TGIM

Oh Mondays in Rome are so much better then Sundays. On Sundays, it’s only tourists everywhere, clogging the incredibly narrow streets with their t-shirt and short-wearing selves, but today, the Romans went to work and they were at the restaurants and on the streets and in suits. Beautiful men in beautiful suits. I’m going to make some gross generalizations and say that from my vast visual experience, Roman men are divided into three main groups – laborers, shopkeepers, and businessmen who wear suits seemingly no matter what their business. And they ride scooters. And they fill their scooters up with gas from self-service gas stations that are right on the sidewalk.



Took in the Coliseum and the Pantheon, both of which I enjoyed very much. Click here for pics. I loved the Coliseum. It’s one of those sights that doesn’t in the least fail to live up to its hype. An absolute marvel.

Decided it would do my stomach well to front-load my day with food rather try to sleep full of pasta and grappa again, so dinner was "light" -- pizza. There is a lightness to it, really. Had a wonderful lunch – a salad with sliced pears, shaved hard cheese, and olives and an Argentinian steak that was heavenly – and I would never say that lightly. It was so tender that I suspect the filet mignon on the menu had the texture of marshmallow. Looking forward to having steak in Florence as the region is known as cattle-country, though I suppose they don’t use that exact phrasing.




Check out my monastic living quarters. All that’s missing is a crucifix above the bed and some gravel to kneel on to say my prayers at night. That picture is actually taken from the hallway. It’s very clean though and a true single, but I have to remind myself that too much pizza, and I’ll have to upgrade to a double. I keep bumping into things the way it is. Trust dear readers that my accommodations improve as my journey continues.