You should be jealous of me.
So, I must preface this by saying that Tom Bissell is on my top 3 list of people I have met since arriving in Italy... celebrity status makes him number 1. I spent all of yesterday walking around Rome with him, in Trastevere, which is the best part of Rome that no one ever bothers to show you! We hit some important sites on the way... Colloseum, Saint Bartholomew's tomb, gelato. The American Academy is an absolutely incredible building and you can see an excellent view of the city from the roof. Anyways, I now have several new books to read for the rest of the trip, including his latest which is a kind of autobiographical/historical non-fiction/travel reflection on the lingering effects of Vietnam on the pysche. But that is a kind of horrible description of the book. So far though, I really like it a lot. Different than his other work I have read, but definitely good. (MATT> This book will be out in March.)
Lessons learned from the day:
1)Leave yourself time to get to your train or you will find yourself spriting down the platform as your ride pulls away. This in turn leads to sketchy silence of the lambsesque internet cafe basements where you sit hoping to find somewhere to crash for the night.
2)Whiskey is good. Cheap wine is not good. Dreg wine is worse. Whiskey and dreg wine is the absolute worst. Sitting on a five hour train ride, hung over, next to a man wearing uncomfortably high white socks with equally pristine wihte sneakers and fanny pack who cannot stop giving you a look that vaguely resembles that of the fifty year old man at a predominantly underage bar who is trying to figure out if you are drunk enough for him to take home is not fun.
Now I'm in Verona wiht Miss Clark sitting comatose in a computer lab room staring blankly into the screen as the blister on the bottom of my toe throbs and Sara has a sudafed glaze in her eye. Tonight should be interesting.
Lessons learned from the day:
1)Leave yourself time to get to your train or you will find yourself spriting down the platform as your ride pulls away. This in turn leads to sketchy silence of the lambsesque internet cafe basements where you sit hoping to find somewhere to crash for the night.
2)Whiskey is good. Cheap wine is not good. Dreg wine is worse. Whiskey and dreg wine is the absolute worst. Sitting on a five hour train ride, hung over, next to a man wearing uncomfortably high white socks with equally pristine wihte sneakers and fanny pack who cannot stop giving you a look that vaguely resembles that of the fifty year old man at a predominantly underage bar who is trying to figure out if you are drunk enough for him to take home is not fun.
Now I'm in Verona wiht Miss Clark sitting comatose in a computer lab room staring blankly into the screen as the blister on the bottom of my toe throbs and Sara has a sudafed glaze in her eye. Tonight should be interesting.