Vita Sotto il Sole: Mamma Mia!

They say that Sunday's in Roma are for recovery; I can attest to the truth in that statement. The weekend that began with no firm plans and initially looked like it might be relatively quiet, since most of my friends were scattered to other parts of the country, ended up being a rager.

I had put myself under house arrest on Friday because I really just did not need another 5am kind of night. That plan lasted until about 12:30 when I got a text from a new friend offering to give me a tour of Rome at night on his scooter. Now that August traffic is so light and it was pretty late, I decided to brave the mean streets on a scooter. It was gorgeous. We then stopped at a cool lounge off Piazza di Pietra for a few drinks before I turned in, again, way too late.

Rome at night

Saturday was spent seeing the ancient baths near the Circus Maximus. My pictures just don't even come close to showing how big these things were. Again, it was great. So, I'm heading for home around 4pm, and this is where things begin to get really "interesting". I'm walking down the street with my ipod on, beside the Circus Maximus, when a ridiculously attractive guys gets off his bike, walks up to me, and asks me something. I didn't hear him and was taken off guard by his looks. He was asking for the time, realized I didn't understand him, and asked where I was from. This leads to discussion about the USA, he has family in California, blah, blah, blah. As we are sitting and talking he decides he is thirsty and will go and get us a drink. Ok with me. He returns in 5 minutes with a bottle of champagne. Huh???? Well not being one to turn down good champagne and a lesson on Roman architecture, he is finishing his masters in Baroque restorations, while sitting at the Circus Maximus under the Palantine Hill, I proceed to get a bit fuzzy in the afternoon heat. Finally, he has to leave to do some research for his final exam next week. It was great hanging out with a guy who seemed to be smart and funny and spoke English really well, a huge bonus these days. I thank him for the vino and start to leave when he suggests we meet later that night for dinner, drinks, and maybe a tour of Rome. Ok, why not.

Baths, they are enormous.

Circus Maximus & Palantine Hill, the place it all starts.

And now for the majorly edited portion of the evening. We meet at 9pm, get pizza, and have a picnic back a the Circus Maximus where you can see many of Rome's monuments lit up at night. He thought ahead and brought wine with him. Things are going fine, he still seems normal and nice, we are talking about various things, and laughing at the mix ups between our languages. After eating, he wants to show me some sights around Rome so I, being the safety girl, text my friend the details of my whereabouts, and off we go. Stop 1, beautiful garden on Aventine Hill with a play being performed; very sweet. Stop 2 outer walls of the ancient city and beginning of Appian Way. Stop 3, a couple of kilometers down the Appian Way to Crazy Town. To save myself and anyone who reads this additional trauma, lets just leave it at this guy completely lost his mind. Jekyll and Hyde have nothing on this dude. It was a total train wreck; not a car left on the tracks.

When I found myself fortunate enough to be dropped back off close to Trastevere, and believe me there was a moment where I thought I would be walking back, he proceeded to take up some accounting matters with me. Before dinner he asked if I would be willing to split the cost of dinner, since he was a graduate student and had not worked in a year. Been there, done that, so of course I agreed . . . no problem. Thinking that I would owe him no more than 25 euros for the pizza and maybe the wine, I was blown away when he asked me for 75 euros. WTF??? Did I miss the course where they served up an ounce of gold? When I expressed my surprise and quite frankly disgust at what I thought was his total scam to get money out of me, he actually handed me the receipts. 1 bottle of red wine 35 euros, 2 bottles of champagne (he included the afternoon bottle) 100 euros, and 2 pizzas 12 euros. Again, WTF??? Who the hell buys 50euro bottles of champagne in Italy when they are just casually hanging out with someone they just met? And what dipshit guy thinks of spending such money when he doesn't have a job and then thinks that someone he doesn't really know will be fine with such things. So, ok, whatever, at this point I just want to get the hell out of there and I'm willing to spend the cash to do it. I open my wallet to find I only have 65 euro in bills, 3 euro in coins, and 4 stupid little centieme coins that nobody will even take at a store. So I tell him I only have 65 euros and I'm sorry. That is not a 50/50 split, he informs me. No shit Sherlock, we do math the same way in the States, but its all I have. I show him my empty wallet and, wait for it . . . . he asks for the remaining coins, including the 4 dumbass centiemes that stores won't even take. I throw the coins at him and get out of the car to the sound of him telling me he would like to see me again before I return the States. It was official, I had just spent several hours with all 8 sides of crazy!!

Fabbio (nope, I did not make that name up!)

Happy to be alive, safe, and pretty weirded out, I pull out my phone to see a text from a friend who was supposed to be in Tuscany with one of her boyfriends. Apparently, she too had her share of drama and came back to Roma early. We met up with some other people down by the river and proceeded to go for broke while discussing our drama. Loads of vino and 2 hookahs later we disentangle ourselves from the really strange guys who run the bar and walk the 2 minutes back to my piazza. The little bar across the street from my flat is still going off, so of course we park it at a table and have one last unneeded wine. I last looked at my watch at 6am as I took it off to go to sleep. Unbelievable!!