Eastward Adventures

Ciao everyone,

Today is the day that marks the return of pictures to the blog, woohoo. I know it's been a few posts without them, but frankly, I have posted lots on here and have around another 300 or so on my albums, and I take a pretty routine route to class each day, so after I've documented it, there's not a whole lot to comment on that's new and fresh.

Today, however, I did some fun things. Today marks the over half way point of my Italian Practicum, and today my professoressa turned us loose on a scavenger hunt with only the name of a obscure monument and we had to head there and write about it and come back. My group of four today was assigned to Piazza Mattei, or one of the hundreds of piazzas with a fountain here in Roma. I've heard you can see a new church or fountain in Roma every day for over 5 years, and to be entirely honest, it doesn't suprise me in the least.

Anyway, it was about a 20 minute walk east of our study center, sending me to a side of town I had yet to see. Rather, more just of a gap in my ever-shrinking unseen map. We had to cross over a few busy streets, which is pretty much the gnarliest activity here in Rome, no joke. You have to just work up the courage the first few times and just walk when you know you have the right of way (that being in a crosswalk or when there's a signal in your favor), look the driver in the eye, and just go. They'll stop. It's a little unnerving, and you can get clipped just slightly (like I was last night on my grocery run by a Vespa. The guy apoligized profusely, since it was his fault, but he only hit my bag at a very low speed. No harm, no foul).

It doesn't bother me anymore. It did originally, for sure, but it's just part of life here. You get used to it.

Anyway, we crossed several piazzas and streets and finally came to Piazza Mattei, or this little square with Fontana Tartughe, or Turtle Fountain. If you enlarge the picture, you can see the turtles on the sides, it's pretty. It's not huge, and it just gets lost in the jumble of the fountain / sculpture / piazza madness here. Everything is so astonishing that if it were anywhere else, like Portland, for example, it'd be famous, but in a city full of them, it's easy to lose.

There's a bar there called Bartughe, or a portmanteau of Bar and Tartughe, or Turtle Bar. It's apparently a bumping club for authentic Italian Apertifs and people who actually live in the area, much better than all of the tourist-catering places. Is it expensive? Of course. Everything here is. Like 8 euro a mixed drink, 6 euro for 660mL of beer. But it's normal. It's part of life.

After documenting the fountain, it's time for the walk back to the study center, and it was really, really hot out (like always) so we decided to swing out a bit wider and catch some shade, maybe something cool, on the way back, and I'm glad we did. It was actually shorter, which is always cool, but we saw this incredibly odd thing that ranks up there with one of the more strange things I've seen since I came to Roma, if not ever, really. Before I describe it, just look at the picture and take it in. It's millennia old, these ruins, and they are right in the heat of everything here. They're called the Torre Argentina, and they are spectacular, I mean, if you check out this picture just under this, you can see, they are absolutely just sandwiched into the modern Roman life and yet they are totally, 100% there and looking awesome and very ruins-like, which I really dig.

But they aren't just there for ruins-sake: they are a stray cats shelter here in Rome.

Wait, what?

Yeah, a cat shelter. Rome has always had a history of having tons of stray cats, which I guess is the case today, and they used to wander into these old ruins and eat all the mice and rats (which I have seen) and really do no harm to the structures. So, they are now protected within the walls of these old ruins, and if they make it in there, they're welcome to stay and they receive medical treatment, food, etc, from a volunteer organization.

Hmm. Wow. Just odd to me, and so utterly cool. I mean, historical ruins that look so cool, and they're a cat shelter? Just awesome.

After that interesting moment, we all just walked back and made sure she saw we actually went where we were told, and I came on back to just take it easy and do some homework. Just another day in Rome. Tonight I'm going to make some Tortellini con Carne al Pesti and it should be. . . interesting. Cooking is fun, especially with all of these spices, cheeses, and cured meats, it's an experience, no doubt.

But yes, that's about it for today. I was really glad to hear Kirsten's getting settled in Athens, her pictures are awesome so far, and I can't wait to go check it out for myself in 9 days . . . no big deal. Just going to Athens.

Right on.

Until next time,

Ciao.