Oh, the streets of Rome are filled with rubble, Ancient footprints are everywhere.
But yesterday I spent much more time with modern Rome than with ancient Rome.
I walked up and down Via Condotti, stepping inside all the high fashion stores. I must have entered at least three Prada stores before I found the one that sells men's clothing, a big Gucci store with tons of jewelry, etc. There may have been a period that lasted for about 5 minutes a few years ago where I thought I knew a tiny bit about fashion, but after my experience yesterday, I confirmed that it is long ago and passed. I was as confused and uncomfortable in these stores as I felt in a museum before taking any Art History classes. I had no idea what I was looking at, what I liked, what was too gaudy, what was actually kind of cool. No idea. And I felt the salespeople were hounding me, either trying to answer questions, or maybe to make sure I wasn't about to try anything on without their assistance.
Given the continuing cash flow problem, I chose an activity that, like window shopping, costs nothing. I walked up a hill to a huge park north of the Spagna stop. Not quite as impressive Central Park, say, but pleasant for sitting, for walking around, for watching the couples and the youth lounging on the grass.
A brief stop at a book store, as I was soon to finish Northanger Abbey (got Jane Eyre and Ignorance by Milan Kundera), bought some groceries for dinner...
Ate dinner and called it an early night. I must have gone to bed at around 8. So exhausted from walking all day, and the day before and without the ability to buy anything, I figured I might as well go to sleep. Unfortunately, I woke up around 2, and couldn't fall asleep for a long time. Even worse, I overslept by 2 hours, which messed up my trip today to Naples.
Last night in Rome was a once a year event called White Nights, where everybody stays up all night enjoying events on the street. I was curious, but I wanted to collect my key deposit for the morning, and i was tired and it was raining so I went to sleep instead.
I heard it wasn't that great, but I am still upset I didn't go.
I walked up and down Via Condotti, stepping inside all the high fashion stores. I must have entered at least three Prada stores before I found the one that sells men's clothing, a big Gucci store with tons of jewelry, etc. There may have been a period that lasted for about 5 minutes a few years ago where I thought I knew a tiny bit about fashion, but after my experience yesterday, I confirmed that it is long ago and passed. I was as confused and uncomfortable in these stores as I felt in a museum before taking any Art History classes. I had no idea what I was looking at, what I liked, what was too gaudy, what was actually kind of cool. No idea. And I felt the salespeople were hounding me, either trying to answer questions, or maybe to make sure I wasn't about to try anything on without their assistance.
Given the continuing cash flow problem, I chose an activity that, like window shopping, costs nothing. I walked up a hill to a huge park north of the Spagna stop. Not quite as impressive Central Park, say, but pleasant for sitting, for walking around, for watching the couples and the youth lounging on the grass.
A brief stop at a book store, as I was soon to finish Northanger Abbey (got Jane Eyre and Ignorance by Milan Kundera), bought some groceries for dinner...
Ate dinner and called it an early night. I must have gone to bed at around 8. So exhausted from walking all day, and the day before and without the ability to buy anything, I figured I might as well go to sleep. Unfortunately, I woke up around 2, and couldn't fall asleep for a long time. Even worse, I overslept by 2 hours, which messed up my trip today to Naples.
Last night in Rome was a once a year event called White Nights, where everybody stays up all night enjoying events on the street. I was curious, but I wanted to collect my key deposit for the morning, and i was tired and it was raining so I went to sleep instead.
I heard it wasn't that great, but I am still upset I didn't go.
posted by Jed at 8:28 AM
3 Comments:
I hear Naples isn't all that great anyway... one friend said crossing the street is like playing human frogger, and another said about the people there, and I quote, "it's like Joey Tribiani's sisters all moved there and bred."
I'm not sure who that is, but based on what I have seen, I think you are probably exactly correct.
Ah, Joey Tribiani = Matt LeBlanc's character on friends. Cool that Naples is cool.
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