cobblestone streets in a Rome city bus packed full like a can of sardines at two in the morning. This is the conclusion I've arrived at after having had this very experience last night.
We arrived by train yesterday afternoon to Roma Termini, the main station in the city. After spending several hours napping, waiting out a wicked thunderstorm, and chowing down on more delicious pizza at our hostel, we headed out into the city to see what the evening might hold for us. The clerk at our hotel had hastily prepared a map for us to follow, detailing certain spots to check out and giving us some vague instructions for how to navigate Rome's bus system by night. As it turns out, we had arrived on a holiday, so there would be plenty to do and perhaps even some fireworks to see.
We got off the bus near the river and wandered around for a while and eventually came to the spot where we had been told to expect fireworks. In typical European style, nobody actually knew when the show might start, other than sometime after dark. Honestly, could these Mediterranean countries be any more laid back? I really love it. Anyway, we couldn't find any fireworks, but we did end up coming across, in order, a surprise flea market, a surprise food market, a surprise comedian/magician, and a surprise Italian/Bulgarian/Russian fashion show. The comedian was a little boring, since the only way we actually knew that the guy was funny was that everybody around us was laughing. The fashion show was actually quite cool. We ended up standing for almost an hour and watching gorgeous women in various states of fashionable and outlandish dress prance across the stage while equally cool music played in the background. This was definitely not in our plans for the evening, but I felt like I was in my very own episode of Project Runway, so I certainly wasn't complaining.
We kept strolling and ended up down by the river, when I thought I detected the bass line to a Sheryl Crow song somewhere off in the distance. A moment later, someone started belting out the chorus to that very song in what sounded to us like a karaoke rendition. We moved closer to see what was going on, and discovered a surprise riverfront concert taking place. So many surprises in one night. It turned out not to be karaoke, which may not say much for the band's vocalist, but she was singing American music, so we were intrigued nevertheless. Seven English songs later, including Sting, Gershwin, and Tina Turner, we were finally treated to some cool Italian songs.
It was midnight by now and still no fireworks, so we decided to give the night buses a try and head back to our hostel. We had no trouble with the first bus, but the connecting bus from Termini station was a little more complicated. We had been told that they come rather infrequently, so when the N18 finally showed up, we made our best effort to get on. However, upon arrival the bus was probably already well beyond capacity. A dozen or so people rushed to each of the three doors and shoved like cattle to get on. I was one of the lucky ones, squishing myself inside so tightly that it made breathing almost difficult. Surrounded on all sides by folks who definitely didn't value a daily shower and the regular use of deodorant nearly as much as I did, and noticing that Marc and Alex were not able to fit aboard, I decided to squish my way back out one of the exits and wait for the next ride.
Half an hour later, the next bus showed up, slightly less packed than the one before. We shoved our way on, barely needing to hold onto the rails due to the sheer density of people all around us. For 15 minutes, we roared around unfamiliar neighborhoods, swaying violently around corners and being jarred by centuries-old cobblestone streets. I was having more fun than on most roller coasters I've ridden. We eventually spotted a vaguely familiar landmark and slammed the stop button, at which point the driver screeched to a halt to let us off. We squeezed through walls of people and finally made it to the door, hopping off and taking a deep breath of fresh, body odor free air. We had actually made it, in one piece, pockets not picked. After a leisurely stroll back to our hostel, we made it in around 2. Who would have thought Rome was so full of action on a Monday night? I'm finishing a tasty croissant and a glass of orange juice and then we're heading out to go explore more of this fun city! |
|
| 1 Comments: |
-
Michael--I'm catching up on my posts here, but i see ur gonna be in venice on friday. You have to go to the old Jewish ghetto Friday night for Shabbat. It's this little area that's not hard to find. You don't have to go to services, but Chabad rents out the restaurant GamGam on Shabbat and you can get a free, delicious meal there. You don't have to register--just show up. Dinner's after services, probably not til 8:30PM--but if you go by the synagogue and see a lot of ppl w/ kippahs, etc just ask them. It was one of the best meals of our trip--so much food!!! ahhh!!!
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michael--I'm catching up on my posts here, but i see ur gonna be in venice on friday. You have to go to the old Jewish ghetto Friday night for Shabbat. It's this little area that's not hard to find. You don't have to go to services, but Chabad rents out the restaurant GamGam on Shabbat and you can get a free, delicious meal there. You don't have to register--just show up. Dinner's after services, probably not til 8:30PM--but if you go by the synagogue and see a lot of ppl w/ kippahs, etc just ask them. It was one of the best meals of our trip--so much food!!! ahhh!!!