Wednesday it rained all day so decided it would be best to stay in and get some studying done in the morning. Mom went out by herself while I took a late shower and got down to the lobby of the hotel by about 12. I studied there for 2 hours before I decided I needed a change of scenery so I went back up to my room quickly to write Mom a not before I headed to that McDonald’s I had frequented and did some studying again. I got through a whole day and a half of lecture so I felt pretty accomplished. Mom came and got me probably around 4 o clock or so and I went out with her. It was still kind of raining but we headed back near the Duomo and walked to this shop that she had seen that sold these wax stamps that I was interested in getting. We found one that had my initials so we got that and we got a few other odds and ends there. Then we headed off to the Ponte Vecchio. The Ponte Vecchio is a famous bridge in Florence where basically there are a lot of people that make jewelry. I hate to downplay the magnificence of it, but I just wasn’t truly captivated by it. I know there is a ton of history behind it, and there is probably more beauty in the architecture than I give it credit for, but to me it is just shops for those who want the “bling.” If anything it gives me some introspection into my own life and the crap that I buy a lot of the time. I may not buy gaudy jewelry, but I buy movies and video games and other crap that won’t improve my life the least little bit. And then I remember those poor ladies a couple blocks back who kneel in the pouring rain in the wet streets with their heads to the street, not even looking at what someone might put in their box. And some of that jewelry costs thousands of Euros. Guess it was good for me in those respects, whether those women are actually poor or not. A little perspective is always good.
After that we stopped at the Gelato place again and got an ice cream and headed back in the direction of the hotel. I covered another lecture that night and we went to bed. The next day we were going to leave for Rome. We woke up and it was still kind of raining that morning. We headed off to the train station around 930 and got our tickets for a 1030 train headed to Rome. We grabbed a cappuccino at the cafeteria there and took a seat until it was time for us to go to our train. We boarded our train, and it just so happens that they put us on the party train. The car we were in was full of Italian kids headed to Rome. And they were all just bouncing around from seat to seat the entire time. Mom and I were seated directly across from each other and two of them were sitting next to them. Two of the students were actually sitting in our seats when we got on the train and I felt lucky that I conveyed to them that they were sitting in our seats. I just put my iPod in and told Mom to do the same and just tried to block it out for the entire time. I did take some glimpses out the window at the Italian countryside which was beautiful. It was very difficult not to be irritated with these kids though as they were constantly in our personal space and even had a speaker set hooked up to their iPod blaring music for the entire car to see. Girlfriends were all over their boyfriends in seats right next to ours. Some boys were obviously wearing mascara and some had pink earrings. I couldn’t honestly say they were homosexual but I also couldn’t help but think, “What do these boys father’s teach them?” I mean they could possibly not have fathers or their fathers don’t care or any other number of reasons. But it just reinforces the idea in my head that when I do have sons, I will raise them to be MEN. They will not be sissys with mascara and that wouldn’t know what it meant to stand up to someone. Makes me question what some of these kids will do one day as a profession. I tried as hard as I could not to judge though it was very hard not to, but I did try and pray for them also that somehow they would find their way.
We got to Rome and had to almost charge our way onto the subway. Those things were SOOOOO packed. But we made it on with our luggage and then went through the process of getting lost on the way to find our hotel. But despite the rain in Rome, we still found the place and got checked in. We both were exhausted from the entire trip so we ended up laying down for a little while and taking a nap and seeing if the rain quit before deciding what to do. Once we got up we decided it was best to maybe try a museum. We headed toward the National Museum and saw a lot of Ancient Roman statues and got a good Emperor history lesson from the tour guide book. I have always heard names like Julius Caesar and Augustus and Brutus, etc, but I could never place them in a time period and this tour of the museum really helped me with that. After we were done there we headed back to the hotel where we were going to try and find a place to eat for the night.
We ventured down a backstreet and found a nice place with outside seating and candles. We ordered an appetizer of meats and cheese that was okay and then we both had pastas. Mom had the carbonara and I had a pasta with mushroom which was cooked in olive oil I’m guessing. It was good though and I had a glass of white wine which was also very refreshing. We headed back to the hotel and had a decently early night since we had to get up early in order to meet our guide at the Vatican for our tour at 9.
No comments:
Post a Comment