Long, boring blog (you've been warned)

I unexpectedly had a lot of time to kill walking around today, so I decided to video blog instead (vlog?). But the audio quality ain't great, and there's no USB port on this laundromat PC anyway, so text it is.

(This keyboard is infuriating. my excuse for typos -- all the symbols are in different spots.)

So... today's first mission was the Catacombs di San Callisto. The directions were to take the metro to a certain stop and then bus it over there. But upon looking at a map or two, the walk from the metro station to the catacombs didn't seem terrible. So walk I did.

And walk. And walk. And walk some more.

Started out strolling through a mostly residential area. Buildings almost reminded me of Co-Op City in NY. It was very, well, normal -- people walking dogs, kids playing ball in a yard, two women arguing in an intersection after they drove into each other's cars, an old woman being surrounded by pigeons. Pretty standard.

One difference, actually... well, let me start with this: Rome might be the whitest city I've ever been to. The first few days, the only minorities I saw were tourists. Almost everyone else? White Italians (and other tourists).

The ethnic landscape got a little more diverse at the Castle and some of the Plazas when taking the souvenir salesfolk into account ... peddlers and performers, to. And the guy who runs this laundromat is Indian. But today, far away from the city center, the population was far more diverse. No straight-up division; rather, it was a good mix one won't find much of in the city center.

Really, dropping a person in this neighborhood -- they'd never know it is Rome, at least not how we envision it as outsiders.

Anyway, some cramped housing, quiet streets, tiny cars ... and suddenly an enormous, well-constructed church. This theme, along with everyone riding motorcycles or driving tiny cars, was recurring. It's somewhat amazing how many impressive churches are her, especially considering Catholicism -- and Judaism -- was banned here way back when.

So I walked for a while, eventually finding the main road I was looking for. I asked a woman how to get to the Catacombs. She pointed the way, said 20 minute walk.

Not bad.

So I walk a while... maybe 20ish minutes ... and nothing is looking catacomby. If anything, it's looking busier and more commercialized. So I ask a couple other people... they don't understand. At first.

Sometimes the locals have a hard time understanding what I am saying, as I inevitably am mispronouncing words. But some words are similar. Like catacombs.

They couldn't get it. After several attempts, finally: "ah, cat-ah-COOMB-eys."

Really? That difficult?

Anyway, the guy -- who was very nice -- points me up the street, says four lights. I go six. Nothing. I stop at a cafe, where several people speaking little to no English try to help. They say walk 4 kilometers, go under the arch, take a right. Then a woman says to take the bus.

I decide to walk at first, as the bus instructions include a bus number that wasn't even on the sign at the next stop i found. So I walk and walk and walk. Eventually I find the arch and see a road before it. I spend about a half-second wondering if I should take it (yes, foreshadowing), but instead i walk under the arch. and keep going.

I find a police officer. Very helpful, shows me where we are on the map. As I suspected, way past the catacombs. Too far to walk? Yes. Bus is good, but can I get on without ticket and pay on the bus? Cop says no. How about taxi? That'll work. Where to I get one? Don't know. Ciao!

Uh, thanks?

So I walk more, finding an intersection with a couple of in-use cabs. I hang out there, several go by. All in use. Walk several blocks, find a cafe and hotel... with two cabs in front. Empty. Meaning no driver, either.

It is a little past 4 pm at this point. Catacombs close at 5.

Finally a cab comes up. He's open. I hop in. I point to the address and name of place on guide map, he's down with it. So we go. He's listening to a sports station breaking down the day's Serie A soccer action, constantly checking what appear to be betting slips. Each time he pulls the slips down from the sun visor, revealed is a postcard with naked women on it. I decide to refrain from engaging in a philosophical debate around the value of religion as it relates to the catacombs, instead asking what the Milan-Inter score is. He tells me.

We get to catacombs, I am almost expecting it to be closed. Or to suck.

But I do get ticket at 4:30, which is about 3.5 hours, i think, after i left the hostel. I barely make the English tour. The down and dirty: the catacombs are very cool (literally and figuratively). Could have spent way more time there... but the tour was just 30 min... and of just one of the four levels. And our guide preached a little too much.

But the underground burial grounds and worship areas (this all when Catholics were being persecuted for a couple hundred years) were fascinating, and enough was in tact to get a good flavor for what it was like back in the second and third century.

This had the potential to be awesome ... But I couldn't find a comment box.

So ... How to get back. There's a sign to the bus, so I go and ask some fellow yanks waiting there if you can pay on the bus. They say yeah, no prob. Take that, friendly Italian cop! Bus comes, I get on ... And it's so crowded that driver doesn't notice (or care) that I don't have a ticket. This has happened all three bus trips. Metro is better, but bus often is free!

Bus bops around and comes out where? Yep, that road right before the arch. Of course, had I walked that route I would have gotten painfully lost.

Bus to metro, metro to Plaza di Pollo (that's not the name, but a
giant chicken plaza would be groovy), then to Da Vinci exhibit. Basically these people created a bunch of models -- some working -- based on Da Vinci's sketches. The dude was brilliant.

Exhibit was a little quick, but inventions were beyond cool. There's the definitive word on Da Vinci the world has been waiting for. Beyond. Cool.

You're welcome.

FUN FACT: Da Vinci wrote left-handed and backwards, meaning his writing could be read in a mirror. But Tom Hanks already told you that, huh? Damn Gump.

Did I mention that nutella crepes are really good? As is some vanilla/chocolate candy I bought today to avoid collapse. As was the candy my new Turkish hostel-mates gave me ... Before they went out and got McDonald's.

Moral of story? There is good food here. And Owen, not all of it is plain.

Final night in Rome ... Had insanely good pizza. Off to Assisi and then Florence on Monday.

FUN FACT: The toilets here have two different flush buttons with different water pressures assigned to them. Only thing I can figure is you choose based on what you left in the toilet.

Seems wacky yet logical. Bet those wankers at Heathrow never would have thought of it.