Three hearts in a fountain
Each heart longing for its home
There they lie in the fountain
Somewhere in the heart of Rome
Nearly two years it’s been since I last stepped into Rome. The last time – as everyone knows by now – nearly resulted in my missing the ship altogether (long live my fear of the Italian train system!) but this time was different, this time I was smart enough to go with an organized crew tour to the Eternal City. It was a whirlwind of a day, into which we fit as much as we possibly could and still didn’t see even close to everything. I still haven’t taken that carriage ride I’ve had my eye on, I’ve still not seen the galleria that houses Apollo and Daphne, but at least I went.
I owe the fact that I could go at all to Shadow really, since she was kind enough to take my IPM duty for today – in fact she took it almost as soon as she found out how long she would be staying. I owe her a favour, big time.
I could go back to Rome a thousand times and simply continue to fall in love with it every time. I mean yes, the city has it’s problems for one thing the crowds are insane, and where there are crowds there will be pickpockets – but it’s really no worse for that than London, and as long as you know how not to make yourself a target you tend to be left alone.
Actually the crowds were substantially less than I remember them being two years ago. Still somewhat crazy of course, but less crazy than before. It was clear enough that we could spend almost a full half hour doing impromptu photo shoots at the Trevi Fountain, and even manage to get some pictures that had no people in them at all; granted a lot of that was to do with the fact that we were perched on the wall well above the crowds which allowed for a fantastic angle, until the nice policeman came long and told us emphatically that we had to turn around and sit facing the other direction. This made no reason sense to us because all it meant was that if we fell backward we’d fall further, but when a policeman starts babbling at you in Italian to do something, you kind of just do it.
I also made my first attempt at eating a crepe without a knife and fork, which is apparently how they serve them here. It was…messy, but – like most things Italian – delicious! Though, probably not something you want to try to do if you’re trying to impress someone…since there is utterly no way to eat a chocolate crepe without ending up like a six year old eating spaghetti for the first time.
Due to a series of ‘we’re running a few minutes late’ during the earlier part of the tour, combined with general Roman traffic – the lights really are just for decoration – we were unable to do more than a twenty minute stop at Vatican City, so I have once again gone away from Rome without having seen the Sistine Chapel..
But one has to leave something for the next time…
After all, I did throw a coin into the Trevi so I, like so many others, will be back one day.