Five Days in Roma

As promised, a brief overview of the trip to Rome!


After several months of cold grey skies in Bucharest, stepping off the plane into a warm, sunny Italian Friday afternoon was something akin to a hot shower after being lukewarm and filthy for too long. We admired the sun setting behind the palm trees as we waited for the bus that would shuttle us from the airport to the train station, where Sibyl, Dan's good friend from high school, picked us up and took us to her place.



Her husband showed us around Rome that night after a spectacular dinner of pasta and Tuscan red wine, followed necessarily by a scoop of gelatto.


The next morning, after a trip to the market, we had a picnic right in the middle of Circus Maximus (see right), then took a leisurely stroll across the Tiber (drinking the best capuccino of my life along the way) and up a hill overlooking Rome.


That evening we learned some Tuscan cooking secrets from Andrea, which we have wasted no time in implementing back in Bucharest. :)


Sunday we did most of the touristy things, although unfortunately most of our pictures of the Colosseum, Forum, and Spanish Steps got lost.


Monday we decided it would be a great idea to rent a car and drive north of Rome through the region of Umbria. So, not heeding any warnings from Andrea and Sibyl, we got ourselves a bright blue Fiat Panda and proceeded to navigate our way out of Rome. After a few set backs and stopping once or twice to check the map and ask for directions, we managed to get out of the concrete labyrinth of Roman roads and onto A1 headed north for Orvieto. From here, I'll let the pictures say the rest:

Primavara

I hardly dare write this in fear I'm going to jinx something, but I think spring might actually be settling in here in Bucharest!

So yes, it did snow last Friday (which I missed due to a flight to Rome!), but it's gone and the sun is out and we have highs of 50 degrees forecasted this week. So I'm operating under the assumption that it's going to stay this way for a while.

I've been doing a bit of traveling the past few weekends. I went to Cluj, a long night-train ride northwest of Bucharest, and spent a nice weekend watching Hungarian opera with Romanian supertitles and eating sushi. The trip to Rome probably deserves an entry all its own, so sit tight on that.

I don't have any plans for more traveling until Melissa gets here in three weeks. Until then I plan to do all the things in Bucharest that I've been meaning to do for five months but haven't gotten around to, including going to the opera and the Peasant Museum, eating a burger at the American Sports Bar in the Marriott, and going ice skating in Cismigiu Park (if Spring allows).

Gephyrophobia

Gephyrophobia: The fear of bridges and/or crossing them.

I've noticed an interesting pattern in myself: the moment I make a definite decision in my life, for example and most conspicuous right now, buying a plane ticket from one continent to another, I stop enjoying where I am and start stressing out about where I'm going. I can no longer take things one day at a time, appreciating the hesitations, questions, expletives that punctuate life's simple rhythm. Instead I make mental lists of everything I have left to see, to do. Each one of those One Last Coffees I have to grab with friends.

I devote all my attention to the Next Big Step. To resumes and cover letters and thinking it might help to narrow it down to at least one region of the world, but not knowing where to start. 63 days of crescendoing whirlwind. Of last minutes and long goodbyes and just one more times.

I think this is more a fear of time constraints, but there isn't a word for that.