I had a mildly successful & wildly stressful weekend in Rome.First, I went to buy my train ticket right after my travel buddy Marjorie had bought hers, and 2nd class was sold out. To take the same train as her, I had to pay for 1st class. I'm not going to say how much it cost, but I will say it wasn't worth it.
It then rained all over us in Ostia, the Roman port city. I took this picture of the amazing mosaic floors of the baths there, and promptly afterwards, my camera went dead. We had dinner in a Spanish restaurant on the Tyrrenhian sea, but it was too cold to enjoy the beach.
Marjorie & I met up with Julia and Chris the next morning in Rome. We took a train out to Tarquinia, home of a famous Etruscan necropolis. I'm quickly learning that archeological destinations are usually not really destinations at all, and therefore there is never an easy way to get to them. A "2 km walk" turned into a 4 km walk (uphill, along a highway), and what signs there were directing us to the site contradicted themselves several times. We finally made it, and it was worth it. 20 tombs for 6 euro. Google image search: Tarquinia.
Our hostel in Rome was terrible. The worst I've ever been to. I'm not going to elaborate because I want to forget about it. Thank God Chris & Julia had booked an entire room for 6 in a different hostel, Marjorie and I just stayed there.
There were more crazy things: money stuck in train ticket machines, late busses, catacombs. Basta.
My Conservation of Archeological Objects class is excellent. The class is taught by Renzo Giachetti, the conservator superstar of Riace Bronzes and Francois Vase fame. First assignment was to piece together one flower pot out of a pile of shards from 14 different pots. Somehow we did it. Here's mine, just about finished being glued back together.
Those are green beans. They're fagioli serpenti... snake beans. The past two Tuesdays I've gone to cooking classes taught by a lovely Italian lady. Thanks to her I'll be cooking fig jam and snakey beans for the rest of my days.
My flatmate Kristin taught me how to knit! I'm making it look like this on purpose (Google: rodarte knit spring 2008)
