Lost Again

I promise that this will be the last post I write without pictures! But I just arrived home at my dorm, and I must write about my day—especially the ending.

This morning, my friends and I booked our travel plans to Sienna and Florence next weekend. It was quite relieving to finalize our trip itinerary: I’m very excited for my first travel during my stay here. Regarding the destinations, I have been to Florence once before, and it is definitely worth it to see again. As for Sienna, I have never been there but it has been a place I’ve wanted to go to. I read Saint Catherine of Sienna’s Dialogue within the last year, and very much enjoyed the text—upon finishing, an interest to see Sienna certainly developed. Not to mention: given my deep love for Assisi, I’m sure that I will share something similar with Sienna, too.

Anyway, this afternoon I went to “Villa di Adriano” (Hadrian’s Villa). I’m talking about Emperor Adriano of the Roman Empire. I won’t get into all of the history, but a few points are necessary: He had built a villa—really a small city—outside of Rome (about one hour bus ride). This villa was totally self-sufficient, and immensely beautiful. It’s also interesting because Adriano had a deep love for the whole empire, and always wanted unity to be a strong element of it; accordingly, the material for much of the buildings were drawn from all over the empire’s borders—not just within Rome. Today, there are many ruins left—columns, floors, baths, pillars, walls, domes, ceilings, pools, etc. In some places, the layout of the structure is still quite clear. So, in a sentence: seeing the Villa di Adriano was an awesome look into the past, and I was, not surprisingly, struck by awe at the genius of the Romans.

In the night, I took Catherine out to dinner, which is always a special occasion. Following dinner, we met some of her friends at an Opera! I’ve never been to one: viewing my first opera in Rome was a hell of a treat. The music was touching. It’s always incredible to hear—really hear—harmony. I loved it.

Going home from Catherine’s place later that night was quite the experience. I had to take the “N6” because it was past midnight (and the 990, which I usually take, stops running around that time). I was on the N6, and as far as I was concerned I knew where to get off. But for some strange reason, I totally missed my stop. Figures… Anyway, after I kind of realized where I was, and that I was definitely beyond my stop, I thought “I have two options: 1) I can get off and try and figure out how to walk to my dorm, or 2) I will stay on the bus and wait for it to turn around”. I don’t know which option is necessarily better, but I did numero due. However, two things happened following this decision: the first is that I realized this bus has a long ass route, and the second really got me. The bus driver pulls the bus over on the side of the road—and note that by this point I have absolutely no idea where I am, and to make matters more fun, I’m the only one on the bus aside from the driver—and he decides to take a freaking nap. You got to be shittin’ me. I sat there, extremely confused, and just a bit nervous.

To my benefit, a dog walked by the bus and barked. This woke up the driver. Quickly, before he continued his paid nap, I jumped out of my seat and spoke a bit of Italian trying to figure things out. He seemed helpful, but nonetheless continued his nap. My over confidence with Italian made me act like I totally understood everything he said. But to be honest, I kind of just hoped things would work out.

To make a long story short: eventually (15-20 minutes), he woke up and continued the route. I watched very closely for my stop, and hopped out to be greeted by a 15 minute walk to the dorms. Finally home—and exausted—I’m writing this because I can’t believe I’ve been lost at least 3 times and it has barely been a week! Buona Notte!

Oh, when in Rome…

Please note that this post was written at 2:30 AM Sunday morning. I am posting it now at 10:30 PM Sunday night only because I was way too tired to walk down the hall after I wrote this for internet access in order to post it online.