Day 1

It feels strange to be back in Rome. No, that's not what I mean. I mean, it is strange, but not. I guess the strangeness I'm trying to convey is how strange it doesn't feel. It feels totally natural. What I mean is . . . never mind, let's start again.

It doesn't feel strange at all to be living in Rome, not even on the first day. And that's . . . pretty strange.

Oh wait oh wait. I first need to say something about the flight. The best thing about it: Delta now has little USB chargers by every seat (maybe you all already knew this but I didn't) and so my phone never ran out of power. Between San Diego, JFK, and Rome, I got through a whole season of Suits (excellent) and my first viewing of The Hobbit Part II - The Many Loves of Legolas (meh). Through it all, I didn't have to power down my phone and settle for in-flight-mag-sudoku even once. Those meals are getting better all the time, too. Even the little brownie tasted like food. And let me just say, if you don't have custom earphones, they're so hot right now. I didn't hear a thing except what I wanted to the entire flight.

Then we arrived. We took the train from the airport, even though a taxi would have been more convenient and only slightly more money. I happen to love trains, except when they're attached to a wedding dress. Then I really love them.

In the first day, we: walked by the forum and Coliseum, ate pizza, ate pasta, passed up

gelato, saw a Michaelangelo (there were other sculptures there, too, but I was like shyeah, right, other sculptures, how many ninja turtles you got named after you? Answer--a big doughnut (that means zero)), and hunted for (and found) an electrical adapter. We tried not to nap (did you know that if you can somehow resist napping when you change time zones, your jet lag is proven to be 8 times more miserable?) but failed, somewhere around 6AM on our internal clock, which was 2 PM local time.

So, after a nap, we went out again, ate pasta (again), and pizza (again), saw more of the architecture of this gorgeous city (again), passed up gelato (again and again and again--it's pretty damn hard, let me tell you--we live 2 blocks from my 2nd favorite gelateria anywhere, and #1 favorite in Rome), and took a few pictures.

 We live by a pretty popular night life area, which is about a block away--close enough to cruise by when we're bored, but far enough that the noise doesn't bother us.

At one point, we walked by Trajan's Market, which (I'm like 85% sure) is the name of the area containing the tower behind Trajan here in the background.

I've walked by it tons of times on past trips, and always wanted to see it up close. It has a wall around the base, but there appears to be a sort of garden or park surrounding it. I always just wanted to go chill in that park. In the past, I've walked all around it, but there's no clear entrance--it's part of a museum I think.  In any case, before, I didn't have the climbing skills I do now. It took me less than 5 seconds to climb 2 stories of wall and get inside. Trajan was just as quick once he decided to follow. (Overall I'm a pretty good influence on him, wouldn't you say?) 

Well, we had a grand old time until the guards (who expected guards?) heard us discussing the tower, showed up, and threatened to have us arrested. Now, our Italian is rusty, especially when authority figures are angry at us, so it wasn't immediately clear whether they were saying "don't move, we called the police" or "if you don't leave, we're calling the police." Since we liked the sound of the latter, we decided that was what they said, whether or not that was what they said. However, when we tried to leave down the stairs they used, they blocked us. Instead, they corralled us back toward the wall we climbed. We were like "Climb down the way we came up? Really?" Obviously, back home in the US, this just wouldn't happen. American Criminals in the US have rights, including the right to hold their victims liable for any harm befallen them while breaking, entering, or trespassing. So, if we'd been in America, all we would have had to do was let go on the way down, break a few bones, and we could have been rich. Unfortunately, Italy doesn't work that way. In the end, we made our way down the old fashioned way: without mishap.

So, there you have it. Pizza, pasta, Michelangelo, architecture, and the threat of arrest. A pretty epic (if strange) first day. Which, for us, is not at all strange.