Category: life

My bestie Juli is in Rome right now and will be staying with us for a couple of weeks. As a host I always try to make my guest’s day fun but I was amazed at how our spontaneity turned out to be such a fruitful day.

7 am

We went jogging for 5 km in the neighbourhood while I tested out my new SJ4000 action camera. I tried to find a chest or head mount in the box but couldn’t so I clipped it on my cap in the end. Not sure if it was a good idea as the video was extremely shaky moreover I was unable to understand on how to switch the stabilizer on. I will have to take it for another test round again.

10 am

We took Sam the scooter and headed to Caffe Antica Roma, a bar that I like going to, to have breakfast. I got for us some cappucino and some pastries which is the standard for breakfast in Rome and to my surprise, Juli decided to get even more mini pastries. And by chance, the staff were starting to bring out lunch in their display case and Juli was fascinated by the array of food and got for herself a plate of cold pasta salad on top of everything. Naturally she couldn’t finish them by herself and forced me to eat too. I was so stuffed afterwards.

12 noon

We headed to a place called Aqua Sapone for some toiletry shopping and then I did a quick detour to a place called Piazza Cina do a little housekeeping in Ingress. I was lucky that it happened to be that it happened to be Thursday so there was the weekly market going on there so Juli wasn’t so bored while I fired some bombs.

1 pm

After seeing the market, I thought hard on where to head off next and eventually, I decided to take her to see the Rose garden at Circo Massimo since it was open and then we walked up to the Orange garden and the Piazza dei Cavallieri di Malta where you could peek in through a keyhole to see San Pietro.

3 pm

Since we had a bit of time, I thought that I’d bring her to see La bocca della verita as it wasn’t too far away. This is a sculpture where it was used to determine if a person was telling the truth by putting his hand in the mouth of the sculpture. This place is always popular and crowded with tourists regardless of which day of the year it is.

I explained to Juli that the skull of Saint Valentine is inside the church and about how Valentine’s day actually had a gory history.

4 pm

I was supposed to tutor in the evening, and planned to head back home by this time but I got a message and I suddenly found myself free so I suggested for us to continue our path to Campidoglio. Along our way we saw archaeologists digging through a site and we passed by different monuments. There are always fascinating things to see in Central Rome.

When we reached Campidoglio, on the spur, Juli  decided to go to the Capitolini museum but I wasn’t feeling it so I decided to just chill out at the steps. However, I heard chanting and at first I thought that it was a group of supporters for the Brazil world cup. Intrigued, I decided to investigate and later on found out that there was a protest going on against the mayor.

I stuck around the metal dividers and slowly saw more and more people trickling in – complete with vans full of security personnel.

I waited there till about 6 and hoping that I could catch a glimpse of Ignazio Marino in the flesh but he never came out and Juli and I had to leave as we already made plans for the evening :\

6.45 pm

We slowly walked back to the Rose garden where I parked the scooter and headed back home. Traffic can be really scary at this time but it isn’t such a big deal when you have a small scooter so we could just squeeze through the empty lanes.

We just passed by the Gazometro when we chanced by a charming looking building where it happened to be some sort of music festival going on. We were curious and really wanted to see it so we stopped for a while to soak in the atmosphere. The rapping was really great. I was feeling it!

Inside, there were a number of artists hard at work drawing their street-art and it was truly fascinating for me to see them live.

7.30 pm

By now I was feeling sticky after being out for the entire day and badly needed a shower and a quick bite. So we got ready and Juli decided to a makeover on me.

I don’t recognize myself with night make up and I’m not used to it, but if my certified make-up artist friend thinks that it’s nice, I’ll leave it to the expert.

8.30 pm

The sky looked as if it was going to rain so I asked Cart as soon as he reached home from work, to drive us to Caffe Palombini where weekly Tango Argentina classes are held. I’ve never danced before, but I was curious about it so I tagged along to see how it was. Unfortunately for me, all the rest of the people there were experienced dancers and I felt awkward being there, so I waved off to Juli who was already happily dancing with her new Ukrainian friend.

I walked to the Square Colosseum nearby to meet up with Cart who was farming for Ingress items. To my surprise, there was an impromptu meeting going on and I managed to meet a lot of interesting people, some from the blue, and even from the green team. It’s always interesting to finally place a face on the username.

I find it romantic how she was sharing the power charger from his bag. 

One of the members brought along with him a functioning droid plane and gave all of us a demonstration. I thought that it was a really fascinating-cool thing to see in action.

11 pm

Cart and I were fungry! But it was late and there were nothing open for us to eat. So we played ingress in the neighbourhood. Heh.

12.30 am

Juli was done with her dance class / Milonga and we went back to Palombini to fetch her. It was really nice to see her happy, comfortably chatting with her new friends and having a lovely time.  While on our way back home, Cart wanted to squeeze in a little bit more Ingress housekeeping but by this time I was completely stoned and was already passed out in the car waking up only when Cart urged me to up some portals and I was extremely grateful when I finally got into bed.

I was so tired! Nevertheless it was such a fruitful and productive day, back to back full of activities. I love days like these 🙂

Very soon, Italians would have to vote for the European parliament election.

If you’re in Rome, you could tell that it’s the voting season when you see a stack of political brochures stuffed in your mailbox, huge traffic where political speeches are held, as well as the numerous temporary billboards erected at practically each corner of the street.

A demonstration at Piazza del Popolo in 2010. 

In a nutshell, Italy used to be a monarch ruled by kings till monarchy was abolished after the Second World War. Since 1942, Italy has been a democratic republic with different branches and a multi system party with various ideologies.

When I first arrived in Rome, I found it refreshing how readily accessible political media are. On the telley for example, you could watch a show where there is a debate about the pros and cons of of a certain legislation. You could even see comedians making satires of politicians. In fact, there was an edited political billboard somewhere in Trastevere  which made me laugh out loud.

This is something that is non existent as from where I come from and to a big extent, I think that this is healthy as it promotes interest in politics and awareness of our rights as a citizen ad this directly reduces political apathy.

Nevertheless, there are still quite a number of people here that have no intention of voting as they think that their votes don’t count.

Cart’s expired voting card.

While I can’t vote in Italy, I think that this is a bad mindset to have because :

• It is your right as a citizen to vote
• Every vote counts

This is your chance. It would be a shame to just throw that away. Even if the party that you voted for didn’t win, each vote helps in showing they do have support.

If you can vote, vote! Don’t lose this opportunity.

On the first of May in Rome, there will be two things that the locals here typically do :

1. Eat Fava beans with Pecorino cheese

If you are in Italy somewhere in the middle of April till early May, you’ll see Fava pods being sold in abundance in the markets.

Somewhere along the time, it has started to be a tradition to eat Fava beans on labour day in Rome. To eat it, you’ll have to tear the pod open and squeeze the beans out.

It’s a slightly sweet tasting vegetable. It may take a while for some to get accustomed to as it has a grass like taste.  But it does taste much palatable when paired with the creamy and nutty pecorino cheese.

2. Watch the concert at Piazza San Giovanni.

On a regular day, Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano is not as crowded compared to its counterpart.

On labour day however, it would be very difficult to even walk here as each year this area will be used for a big concert. This year alone was reported to be a million spectators in attendance.

Cart and I didn’t attend the concert and instead watched it at the comfort of our sofa on TV. There were a lot of interesting acts like KuTso which we found enjoyable.

There was even Piero Pelu’ who was one of the judges from The Voice of Italia. His performance along with Litfiba was electrifying and eclectic. In between songs he reminded spectators to not forget about those who were not fortunate enough to have jobs.

Among those, it is also typical for those in Rome to go for a picnic with friends if it’s a good day out. You’ll see parks full of life and bustling of activity then.