a quiet place

This morning I managed to awake a little after 8am. The internal alarm clock is a phenomenon under investigation. Which means that while no one has been able to reliably document it, people believe it exists so are continuing to study it. When they could be sending money to hungry people or planting trees. Not that I'm against research!

Surprisingly I did actually wake up around 7 and then used my personal snooze button to hang out for another hour. Wouldn't I love to be a psychologist? Oops - I already am. But not the kind that wakes up willing, paid participants at various hours but rather, the kind that observes American children in their natural habitat, the cafeteria and playground.

After a few days in Rome proper I felt an urge for a quiet place with some fresh and natural odors. The smells here are funky even though the flat is equipped with several pleasant air fresheners - not like U.S. air fresheners that I can feel killing my brain cells and I'm not even a developing toddler. There seem to be accumulating reasons to live in Europe, such as their attempt to actually regulate the chemicals to which we are exposed on a daily basis. But I digress (again). No matter how wonderful it is here, it is still a city and it is still stinky. So I went out in search of some beautiful scents as well as sights. Here are some of the characters I found along the way.





I ended up at Villa Borghese, a lovely park full of green stuff. The view of Roma from one end is magnificent, but my camera battery died so if you are curious you may use Google to find a picture. Actually there is something nice about being a tourist without a camera. The experiences are different; you notice things that are passing moments more than things that are fixed, or "fisso", as in "numero fisso" which is what Italians call land lines. Per esempio, while walking through the Viale del Magnolie I saw a funny running man, who used his arms like they were pedaling him along and tipee-toed like he didn't want to crush any bugs on his run. And, there was a family in a bicycle thingie, like this except instead of a sexy Italian couple picture an American couple with 2 little daughters.



On the way back I took the direct route, Via del Corso, and found a gelateria where I ordered peach (pesca) and watermelon (anguria) in a cone. The server (gelato-ista?) seemed proud of himself that he identified me as American. Like my pale skin, clunky New Balance running shoes and old shirt didn't give me away and he was somehow psychic. I nodded, yes I'm American, but then he went one further and said "from Oklahoma!" That was pretty much the end of that conversation. Ha, ha, I'm from Oklahoma? Is that a new joke about the United States I haven't learned yet?

In closing, Rome is beautiful, all over the place, but I like the areas with foliage and trees best, possibly. And I'll have to remember to let the camera battery die more often.