ciao

my last few days in rome... well it had to get interesting of course. on sunday julia (my new aussie friend) and i thought it'd be a really cool idea to go to the beach. on the way we thought we may as well check out rome's own pompeii. so we made way into the outskurts of rome and saw the ostia ruins... they were interesting, though i do wish i knew a lotmore about ancient rome. still, its incredible to see remains of civilization from thousands of years ago. so we went around looking and photographing that and THEN.... we made the journey to ostia centro where we were told there was a beach. nobody cared to elaborate. we got there. we were told that it cossts eight euro to go onto the beach. and then you can choose what seat you want, costs varying. what! beach does not equivocate to money. this is a disaster. so we walk further. more beach clubs, each fenced off from the other, charging beach mongrels to enter. no no no. by this stage julia and i are growing increasingly quiet, simmering with disbelief inside. eventually we found a little concrete walkway jutting out towards the sea. we decided to walk along to peer out onto the beaches. well all i can say is those who pay have no idea what the rest of the world's beaches look like and are like because this stretch of coast was totally revolting. the sand was almost browngrey, people basically touching sides, everybody is either dancing (the same routine), playing soccer or chainsmoking. we left. but that wasnt the end. we had to go on the really tacky train back to the station where we'd catch the subway back to where we stayed, respectively. the train was so full of every shape size and SMELL. we had to get off. julia was well into experiencing the pulsing gag reflex. so we waited amongst the creepers of italy's immigrants for the distant train. eventually our lives went back to normal. that was only part of sunday...
today is monday. i went back to my favourite sight in rome, the pantheon, and did some shopping for the family.
tomorrow is tuesday. i fly home. and then... its the end.