Roman VIP

Ahh. Rome. Oh, Rome. Ridiculous sometimes, beautiful always, and never without surprises or smiles. As a young American female, I am treated like a celebrity here- all I have to do is smile or wink and I am IN. I love Roma, I love Italia. Anyway.. two days ago Meghan, Caroline, and I had an appointment in the ND archie classroom building further toward centro storico (basically the main drag through "downtown" Roma, even though there isn't really a downtown) to do our paperwork for our permesso di soggiorno (permit to stay for longer than 3 months). We found our way through Vatican City, through the tip of Trastevere, and over the Tevere down Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and somehow found the building. One thing you have to understand about Roma is that there is no grid, there is no order to street or building placement, and random alleyways are, in fact, streets. Street names are carved onto the sides of buildings about 10-15 feet off the ground into a standard plaque-ey looking square. And streets have similar names. There might be a via della S. Maria and a via della S. Maria dei Chiavi, via della S. Maria Maddalena... you get the picture. The city is so ancient that streets kind of evolved into this huge CRAZY network that looks like an insane spiderweb of triangles and awkward rectangles on a map. But I love turning around a corner into what seems like an alleyway only to encounter another street bustling with gelaterie, trattorie, osterie, and small businesses and apartments. So after the meeting, we walked to Trastevere to JCU so that we could sign up for a trip to two small Tuscan hilltop towns. We stopped at an al forno pizza place (carry-away pizza priced by the etto- 100 grams) near school. Went back to the Medag, chilled out for the rest of the day, and then decided later that night to go to piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps) and la fontana di trevi (Trevii Fountain) because they're all lit up at night. Swung by Giolitti (yay!) where my two euro went toward un piccolo cono con mora, mirtillo, e banana (blackberry, cranberry, banana) gelato.
The next day (yesterday-Saturday) Caroline and I slept in a bit and, facing the blazing Roman sun, decided that we didn't feel like roasting, so we looked in our guidebooks and decided we were feeling a museum. There are like fifty thousand excellent musei filled with ancient Roman art, Renaissance Italian frescoes, palaces and ville decorated to the teeth with gold and Berninis and Michelangelos, with Botticellis and Raphaels. We decided on the Musei Capitolini (Capitoline Museums). Took the A-line Metra to Termini, transferred to the B-line and got off at Colosseo. The museum was full of the famous Roman art you read about in textbooks. It's the world's oldest museum complex, founded in 1471, and is made up of Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo and is connected by an underground passage that leads to the Tabularium and these incredible panoramic views of the Roman Forum. Those views alone were worth my 8Euro!! Gorgeous. Went home, got ready to go out, and left for dinner by the Colosseo- at this pizzeria called Luzzi. It was wonderful- 6Euro pizzas, 2Euro house wine, tiramisu unlike any other I've ever had. Italian restaurants' tables are practically on top of one another, so these two middle-aged italiani were sitting next to me. They heard us speaking English and started talking to me. They wanted to know all about where we were from, what we were doing here, and then the conversation progressed to a political discussion about the upcoming American elections. Imagine talking to two Italian men in italiano in Italia about Obama vs. McCain. They then asked me my opinions about various Italian politicians and parties- Berlusconi, etc, and were so interested in what an American thought. It was the coolest thing ever. Mario was all for McCain and Fabio was all about Obama. So then we went to Club Avenue- John ran into this guy Alfredo the other day who apparently is a friend of a friend and does PR for clubs and parties in Rome. We were on the VIP list because of this connection.. Avenue overlooks the Colosseum and is a outdoor poolside discoteca with 3 levels and about 6 bars. AWESOME. (Pictured is the lower level of the VIP section)All the men wear tight jeans or white pants with white or blue striped button down shirts unbuttoned to show a bit of chest. Most women are dressed in what must be the latest D&G and/or Prada lines, and everyone is Italian, young, and quite beautiful. Especially Carlo. Because we were VIP, we got to go into a legit VIP section guarded by bouncers and a rope. Celebrity. In Italia, there is no such thing as rejection for women. They are the ones who reject the men, so armed with this knowledge, I didn't feel bad about blowing off Eurotrash or overly friendly drunk Italian 20-30somethings. Around 1am it started picking up, and when I finally got to bed, the clock read 5:00am. VIP- oh yes I am.

oh, yea- and FYI--> http://picasaweb.google.com/cstecyk116/Roma1 (more pictures)