your panini or your life

It's been a bit rainy here. Not today but yesterday, the day before, and tomorrow and the day after. It's been ok, I bought an umbrella from a guy who was following me. The Spanish girl Maria bought one too and then he followed her for about ten minutes screaming that he'd given her too much change. The streets, especially the cobblestone ones, are pretty in the rain, although I've nearly bitten it approximately 7,000 times.

The first day walking to school I looked down one of the streets we were crossing and saw a statue of a woman riding a chariot on top of one of the buildings a long way down the street. (This is a picture of my viewpoint, only in the evening.) It reminded me so strongly of a dream I had years ago where there were horses riding across the sky. It was this strangely beautiful dream, one of those where it feels normal but something extraordinary is happening. That's how Rome feels to me. You're just walking along past pizzerias and cafes and banks and you get to an intersection with a fountain at each corner. Or you see horses in the distant sky.

Today after class (where I completely rocked indirect pronouns, if you want to know the truth) we went to see some of ancient Rome. Free ancient Rome... we'll pay for some of the rest of it later. The first stop was the Pantheon. Standing outside was kind of incredible. Besides being a little nervous about pickpockets, since that's a notoriously light-fingered area, it gave me chills to think about the people who have walked through those columns, the rituals that have been performed there, the prayers that have been offered up. Inside was somewhat disappointing because part of it had been sectioned off, giving it such a modern air that it was jarring. Raphael is buried in the Pantheon, with a Latin inscription that, translated, reads, "This is Raphael. In life, Nature feared to be outdone by him. In death, Nature feared she too would die."

After stopping off for some gnocchi (Thursday special at an enoteca that I have to take you to, Brie and Heidi) we headed east to Il Colosseo. On the way we saw the building I had seen from far away, an enormous monument built for Victor Emmanuel, Italy's Savoy king. It contains Italy's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, built just after World War I. Two soldiers stood guard with an eternal flame burning. Apparently the Savoys were maybe not such great leaders (one of them invited Mussolini to set up his own government) but the monument was pretty breathtaking all the same.

Near this was the Roman Forum. We were too late to go in to that or to get our ticket's worth at the Colosseum, so I'll have to enthrall you with that story another time... wait by your computers.