A Night on the Town

Settembre 25, 2010

Today, I woke up. I know, I know, thank you, thank you. No need for applause. ;) I met Iacopo who had recently returned from London where he works as a trader for a bank. He's tall. He's also very nice, speaks English very well (like the rest of his family, possibly better), and he was born 22 years ago, on the 25th of Settembre. Happy birthday!

We went to lunch... the whole clan... Raffa, Giorgio, Nico, Dile, Iacopo, Marti, Lavi, Paola, Marco, Nonna(grandma), and myself. We took 2 cars and a moto to get to the restaurant. Iacopo told me it was the worst place to eat in Rome, but their portion sizes were generous. :) I'm not a finicky eater, I like this concept. Dile recommended pasta matriciana, it was delicious. It has guanciale, which is pork(jowl) and marinara... it was similar to pancetta, but not the same. Good choice. After lunch we went back to the flat and had the "party"... there was a beautiful torta(pie) with a large cookie on it that said in chocolate piping, Auguri Iacopo... (Best wishes Iacopo) we also had tiramisu, which is was MUCH better than the Morman version, tirami-sorta. :) I also discovered the origin of the name... it literally translates to "pull me up"... so some people have coffee as a 'pick-me-up', why not have coffee, liquor, and cake, ALL IN ONE?!

I hung around the apartment for a little while, walked around outside a bit, tested some new bus routes... then went back and watched Shrek 2, Iacopo and Nico had gone to the futbol match, Inter Milan vs. Roma. I tried to watch it but I couldn't find it on my tv, but I was happy to settle with Shrek. I talked with Mom on skype. She discovered that I can write her messages AND she can read them today. ;) However, I still feel like she's creeping on me because she can hear me and see me but since she doesn't have a camera yet, I can neither hear nor see her.

At about 11pm I headed out for my first 'night out' in Roma. Rick Steves says Monte Testaccio is a "lively night spot" in Roma. It is a small hill that was formed by the discarding of lots, and LOTS of broken vases a long, long time ago and the clubs are inset into the hill as a way to stay cool... That being said
Rick was under-selling the location. That place was PACKED! There were at least 6-10 bars/clubs and all of them seemed full... I went to one that had some good music coming from it and danced. I danced a LOT, I don't speak Italian very well, but I dance well enough and dancing is universal. It's a language all its own. I met a couple people, had some awkward conversation (awkward because I suck at understanding Italian and it was loud so... I had even more trouble, but we worked it out ;) In case you didn't know, apparently clubs at Monte Testaccio don't close at 2am... I left at 4 am... I guess time had got away from me a bit. To say the least. I hoped on the night bus nearby and after an exchange to another at the stazione termini, I was back home. A long night, but lots of fun.

Needless to say, this blog was not written on the same day as the date is set, I went straight to bed after getting back.

As I left the club, one of the neighboring clubs was playing Abba... it made me smile...Oooh see that girl, watch that scene digging the dancing queen. La-da, dada da da da