Pompeii

We found Pompeii. Apparently it has been lost since it was destroyed in 79AD by a volcano. While a lot of the ruins reminded us of the Roman ruins back in Rome, there was something very different here. It was like a snapshot of living in a large village in the first century. Everything was exactly as it was left (minus the destruction and volcanic ash) almost 2000 years ago. There were streets with shops and bars and of course brothels. There was 25 brothels serving the city of 20,000 people. If you discount the women and children, that's a pretty high ratio. The time of Christ was a pretty interesting time. 

As you can see from one of the photos, the people of Pompeii were shocked by the volcano's eruption and were essentially killed instantly doing whatever they happened to be doing. There are several preserved bodies coated in "plaster" from the ash.
I will leave it to you to dig deeper into Pompeii (pun definitely intended).

Aquaducts

Time for a very short history lesson that is mostly factual. In the second century AD, the Romans built a 56 mile "pipeline" to bring fresh water into Rome. They are known as the Aquaducts. If you're like me, you've heard of them, but they fall into the same class of knowledge as what happened to Jesus between the manger and the wedding with the cash bar. It's interesting but just not worth looking into.
The first picture is of a still functioning aquaduct, while the second picture shows ruins of a second duct. It is also a bonus lesson on perspective since I am actually not as big as the aquaducts.
I continue to be impressed with what the Romans were able to build with little more than (slave) labour and a good understanding of math.

Is there an Irish translator in the house

We had one of our best nights yet in Rome... in an Irish pub. It happened to be Arthur Guinness' 250th birthday and the pub had a great Irish band to celebrate, so we settled in with our Kilkenny beers. It was great being in an English-first environment. I'm pretty sure Paolo, Giovanni, Guiseppe and the rest of the Irish band were the only ones fluent in Italian.

We chatted with a few exchange students from the US that reminded us of our boys (early 20's and full of life). We had their attention until the exchange girls showed up. We then moved over to a table with another couple who looked about our age. They had just arrived that day from Ireland to celebrate their 25th anniversary. You have to love it - their first night in Rome had to be spent at an Irish pub.

Sue has been working hard on her Italian but she was lost sitting beside the Irish guy who had a very thick Irish brogue. If he was speaking Italian, she could have asked him to slow down and repeat himself. But he was speaking English so she just dug her nails into my arm every time he spoke. I have to admit, I only understood enough to guess when to laugh and when to nod with a look of concern.

We had so much fun singing along to the Irish ballads (or at least the choruses) that we are looking into a getaway to Dublin while we're here.

Slainte! (Irish for "cheers", I think)

Hairy decision

There were two things that worried me about our trip - what I would do with my hair and my beard. Yes I know... how do I cope with the stress. Well I think I'm going to put one of those issues to bed. After growing my beard for ten days, the grey adds 10 years to me. Sue was telling a woman we met that it is our 25th anniversary and she was beside herself on how good SUE looked. Not once did she acknowledge that I was too young to be celebrating that milestone.

So off it goes.

I wonder what I would look like with long sideburns.

Google translate

One of the tools we've found indispensable is Google Translate. As we hit a web site that is only in Italian and Sue's beginner lessons fail us, we turn to Google's free language translator http://www.translate.google.com/

While it is pretty good, it has let us down on occasion.

The translation for "da dom a gio" is done correctly as "Sunday to Thursday".

But when we try to see what a restaurant means when it says "da dom a gio libero", google informs us that it is "Sun to wilderness camping".

There's no way I'm camping in Italy, so we choose another restaurant.

The kindness of scary strangers

Sue was determined to hear some live music so we headed out to a "blues festival". It was our first venture on the Rome bus system. After a good 20 minute bus ride on the route that appears to be less travelled, we get off near the old Olympic stadium. I imagine the site of the Montreal Olympic stadium has the same feel - isolated, desolate and just plain creepy.

We walked for about 15 minutes hoping to come across this festival. There was literally no one around and as the fairer sex, I was beginning to worry. Sue, on the other hand had not traded in her goal of live music for my goal of survival.

In this parking lot that was designed to hold thousands of cars, we spot a single camper van. Out of the passenger window, I spot its owner/operator who happens to be shaving his forearm with a razor. As I look for a getaway, Sue makes a beeline for the van and asks in broken Italian where the blues festival is located. He coughs something back in Italian and points aggressively in a direction I can only assume is his hairless accomplice.

Eager to confirm the goodness of people, Sue leads me in the new direction where we find... the blues festival.

We have agreed to try to balance Sue's love of adventure with my need for security. I will have to work on my reaction time if I expect to tip the scale toward security.

Papal Envy

So far, we've done lots of walking and exploring our area as well as eating and testing the bottom end price for a good bottle of red wine. Apparently 2.50 Euros does not deliver the quality you'd expect. On our walks, we've encountered all the expected shops - shoes, bakery, clothing, more shoes. But we stumbled on to a real find. In the middle of a normal shopping district a few blocks from our apartment is a shop that specializes in priests' robes and other priestly things. In the back, we could see a room full of chalices and other gaudy items (ahh, that's where the name gaudy came from). We thought we came across a one-in-a-million store, when we realized that the entire street was dedicated to GQ Priests and their toys. Another lesson we learned from this happenstance is that we always need to carry a camera. There with their noses practically pressed against the window glass were two priests dressed in black looking longingly at the red robe that they knew was just out of their reach. While we didn't catch this moment of papal envy here's a picture of the store.

Old Apartment

We are thrilled with the apartment. Although I'm sure they used some sort of magical camera lens to make it look twice as big for the internet pictures, it's all we need. It's in a perfect location and while in a very old building, it has been recently renovated so has all the luxuries a trip to Ikea can provide.

There are a few things that will take some time to get used to:

1. It's on the 4th floor without an elevator (or lift as they say "on the continent"). I am out of breath when I get to our door so that should be a good baseline for my fitness for the trip.
2. There's a great bathtub with shower but no shower curtain. I'm accustomed to an allowance of about 3 feet of spray in any direction so I need to refine my rinsing technique.
3. A bidet. I will master this before I leave this place, or find an alternative purpose.
4. Stairs between our bedroom and the bathroom. I know I'm spoiled with an en suite, but these are the years I need a late night trip to the bathroom.
5. A low doorway getting in/out of our bedroom. Not a big deal until you consider #4 above.

The best feature of the apartment is the large terrace. It could easily seat 10 people so it's just the right size for me and Sue. Instead of describing it, here's a picture of a view from our terrace. Yes, that's St. Peter's in the background. If you look closely, you'll see rooftop satellite dishes marking a path to the Vatican.

YYZ to FCO

Sue and I had a relatively easy flight to Rome. I had two upgrade coupons that I was hoping to use to get us into business class. Our name did get called at the gate but there was only one seat left in business class. Being the Roman gentleman that I am (or at least hope to be), I offered it to Sue. After feigning concern for me being in economy by myself she settled into her "pod" as I shuffled 20 rows to get to my lovely cramped seat. We both watched bad movies and drifted in and out of sleep. Equality at last. I filed that favour away to be cashed at a future date.