When in Rome…again…

“One has to chose ever so delicately among one’s difficulties, attaching oneself to the greatest, bearing hard on those and intelligently neglecting the others. If one attempts to tackle them all one is certain to deal completely with none; whereas the effectual dealing with a few casts a blest golden haze under cover of which, like wanton mocking goddesses in clouds, the others find prudent to retire.”
-Henry James, Preface to the Aspern Papers

Ciao! Well, I’m still here in Italy, a lovely country that has earned a disproportionate amount of my time in Europe thanks to the history, architecture and of course, the food. I was fortunate enough to meet two lads from Australia and Oregon on the boat from Athens who were also headed to Rome, so when I showed up at the train station at 11pm at night, I was not alone. I was here three years ago, but that apparently is enough time to forget the layout of the city. Luckily, one had been to Rome just a month earlier and knew a place to stay. Unluckily, when we got there, it was booked. So the first night was spent at something of a questionable looking establishment run by Chileans who we joked would wait for us to fall asleep so as to procure our vital organs. Really though, it was less haha, more blind fear. Needless to say, we survived, kidneys in tact to go back to the other hostel for the following two nights. I really enjoy this hostel, and I’ve managed to pick up a very little bit of Japanese, as it is run by a Japanese guy, Tomo, his girlfriend, and a few others. But more on this later.

They say all roads lead to Rome, and that’s all well and good, but what to do when you reach Rome? Then all of the many roads leading to Rome converge confusingly, conspiring against the innocent tourist used to the New York grid system. ‘I have walked a lot’ would be something of an understatement. Closer to the truth would be ‘the freakin map in the guidebook I took from the hostel was inaccurate.’ Really, some of the monuments were backwards in the pictures, not all mind you, but assuredly those from which I would have derived benefit in relocating my hostel in the evening. With my eurail pass, I am entitled to a discount on the ferry going from Salerno to Tunis, so I decided that might be fun. So today, I bid farewell to Rome and headed for Africa. I did not reach Africa. I am in currently in Rome. I got to Salerno (half the day on a train) and found that being Sunday, everything was closed, and I do not speak enough Italian to convey “I need a place to sleep tonight because my ferry to Tunisia doesn’t leave until tomorrow”. So, I decide to forgo Tunis for now, and go back up to Padova to try and find Nicole (much to her consternation, I am sure, being that I am only now notifying her of my arrival). Then probably a little southern French comfort. But I digress: returning to Rome, I find myself wandering back through the train station when who should I run into–but Tomo. So that is why I am back in Rome, at the same hostel, saying hello to the same puzzled people who saw me leave this morning.

And that’s all the story I have for you right now. I was personally very excited to finish The Gulag today, but perhaps this is not exactly enthralling for you. I know it wasn’t for me. I will try be more interesting before the next entry.