Roman Holiday, Part I

Did you know "grazie" was pronounced "graht-zee-ay"? I did not until my third day in Rome.

Day One
Needless to say, Rome was gorgeousawesomecrazycool. The great thing about Rome (and the great thing about Julie basically living in the center of it) was you could walk just about anywhere and run into something interesting, as we did my first day there, be it

The Pantheon:



The Trevi Fountain (featuring Julie and Gelato Spoon):



Or perhaps Rome's Cat Sanctuary (imagine it crawling with a million cats, as it is at night):




Our day was mostly filled with conversation and coffee. We also wandered into a nameless shop run by two older Italian women who spoke Italian at me (and with Julie), smoked endless cigarettes, and used the back room of the shop, which was filled with dresses and had a window, as a dressing room. We aspired to be like these women one day.

That night we watched this piece of class cinema history. It made me miss Richard Pryor and the classic, campy way the Superman movies used to be done:


Day Two
Saturday was Julie's birthday. Again, a day filled with wandering, although we did have a couple destinations in mind, including the one thing I knew would be in Rome and that I wanted to see:

The Mouth of Truth



I wanted to see it not because it is possibly thousands of years old nor because of its mysterious origins. I wanted to see it because Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck both stood in that spot in front of it in Roman Holiday. However, we really didn't feel like standing in line in order to reenact that moment in the movie like every other tourist in Rome was doing, so I managed to snap a picture between tourists and left it at that.

The places we went were really touristy, but that was okay. Julie had a knack for walking in front of every camera poised to capture the centuries-old monuments. When asked what the reactions were, Julie said, "No one's said 'fuck you' yet...at least not in English."

Another place we did not want to pay to see or stand in line to get into:

The Colosseum:


And the Ancient Roman Ruins:


A gladiator accosted Julie, stopping her with his gold-painted sword and sticking a plastic-jewel encrusted tiara on her head. She adamantly denied his request for a picture with him (which we would have had to pay for) and took off the tiara. True to Italian Stallion Stereotype, he called after us: "Come-a on-a! I kiss-a you!"

After a birthday dinner, we gathered in Amber's apartment for wine. From her terrace, I saw the only way Camp Dei Fiori should be seen:


What did I say? Gorgeousawesomecrazycool.