Dale J. Norris - actor, poet, writer, photographer, film-maker - is the creator of the award winning Likeastory.com: an interactive site for creative types. Dale has recently taken to publishing some of his back-packing tales of adventure at likeastory just for fun at www.likeastory.com/travel/. Contact Dale at Dale@likeastory.com
There is no main center of magic in Roma, though it is a land of many centers and much magic. Was magic echoed through the cobblestoned streets long trodden by people both great and simple? Yes! Was it in the people, going out of their way to bridge the communication barriers with a smile, a guess, a friendly look of puzzlement or by taking a good shot at English in response to our really bad Italian. Yes! Was the magic there with the sight of a beautiful woman at the base of the four rivers complimenting the beauty of that great Bernini fountain. Yes! The symbolic songs and soul-spent work of an army of great humans intertwined well with the city's life and defiantly seemed to out-stand time, patiently waiting to send that un-witting traveling innocent's soul through metamorphosis.
La Basilica di San Pietro (St Peters Basilica) and Vatican City are another great heart of Roma. The spiritual winds in these places will knock you down. The images, photographs and books I have seen, being a product of the media age (and a student of the arts), now seem impotent nothings aside the amazing personal experience of these places. I know it will take some time for me to realize how much of an effect they really had on me.
Amid a hundred and one moments of bumbling through Roma's alleys, gobbling up the grand city like a culture-starved hermit, a few grander discoveries stand out within the pleasant experience. One miracle that was tucked away near the Piazza del Popolo was the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo. It did not have the grandest external facade. It did not feature the loudest or most imposing imagery, but our bumbling brought us within this beautiful secret. Upon entrance the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo showed you her unusual beauty, like the grand Vatican, walking within the church was a walk among the history of art. The Caravaggio canvases depicting the Conversion of St. Paul and The Crucifixion of St. Peter were prominently displayed, but in this church also was a kinder intimacy, a symbolic and spiritual welcome that I did not find in the even grander churches of Roma.
Using our guide books as a vaguely considered map, it was really in the free-style bumbling, alley hopping spirit that we discovered the fabulous Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain). It jumped out at us as we turned that corner leaving us awe struck for a time. The low relief carvings that make up the huge fountain are a story-telling wonderment and the characters are active and powerful. Yes, even the tourist have a symbolic culture in Roma, among these traditions is the 3 coins in the Trevi fountain. Yes we had heard of this one... 3 coins in the fountain and we are guaranteed to return to Roma right? So we chuck our 3 coins in for the promise of return. Well, it's just like 3 North Georgia mountain guys not to read the directions. No you silly guys! (says our guide books we decided to read later), it's 1 coin in the fountain to return to Roma, 2 coins to return and fall in love and 3 coins to return, fall in love and GET MARRIED eeek!. Oh well we've done it now. The Trevi Fountain became a hang-out for us on several occasions. See it at night, with shared bottles of Tuscan wine, beautiful companions, and fine gelato or chocolates. WOW!
Many a poet has walked and loved in Roma, and our great place to stay, The Pensione Ottaviano, seems to lend itself greatly to meeting beautiful and amazing people. The tales of romance manifest themselves along with the symbols of spirituality, love, passion and power (ahhhh). A whole lot of walking at some ghastly hour of the morning brought us to one of those famous hills of Roma rumored to have the grandest view over St Peter's and Roma.
A nice wooded area and trail below the main road on the hillside lends itself to that beautiful privacy that hand in hand roaming lovers adore. So let's just say that "a loving touch" as the sun rises over Roma and St Peter's Basilica is just the right thing to get a day going well. It is said that Nero's Violin rang from one of these hills as Rome burned many a century ago and ya know it must have been the spot for the burning passion of many lovers dwelling in the great city. Travel companions or the 3 idiots.
Paths to wisdom often begin with the "fool's journey". Well that was it, as we 3 bounding backpackers made our way through the alleys and streets of Roma. A few nights of sharing a fine glass of wine with international friends in places that have been bars longer than our home country has been a nation, seeing the symbolic product of imposing religions, beautiful inspirations, grand battles with history, technique and ideology, seeing the dead people of the past not set apart in some lost grave yard but instead being folks who remain a very real companion in daily life either symbolically or physically. The Vatican Grottos house the papal tombs and bodies of the dead. The Capuchin friars have collected the bones of their monks to make an enlightening display that joins art and death. A sight to concretely verify that (YEE HAA!) we fools are a long way from home. The "3 idiots marching song" is furnished as we arrive. Yes, 2 musicians are playing a catchy little ditty on the train that we idiots quickly distort into the song "One Ton Tomato". A great marching song to go along with heavy back-packs.
One Ton Tomato
(The Degenerate Back-Packer's Marching Song)
One Ton Tomato
We gotta a one ton tomato
One ton Tomato
a One Ton Tomato.
Ya can make lots of ketchup
With a One ton Tomato
and lots of good pasta
with a one ton tomato.
To get the full effect just add Italy, lots of Tuscan wine, a few blistered feet, and an over-loaded back-pack and of course make up more words as you go.)
Well what did the fools learn from the "fool's journey"? This fool has discovered that he does not belong in America. So I have to work on becoming a good expatriated slacker and a member in good standing of The Expatriated Slackers Guild. I'll just need to get the funds to hang out for a while to find bits of work etc.
The Night Life
After arriving in Roma the night owls in us degenerates merged with the temporarily screwed-up biological clock of the three Georgia boys off the plane. So the first few nights were filled with all night partying, flirting, walking, and wandering. We had met a friendly expatriated degenerate named Derrick at the pensione. Now Derrick was a fellow who had familiarized himself with the local flavors of night life so, we 3 idiots found ourselves following Derrick's directions and more so "mis-directions" to various night spots de geur. English Pubs? Yep! That was much of what we discovered with the drinkers world in Roma.
Unlike the pubs in the States, the international flavors and the company of all of the degenerate traveling/expatriated slackers we had discovered made the evenings exciting and fun. We also found ourselves getting our peroni or vino and then partying in various piazzas. The Cave was a wine bar. Every night we seem to hear a different story about the spot. Yeah, Nero, Caesar and the lot supposedly all had some kind of connection to the place. Sort of like the 6 degrees of Roman wine bars (all bs of course, just added to the flavor of the spot). The vino was cheap and fine. Ahhh and like true night creatures we sipped this "blood of the city" with all of its fine Tuscan flavors. It was there we met Robi (the waiter at the cave), one of the finest examples of friendly Italian folk. I'm afraid Robi found us and "the expatriated slackers guild" (all of our friends) frequenting the joint for several nights.
The Expatriated Slackers Guild
Now how does one become a member of " The Expatriated Slackers Guild "? We 3 idiots put our minds together and figured out the formula.
Steps to becoming a Expatriated Slacker Guild member:
1.QUIT! (yes complete with all the emotional flavor and finality of true bridge burning) 2.Burn bridges and ignore emotional connections
3.Get the hell out (get on the plane)
Yes, you could just go around the table interviewing the friends we had met at the Pensione. 1. "I quit and came to Italy", 2. "I'm 'between jobs'". 3. "I don't have a job" 4. "I quit my job, dumped my boyfriend, and got on the plane"... etc. Now being that the slacker culture is so alive in Roma (a major center of world-wide culture), that of course adds legitimacy to "slackerdom" and places us slackers among the cultural elite.
By Dale J. Norris
* Visit Dale's site to read more of this story with additional photos. You'll also find pictures and stories from Montepulciano and Firenze (Florence) and a photo scrapbook.
Dale J. Norris' - actor, poet, writer, photographer, film-maker - is the creator of the award winning Likeastory.com: an interactive site for creative types. Dale has recently taken to publishing some of his back-packing tales of adventure at likeastory just for fun at www.likeastory.com/travel/ . Contact Dale at Dale@likeastory.com |
