a story.

So I am resurrecting this blog…

I figured I will do a lot of traveling in the next couple of weeks/year and I should share it with you guys!

Starting on Friday I am heading on a road-trip to Friendswood, Texas.

Yep. B-town to F-wood.

 

But for now, a song to pass the time…

 

I don’t know if I ever told you about my first night in Rome… 

Mo and I stepped off of the plane, and stumbled our way to baggage claim at about 930pm local time. As we were waiting for our bags, Andy, Zack, Yevgeniy and Amanda appeared.  It was so great to see them.   We waited a few more minutes for my second bag to appear, but it never did (and some of  you know what happened with that over the next few days) so after talking to the Lufthansa people and filling out forms we were on our way. After all of this, it was about 10 pm local time, and we were all exhausted and feeling gross. We could not agree on the mode of transportation to our prospective apartments, and we got into an argument in front of all of these Italian cab drivers.   The girls really wanted to take a cab, but the guys didn’t want to risk being ripped off (which we probably would have been)  so we bought 5Euro tickets to Stazione Trastevere, not knowing exactly where that was…  When we got to Trastevere, Amanda’s landlord was waiting for her (they lived across the street from the station) and there was one cab in the parking lot.  We were all in a bad mood at this point, so the guys told Mo and I to take the cab, and they would walk or get another one and meet us at the apartment.. luckily they lived across the street.  We told the driver, “37 Vicolo Moroni”  and we started the adventure. He took us through this dimly lit, empty street and the further we went, the more graffiti I saw.. Mo and I just looked at each other like “where are we going??”   and then we broke out of the trees and street onto a bridge, overlooking this beautiful view of the Tevere all lit up by the bridges, and the dome of St. Peter’s in the distance. It was so surreal.  

We drove on the other side of the river for two blocks, crossed back over, and entered our Trastevere neighborhood. At this point, we were already a little freaked out, but when we turned right onto this tiny street, we got a view of Piazza Trilussa.  It was completely covered with people, all drinking. We found out later that this is a popular “night-life” spot because our neighborhood is filled with cafes that turn into bars at night, including the infamous “Bir n Fud.”  Anyway, as we are weaving through the people and tiny streets, the driver points to the right and tells us that’s our street, but he can’t stop right now, so he will drop us off a little further down.

We get out, and roll our suitcases down this tiny cobblestone street called Vicolo Moroni. We meet our landlord, who has stayed up past midnight to give us our keys.  And we walk into our apartment and immediately freak out because it is so much better than we had imagined it was going to be.  We hear the boys pull up, and now that we all have a lot more energy, we decide to take showers (separately) and go explore.

Yev says that he is leading us to the pantheon, but we are all really skeptical, but trust him cause he’s got the map.   We manage our way over past the cat sanctuary, past Bernini’s column, to see what MIGHT be the backside of the pantheon.. as we round the corner, we all get really quiet. And then, almost out of no where BAM  it’s the pantheon, in all its magnificent glory.  We were all awestruck and amazed.  It was the most surreal experience, I had studied this building’s perfect geometry and craftsmanship, memorized the details in photographs, and imagined myself visiting it.. but all of that doesn’t even begin to stand up to what was standing before us. I couldn’t believe how big it was! And we weren’t even inside, seeing as by this point it was 2 am, we couldn’t go inside.  There were bums asleep under its huge doors, so we tip-toed around, laid on the cold granite floor and absorbed the enormity of its porch. As dorky as it sounds, I loved being there with other architecture dweebs who could appreciate the same thing.

After we had our fill, we made our way to Campo di Fiori and had our first taste of Italian pizza and gelato.  It was a wonderful start.