CONIGLIETTO = BUNNY

Shoot. In my last post from Umbria I forgot to include a ITALIAN WORD OF THE DAY so at the end I will give you two.

Where am I now? I am in Napoli and it is Easter. After two weeks in Umbria I headed to the big city of Rome. I had an Argentine friend there trying to get her Italian passport. She saw me on Facebook and said COME TO ROME FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY. I did but she could not connect to me. We will have to wait until Buenos Aires to reunite and have a very belated birthday toast.

Having changed my plans to arrive a few days earlier to Rome and then be without housing with Laura had me scrambling to find a host or hostel. I wasn't too panicked. I came up with Plans A through E. I have learned that when something comes up you just take care of it. Not just in travel but pretty much everything. I put a post on Couchsurfing's Emergency Couch forum and was contacted by Marcello, a cyclist, volunteer EMT, karate instructor, runner and all around straight laced honest guy. He met me at the station in Rome on my birthday, got me settled in my own little room, introduced me to his two Russian roommates (girls studying in Italy for a year), handed me the keys and a pile of maps and off I went to the catacombs nearby. It was a perfect introduction to Rome outside the historic touristy area. 

Friday was another fantastic day. I dressed in layers and peeled them off as the weather got warmer and warmer. I had taken a subway into the Colosseum stop very early as there was a transportation strike beginning at 8:30 am. This is my first photo of the old city as I emerged from the station.

It felt quite surreal to me. My last visit to Rome was 33 years ago. I was amazed at how much the Colosseum had shrunk. In fact the whole city shrunk. I think the vast amounts of tourists dwarfed things. Thirty years ago there were definitely less tourists. You could actually go to the Trevi fountain and take a photo without a ton of camera totting foreigners getting in the way of the shots. I am so glad I was here before the onslaught but still if I had to find one word for Rome it would be IMPRESSIVE. There are layers upon layers. You take a photo of one thing and another is peaking through your frame and that really is IMPRESSIVE.

Into my fifth hour of walking I was down to my second layer. I had been thinking, “What a great day for a motorcycle ride.” My cell phone rang and it was a Peruvian couchsurfer living in Rome with the afternoon off from work and a motorcycle. He came to pick me up and we went to the beach. I have never thought of Rome as a beach area but it does have beaches and sailboats.

On Sunday I joined a group of Marcello's fellow GEOCACHERS at a lake, the one by where the former Pope now lives, the summer residence. And Monday Ii was contacted by a Swiss war correspondent living in Rome for 25 years. He also had seen by SOS. Though I did not need a place to stay I told him a tour would be nice so we met early in the morning and I was taken by car high above the city  We then visited some nearby lakes.  Of course I had a lunch of porcetta.

The story beyond the story.  The accordion player counts his change while the lovers count their kisses.

Rome was pretty busy for me but I was done after a week. Easter meant locals leaving the city to spend the weekend with family in other regions of the country.  I lost my couch in Rome but I did find a decent hostel in Naples. I also made a new friend. Valeria is also a couchsurfer close to my age. She has a photograph news agency. We had dinner the other night at her home.  I ate my first rabbit. I am not sure how I feel about that having raised them as pets as a child. Well, I will get over it. Valeria has also invited me for Easter dinner with her family. It will be a typical Neapolitan menu. I will sleep there tonight. I already have an amazing cake from the bakery. It is sitting here next to me. When the rain stops I will head over to her place with my backpack and cake. I am really looking forward to it.

So that is it for now. I am out of time. As promised the ITALIAN WORD(S) OF THE DAY - PASQUA = EASTER and CONIGLIETTO = BUNNY. Enjoy!

PS  I like Naples.  While Rome is impressive Naples is gritty and chaotic.  I don't want to make this post too long.  Perhaps I will write a separate article.  I feel as if this is where the Argentine Italians came from.  (Maradona just left the other day.)  People are so friendly, boys play futbol at cocktail parties while the girls in their high heels act coy, people are louder and they talk with their hands and yell, and the men catch your eyes in the streets.  Yes - I feel my Argentina here.  I so wish I had brought my national rugby shirt.  Perhaps I can find a little flag to sew on my day pack.  Valeria tells me that I would be hugged everywhere I go in the city.  Saluti!

REOCCURRING BEDSIDE ANGELS

Comfortably relaxing in bed in Florence Italy I got to thinking. When I was a budding young teenager my parents took me to Marco Island, FL.  Back in the early 70's there were only one or two condominium complexes over two stories high and except for the white sanded beaches the place was essentially a mosquito ridden dredging pit.  My parents had their agenda which was to check out investment opportunities and I headed for the pool.  Donned in my blue string bikini I swam and frolicked and soaked up the sun for five way-too-many-without-sunscreen hours.  I spent the rest of that week vomiting from sun exposure and blistering up in a very painful and ugly fashion.  If the sun poisoning wasn't bad enough worse was that I wasn't able to leave the condo.  I was reduced to precariously sitting on my butt (the small bit of it that had been covered by the string bikini) and watching the Watergate hearings on TV.  To a budding teen that was painful. The message?  I know what it is like to be miserable on vacation.  I am not miserable.  I have had the flu.

 My First Florence Hotel left a lot to be desired - LIKE AMPLE HEAT AND SUN!

Hmm... that statement makes me ponder.  Is this a vacation and if so a vacation from what?  I have been a NOMAD since July 2011 when I packed all my things in Buenos Aires into boxes, put them in storage and headed to Spain.  I have been back for short visits but not long enough to unpack yet.  I think this is now what one would call "A LIFESTYLE."

To catch ya up... since my last post I went from Padova where my headaches started to Vicenza where my wheezing started to Rovigo where the full flu blew up to Modena where I started to turn the corner.  All of these three day stops were with couchsurfing hosts/angels.  After Modena I said to myself, "That's it."  I really dislike arriving to a host with the premise of wanting to spend time with them and see their local sights (ALL TRUE) but not really having the energy to do much more than sleep and cough up and blow out massive amounts of phlegm.  I decided to go online and book a hotel in Florence in order to be on my own time and my own dime.  I had arranged for a host in Florence but the deal was I would be given a sleeping bag and a place of the floor.  Thank you Che but I need to decline now.  I need a bed.

I booked a cheap one star hotel with breakfast included for three nights.  Beauty and frills made no difference to me.  I would be sleeping most of the time anyway.  I just needed a clean place with a private bath and hot shower, heat and wifi and that's what I got.  It was adequate for three nights but then I switched over to something more simpatico and quaint.  When the manager opened the door to my room I said YES!!!!!!  THIS is what I need.  The first afternoon in the room I became a cat in the sun just soaking it in until the earth moved it beyond my window.  How sublime.  How perfect.  Healing under the Tuscan Sun.   MEOW  PURR.

Later I went out for a walk and to get some snacks and came upon this fellow.  Just walk down any alley here and turn left or right and fall into art.  It really is quite amazing.  The "other" David resides indoors at the Galleria dell'Accademia.  This one is for us peasants without a museum pass.

I am feeling quite well now.  I just have a tinge of under-the-weather-ness.  My left ear is blocked from all the congestion.  That just requires patience.  The pharmacist has sold me what I need.  It is similar to what my doctor in Buenos Aires prescribed to me when I got the flu last year.  It thins out all the gunky stuff so your body can absorb and assimilate it better.  I think I have done well.  I have subscribed myself to Patience.  

There is a piece though, just a tiny piece of me that feels guilty.  Ah but remember the sunburn story.  Sometimes you best just sit for a spell.  Healing takes some time.  I spoke to the hotel owner yesterday when she helped settle me in.  I told her, "People are watching me and my travels, where I go, what I do and how I handle things. There's a part of me that feels that I am paying for a hotel in Florence and therefore I should be out and about looking at all the art and architecture and running all over the city doing everything possible. But I say no, I have time.  I am going to have this cup of tea and wrap up in bed with a good book or lecture on my computer and relax.  After all, all that art and architecture has waited centuries for me to come and see it.  It can wait a little longer."  Sunday should be 60F and sunny.  Let's hope weather dot com is right this time.  I am ready.

I am signing out from Florence now.  Enjoy the weekend wherever you are.

Oh and before I forget...

Today's Italian word is CALDO = HOT as in tea.

Time to put the kettle on.

(TWINNINGS Blackcurrent Tea - Buy some.)

Side photo is of my digs in Toledo Spain in July 2011 when i house sat for a couchsurfing couple going on vacation.  Notice the angels above the bed.  :)