So you might recall the Dutch couple I met yesterday, Joke and Chris. Or Ken and Barbie as I call them. Apparently their friends call them that as well. We had plans to meet up for dinner yesterday, and this is how it went down. I got back to the hostel after seeing them at lunch, and started to decompress by taking care of travel arrangements. With all of the walking around Rome demands, a couch is the highest comfort. With my laptop and my hostel couch, I was in heaven. So I keep interneting and sitting around, and wait until my laptop clock tells me that it is almost 7pm, the time when I need to be at some new restaurant the plastic pair recommended. It doesn’t look too far away, so I am out the door at 20 minutes until 7 with a map and a spring in my step. Then I look at my phone. 10 minutes until 8. What. The. Hell? If there is one thing I hate, it’s being late. If there’s another thing I hate, it’s other people being late. Owing to my ability to empathize with the proverbial couple who has been waiting on me for 40 minutes, I am able to hate both myself from my perspective and theirs. Turns out my laptop is still set on British time. Careless. I jog the last few streets to the restaurant, and look in the window to see the Dutch pair of supermodels almost finished with their meal. I erupt into the tiny locals-only restaurant and apologize so loudly that everyone in the restaurant looks at the crazy blonde guy. I feel their Italian disapproval for interrupting the atmosphere.
“Don’t worry about it!,” Chris says, “in England, you would have been right on time!” They implored me to order something, and within a few minutes, I was enjoying a delicious spaghetti cabonara and some sparkling conversation. We all talked about geopolitics, the Euro, and the differences between America, Italy, Paris, and Holland. As it turns out, Americans fit in well with the Dutch when it comes to work ethic. But by Chris and Joke’s experiences, when a French or Italian colleague tells you they will get a work task done, it’s best to add a few days to whatever their estimated time of completion was. Dutch people also have a passion, like piranhas, for free things. Taxes are so high, the idea of someone giving something away excites them to a fever pitch. I can’t wait to see them both, or at the least Chris (Joke might be busy getting admitted to their version of the bar) at his flat in Amsterdam.
Today, my last day, I went inside the Coliseum and Forum while listening to Rick Steve’s audio guide. I hate listening to most tour guides, so at least the audio guide gives me the illusion of individuality. At the very least, when Rick bothers me I can just press pause. The Coliseum was an intense experience. As I walked through the hallway and emerged into it’s oval, I couldn’t help but feel the visceral fear that must have pumped through the veins of gladiators, prisoners, and criminals as they took what likely would be their last steps amidst the jeers 50,000 screaming people yearning to see them die.
On my way to the old forum ruins, I gave directions in Mandarin to a woman and her young son. Her face lit up when I spoke Chinese, and made me feel really good.
The forum ruins are amazing. An entire city center is more or less preserved for tourists to imagine what life was like two thousand years ago. I walked where Cesar was stabbed, and where Cicero’s hands and head where nailed to a wall for his speaking critically of the dictatorial new role Cesar was taking in Roman life to the chagrin of the Senate. What was really crazy was the idea that these ruins used to all be under hills of turf and overgrowth. Rome went to the Earth’s foremost civilization to worm food in a couple of centuries. Something to remember when people tell you America’s supremacy is permanent.
P.S. A random couple just came into the common area and asked for directions to the hostel. I gave them my computer to check, and now we are going to dinner (they are new in town and I am an old hand at Rome).
P.P.S. Ok just got back from dinner and they were really cool. Both Portuguese, very nice.
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