Romein'

It is HOT here!! So hot that I couldn't even get into sleep last night. Talking about last night, I had to walk 2+ hours from Pantheon to my bus stop! It feels like my legs are not mine now... The story is that the Metro closed at 9.30pm here for some mysterious reasons (it's scheduled to end the service by 11pm or something like that). Since the Metro provided no instructions (well, at least not in English), a lot of the tourists needed to walk 20 minutes up to a hill to find a bus. But then what's tricky is that no one has any clue about which bus to take home. Long story short, some of us took a taxi back, some jumped on a bus not even knowing where it goes. And I chose to trust the map, and walked. My entire lower body is so sore...

I just don't understand how Italians design their transit systems. First of all, their bus has absolutely no sense of ergonomics. The seats are really tight facing each other. And the engine is supre hot that it's impossible to breath even though it's empty. Plus the ticketing system--why do I have to walk to a newstand/tobacco store to get tickets, where they usually locate 10 minutes of walk away from the stop? What's even funny is, they don't really check if you have a valid ticket or not...

And then on the road. The traffic in Rome is messey like no other places, cars are cutting lanes without signalling and pedestrains have to race with the cars in a crosswalk. However, when the Italians walk on the pavements, they're usually pretty slow... talking about slowness, their work efficiency is super low. It can take me 10 minutes to get a bus ticket even though I'm the second on the line (not to mention that they all jump into the line all the time).

OK, so much complains about Italian, I do like the other side of Rome--its massive history. I went to quite a lot of places already: yesterday I went to Colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, and the long walk back home. Today I'm done with the Vactican City: St. Peter's Basilican, climbed the dome, Vatican Museum, and Sistine Chapel.

All these places make the hardship of my stay in Rome worthwhile. Especially the Sistine Chapel, it's truely marvoulous.

Oh, and the dinner. I found out that fish is super cheap here: in a nice restaurant around the Pantheon area, a whole mid size sea bass costs only 6 EUR!! I love Italian food, it brings out the natural flavour of the ingredients without any complicated superficial procedures :-)