"The World's Done Shakin' Me Down..."

Currently Listening:

"Better Now" by Collective Soul from Youth
(because I'm pretty sure I could create an entire Soundtrack to My Life using only CS songs)


I am glad to inform you all that I am no longer depressed. Haha those things never last long, because it's not fun to be depressed. Nancy was right when she said that homesickness increases with physical discomfort (I might even add that it increases exponentially). I started feeling better, having finally cooled off, around 5:00 yesterday, and my current book makes me laugh, so that helped. It's one of those books that you have to read somewhere besides a library. I was in the library and having to choke back my laughter to keep from disturbing everyone, and as it was, the people in the same room with me were giving me funny looks. I don't know why people always look at me like I'm an alien when I read something funny. Has it never occurred to them that humor is a device that could be employed by an author? Of course, sometimes I laugh at things even when they're not supposed to be funny. While I was reading Angels and Demons in my apartment, one of the many plot twists (I won't say which one, just in case you haven't read it and want to) was so far-fetched and downright crazy that I just threw my head back and howled with laughter. "Please!!! Hire me! I could come up with something better than that!" My roommates seemed to think I was delirious or something, but sometimes things in books are just funny!

Okay, anyway, I'm feeling better now. Even the Obnoxious German-Speaking Neckerchief People can't bring me down today. Have I told you about the OGSNPs? They are apparently having some sort of conference in Rome this week, attracting hordes and hordes and hordes (I'm telling you, thousands) of teenagers from several different countries (mostly German speaking). I have battled with many a tourist army while here in Rome, but these people are by far the worst. They go around in groups of 20 or so, all wearing matching T-shirts and hats and with neckerchiefs tied around their necks like Boy Scouts. Each little group has a different color scheme, and usually one of them is waving a big flag of some sort. I am not sure whether the flags are to keep the group together or for spirit...I think it must be spirit, because these people are the most annoying, spirited people I've ever come into contact with. (They remind me greatly of the hordes of high school StuCo nerds I met at the Texas Association of Student Councils one year. I'm sure many of you have heard me tell that story...trust me, these people are just as bad.) They go around chanting things and singing. I'm thinking, "No! Tell me you are not walking around Rome singing!" Ugh. Yesterday they were everywhere that my class was trying to be, being obnoxious and doing crazy things like jumping in the fountains (I could tell my prof was about to go say something to them. She's Austrian...I wish she had). Last night they were hording around the bus stop just across my street, chanting and singing so loudly that I couldn't sleep. Today when I got off one bus to switch to another, I took one look at the hordes camping out at the bus stop and realized that there was no way I'd fit on the next bus, so I walked the rest of the way to school. And naturally, everywhere I turned I kept finding more...and more...and more Obnoxious German-Speaking Neckerchief People, always in my way. Apparently they are under the impression that sidewalks are places where you stand around in large groups, looking stupid and hollering German at the top of your lungs. In such cases, I have found that I get the best results when I play the part of the indignant local: "Permesso!" Don't get me wrong, I'm not really trying to be anti-German. I am sure that if you brought that many American teenagers here, they'd be at least as bad. But whoever they are, these people are seriously out of control. They make for a fun rant, though.

I actually started this post to tell you about my fun morning on the Appian Way. I got up very early to go see it in the cool of the morning. My roommates were up early as well, but they went to see the pope this morning. I had no desire whatsoever to go with them...so for those of you who wanted me to say hi to the pope for you, sorry. I just knew that I would be a.) bored and b.) annoyed the whole time, since it's all in Italian, and those Obnoxious German-Speaking Neckerchief People were guaranteed to be there in droves. I think I got a much better deal seeing the Appian Way; it just might have been my very favorite part of this whole trip. So anyway, off I went on a long train ride followed by a long bus ride, to get out of central Rome.

The Appian Way is the most famous road from antiquity. The Romans were excellent road builders, and the Via Appia was the regina viarum, the queen of roads, because it was the smoothest, widest, fastest road in the Empire. It heads south out of Rome, and armies on campaign usually were sent out or greeted along this road. Many Romans built their funerary monuments near it, because burials had to be outside the city, but the nobles wanted their monuments to be highly visible.

Today, the road is still there. It's called Via Appia Antica now to distinguish it from Via Appia Nuova, a different road nearby.

It's still used; people live on it and drive their cars on it. There are stretches, like this one, that are still mostly paved with the same ancient stones:

I went to see the archaeological stuff but was struck by how beautiful the whole area was. I would love to live in this house! The whole road was lined with cute old houses, surrounded by old medieval stone walls overgrown with ivy. It was lovely. And you'd be surprised how much cooler it is when one is away from the pavement, pollution, and people in the inner city.

This is the tomb of Cecillia Metella. She was the daughter of the triumvir Crassus (first triumvirate: Pompey, Crassus, and Julius Caesar). It is very large, and it was converted to a fortress in the middle ages, hence the crenellated top (hard to see in this pic).

Some remains of the Circus of Maxentius. Maxentius was the emperor defeated by Constantine in the 4th century, at the battle where Constantine claimed to have seen a vision from God. Constantine, of course, subsequently legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire.

A funerary monument, probably of a family of freed slaves. Freedmen tended to build monuments like this, showing themselves wearing the toga and and the ring, both of which symbolized Roman citizenship. In the days before Caracalla, Roman citizenship was a big deal, and freed slaves were naturally quite excited about it.

I'm not sure why the Italian Air Force decided to appropriate a large park-like area containing random medieval structures...but it would sure be a wicked place to play paintball.

I explored the road for most of the morning, covering (I think) about 3 miles of it. I know that there is cool stuff all the way to the 11th milestone, but I couldn't walk that far and didn't feel like renting a bike. I saw enough, though, to make me grin. It was sooo beautiful, and so quiet and peaceful. I hardly saw any other humans, while I heard jillions of birds and saw several lizards. It was nice.

That's the story from here, I guess. This post is entirely too long already, so I think I will go ahead and close off. Those of you who have actually been reading all of these posts in their entirety...bravo. Summarizing is not one of my strengths!