Pickpockets, the Roman Forum, and the Metro
You know, I do think I live in a bubble. Everything seems to whirl on around me but I seem to notice it regardless of it ignoring me. Now, I’m not complaining about that. In fact, I think as a writer, it’s damn useful. So either I have hyper focus or the rest of the world really needs to watch what they’re doing.
I braved the metro today. Having decided that I wasn’t going to walk into the center, I followed a monk—in a cassock, yep, complete with jeans and sneakers, but no bald pate—to the closest station near my apartment. It’s surprisingly cheap. I paid €24 euros for a seven day, unlimited pass. I think that’s cheap as chips, tbh. The service doesn’t go that far, but it’s better than me walking everywhere then being too knackered to do anything by the time I hit the center.
Not that that worked out today.
I really wanted some bubble tea so walked about fifteen minutes out of my way to hit one of the two bubble tea shops in the city. It was, sadly, underwhelming. The matcha didn’t have that punch it usually packs *sobs*. It wasn’t really worth my going so far out of my path, but the joy of the central city is that very quickly you find yourself close to a tourist hotspot.
Another five minutes and I was coming across the joy that is the Colosseum.
Approaching the city from this angle meant I had the view of the Roman Forum, too, and as I was heading deeper into the back streets, I had the joy of almost being shoved aside, LOL, as four guys came running like bats out of hell behind me.
Naturally, I wondered what the hell was going on, but it wasn’t difficult to figure out.
There are a crap ton of touters in the city. If you haven’t been, I think it would surprise you. Everywhere you go, someone is either selling you a pashmina or a selfie stick. A selfie-stick seller was one of the runners, and then the other guy had obviously pinched a tourist’s bag. Someone gave chase and retrieved the bag for its owner, but the thief, who did run off, didn’t run far once he’d lost the bag. Someone took a snapshot of his face, but he hovered in the area, telling me he was going to go for another round. It’s crazy when you think of how large a police and Army presence there is in the city.
Speaking of, last night I had two Swiss Guards as my dining companions. LOL. Not really. They were seated to my right and boy, they got better service than I did. ROFL. They were cute, and my editor is insisting I write a story that has one of the Guards dumping their vows for one of their lady loves. Haha. We’ll see. ;) They were certainly cute enough in their smart get up. It was half police uniform, half Army uniform—and very smart caps, to boot.
I’m still on the hunt for a decent coffee. Today I’m in a bio café shop, so at least my carbon footprint is being controlled. #lifegoals I asked for weak and received watery. Ha. I didn’t realize I was so fussy, but at least I’m not in McDonalds!!
