DAY 45: Gargeous, just gargeous

Why is it that Luigi eats 8 times more than I do, and I have to haul his ass around? I have knots in my shoulders the size of tennis balls... waking up to feed your green monster 4 hours after attempting to sleep while turn table tectonics bounce off your skull is so fun, give it a whirl sometime... quiche lorraine for the trip to Rome, on the short bus no less, how fitting for the Artists Guild of Geekdom. The bus driver picked Luigi up, looked at me, farted, and said I was crazy for carrying around a child that eats cake... birth control buddy, birth control. I gave Roo a nice bottle of Syrah from the market I'd been saving, and as I picked him up, he dropped it on the sidewalk. Yes it broke, and I contemplated violence, but that is never the answer, so I pouted and stomped on to the midget space shuttle on wheels. Sad to leave Firenze behind, stoked for Roma... but in the mean time, all I wanted was my Thermarest packable pillow and sound/people/world canceling headphones. The drive really was nice and sunny- tall villas peeked out over cyprus trees along the hillsides, with vineyards greeting visitors along serpentining dirt roads. Trees spread like coffee cake with sage sprigs planted mindlessly yet methodically around stranded castles... not sure why anyone would want to live here...

When in Rome... you get dropped off on the street, watch your life flash before your eyes as car whiz by, snatching eyelashes as you waddle out to retrieve the aerosol can rolling into traffic. They must get points on their license for nailing pedestrians... not penalty points... rewards points. "For every tourist you hit, you'll receive 3 free nights at the Marriot with complimentary breakfast"... once at the hotel (NOT THE MARRIOT), we changed out of our bus clothes that smelled like sewage (anyone that walked onto that bus would get a 1-2 blow to the snot box and drop dead...) and headed to "The Greatest Building on Earth," according to "The Harv." When I questioned why the "Pantheon" was the greatest, he demanded I find something grander... "Alrighty then!" So this entity really is the cat's ass...  the generic term "pantheon" refers to any building that honors the dead. I wonder if the milk crate I stuck over the irrigation ditch honoring the dead gophers and cats I buried as a kid could be considered a Pantheon? It's safe to say that this Pantheon has a little more planning and thought incorporated than my milk crate... Finalized in 118 A.D. in dedication to the Roman gods, it boasts a perfectly symmetrical dome with a central opening (oculus) hovering high above a marble floor. It is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome... the mother of all domes.


Following the Pantheon came another church, a grocery store, an apple with Ritz crackers and a leisurely stroll around... t-shirt weather pleases me, greatly. Almost as much as coffees the size of my head... they just like to tease you here... a little sip. Maybe it's a good idea to ween myself off of caffeine for good? Maybe I can voluntarily walk into oncoming traffic?  We all met at 7:30 to eat at a pizzeria that had a line around the corner- not gonna happen with 15 peeps. Sooo, Plan B = the next best, which, of the 50, 000 pizzerias, I'm uncertain what the next best would be... regardless, this place definitely was not the next best, but it was next door. Fulfilling my craving for vegetables was a must, so a salad with mushrooms, beans, tomatoes and olives... could have had worse, but definitely could have had a lot better... following dinner we checked out the ever GARGEOUS (that is gorgeous and gargantuan's love child) "Fountain of Neptune"... extra gargeous at night... lit up like Rockafellar, but with twice as many Japanesers... "The Harv" took us to a special little gelato shack... I've learned not to eat gelato that is spilling over in vats, with bells and whistles screaming at you... places that store the goods in time capsules that slowly raise up out of the counter with the help of dry ice and a martian with a remote control... "Abdul" wouldn't let me sample any... I asked, "How will I know if I like it?" And informed him that sampling was half the fun... He must've backed over his cat this morning, because he looked at me like I was THE stupidest blond in Rome... and there are 2.6 million people here, not counting tourists, so I took that as quite the compliment and ordered Grapefruit sorbet- spectacularly lickable, chunks of fruit, yummers. 


Potential to sleep like a dead person tonight is massive... been burning the candle at both ends and have a big day in Roma tomorra! Ciao!