It is a few hours and some by train from Bologna to Rome. I was sitting across from a well dressed man and I noticed that he an book on learning English. I struck up a conversation with him. He told me how he worked for a tie company and that he spent a good part of the last few years visiting countries in South America and he was about to spend more time in English speaking countries and he wanted to improve his English. His English was quite good I thought. He was a good looking guy with longish brown hair; kind of a Italian version of Hugh Grant dare I say. He went on to tell me how when he was traveling abroad on business he would visit the local libraries and read newspapers. His main business was selling ties but he had an interest in writing about economies in dictatorships in the developing world; he had published a few books in this area. He was going to Rome to have a meeting with his publisher and that he had an audience with the pope on the next day. He said, "No really I am meeting the pope". I did not doubt him why wouldn't he have an audience with the pope; anything is possible. The funny thing is I don't remember his name. We arrived in Rome and we said our goodbyes.
I was met at the station by Gun Kawamura; I met him the previous year at a music festival in Italy called Il Giaguaro. He is a Japanese man living in Rome making music and painting (I have since not heard from him in some time). He had very long straight hair that went down to his waist practically and he was about six feet tall; He would get very annoyed with young Italian kids calling him Jackie Chan. What could he do he was rather conspicuous looking. While I was waiting for him I was watching all the people going by. I was a bit saddened; I was thinking about someone who I was smitten with at the time from London. She was Italian; so watching all these other attractive Italian women in Rome was reminding me of her. It did not work out with her and I. That is one of things when you travel; we may want to get away from things. But you cannot get away from yourself.
I was staying with him and his room mate Roberta while I was in Rome. It was great of them to put me up; the only thing was they had no hot water; the owner of the apartment was not being very responsive in getting it fixed. They had been without hot water for a week already. Everyday I would be heating pots of water and then carrying them to the bathroom and filling up the bath. This was just a bit time consuming. The first night I was in Rome, Gun took me a sight seeing tour; we want to Piazza Navano and the Panthenon well after midnight. It was quite nice to visit them at this time; it was still a bit unseasonably cold and there was only a few people about. I would return to these places during the day time and there was such a contrast between night and day with all the crowds of people. So here I was in Rome the eternal city. There is a certainly a whole lot of old stuff around. I did a guided tour of Rome by guide bus. I was talking with the tour guide about architecture. I was fascinated to know more about how all these old buildings were built. There was a period of Italian history where Rome was not actually occupied and fell into decay. Some of my Italian friends in London would say how special Rome was for them and how it was fantastics to spend some time there. They say the food in Rome is good; but I would just pick restaurants at random and I have to say I had some mediocre meals. Like in London you need to know where to eat. Next time, I am getting some recommendations.