Well, I Live in Rome Now, So, Toodles!

October 19, 2015

I've been in Rome for literally 3.5 hours, and I am in loooove!

From the free chocolate after the flight, to the taxi driver who knew I didn't speak Italian but let me swoon to it while he described Rome to me, to the best fried cheese and lasagna ever, and to the two hilarious men who I chatted with while eating that food who shared theirs with me and told me exactly what was the best off of the menu.

I reserve the right to change this grandiose mindsets slightly when I see and experience other people and places in the daylight, but I have a feeling I'll feel pretty darn close to the same!

Today has been a bit of a chopped up day, from one country to another, speaking neither language and figuring out airport transit in both languages that I don't speak. 

I'll do a recap of Berlin today, and then bounce back to Roma!

So I went to bed last night and realized that I'd not recently checked the check-out time for the place I was staying. At 2am, with my fingers crossed that it was a noon check-out, I saw that it was 10am. Poo. My flight wasn't until 5:45pm, and what in the hell was I going to do for eight hours?! I decided to set my alarm for 8:30am, and text the woman nicely to ask if she'd be open to letting me check out at noon. After some back and forth over language confusion, I realized that she said yes. I wanted to kiss her on the mouth! I got to go back to sleep, got up at 10:45am, and began getting ready to go. I was already packed, so it was just the trying to look like a human again after a night of sleep, and getting my butt out the door. 

I did all those things, and then realized I still had many hours to kill. I walked across the street to the place I showed a picture of earlier on (will repeat it below), and got a delicious salad. As I left, I got two of these deliiiiicious pastries that I'm genuinely not sure how I'm going to live without!

Okay that's a bit dramatic, but they are soooooo good! The flakiness pastry I've ever had and they're lemony and creamy inside!

(they're very tiny, though they may looks the size of croissants, they're the size of mini-croissants... yes, I fear your judgement on this one! lol)

Then I walked around a mall for a bit, and decided to make my way to the airport. The flight was delayed about a half hour, which ended up being about 45 minutes so I took my time getting there. I was walking to the metro and I found this very cool art installation that I'd seen while in a cab on my way into town just after arriving. It was this giant card house installation, and I Googled it multiple times over my trip to see if I could find where it was. Turns out I still couldn't tell you, but I accidentally walked by it as they were taking it down today. The world works in mysterious ways!

It was for sure not an installation to just have cards there for fun... this one shows a dude have a cupping treatment done! Random!

From there it was the airport, where my bag was searched yet again, as it or I have been at every security check since the beginning of this trip. I'm not a novice packer, I know what's up, so I'm not sure what's going on, but fine, as long as they let me through, which they all do pretty immediately.

I hadn't left enough time, apparently, to get a good seat on the flight, because my knees were literally in the back of the person in front of me because 24 hours ahead isn't long enough to secure myself an emergency exit (ie. more legroom) seat. 

It was.... not ideal. Two hours of leaning forward because it could relieve some of the knee pain. I'll be checking in as soon as possible next time. Heads up on Air Berlin, lovely people, got me here safely (definitely the most important part), but even shorter people were struggling with their legs.

We arrived and after walking for a long time through the airport (quite happily) I arrived at the taxi line... of over 150 people. Yeah! That's right, the line was very long, and I have never seen so many cabs lined up either. It took about 30 minutes for it to be my turn, and then it was Italian taxi driver time, as I eluded to at the beginning of the post.

He-was-adorable! I want him to be my older guide to life forever and in Italian for always. He was lovely, and can we have a moment for the Italian language?

It's like someone has baked you a perfect cake, iced it with the best icing you could imagine, then added rainbows, gold and genuine smiles, and mushed all of that up into a language. I have very little clue as to what he was saying, but it is the stuff that dreams are made of (much like my soon-to-be-a-real-thing cake I've just described)!

Finally I arrived at the AirBNB place to the woman I'm renting from standing and waiting for me. Points earned right there. Then she took me inside, showed me literally everything, and guys, she brought me breakfast for tomorrow because she knew I wouldn't be able to do groceries tonight because nothing was open. COME ON, she's the best!!!

We chatted for a bit, and perhaps the second best thing to the Italian language itself is the Itialian accent applied to English words. I can't. I just wanted to hug her because of how adorable and wonderful she was / is.

Then she took me for a quick walk of the neighbourhood to point some places out, and I am soooooo excited to check it all out tomorrow when it's all open! And that's just two blocks around me, not the entirely of Rome that I have four full days to enjoy! 

She pointed out a place simply called Trattoria, and so after we parted ways, I went there. Nervously, of course, because this is not tourist Rome, this is Roman people Rome, and the chances that people will be over the moon about having to speak English to the chick from Toronto were very small. 

Anyhoo, I learned how to say "Table for one, please" in Italian, and it half worked, lol. Whatever, at least I tried.

I sat down, it was around 10pm tonight, and I was tired. And hungry. And tired of being hungry. I ate way too much, but if this is what Rome is going to be about, it's going to continue to happen!

The first thing is deep friend mozarella.... I had maybe four of the blobs (which I'm sure they'd be happy to hear me call them!), and I was toast. The rest are in the fridge waiting for me to make some part-two bad / delicious choices tomorrow. 

The second is clearly lasagna, and... I need a moment.

Talk amongst yourselves...

It was so effing good. Like almost bathe in it so effing good. And this was my first meal! I haven't even seen daylight and this is the best Italian good I've ever had!

To top it off, the guys next to me, a man maybe 60 and his younger counterpart struck up a conversation with me when they noticed I was pretty bad at Italian. They didn't say that, but, you know. They told me that I simply had to get the deep fried mozarella, and that the pizza was amazing. Of course it would be!

The cool / hilarious part was when their food arrived, and the insisted that I have a piece before they did. So, I had a small piece of this delicious bread thing, and then one of their cheese ball things... that's when I knew what I was in for!

Anyhow, now I'm full of cheese, hanging out in a wonderful apartment in Rome, and soon to be dreaming of tomorrow and the adventures that I certainly hope it holds. 

I'm heading to bed, it's been a long day, and I will be back tomorrow with some great stuff, even if it's all just pictures of food, which let's be honest, most of this blog has been anyway, lol.

Night, folks!

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My New Address: 123 Best Place Ever, Rome, Italy

October 20, 2015

Right, well, today was pretty much the best of the trip so far! 

There are going to be a lot of pictures in this one, because I covered off two of the biggest things I wanted to see, literally and figuratively (and a bunch of other great stuff too!)

The Colosseum and the Pantheon!

I woke up with more sniffles than I'm comfortable with, but what, am I going to sit inside because I was sniffly? Hell to the no!

I ate some homemade jam from the husband of the woman who I'm staying with on some melba toast, had an apple, and headed out on my way. I walked to the Colosseum, it took about 25 minutes, in wonderful weather. It's the actual exact opposite of Berlin in terms of joy-making weather!

I got to the Colosseum after fighting through a ton of people, obviously, and it was insane. Absolutely gigantic, and stunning, and unreal, and... I just remember learning about it in Mrs. Thompson's grade ten art class, and now I was standing in front of it. How? How does the world work this way? I mean that both in that how the hell did I get here, and also how on earth did people build this thing? It's insane! Proof here:

I obviously went to the giftshop after, and wanted to get something to remember the visit by. They had these awesome bronze sculpture of a gladiator riding an old Roman cart with four horses up front. It was... not cheap. I didn't buy it, but it's still floating around in the back of my head. Instead, for now, I bought these lovely bags!

After standing around the Colosseum for a while longer because it hurt my heart to walk away, I took the bus up to the area that the Pantheon is in. I was walking and walking, thinking there would be some cleared space for it, because it so huge. There wasn't, it's just tucked in the damn city streets! It's insane! It's amazing! Here it is!

It's prestine, clearly been cleaned up and restored, and I sat in there for a while just taking it in. 

From there I walked along a few little adorable streets, and saw some ice cream... followed very quickly by I ate some ice cream. Specifically white chocolate orange, and hazelnut. Come onnnnnnn! 

While I walked with the best ice cream in all of the land, I saw a woman selling very cool jewelry. I bought this piece that she made this morning out of old metal plates from Rome! She was lovely, and adjusted the length for me as I waited.

After that! I walked a bit more on my way to the island, and I came across an amazing shop called Pinocchio. In the doorway was a man carving wood by hand, and so I went in. I found the most wonderful carved Pinocchio in a wood stump, and it even smells like fresh cut wood!

This is the beautifully designed bag it was packed in.

You guys..... look at that face!

I'd looked at a map earlier in the day, and saw that there was a little island with some stuff on it. I decided to walk to it! I didn't know what was on it, if they would let me on it (seemed super tiny and fancy), but sure enough, they did. 

There was a white building that was clearly a church of some sort, and I saw a warm light from inside. I decide to go in, and as I did, a couple that I met at the airport waiting to fly out of Berlin tapped me on the shoulder and said hi. They're quite lovely, and they're German, though I can't remember from which city, but it wasn't Berlin. They suggested that we grab some tea, so I said I'd meet them up the street after I did my look at the inside of the church. 

This place is breathtaking.

We had a great hour-long chat over tea, sitting at a quaint little bistro on a cobblestone street right around the corner from that church. They were kind enough to buy me some hand-pressed juice instead of tea (I'd never sleep again if I had caffeine that late) and then we parted ways. I don't know their names, they don't know mine, but we spent a conversation-filled hour together, and it's kind of extremely refreshing.

From there I decided to walk home. It was a bold move, as it was dark and I had no idea where I was, but Google lead the way. I made it home about 35 minutes later, dogs a'barkin', and ready to eat something delicious for dinner. I stopped and picked up some fruit and water and two hilarious tiny bags of chips.

I took that stuff and my purchases from the day up to the apartment, and then headed out to dinner. To where, I did not know. There's a fancy place right by the apartment that looked super, so I went there. I then found out that all they serve is fish! Kinda cool, so I stayed.

I had a three-little-course thing, and I essentially asked the guy / owner to give me what was the most delicious!

The left is cooked greens of some sort, and tiny shrimp. The middle is I literally have no idea but it had tentacles and was quite dense, and pretty delicious. The right is calamari with a different kind of cooked greens. I'm not usually a fan of cooked greens (I have this weird dislike of soggy vegetables), but this is all new territory, so I'm trying new things. It was pretty delicious!

The woman there told me that their tiramisu is delicious, and while, like the greens, I don't like tiramisu, I said yes! 

It was sooooooo good! Maybe Italian tiramisu is extremely different than the Canadian one? It tasted like nothing close to any other version I've had or made (made it once after a class I took at Horhay Brown), and I want to mail this delicious one home for people to try!

This is the one I made years ago. Cake on the outside and mush and soaked delicious on the inside. Nowhere near as good as the one above!

And that's the end of today! As I sat at dinner I had a lightbulb moment reminding me that I have a Rome cooking day that I signed up for tomorrow! Thank goodness I remember because it starts across town at 9am! 

That's my cue to shut this baby down and get to sleep! Night everyone, and see you tomorrow, with a wee bit more cooking knowledge to share!

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Food. That Is the Title of This Post. Food.

October 21, 2015

Well, I know way more about Italian food than I should now, because now all I'm going to do it make pasta and eat it. Consider from now to the end of the time "Hayley Pasta Hibernation", because this is the end of normal life, and the beginning of one filled with semolina and super-fun pasta tools!

Pasta for life! (t-shirts available for purchase within 30 days)

I'll start by saying there was way too much excitement about a day of Italian cooking, and I couldn't sleep last night. So, I got up, tired as all hell, but dragged myself out the doors at 8:15am (seems like a reasonable time, but I don't think I fell asleep until 5am), went to the bank, and then walked my way over to the restaurant to meet the chef and the rest of the group. It took about 30 minutes, and I got some amazing shots of the river as I walked along it. As much as I fight the mornings on a daily basis, there's a lot to be said for being up and out during a pretty pure part of the day. 

And being in Rome doesn't hurt...

I arrived at the restaurant about 40 minutes early, because I'd misremembered the meeting time to be 9am, and it was 9:30am. I'd realized that before I left the apartment, but knew that if I sat down, I'd be very likely to not make it on time because I was so tired. 

Once it was time to meet, I found out that there were seven people taking the class:

3 women from Los Angeles
2 people (father and daughter) from somewhere in the US
1 woman from Vegas
1 me

We met the chef, Paolo, who was this young Italian chef who's worked at multiple Michelin star restaurants, and has been teaching for a while. He was lovely, and had the very best accent ever.

The restaurant we met at is called Rosso Pomodoro, and the space is pretty great. It's about 10x the size of the picture here, and seems like a pretty formidable place. 

He first took us to the market to buy our fresh ingredients. It was incredible.

This is Romanesco Broccoli, and it's apparently a mix between broccoli as we know it back home, and cauliflower, but tastes like broccoli. 

A fine example of art in nature.

We went to a meat shop, a cheese shop, and then bread shop where they gave us a little sample of pizza, which was amazing at 10:30am. Permission to eat pizza for breakfast from a professional... that's all I ever wanted! lol

As we walked, Paolo told us that we were headed to a little island where his studio is. Yeah, the same island that I strolled around, went to the church on, and met those people for coffee at yesterday! In fact, the studio was right beside that church, IN the building that the coffee place is! Come on, how cool is that? 

Even cooler, look how amazing this studio space is!

As we got settled in, we were given our aprons, cutting boards and a few other tools. We then cut up some veggies, etc. and began to watch Paolo cook such amazing food. He also taught us how to make our own pasta, which we got to do by hand, and then eat later!

I'm just going to run through a bunch of images and comment as they go.

This one is of the pans where Paolo was cooking up some mushrooms in a gigantic pan.

This is Paolo cooking veal scallopini with prosciutto on top, pan-fried together. Delicious potatoes cooking on the right.

This is where I learned to make my own pasta! The excitement at this moment was unreasonable! lol

I learned that one way to know if your eggs are fresh is the consistency of the whites. If they're thick and seem like all one piece, they're very fresh. The runnier and are liquids they are, the less fresh.

I learned how to make super-fun pasta with that wooden tool at the bottom! 

Guys, dinner at "my" place!

Then we made our own raaaaavioli! There's a mixture of ricotta, fresh pan-cooked spinach that was cooked, strained heavily and chilled, and a whole ton of parmesan cheese (yassssss!)

Marry meeeeeee!

This is Paolo and his lovely assistant cooking and plating the ravioli that we all made. He used the same stuffing that was in the ravioli, along with some more cheese, and then some water from the pasta boiling pot. 

This was our first dish. We sat and ate together, and then got up to help and watch Paolo make the next pasta dish.

This is the curly pasta that we all made by hand! We chopped up the tomatoes and watched him made the sauce from absolute scratch. This may not seem like a big deal to some, but I've never done it before, so it was very cool!

There was also some pork cheek that they bought at the meat shop that was cooked up in here. 

Woooooow, you guys! Pork cheek sounds nuts, but so good!

This is fettuccini that we made by hand, cooked with olive oil, more parmesan cheese, and mushrooms, pan-cooked and added in. He said there were twice as many mushrooms as pasta, and that was the right way to go.

These are what I think are called zucchini flowers, which are delicate and amazingly beautiful! We cleaned them up a bit, and Paolo stuffed them with the same filling from the ravioli, and then covered these badboys in tempura batter, and fried them!

Sorry that the image is a bit blurry, I was a rush because they were about to be fried in heavenly oil!

These are the potatoes that you'll see in the next dish.

Come oooooooon, you guys! Fourth and final part of the meal (except dessert, or course!).

I was so-damned-full! It wasn't that there was a ton of food in each course, but that I rarely eat pasta, and this felt like three days worth for me.

This was my favourite dish, because how cool is the layering of meats cooked together, and deep frying a beautiful vegetable with delicious inside? 

Man.

Then it was dessert time! We made our own tiramisu! It was outstanding, and I am now engaged to tiramisu. Facts are facts!

Deeeeeemolished it!

Now it was time to roll out. I don't mean that in a Transformers, Optimus Prime type way, I mean that I almost literally had to roll myself out of the studio!

I decided that home was the right to be after so little sleep, and so much food. I walked home, along the side of a river, and realized that I had walked by the same bridge on my way to the restaurant this morning. 

I hadn't realized that this bridge, as Paolo told us when we walked to the studio, is the oldest bridge in the whole wide world. I don't know what it's called so I can't fact check, but, I feel pretty good about Paolo and his Rome knowledge over mind, so I'm choosing to trust him on this one!

Anyhow, I finally got home, passed out for a planned 2.5 hours, and decided that I was hungry again. Well, my stomach decided, but you know, we're pretty close so I went with it!

I popped out to a few stores around the apartment, bought a piece of pizza, and then the fixings for a fresh lettuce, tomato, bocconcini and avocado salad. 

Soooo good, and honestly more refreshing than usual for a salad because it's contrasted with all of the pasta and pizza in the world. Loved it. 

And now, I await tomorrow with anticipation because I am going to make a day of the Vatican and surrounding areas. 

Off to relax, then to sleep and then to experience more of this amazing city they call Rome.

N to the ight, everyone!

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The Forum and the Thinky Thinks

October 22, 2015

Well, today was supposed to be the day I went to the Vatican, and saw the Sistine Chapel.

I thought I should go to the post office first, because tomorrow is the last full day, and should likely be when I send any packages out, and I don't like leaving it to the last minute, because anything could happen, especially when I don't speak the language. 

I was very happy to find out that the post office was a block away! I was not happy to find out that I had to wait 35 minutes with number P069 in my hand, and then another 25 minutes while the lovely man who helped me found me two boxes... totalling 4.60€. I'm still not clear why it took that long. 

Anyhow, that much time was not expected, and I then knew that if I went to the Vatican, which closed at 4pm and takes 45 minutes to get to, I would be too rushed to enjoy it. Tomorrow it is. 

Today instead, I went to a few places. I saw the Roman Forum, walked down fancy street (will explain), saw Piazza Venezia, and somehow ended up at Piazza del Popolo.

The Roman Forum is intense. It began with me taking the bus about five stops, and getting out where I knew I was supposed to. Now, I'd like to say I walked the few minutes I was supposed to and found the forum, which is massive, by the way, should should be impossible to miss. 

Yeah, I walked around for 40 minutes, up and down the "right" streets, couldn't find it, and got a little annoyed. Thankfully, two gentleman nearby spoke English, and pointed me in the right direction. 

Yeah, I still couldn't find it. I have no idea what my problem was. A taxi solved it, and 55 minutes from door to forum, the day finally began!

This below two pictures of about and of a structure that has existed since 179 BC. 

It and the rest of the forum gave me this feeling of... I just, things existed way before us, and they will exist way after. Maybe all of the crap we think is crap really isn't, and we should just enjoy our lives as best we can, because in the grand scheme, we're specks in a very large history and future that is pretty much beyond our control.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for recycling and trying to make the world better for our kids, it's just, let's all breathe a little more calmly while we're doing it, because we only have so much time in our turn.

Love this shot the guy is half missing and sitting on a chair (below).

He existed, and even though half him is missing, he's still important and relevant to the people that have come after him. 

That's kind of the point, I think. Exist in a way that people will remember you with a smile on their face and to learn something from the things that you did while you were here.

Yeah I know, I just want way philosopcal with a broken sculpture, but, I'm in a thinky mood! lol

Someone spent a part of their life in a completely different time in history carving this. It's hung out, been through different centuries, wars, disasters, rulers, vandalized, and the work of one person still exists. It's "just" a flower, but that came from a human beings hands, and I got to see it today. 

It wasn't the main attraction. Not even a discussion point, but it mattered at some point. It was likely someone's livelihood, put food on the table for someone, allowed someone to provide for their loved ones.

A somewhat overarching shot of just an insane overlap of years and rulers and structures. It's was pretty amazing to walk through. A definite must-do if you plan to visit Rome.

From there is was just a long stair climb away from Piazza Venezia. It's a pretty beautiful space, and there were these two young guards with guns at the front. I cannot imagine how long they're there, and I didn't see them move once. What could they be thinking, and what kind of insane shoes must they be wearing? I feel like it's their duty as military, yes, to guard things, but this must be some sort of "earn your way" thing, that all young military people in training have to do. 

I could never, much respect.

After that lovely piazza, I walked along a street that I can only describe as the Yorkville of streets. It was nowhere that I could ever shop, and much like last year, the place that I best fit in was the chocolate shop!

The packaging is beautiful and I now own these puppies. Chocolate's coming on home!

After those good choices were made, I kept walking, making my way to the Piazza del Popolo. On my way I ran into this very eccentric man, who was selling what appeared to be watercolour paintings. Now, I'm aware that a lot of these things are fake, copies or mass produced by people. It's very possible that the one I bought (10€) is one of those things. It's also very possible that this crazy dude painted it. Either way, I love it. 

This is the painting. 

And this is the painter, eccentric as all get-out, even holding the painting upside down. Just love it.

After that exceptional encounter, I walked more, running into a very cool stationary store, and buying this rolled paper necklace. It's handmade by a woman in Rome, and it's very long and more vibrant than this picture shows.

I also bought a couple of other things in there, but one is a gift for Ma, so I won't give away the surprise here!

The street was long, because then I ran into (not literally, that would be frowned-upon, and let's be honest, I ain't runnin' nowhere on this trip) a really beautiful church.

I finally arrived at Piazza del Popolo, and it was quite lovely.

These are the twin churches that I heard about, and they're stunning.

Then it was dinner time. It still looks light out here, but it was the very end of the light. As you can see, the shadow from a pillar in the middle of the Popolo-place was being cast on the background. I'm not sure what that had to do with anything, but to me, it means night is coming! Ha.

I decided to go to Rosso Pomodoro, and if you'll recall, that's the name of the restaurant that the chef was from from yesterday's cooking day. So I get there, rush hour traffic funtimes and all, and I find out that it was just a meeting point and the chef isn't even associated with the restaurant... burn. I ordered food anyway, and it ended up being pretty good.

I took half of this badboy home, and it acted as a delicious late-evening overindulgence. 

Tomorrow is my last full day in Rome, and to be honest, I could use a couple more days. But I can't complain, I'm headed to Venice next, and I hear that it's going to have a more relaxed vibe. Works for me!

Vatican, its museums, St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel are tomorrow. It's going to be a big one!

Night, night everyone!

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Vatican, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica and the Spanish Steps

October 23, 2015

As I mentioned, today was my last day in Rome. Tomorrow I get up early, go mail some packages, grab some breakfast, go to the bank, take out the garbage at the apartment, and head to the bus to take me to the train. Venice is my next stop, and I am very excited!

Based on the title of this post, you can tell that today was pretty packed. Since most of the things I saw were more visual than not, I am going to post an absolute ton of pictures, and pipe in if I have something to add. 

To be honest, there's not much I can say that will make these pictures any more amazing (not a self-horn-toot, but a comment on the subject matter) than they already are.

This is Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel. Come on. It was pretty surreal (the moment not the style, ha) and even with a room full of people being told to be quiet but who weren't at all and who were shoving people like a preschool playground, it was a very great few minutes. 

This is more of the full room, and I have absolutely no clue how any of this is possible. Both the stunning art, and the fact that I got to see it.

The remaining ceilings (until otherwise described) are from throughout the museums of the Vatican. 

They are breathtaking, and that s pretty much all I have to say about that!

This guys suit of armour is very, very impressively realistic, and really stood out to me given the light colours used in the rest of the paintings.

The next four are part of a massively long hallway, and the entire thing is painted in such an elaborate, incredible way, with mini sculptures mounted on the ceiling throughout.

Some beautiful dome art, which I'm sure is actually called something supremely more intelligent!

Once you've walked through the Vatican museums, and enter the Sistine Chapel, you have an option to exit left or right. I didn't know that, and I went left, because the other door (right) had a big "do not enter" symbol on a sign near it. Cool, you got it, I'll go left.

I go left, and see a bunch more of the Vatican museum(s). Then I knew I wanted to see St. Peter's Basilica, so I asked someone who worked there which way I should go. They said, "Through the Sistine Chapel and make a right."

Oh man. 

It was either go through the whole 30 minutes in insane crowd again and make a right instead of a left, or go outside, and stand in line for 1.5 hours for another ticket. 

Clearly I chose to go through the whole thing again, but boy was I not all that chipper about it. I'm more than happy to see the work again, but think Toronto streetcar at 8:15am when there's just been a backup of ten streetcars, and you get on the first one of the ten to arrive. And then try to get to the door to leave.

Whatever, I went all the way back through, and in the end, I think it was worth it. 

This is the exterior of St. Peter's, which I actually took a picture of after leaving the basilica, but this makes more sense for setting up the images you'll see of the inside. 

It's really very, very impressive!

The detail is almost painful to look at. How is it possible? I don't get it.

As I left, I can across these guys. These adorable, spectacularly-clad guys. They stood there, just like the guys from Piazza Venizia yesterday, and didn't move. 

In those outfits! Love!

A bit more close up, because, amazing!

And then it was time to figure out what the one last thing I wanted to see before the sun started to go down. In an attempt to beat the sunset, I took a taxi across town and chose to go to the Spanish Steps.

They were closed. The steps were closed, after a 17€ taxi ride. 

How do you even close stairs? And note the scaffolding with our good friend Daniel Craig on it? 

Yeah, the Spanish Steps were a bust. But oh well, can't win them all. 

The fountain right behind them is still beautiful though!

And this adorable bird sidled up to a rose that landed in the water was too cute.

And that's Rome, well, what I got to see of it. Short of something super-cool happening in Rome tomorrow before I get on my train, the next time you'll hear from me should be from Venice, hopefully tucked into a comfy bed in my next AirBNB apartment. 

Nighty night everyone!

..................

Goodbye Rome. Hello Proof That Tourist Scams Exist... yeah.

October 24, 2015

Well, I managed to run all of the errands I hoped to this morning. I got up at 8:15am, got cleaned up, did some finishing touches on the apartment, and finished the packing that needed to wait until I did all the "get ready" stuff this morning (pjs, shampoo, clothes that had been hung to dry, etc.). 

Finally, I walked the two boxes to the post office, and sat for about 10 minutes waiting. When it was finally my turn (P004 this time, not P069, woot), a lovely woman with very big hair helped me. She spoke little English, and I speak little Italian, yet we had a great conversation. It involved her speaking all in Italian, and me picking up the obvious words, and hoping that those words were the main thing she was trying to say. We used Google translate at some points, and we also used gestures. It was all quite entertaining to be honest. 

One word we got caught on was "pelle", when talking about a pair of shoes I was sending back home (I didn't buy them in Rome, I just don't need them for my trip, seems I overpacked by one pair), and when I translated it, it said "skin" in English. It took us a few minutes of back and forth, and finally I clued in, she was asked if they were made of leather! Of course! Animal skin! They weren't.

We both had a giggle, as did her coworker who'd been trying to figure it out as well. 

Finally we got all of the paperwork done, I paid, and in total we spent 45 minutes together. I won't lie, I was worried about the language barrier, mostly because I am completely out of my elements, but the woman who helped me was wonderful, and made my morning more positive than I thought it would be.

I finished there, and walked back home. I went to the bakery around the corner and got a morning piece of pizza, lol, and a few little pastry treats for the train. 

I just had to take the garbage out, and make the bed, and I was good to go. The garbage situaiton is very specific in Rome, different bins for different things. In Toronto we have recycling, garbage and wet waste. Rome has paper, plastic, wet waste and garbage. Tin counts as garbage, which felt wrong, but it's the way it is.

I left, got the bus, landed at Roma Termini, and that's where I found out that I am truly a tourist. I got scammed. Not a bad one, but a scam nonetheless. 

I walked in and a woman came over, well-dressed, wearing a badge, and said, "Are you looking for a train, I am here to help." I said yes (I know... I didn't know!), so she takes me over to this board, takes a look at my ticket, tells me which terminal to go to, when to go to it, etc., all things I wouldn't know how to find myself. 

I said thank you, and went to walk away. She said, "No, you have to pay me."

Yeah. 

She said 20€, and that was clearly not going to happen. A woman somewhat near us caught my eye, looked at the woman and shook her head. She was clearly saying not to give the woman any money. I asked the info woman who she worked for, and that she should tell people before that they will have to pay. That's clearly the scam, duh Hayley, but I hadn't clued in at the beginning, stupid trusting people!

She said, "You have to pay me! I work for myself!" Guys, I gave her 5€... I know, but she did help me, and... I just wanted to be done with it. She wins, I lose, moving on.

So I walked away, felt a little stupid, but what can you do, and the woman who'd shook her head stopped me and said, "I saw what she was doing, and I knew what was going to happen. It's a scam, they can tell when people are tourists and they help you and then force you to pay. You shouldn't have given her any money, she's not a good person." She was quite kind, but was clearly annoyed with the fact that she keeps seeing it happen. 

Anyway, the fact that this is only the second tourist scam I've fallen for in 23 days makes me feel okay. The other was in Paris at the beginning of the trip, where a taxi driver had clearly fudged the meter, because it cost me twice as much as a ride from and to the same place the day after. 

All in all, can't complain, they both could have been much worse. 

Now I'm on a train to Venice, sitting across from a man who was clearly not pleased when I say down near him. Deal with it, buddy. We both paid an extra 20€ for fancy-seats, and I'm sorry if yours was bestowed upon your golden brain by the king of all of the land, but pull your head from wherever you've comfortable lodged it and join the rest of us out here. It's nice and sunny, and they just gave us all tea and cookies!

Rant over. Next stop, Venice!

PS. Here are some shots of the wonderful place I stayed in Rome, just before I head out!

As you walk in, there could not have been more information available for you about Rome.

Then you walk a bit more and there's a whole desk setup with house rules and the manuals for all appliances and the shower in a binder, all in their own plastic sheets (brilliant, Paola is my kind of people!)

And then the adorable kitchen.

And the cute little breakfast tea and coffee setup.

The bathroom. Can we have a moment for the size of that shower? 

Yeah.

And the bedroom, which was also the living room, which was very closely-attached to the kitchen, ha! Seems Rome and Toronto are on the same page when it comes to condo size.