Rome - page 7
May 23nd
The Moped
50ccs of hell-raising
I went down Via Cavour to the scooter shop I had previously scoped out, waited for them to open, declared my desire for a 50cc scooter (the smallest and cheapest) and answered “yes” when asked if I had any experience. There was a cat sleeping on my bike and we all had a little chuckle as an old man gradually built up his efforts to convince the cat to vacate the seat, culminating in revving the engine. I guess they assume everyone is lying about having driven these things before because they explained everything I needed to know about operating the scooter in great detail. Starting is the trickiest part (that and the whole business of staying alive in Roman traffic) you just twist the right handle until it catches and the bike lurches forward.
Play it like Peck
I put 5 Euros of gas in it and started out on some back roads. Unfortunately, this close to the Colosseum, back roads were in short supply. I also soon noticed that my speedometer and mileage counter were both nonfunctional.
Pretty soon I was lost and remained this way until I located Via Giulia, a really long, quaint road in the old town. When I stopped to check my map I realized just how burning hot it was without the air speeding over me. So that’s why the guy at the rental place suggested the bike with no windscreen.
Via Giulia
I figured I’d head over to Trastevere – it was a little less busy and I had just been there yesterday so hopefully I would be less prone to getting lost.
Trastevere was pretty fun. I went up the hill and took a long winding road out of the city. Then I took it back in and decided I’d try to find Via Appia Antica – the old main road into Rome, now something of a non-developed green belt. Finding it was a bitch.
Appia Antica
I reached the pyramid with little event but my maps for this area were limited, the roads were huge and frantic and I swear I ended up accidentally merging onto the same stretch of autostrasse twice. Eventually I found my way over and took off on a joyride through the countryside. There were still plenty of cars out there but the scenery was much nicer and the pressure to ‘look alive’ was diminished.
Some people actually live out here, like this house built right into a ruin
I found a catacomb that never seemed to be open as well as a few other landmarks. The traffic really vanished at the Tombo di Cecilia Metella. I paid 5 Euro to get in. A big waste – the best photo op was from the outside and the tomb was only one room. At least they had a bathroom. I was told my ticket was also good for the Baths of Caracalla. They do that here; they piggy-back two or three sites on the same ticket. Usually one site is ‘big’ and the rest basically suck. Tombo di Cecilia was certainly of the ‘suck’ variety.
Just past the tomb, the road reverts to original cobblestone. These are cobblestones from the heyday of the empire. They are also not what you expect. The typical ‘cobblestone’ measures one foot by two feet and is more round than smooth across its surface. Driving over them is a very ginger process. A short distance down was a little village and beyond that the road just continued out into cobblestoned nowhere.
I ditched the bike and took it on foot
The Appia Antica is very peaceful with lots of birds chirping and whispering shady trees. Unfortunately there were still fenced-off top secret ‘zona militare’ out here.
In Rome, the poppies are bright red. Historically the poppy has been emblematic of sleep. You’ll see paintings and statues of kids sleeping amongst poppies (it even happens in the Wizard of Oz). I gave it a try.
Not bad, although it would have been nicer if poppies grew in soft dirt instead of hard earth and brick walls
Eventually, I decided it was time to get back. Just as I arrived at my moped, three beautiful girls riding bicycles in bikinis arrived and began frolicking with a nearby fountain. They were just in time to see me be unable to start the bike. Had I left the headlight on? It appeared I had. How do you jumpstart a moped? Maybe I could push-start it. Unfortunately part of the ignition process is holding down the rear break. Eventually I had a brainstorm – what if I just needed to pump the gas a little? Voila! I was off!
I found a nice circuit of roads a few miles around where I could really have fun and I made a few loops. A dip in the cobblestones (the small modern kind that most of the roads out there are paved in) really rattled my bones and I considered heading back (I was also beginning to suspect that the gas gauge was broken).
I stopped to check out the Baths of Caracalla and got charged 4.50 for a Gatorade at a Gypsy Wagon! The ancient Roman concept of a ‘bath’ is completely different from the modern. In ancient times, the baths were more like a spa resort that was open to the public. The bath facilities in Rome consisted of 4 huge Basilicas laid side by side. One of the buildings was like a giant sauna, another was just an awesome place to hang out and of course there were cold swimming pools, steam rooms, gymnasiums, etc.
Aside from the rough floor plan and massive walls the baths aren’t much to look at now.
That mosaic pattern is kind of interesting:
floor mosaic
I got back on the bike, pissed off a guy in an Audi (hehe) and took a roundabout way to the scooter shop. The old guy took the bike and I felt kind of strange just walking out without some sort of conclusion to the transaction but he couldn’t speak English and there really wasn’t much else to do.
When I got back to the room I went right for the shower, reflecting that life without that shower would have been hell. And that’s when I suddenly understood the Roman love of the bath and why they would dedicate multiple city blocks in multiple parts of the city to their bath facilities.
I figured I needed to have at least one dinner in the Piazza Navona area so I made my way over there and thoroughly scoped it out.
the north half of Piazza Navona
As seems to happen to me more often than should be reasonable for an intelligent adult I let myself become delirious with hunger. I selected a small restaurant packed tight with around 40 American high school girls in it (seriously). As we stood smack in the middle of a sea of hormonal young women, the proprietor assured me that there were no available seats, even after I asked him if he was really, really sure. I was getting desperate to eat so I wasted no time in relocating to my second choice, which turned out to be excellent. I had two giant Raviolis in a creamy orange sauce followed by seared tuna with some sort of Balsamic glaze. This wasn’t exactly the typical Roman fare but it was quite good.
I walked back to the hotel so I could see Trevi Fountain by night. It was the same as Trevi Fountain by day (including at least a dozen Moroccans with annoying buzzers – where the hell do these guys come from? And who’s buying the god damn buzzers?). For some reason I assumed I had already taken a picture of the fountain, so I didn’t bother taking another.