Home (28 October 2009)

Amy, Jane, Vassili, and I traveled home together.  Can't remember much after we got back other than it felt amazing to be home, and the first place we ventured once we had recovered a bit was the St. Francis for breakfast.  All was well in the world.  And a fine adventure had been had.

Thessaloniki (21 October -- 27 October 2009)

This will be more of a photo montage.  We were with Jane and Vassili, Vassili is proud of Greece, and now we know why.  Is there anything else to say?  Vassili and Jane were consummate hosts, and we got to see where Vassili went to grammer school and where he first kissed a girl.  And we will never have as good as fish as we had then.  Period. End of story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rome (17 October -- 20 October)

The above is from a series of photos I took that (try to) show the odd juxtaposition of the ancient and reality of the modern.  Rome was by far my favorite city (we stayed in the Hotel Santa Maria [a former convent] in the Trastevere neighborhood).  It didn't have the closed-in feel of Bologna and the old-city-as-shopping-mall feeling of Taromina wasn't apparent either; it was the miracle in action that Marino, the chef we ran into in Trieste, talked about, but there weren't any rough edges or bulging seams.  Rome felt open even though it is an ancient city; the pains of modern life on a city that had its beginnings several thousand of years ago weren't at all apparent.  We spent our time in Rome walking for hours, taking it all in, working up our appetites.

The first night in Rome, we ate at a bar/coffee shop near the hotel, which wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be.  We went to a pizza joint that we had read about, but the wait was too long, and I was too tired to try and find another place to eat though I should have been more prepared with a back-up or we should have waited it out given we only had three days in Rome.

The most impressive moment for me, that cut through all of the rest of the tourists mulling about, that reached possibly a spiritual moment, visceral, was the space of the Parthenon and the Oculus (I believe that is what it is called); the particular parts that made up the existence of that building, the space it made, had energy and resonated in such a way that I could feel it vibrating with life.

The second night, we ate at a family-run restaurant that served straight-up Roman fare (name to follow).  It was excellent.  Given there has been some time, and I am writing this a mere 3 months later, I have forgotten exactly what we ate, though I remember some devine pickles to start and a brilliant cacio e pepe (spaghetti with olive oil, black pepper, and pecorino.. that's it).  We had gotten lazy and not brought enough money to dinner to pay, and of course the restaurant only accepted cash.  Next scene:  Scott jogging over cobblestones for a half a mile hoping he remembers where the cash machine was he saw earlier that day; arrives at cash machine; Amy being held hostage, drinking espresso and laughing nervously; Scott tries to pull money out on his credit card and it won't allow him to... tries second card and thank god it works; Scott huffs it back imagining Amy about to be sold to Albanians.

The third night, we ate at the pizza joint we tried to go to the first night. They specialized in neopolitan pizza, and it got high praise, but we weren't totally bowled over; the pizza maker, in his speed, was pretty amazing though and I learned a thing or two, by watching him, about how to deal with a raw pizza crust.  After dinner, we went to an area south of the Aventino (Rome anyone?) that felt a hell of a lot like Brooklyn (again...).  There wasn't much going on and we were desperate for a last-night perfect drink experience when we happened upon the most perfect looking food cart ever.  Ever. There were a lot of people milling about and, well, some illuminated ambient light balloons.  Then we noticed that every beer bottle behind the guy in the food cart was faced perfectly, and everything in the cart was perfect, and it was actually a set for a film that was being shot.  A bit surreal, and for a moment we thought our perfect drink was going to be a reality.  We headed back to the hotel with not too much disappointment as we were headed to Greece the next day.